I spent three to four weeks with the iQOO 15, using it as my main phone for daily communication, gaming, media and photography. The iQOO 15 arrives with an aggressive spec sheet, pairing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with iQOO’s self-developed Q3 e-sports chip, a 7,000mAh Blue Ocean battery, and a new 2K 144Hz Samsung LEAD OLED panel. But on top of the hardware, iQOO is clearly positioning this device as a performance flagship that also aims for a well-rounded everyday experience. After extended use, here is how it held up.
3Performance and experience (1/2)
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 powers the core performance experience and does so confidently. Combined with LPDDR5X memory and UFS 4.1 storage, the phone feels fast in every scenario. Apps open immediately, multitasking is effortless, and the phone rarely reloads apps in the background. Thermally, iQOO’s enlarged 8K VC chamber and layered graphite system help maintain consistency during heavy use.
For gaming, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is supported by the Q3 e-sports chip, which handles rendering enhancement, ray tracing and AI tasks. This is where the iQOO 15 differentiates itself from typical flagship phones. Ray tracing support in Genshin Impact delivers better lighting depth and a more realistic atmosphere. You cannot use ray tracing and super-resolution or super-frame simultaneously, but switching between them is quick, and each mode offers clear improvements.
Honor of Kings was the most impressive showcase. With native 144fps enabled, the phone consistently stayed above 144fps during full ranked matches. Touch response remained sharp, and frame pacing was extremely stable. Power draw remained surprisingly low for this level of smoothness. Thermals were controlled, though the phone does warm up noticeably after long sessions, reaching around 40 degrees Celsius in the upper rear section. It never throttled meaningfully during my testing.
