iQOO is committed to be the No.1 in the performance gaming track, and this iQOO 13 is a good illustration of that. Not only can it surprise you with its performance, but it also incorporates a unique “halo” design, which accentuates the identity of the “hipster-cool gamer” even more. What kind of performance is it? Let's follow the article to find out.
Simple design can also have “highlights”.
The appearance of iQOO 13 continues the simple style of its predecessor, and the lens module is also a rounded “Miles Porthole” design, which is still highly recognizable. If you are careful, you will notice that the silver-colored outer ring of the iQOO 13 is wider than that of its predecessor, which is also the “highlight” of the iQOO 13, that is, the location of the energy halo.
This energy ring does not emit light from the scale, but from the DECO side, which gives a sense of levitation when the light is emitted. This light strip can show multiple changes of light effects during incoming calls, messages, and charging, as well as various effects such as “pulse”, “breathing”, and “heartbeat”, showing a full sense of technology.
After turning on the “game light effect” in the game, this energy halo can set off light effects in various specific scenes. For example, in the “King of Glory”, beat the opponent, fight the dragon and other scenes, in the “Original God” using the elemental burst, in the “Peace Elite” to open the mirror to aim, shrink the circle, there are corresponding light effects to support, the smooth game also allows you to show at any time the “highlights of the moment”.
In terms of colors, iQOO 13 comes in the classic “Track Edition” and “Legend Edition”, as well as the “Isle of Man” and the latest “Nardo Grey” colors that were carried over from iQOO 11. The 'Nardo Grey' colorway we have in our hands is inspired by the Nardo Raceway, with the understated grey color combined with the glossy glass, presenting hardcore performance in a subtle and elegant way.
Of course, there's also the classic “Legend Edition” colorway, which also features the legendary tri-color stripe design inspired by the BMW M racing car, and a frosted textured back cover with glossy bezel that showcases the aesthetics of speed and technology.
The metal center frame of iQOO 13 has a smoother connection with the battery and fits the screen better, so it doesn't feel like it's pinching in your hand, and the unibody design also makes the body thinner and lighter. Not only that, the weight of iQOO 13 is 213g, and the thickness is controlled at 8.13mm, and the “Track Edition” color is even 7.99mm thick, which is worthy of praise for its thin and light weight, as well as its excellent performance and battery life.
On the front of the body, iQOO 13 adopts a 6.82-inch 2K Peak screen, jointly customized with BOE, with a global peak brightness of up to 12.5%, which also effectively reduces color shading, dragging and other situations, and reduces power consumption by 10%. We tested it using DisplayCAL, and the default colors have 99.3% of the sRGB color gamut, and the color calibration performance is also very good.
In terms of eye protection, iQOO 13 is equipped with the world's first OLED circular polarized light eye protection technology, which not only adopts 2592Hz full brightness high-frequency PWM dimming technology, but also has an exclusive customized display driver chip to make the viewing experience more comfortable. The protective glass of the screen is also made of diamond optical glass with seven levels of hardness, and has AR anti-reflection technology, which improves light transmittance and light reflection, so that iQOO 13 can be displayed clearly even in outdoor or stage scenes with complex lighting.
Superior performance for better gaming experience
As a performance gaming phone, powerful performance is essential. iQOO 13 is equipped with Snapdragon 8 Supreme Edition chipset, which adopts TSMC's second-generation 3nm process and consists of two Prime cores and six Performance cores. The Prime core's highest main frequency is up to 4.3GHz, and the Performance core's main frequency is up to 3.5GHz, and the AnTuTu score has come directly to 301W points.
The data is really strong, but it still depends on the performance of the game. We set the iQOO 13's brightness to 200nit at a room temperature of 25 degrees, and the average frame rate for a half-hour round trip to Sumeru City of the Original Gods came to 61.2 frames, with a power consumption of around 4W, making the game very smooth throughout.
Looking at Star Vault Railroad, under the same test environment, the iQOO 13's average frame rate for a half-hour golden hour run was 59.4 frames, with a power consumption of 5.9W. It can be said that although Star Vault Railroad's frequency and usage rate are higher compared to ProtoGods, the iQOO 13 still manages to have an excellent frame rate performance.
