The 5G rollout in India is just around the corner and smartphone manufacturers have now switched gears to focus on more budget 5G smartphones. The Redmi 11 Prime 5G (first look) was one of the most recent budget 5G smartphones launched in India. Companies like Realme, Poco and Motorola have launched 5G smartphones for around Rs. 15,000. iQoo joins the race with the latest Z6 Lite 5G, the most affordable 5G smartphone in India.
The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G is the bottom of the Z6 series in India. It has been launched with two RAM and storage options. The base 4GB RAM variant with 64GB internal storage is priced at Rs 13,999, while the variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage is priced at Rs 15,499.
Although the retail box is as large as any other iQoo smartphone, it is surprising to see that the iQoo Z6 Lite 5G does not come with a charger in the box. The company instead included a note, “Thank you customers for contributing to the planet by reducing carbon emissions.” Users will need to use a compatible fast charger that supports 18W charging or purchase one separately from iQoo to charge the 5000mAh battery. You also don’t get 3.5mm wired earphones in the box but you do get a USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable, a transparent case and a SIM ejector tool with the phone.
The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G comes in two color options, Stellar Green (pictured above) and Mystic Black
Our iQoo Z6 Lite 5G review unit comes in Stellar Green color. Those who want a less flickering phone can opt for the more subtle Mystic Night color option. Although the Stellar Green variant has a glossy finish, fingerprints are not easily visible.
The frame of the phone is flat and its thickness is 8.25mm. On paper, the iQoo Z6 Lite 5G may seem heavy at 194g but in reality it doesn’t feel that much. The top edge of the phone has a dual-SIM tray, while the bottom edge has a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port and a single speaker grill. On the right side of the phone are the power and volume buttons. The power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner, which is quick to detect fingerprints and unlock the phone.
The Z6 Lite 5G has an all-plastic build but the gradient color palette doesn’t make it look cheap. In fact, some of my friends mistook it for a more expensive premium device. However, the water-drop notch on the front gives away that the phone is indeed a budget device. It looks a little dated but at this price it’s hard to complain.
The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G comes with an 8-megapixel front camera.
The phone features a 6.58-inch IPS LCD display with Full-HD+ resolution. The typical characteristics of the LCD limit the Z6 Lite 5G’s brightness levels and color vibrancy. While the display brightness is adequate for indoor use, you’ll want to push the brightness bar up to maximum when you’re outdoors.
The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G’s display also supports a 120Hz refresh rate for a smooth scrolling experience. Compatible games should also be able to take advantage of this, and I’ll be testing this throughout the review. Courtesy of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 SoC, iQoo claims that the phone should also deliver much better performance than others in this segment. It is the world’s first smartphone to feature this SoC and according to iQoo, users can expect higher AnTuTu benchmark scores compared to rival phones. We’ll test this claim in the review, and also run other performance tests to see if this high number has any meaningful impact in real-world use.
While the phone offers 5G, it supports only two bands (n77 and n78) in India. The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G uses LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.2 internal storage. There is also support for storage expansion up to 1TB via microSD card.
The camera module design of the iQoo Z6 Lite 5G is similar to other Z6 phones in the series
On the back, there is a rectangular camera module with two large circular cutouts for the 50-megapixel primary camera and the 2-megapixel depth sensor. The water-drop notch on the front houses an 8-megapixel camera for selfies. We will test the phone’s camera performance throughout our review.
Finally, the software. The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G runs on Android 12-based Funtouch OS 12. The software comes pre-installed with third-party apps along with Vivo’s first-party applications. You can choose to uninstall unnecessary apps.
The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G runs on Android 12-based Funtouch OS 12
With a starting price of Rs 13,999, the iQoo Z6 Lite 5G competes with the newly launched Redmi 11 Prime 5G, Samsung Galaxy M13 5G, Realme 9i 5G, Redmi Note 11 and other smartphones under Rs 15,000. We’ll be testing the device to see how it fares against the competition, so just stay tuned for our full review of the iQoo Z6 Lite 5G on Gadgets 360.
