iQOO 9 SE Review: A perfect flagship killer that provides the best gaming experience!!

Can the iQOO 9 SE be the best budget flagship killer?

Vivo's sub-brand iQOO has been gaining a huge amount of success ever since the launch of the iQOO 3 in 2020. It is one of the most successful smartphone manufacturers giving stiff competition to brands like OnePlus, Samsung, Realme, Xiaomi, etc. iQOO has always provided the main focus on performance for each of its smartphones by providing the best chipsets and pricing them aggressively. 

Last year, iQOO launched the iQOO 7 and the iQOO 7 Legend which were one of the best gaming smartphones in the budget flagship segment. The iQOO 7 Legend packs in almost all the flagship specifications like a 120Hz AMOLED display, a premium build, and design, a powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset, an excellent set of triple cameras, etc.

Now, this year iQOO has again come back with the 9 series which consists of the iQOO 9 SE, iQOO 9, and the flagship iQOO 9 Pro. The iQOO 9 SE brings the powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset to the premium mid-range segment while providing all other specifications which are almost found on any flagship smartphone. So is the iQOO 9 SE the perfect budget flagship? Let's find out in the full review.

iQOO 9 SE Design:

The iQOO 9 SE sports almost the same design as that of the iQOO 7 except for the camera module that is now slightly larger housing the triple cameras with a LED flashlight and the iQOO logo sits at the bottom left of the back. Just below the camera module, there is a small module that has the word OIS written and looks good. 

The back is made up of glass but unlike the iQOO 7 which has a smooth matte finish, this one has a glossy finish that catches a lot of fingerprints. The iQOO 9 SE is available in two colors - Space Fusion which is matte black in color and Sunset Sierra which is a combination of different colors and is seen when light strikes the back at different angles. 

The iQOO 9 SE weighs around 199grams which feels slightly heavier compared to the iQOO 7 which weighs around 196grams but is thicker at 8.4mm. There is no IP52 rating at the back which is slightly disappointing but you do get P2i coating. The iQOO 9 SE is curved around the sides which makes it easy to hold in hand. 

Around the sides, the iQOO 9 SE has a polycarbonate frame that houses the power button with the volume buttons on the right side whereas the left side is completely empty. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack present either. The bottom of the smartphone houses the USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grille, a primary microphone, and a dual SIM card slot with no slot for a microSD card. 

On the top, there is a secondary noise-canceling microphone only. On the front, there is a single punch-hole display with minimum bezels to the sides. The display is protected by Panda Glass instead of Gorilla Glass 5 which was present on the last year's iQOO 7. Overall, the build does feel solid on the iQOO 9 SE.

iQOO 9 SE Display:

The iQOO 9 SE sports a larger 6.62-inches Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) AMOLED display which is the similar display found on the iQOO 7. Since this is an AMOLED display, the color reproduction and viewing angles are great. This display also supports a 120Hz refresh rate which provides smooth scrolling through webpages, multitasking between applications, and also while playing games.

However, this 120Hz refresh rate is not an adaptive one but iQOO has provided a Smart Switch option where the refresh rate switches either between 60Hz or 120Hz depending on the application usage in the background. You cal also switch to the standard 60Hz for better battery life. Combined with this 120Hz refresh rate, there is a 300Hz touch sampling rate for faster touch responses.

Like the iQOO 7, here also you get a smart intelligent chip that covers the SDR videos to HDR videos on the display and since there is MEMC support, a 30fps video is scaled up to 60fps for more smooth streaming. In terms of display brightness, the iQOO 9 SE can achieve a peak brightness of 1300nits which is very good and under direct sunlight, the display does not reflect much. 

However, sometimes the auto-brightness does not work properly and needs to be calibrated. The display on the iQOO 9 SE has three different color modes - Standard, Bright, and Professional where Standard is set to default. Turning on the Bright mode enhances the color saturation and switching to Professional enables sRGB and this results in balanced colors.

The display on the iQOO 9 SE has HDR10+ support and Widevine L1 so streaming HDR contents on OTT platforms is a breeze.  As this is an AMOLED display, you get an optical in-display fingerprint scanner that works accurately and is faster. Overall, the display is great for media consumption.

iQOO 9 SE Performance:

The iQOO 9 SE sports a powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset which was last year's flagship chipset from Qualcomm. All tasks like scrolling between web pages, multitasking between applications, and playing games work smoothly without breaking a sweat. This seems to be a good upgrade over the iQOO 7 that has a powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset.

In games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, etc., the iQOO 9 SE ran smoothly at HDR graphics with Extreme frame rates and since there's frame interpolation present, the 60fps gameplay is switched to 90gps for smooth gaming. BGMI also supports Ultra HD graphics with Ultra frame rates. After long hours of gaming, the back of the smartphone does not feel warmer especially due to the dedicated vapor cooling system underneath.

In terms of benchmarks, the iQOO 9 SE scores good, and in the CPU throttling test, it could maintain a sustained performance of around 71-75percent which is good for a Snapdragon 888 chipset but still the Snapdragon 870 on the iQOO 7 is a much more stable with a sustained performance of  80-85 percent. In terms of network connectivity, there is support for 8 5G bands and you get good carrier aggregation.

