iQOO 9 Pro: World's first phone with a fisheye lens, plus gimbal-stabilization
The iQOO 9 Pro is a contender for top smartphone flagship – but when will see it outside of India and China?
After launching in China last month, the iQOO 9 series has made its international debut, launching in India today. A sister brand to Vivo, the IQOO series consists of three smartphones – iQOO 9, iQOO 9 Pro, and iQOO 9 SE – all with high-end specs including triple rear sensors, AMOLED display and a high refresh rate.
• iPhone rumors, Samsung Galaxy news and smartphone leaks
Thanks to its very impressive camera specs, we’re most interested in the iQOO 9 Pro, which is the most premium smartphone in the series. Gimbal-stabilized triple-lens camera setup with fisheye lens? Yes, please.
iQOO 9 Pro: Camera set-up
Jumping straight into the camera specifications, as they are exciting, the iQOO 9 Pro boasts a strong triple rear-camera setup with 50MP Samsung GN5 sensor, co-developed with Samsung, and Gimbal Stabilization technology.
The set is complete with a 50MP 150° fisheye wide-angle camera and a 16MP telephoto/portrait camera. We’ve never heard of a smartphone featuring a fisheye before, so this is big news, especially as the company says it supports regular, macro, night, and 4K video modes.
Furthermore, due to the fisheye effect, the camera boasts a wide field of view, dramatic morphing, and strong space perspective, so it should lend itself to creative phone photography and action-packed scenes perfectly.
iQOO 9 Pro: Specifications
It’s not just the camera on the iQOO 9 Pro that’s exciting – the rest of its specs also look great. It’s powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile chipset and offers blazing fast 120W fast-charging support, which charges the 4,700mAh battery from flat to full in around 21 minutes and even supports 50W wireless charging!
Get the Digital Camera World Newsletter
The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!
The iQOO 9 Pro also boasts a fantastic 10-bit 2K AMOLED display with fluid 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and runs Android 12 out of the box. It comes in 8GB RAM with 256GB internal storage and 12GB RAM with 256GB internal storage variants, which both use LPDDR 5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, for smooth and lag-free multitasking performance.
iQOO 9 Pro: Legend edition
iQOO is a premium partner of BMW M Motorsport, resulting in the release of a Legend edition of the iQOO 9 and iQOO 9 Pro smartphones, inspired by elements of the racetrack. As you can see, the phones look the part with three iconic rally stripes.
iQOO 9 Pro: Price and availability
iQOO 9 Pro 8GB RAM+256GB ROM edition is priced at ₹64,990 (£640/€767) and the 12GB RAM+256GB ROM edition is priced at ₹69,990 (£690/€826).
Pre-orders for iQOO 9 Pro and iQOO 9 begin from February 23. The Vivo-owned brand are yet to release information on when these phones will become available in other global markets.
• Best camera phone
• Best iPhone for photography
• Best burner phone
• Best 5G phone
• Best phablets
• Best flip phones
• Best fisheye lenses
• Best gimbals
Rachael is a British journalist with 18 years experience in the publishing industry. Since working on www.digitalcameraworld.com, she’s been freelancing, and contributing to some of the world’s best-loved websites and magazines including T3.com and TechRadar.com and has also had a book, iPad for Photographers, published. She's currently acting as editor of 5GRadar.com - a website specializing in the latest cellular technology.