Vivo iQOO 9T Smartphone Review – You can always expect remarkable performance from the iQOO flagship phones. Even their mid-range phones have subtle processing power that makes gaming more immersive. Recently, the company launched the Vivo iQOO 9T smartphone in India in August 2022. It’s been a while since the smartphone was released, and we have finally got the product, which looks pretty good in the hand. Besides this, the new design is refreshing, while numerous additional perks are covered below.
As for the first impression, the iQOO 9T does look promising with reasonable specs, and it has a lot of similarities with the Vivo iQOO 9 Pro smartphone, which was released in China. Aside from this, the phone boasts the latest Snapdragon chipset, an improved software experience, and many more attractive things that will be revealed in the review. Let’s head toward the Vivo iQOO 9T review to find out more details about this phone.
Table of Contents
Vivo iQOO 9T Smartphone Review
Highlights
- The phone starts with a 6.78-inches AMOLED panel that offers 1B colors with crisp HDR content viewing support.
- As for the hardware department, the performance is led by a 4nm Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset with Adreno 730 GPU.
- You will obtain Android 12 firmware out of the box with the custom layering of the FuntouchOS 12 configuration.
- A 50MP triple camera model will wrap around the back panel, while a dot notch 16MP selfie lens, at the front.
- Lastly, the phone’s Li-Po 4700 mAh battery is fueled by a 120W blazing-fast charger.
Design and Display
Like the Vivo iQOO 9 and Vivo 9 iQOO Pro, the iQOO 9T comes with a matte finish black shade option in which you will find a glossy camera module that warps around the back panel. The black color variant is advertised as Alpha. Apart from this, the phone also got an exclusive Legend (BMW M branding) color variant with the iconic three-stripe design layout. The build quality feels premium and exciting while holding it.
But you will slightly struggle to use the fingerprint reader as it is situated at bottom of the 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED display. The bezels are thin and a dot notch is present on top, while a stereo speaker is noticeable at the bottom with a SIM tray hole. Overall, the holding experience is superb and the brightness level is quite high with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection and Dust and water-resisting coating on top.
It’s not an LTPO display, so having granular refresh rate support is not possible. The 120Hz refresh mode is the best way to experience this phone, but we don’t recommend using a Smart Switch as it restricts the refresh rate in a third-party application. The colors are natural, and you won’t find any problems watching HDR 10+ content on Netflix and other streaming platforms.
Memory and Internal
The Vivo iQOO 9T smartphone performance mode can outperform most of the flagship-segment phones; this is because the hardware is optimized. While the graphic processing is improved and heating issues are resolved from the previous SD 8+ Gen 1 chip. However, it is not a fully-fledged, gaming-centric smartphone. Still, the game mode and support for the Adreno 730 GPU make it easy to have an immersive gaming experience.
Aside from this, the software end comes with a stable and clean UI experience with numerous customization features of FuntouchOS 12, based on Android 12. Vivo borrows the almost identical interface layout as the OnePlus OxygenOS to bring a more efficient user experience. Moreover, the interface has all of the trendy perks that you can expect from a flagship phone. Overall, you won’t be disappointed by the custom skin features.
On the other hand, the company ensures that the users don’t face issues storing multimedia data as much as they want. You’ll get 128GB to 256GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage space with no secondary storage unit support, and since it’s a flagship phone, it’s predictable in the first place. Both of them are sufficient for users’ needs, and you can choose between 8GB to 12GB RAM support.
Camera
The camera app is pretty much the same as it appears in the Vivo X80 series. The modes and configuration of features are similar too. But, you won’t receive any gimble stabilization support. Instead, the videos got artificial stabilization support with 4K video recording support. You will receive different modes to show video from the front and back cameras.
Now, moving to the photography end, the Vivo iQOO 9T offers brilliant daylight photos through a 50MP primary lens with vibrant colors, delightful exposure, and high contrast with apt sharpness in each shot. As for the lowlight, the night mode doesn’t impact much on the overall camera quality much. But there’s no denying that a 12MP telephoto lens sometimes overshines compared to the main sensor, especially in the daylight as it renders better saturation.
As for the 13MP ultra-wide lens, the dynamic range is impeccable with decent colors and fine details. Apart from this, the portrait mode photos are crisp and offer presentable details and good background detection. The colors are natural, which makes the photos better. Finally, there’s a 16MP selfie lens that does feel underwhelming compared to the main camera setup. Despite this, you can capture decent selfie photos thanks to acceptable image processing software.
Battery and Others
The Vivo iQOO 9T smartphone has one of the fastest charging speeds that a smartphone can achieve in the flagship killer range. Besides, there’s only a two-minute difference from the Vivo iQOO 9 Pro, as the phone requires roughly 18 minutes to refuel the Li-Po 4700 mAh battery using a 120W wired charger. Moreover, the software end is thoroughly optimized, unlike the previous model.
Therefore, you will obtain better screen time for your daily activities. On the same note, the stereo speaker output is louder and clearer. But, compared to the competition, the loudness feels slightly underwhelming. Aside from this, let’s talk about the most influential part. The Vivo iQOO 9T smartphone is priced at $610 (at Rs. 49,999 in India) approx., which is a fabulous deal with a balance of proper specs and value.
Vivo iQOO 9T Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Vivo iQOO 9T smartphone.
| Specifications | Vivo iQOO 9T |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G |
| Announced | August 2022 |
| SIM | Dual SIM |
| Dimensions | 6.50 x 3.03 x 0.31 inches |
| Weight | 206 g |
| Size | 6.78 inches |
| Display | AMOLED 1B colors 120Hz HDR10+ 1500 nits brightness 20:9 ratio ~388 PPI density |
| Protection/Others | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Dust and dripping water resistant |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels |
| OS | Android 12, Funtouch 12 |
| Chipset | 4nm – Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 |
| CPU | Octa-core 1×3.19 GHz Cortex-X2 3×2.75 GHz Cortex-A710 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510 |
| GPU | Adreno 730 |
| Card slot | No |
| RAM | 8GB, 12GB |
| Internal | 128GB, 256GB UFS 3.1 |
| Camera | 50 MP, (wide), PDAF, OIS 12 MP, (telephoto), PDAF, 2x optical zoom 13 MP, (120Ëšultrawide) Dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR, panorama Max – 4K@30/60fps, gyro-EIS |
| Selfie | 16 MP (wide) HDR Max – 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS |
| Loudspeaker | Yes (Stereo speakers) |
| 3.5mm jack | No 24-bit/192kHz audio |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | 5.2, A2DP, LE, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | Yes |
| Radio | Yes |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go |
| Sensors | Under display fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| Battery | Li-Po 4700 mAh Fast charging 120W |
| Colors | Alpha, Legend (BMW M branding) |
| Expected Price | $610 (Rs 49,999 in India) approx |
Conclusion
The Vivo iQOO 9T smartphone comes with decent specs, this phone sounded more reasonable and likely a value-for-money deal. First of all, you are getting powerful hardware and software configurations that improve battery life, camera performance, and gameplay to the next level. Furthermore, the Vivo iQOO 9T smartphone sometimes feels superior to the Vivo iQOO 9 Pro.
If you want a real flagship phone that offers a robust and wild experience, we would recommend purchasing this phone. On the other hand, you will discover several alternative options, such as the recently released Xiaomi 12T Pro smartphone, which can be considered a good choice if you prefer both photography and performance. Finally, choose wisely according to your requirements.
