iQOO 15 Review: The Performance Powerhouse, But Does It Justify The Price?

It is no secret that the last quarter of 2025 has been tough for tech enthusiasts. Most of you would be waiting for the next-generation flagship devices. As it turns out, they are getting expensive, thanks

to the worldwide memory chip crisis. We saw that first with the pricing of the OnePlus 15 and now, the iQOO 15 seems to be affected as well. Even though it still costs less than any other flagship phone launched so far, the pricing seems to be on the higher side, when compared to last year's iQOO 13.You should expect more phones, across price points, to face the heat as well. Anyway, the bigger question is: does this phone offer enough to justify the price tag? Well, it surely has a lot of things going for it. It's a performance powerhouse, an aspect iQOO seems to have mastered over the years. The phone comes with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, 7000mAh battery and a 144Hz display — making it a gamer's delight. The software experience has improved a lot with OriginOS. I have been using the phone as my daily driver for over two weeks now. Here are my thoughts. Design: Familiar, Yet Refined

The design language is very similar to the iQOO 13 with flat sides, boxy look and slight curve on the edge of the frame to give the phone a premium look and feel. All of these put together and the iQOO 15 is a really good phone to hold and use. It doesn't dig into palm like some other sharp-edged phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra. There is also a silky texture on the back which feels good to touch and does a great job of hiding fingerprints. It also gets an IP68 and 69 rating, which is a big relief. Otherwise, the phone feels durable as well. I have dropped it a few times over the past weeks and it survives without a scratch. So, the Schott xensation alpha protection gets a green flag from my side.

Despite all the good looks and durability, one thing I really missed and most of the iQOO buyers would be quick to notice, is the lack of BMW Motorsport partnership. There is no M Motorsport badge at the back this time. That logo is now replaced by a “Monster Inside” text. And, honestly I miss those iconic strips. I wish iQOO brings them back at some point.Apart from this, the phone has an IR blaster which is practical and useful. The haptics have also improved a lot in comparison to the iQOO 13, feeling both tighter and more precise. Display: A+ Visuals

The display has seen some big improvements this year. iQOO has used a Samsung M14 LEAD OLED panel on the phone this year which is crafted with high quality light-emitting materials. This panel is jointly tuned with Samsung for clarity, colour fidelity and eye comfort. This is a 6.85 inch screen with 144Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 6000 nits while playing Dolby Vision content. Whether I was standing under the harsh noon sun or watching movies in bed, the legibility was top-notch. The colour saturation and contrast are quite nice, making content consumption a delight. I watched a few movies on it, and the overall experience was amazing. Bezels are quite narrow and are uniform all around the corners. Since it’s a 144Hz panel, scrolling through the UI feels buttery smooth. But keep in mind that the 144Hz refresh rate only works with supported games and benchmark apps. For most of your daily scrolling on websites or social media, the max refresh rate you’ll get is 120Hz. Since the display panel is LTPO type which reduces the refresh rate of the screen to 1Hz when it is not being actively used, it saves a lot of stress on the battery.A nice touch is the presence of an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. It is very fast, very reliable, and even works when my fingers are a little wet or oily, something that optical sensors often struggle with. Another cool thing that I really liked about the fingerprint scanner is that while registering the finger, I did not have to keep lifting my finger to register. One single glide of the finger over the scanner and it registers the entire fingerprint. In my opinion, the iQOO 15 display is a solid A+.Performance: The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Beast

