vivo iQOO 3 5G in for review

This is the vivo iQOO 3 5G and it just arrived at HQ. We started our review of it, but while we're testing the phone, we decided to bring you a quick look.

We have the Tornado Black model (which is kind of blue in real life), but we prefer the aesthetics of the Volcano Orange we had a quick hands-on with.

It comes in a nice retail package with a 55W charger, headphones (with a 3.5mm jack), USB cable with a capsule type-C connector allowing you to game without a cable poking your palm and a quality-made silicone case.

The vivo iQOO 3 5G has the makings of a great gaming phone. It's powered by a Snapdragon 865 chipset and our unit comes with 12GB of RAM. Its 256GB onboard storage is UFS 3.1, there's 4D vibration, which can simulate the effect of recoil when shooting or the vibration of a steering wheel when driving.

There are also two pressure-sensitive "Monster Touch" buttons on the top left and right corner when the iQOO 3 5G is in landscape, and something vivo calls Ultra Game mode, to enable a more focused gaming experience (it can block notifications, lock brightness, prevent accidental touches, etc).

The 6.44-inch Super AMOLED screen of the vivo iQOO 3 5G comes with 180Hz touch sensing but lacks any high-refresh rate on its own - it's your regular 60Hz affair, which puts the iQOO 3 5G at a significant disadvantage to other gaming phones.

There's a 4,440mAh battery inside the vivo iQOO 3 5G, which can from 0% to 50% in only 15 min, thanks to the 55W charger - vivo calls it Super Flash Charge 2.0.

We're eager to test the battery endurance of the vivo iQOO 3 5G, so stay tuned!

Finally, we come to cameras. The iQOO 3 5G has four units on the rear, which is more than most gaming offerings and the setup is more versatile too. You get a 48MP f/1.8 main camera that outputs 12MP shots, a 13MP f/2.5 telephoto that delivers 2x optical zoom, a 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide cam and a 2MP depth sensor, used for bokeh effects.

Stay tuned for our full review, coming soon!