Can the iQOO 13 take on the mantle of being the new ‘flagship killer’?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Remember the term ‘flagship killer’? Once used…nay borderline exploited… by OnePlus, it came to represent smartphones that offered much of the same high-end hardware and features of the flagship devices of the same year, yet at a relatively lower price.
With OnePlus’ numbered series having moved firmly into conventional flagship territory, Vivo’s sub-brand iQOO has donned the mantle, first with last year’s iQOO 12 and now launching with the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (that we first saw at Snapdragon Summit) on the iQOO 13, at a price (Rs. 52,999 onwards) that’s seriously impressive and significantly lower than the expected launch prices of the upcoming OnePlus 13 and the Samsung S25 series.
Where’s the catch, you ask? Spoiler alert: there is none, and save for a few nitpicks on the camera setup, there’s really no compromise to be found. Instead, one should ask – should one prefer this over the OnePlus 13 right around the corner? iQOO seem to have taken the ‘if it aint broke’ formula, and you wouldn’t be able to tell the iQOO 13 apart from the iQOO 12—same squircle-shaped camera island, only marginally bigger, and the same flat aluminum sides meeting the matte glass back in an oh-so-more-comfy curve.
There’s the sporty Legend variant with BMW racing stripes, and the duller-by-comparison Nardo Grey variant. It’s the tiniest bit wider with a larger 6.82-inch panel, but what’s more impressive is the massive jump in battery capacity to 6000mAh (up from 5000mAh on the 12) without the associated weight gain...a mere 10 grams! Interestingly, there’s a ring light around the camera island that iQOO calls the Monster Halo, and it can be activated to light up when you have an incoming call
. Read more on livemint.com