If you're careful, you may notice that the iQOO 13's frame rate fluctuated during the first minute of the Star Dome Railroad test, which is due to the Frame Rate Awareness 4.0 feature of Vivo's Bluestacks, which recognizes and calculates the actual load of each frame to intelligently adjust the performance output. As you can see, the iQOO 13 took just one minute to adjust the scheduling strategy for Star Dome Railroad, and remained extremely stable for the next 29 minutes of testing.
If gaming isn't fast enough for you, the iQOO 13 is also powered by its own gaming chip, the Q2, which is familiar to everyone with super scores and super frames. The iQOO 13 now supports hundreds of popular games with super scores, such as the more popular “Battle of Heianjing”, which has 120 frames! Heian Jing, a relatively popular game, can also have a smooth 120 fps (natively only supports 90 fps), effectively improving the gaming experience.
The iQOO 13 is equipped with a 6150mAh new-generation Blue Ocean dual-cell battery, which, together with the system's underlying battery life optimization, gives the iQOO 13 an excellent battery life. Measured half an hour of microblog browsing consumes 3%, half an hour of Jitterbug browsing consumes 2%, half an hour of The Original God consumes 8%, and half an hour of Star Dome Railroad consumes 13%. The battery life is very good indeed.
Charging iQOO 13 can also give me a surprise, equipped with 120W wired fast charging, the actual test 5 minutes from 1% to 25% capacity, 10 minutes to 45%, and finally in 28 minutes to 100%. I have to say that in half an hour can be filled with a 6150mAh battery, coupled with a strong battery life, so you can completely say goodbye to battery life anxiety.
In addition, the iQOO 13 has a new “Direct Drive Power” feature, where the charger will prioritize power to the device, reducing body heat during gaming, and also maintaining a full frame of gameplay while charging and gaming. The phone stays fully charged even after passionate gaming, so you don't have to worry about battery life at all.
Upgraded experience
Ultrasonic fingerprinting is one of the many upgrades to the experience of the iQOO 13. This generation of the iQOO lacks a Pro version, and ultrasonic fingerprinting has been relegated to the standard version. The advantage of ultrasonic fingerprinting is that it doesn't emit bright light during recognition, so you won't be blinded in the dark, and the recognition success rate in sunlight is much higher than traditional optical fingerprints, which is a great benefit.
The iQOO 13 is equipped with a 50-megapixel IMX921 main camera, a 50-megapixel IMX816 2X telephoto lens, and a 50-megapixel JN1 ultra-wide-angle lens. Among them, the main camera has a 1/1.56-inch bottom, with self-developed VCS Bionic Spectrum technology, clarity and picture details have been improved accordingly. The other lenses also unlock more shooting scenes.
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OriginOS 5 empowers iQOO 13 with the newly upgraded Blue Heart Small V, which realizes many practical functions such as “Small V Circle Search” and “Small V Suggestion”. With the addition of “Atomic Island”, when you long-press a specific content, you can drag it to the island above to automatically expand and intelligently associate it with services, making it more convenient to use.
Vivo's flagship kilometer-level network-less communication is also equipped on the iQOO 13, supporting 3km information transfer, SOS text broadcasting, voice/text intercom can be realized, in the case of emergency rescue, concert chats, these scenarios, network-less communication can play a big role.
Summary
As a performance gaming phone, the iQOO 13 is really powerful, and the Snapdragon 8 Supreme Edition can surprise you with its performance and energy efficiency. With top-notch tuning and a homegrown gaming chip, Q2, as well as excellent battery life, the iQOO 13's gaming performance is completely assured.
In addition to gaming, the DECO position of iQOO 13 has an energy aura that can inject full emotional value into your gaming experience in multiplayer games. The excellent Everest screen can give you excellent gaming experience and more eye protection for daily use. There's also the ultrasonic fingerprint and OriginOS 5's AI capabilities that give you a good experience. If you need to change your phone recently and have a higher demand for performance performance, the iQOO 13 is highly recommended.