The biggest highlight of all the flagship phones launching late this year is undoubtedly the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and honestly, the amount of power this phone has because of the new silicon from Qualcomm is quite amazing.I could run any application or game on it without any noticeable lag or stutter. The UI is super fast and snappy. I played Call of Duty: Mobile and BGMI on it, and the experience was flawless. The phone supports high refresh rate modes on both games, to be very precise on BGMI I was able to play the game on “Smooth” graphics with “Ultra Extreme” frame rate (120fps) or HDR with Extreme + which is a treat for competitive gamers.During my 1 hour long heavy gaming sessions, I did not notice any heating or any thermal throttling issues while playing BGMI on max settings. This is likely due to the new vapor chamber cooling system that iQOO claims to be their largest VC cooling chamber yet, though I have to admit, it could be partially due to the fact that the temperature in Delhi is a little cooler right now. Whatever the case, I did not face any thermal throttling during real-world use.The only time I noticed heating was when I ran benchmarks, specifically the 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test. The phone got noticeably warm, and the graph showed a stability score of 45%, meaning it throttled significantly while the benchmark was running. But unless you play with benchmark apps for a living (just like me), this shouldn't affect your daily usage.Software: A Breath of Fresh Air

Talking about software, there is finally a breath of fresh air for iQOO users. This is the moment all iQOO and Vivo fans in India have been waiting for: the iQOO 15 is the first iQOO phone to come with OriginOS out of the box.It’s a massive upgrade over the Funtouch OS we’ve been used to. It comes with a lot of cool features, smooth animations, and some genuinely useful AI tricks like AI Retouch, AI Eraser, AI Expand and a lot of more AI features. But the best part? The UI does not feel heavy. Also, during my testing, I did not receive any annoying notifications from the default browser or "Hot Apps" folder that Funtouch OS used to push. But let me be clear that there are still a few bloatware apps, but the good thing is they can be easily uninstalled. So the UI feels cleaner, more mature, and finally worthy of a flagship price tag.Camera: Mix Bag Review

When I first received the review unit, the camera performance was... concerning. It captured some underwhelming pictures initially. But after I got the first software update, everything was fixed perfectly.Now that the context is clear, let's get the specs out of the way first. The primary camera is a 50-megapixel shooter that uses Sony’s IMX921 sensor. There is also a 50-megapixel 3x telephoto camera and that too is a Sony sensor. The ultra-wide camera completes the triple 50-megapixel camera setup on the phone.The photos captured from all three 50-megapixel cameras at the back are detailed, colorful, and quite good-looking. The HDR performance was a bit moody on the main camera but still it is very solid, handling backlit scenarios with ease during daylight.

However, it’s not perfect. In low light, I noticed that the ultra-wide camera sometimes messes up red colors. One specific example was when I tried to click a photo of a Levi's store logo. The red looked a bit orangish. I noticed the same issue with the 'Social' logo. Also, in one or two photos, the exposure was completely off in some lightboards, blowing out the highlights.

Portrait mode is generally solid with great edge detection, but I did notice a weird issue where it occasionally made faces look unnaturally whitish, messing up the skin tones. This especially happens when there is a bright source of light behind the subject. Selfies captured with 32-megapixel camera do look really good and retains close to natural skin texture and colourOn the video front the iQOO 15 is capable of shooting 4K videos at 60fps with all three cameras at the back plus it can also shoot 8K 30fps videos with main camera. The video quality, however, was decent and stable enough for social media reels.Battery: A Marathon Runner

If there is one area where the iQOO 15 absolutely floored me, it’s the battery. The phone packs a massive 7,000mAh battery. Just like any other phone with a 7,000mAh cell, the backup was super solid.Paired with the efficient LTPO panel and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, this phone is a marathon runner. In my usage, it easily lasted for more than 36 hours, even with heavy usage like capturing videos, playing games, and watching movies. For most users, this is easily a two-day phone.The phone also supports 100W of fast charging, and that charger is still present in the box - Big relief! Anyways, with the provided 100W charger iQOO 15 can charge from 0-100 in just under 30 minutes. Plus there is support for 40W wireless charging as well.Verdict

Even though iQOO 15 costs slightly more than what I initially expected, I won't paying that price for this phone because it has a solid A+ display, amazing performance, and finally, the software experience is what we’ve been asking for with Origin OS.It combines useful features like an IR blaster and IP rating with a respectable camera system and a super long-lasting battery. The overall package is very solid for people looking for a high-end, performance-centric phone that can do all the other jobs very well too. For Rs 72,999, the iQOO 15 won't let you down.