There are two variants present - 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage. Overall, the performance and gaming remain top-notch.

iQOO 9 SE Software:

The iQOO 9 SE runs on the latest FuntouchOS 12 based on Android 12 out of the box. FuntouchOS has improved a lot with each of its iterations and now provides a software experience almost close to Stock Android if you have a look at the user interface. The notification toggles are accessible from the top and there are a lot of customizations provided in terms of Always-On Display, icon look, shape, and size.

There are different animations for fingerprint unlocking and Vivo has grouped all the customizations for the home screen and lock screen under the Dynamic effects sub-menu present under settings. There are also a lot of gestures present under the Smart Motion menu. Other than this, there are a lot of themes present and since there is Android 12, choosing the particular color applies to the icons and also tunes the wallpaper accordingly.

There is also an Ultra Game Mode where you can block incoming calls or messages during gaming and also can check the CPU and GPU usage during gaming. Also as said earlier, you can increase the frame rate with the Game Frame interpolation feature also. Combined with there is a 4D vibration motor for crisp haptics also.

In terms of software updates, iQOO claimed to provide another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security patches. But there is a considerable amount of bloatware present which can be uninstalled. Overall, if you do not consider the bloatware, then the software experience is excellent with that 120Hz display.

iQOO 9 SE Cameras:

The iQOO 9 SE sports the exact similar camera setup as that of the iQOO 7 so the main camera is a 48MP f/1.8 Sony IMX598 sensor for the main camera, a 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 depth camera. The front camera is 16MP f/2.0. 

The images from the main camera come out with good details that look sharper and have good dynamic range also. The colors look saturated without any oversharpening taking place and the noise is also very low. Switching to the 48MP mode, the images save to 12MP by default and these images come out with sharper-looking details but do crop in some subjects in the images.

During the night, the images come out with good details that look sharper with less amount of noise in the background. There is some amount of oversharpening taking place and the dynamic range is just good. Turning on the dedicated night mode improves things quite a bit as it improves the dynamic range, reduces the noise, restores the blown away highlights, and removes oversharpening to a larger extent.

The 13MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of dynamic range but details look slightly softer. The colors have a natural look almost close to that of the main camera. However, there is some amount of distortion present around the edges but still, this is one of the very few ultrawide cameras that is better compared to some other 8MP ultrawide cameras out in other smartphones.

During the night, the ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of dynamic range and details though being softer look good. However, the noise is present on a slightly higher level and there is some oversharpening taking place. The ultrawide camera gets a dedicated night mode which removes the distortion resulting in better details and less noise in the images.

The ultrawide camera here also doubles up as a macro camera and the images come out with excellent details and dynamic range. Since this is not a fixed focus camera, the ultrawide camera can go as close as 2cm and the colors look natural. These images are much better than the macro images taken from other 2MP macro cameras on other smartphones.

The 2MP depth sensor is good for portraits. The edge detection comes out good with proper background blur in the images. The dynamic range is good and skin tones also have a natural look without any oversharpening taking place but some of the details do look slightly softer when you zoom into them. On the front, there is a 16MP f/2.0 camera which is good for selfies.

All selfies come out with good details that look sharper and good dynamic range. The skin tones do have a natural look but at times there is oversharpening noticed in the images. The selfies have a slight amount of noise and iQOO 9 SE also gets a dedicated night mode for better selfies during the night. The portrait selfies come out with good edge detection but do suffer from slight oversharpening in the background.

In terms of videos, the rear camera can record 4K videos at 60fps and these videos come out with a good dynamic range and details look sharper. However, there is some oversaturation taking place and some amount of noise is present though having OIS. When it comes to night, the videos come out with good details and dynamic range as there is OIS present. The noise is also on the lower side of the videos.

The ultrawide camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps and these videos come out with good dynamic range and details come out sharper but there is some oversharpening taking place in the videos. You do also get an Ultra Steady Mode which reduces the shakiness and lowers the noise in the videos. The front camera can record videos at 1080p at 60fps with good dynamic range but details look slightly softer.

iQOO 9 SE Battery Life:

The iQOO 9 SE has a 4500mAh battery that can easily last for one single day with heavy usage which includes playing games like BGMI for 4-5 hours, streaming social media for 5-6 hours, and also some casual multitasking between applications. With the display set to standard 60Hz and normal usage, the smartphone could last for one and half days which is good but a two-day battery backup could have been better.

However, this battery life is quite good considering the Snapdragon 888 chipset consumes a lot of battery. The standard screen-on time was around 5-6 hours which is good but still at the end of the day you do need a charger to charge if you use the smartphone heavily. iQOO has provided a 66W fast charger that can charge the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent within 35-40 minutes which is very good.

iQOO 9 SE Audio Quality:

The iQOO 9 SE has a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and clear. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack present and you also get Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound output.

Verdict:

The iQOO 9 SE is a complete package as it provides all the necessary specifications in a budget flagship. The build and design feel premium, the 120Hz AMOLED display is great for media consumption, the performance is great as it can handle all tasks easily and gaming is a breeze with the presence of the Snapdragon 888 chipset and frame rate interpolation, the software experience remains good with a lot of features and customizations, the cameras are great, and there is support for 66W fast charging.

However, there are some areas where iQOO 9 SE lacks mainly in terms of battery life as it is just average, and FunTouchOS though being good comes with a lot of bloatware. Other than these, the iQOO 9 SE is a complete all-rounder that ticks all the boxes and proves to be a perfect flagship killer in the market.