I’ve tested a lot of so‑called “gaming phones” that turned out to be regular flagships with RGB slapped on the back. Watching iQOO’s final teaser for the 15 Ultra, I got a strong sense of déjà vu.
The two‑minute video checks every spec‑heavy box: new Snapdragon, giant battery, high refresh screen, dedicated gaming silicon, shoulder triggers, RGB. On paper, it sounds like a monster. But if you look past the marketing, it also looks like iQOO might be prioritizing theatrics over pushing the category forward.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 With a Fan: Performance or Overkill?
The headliner is obvious: an actively‑cooled Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Yes, iQOO is officially entering the cooling fan race. The teaser leans hard on this, showing off the active cooling as the foundation of its performance pitch.
Active cooling in a phone signals one thing: this chip is going to run hot under prolonged loads, and iQOO would rather strap a fan to it than dial performance back. That’s fine if you’re chasing benchmarks, but it also hints that efficiency might not be the main priority. We don’t get sustained performance numbers, thermal graphs, or real gaming durations—just the visual of a fan and the implied promise of “more fps.”
The problem is, without context, a fan is just a band‑aid. If the SoC and chassis can’t sustain high clocks passively for typical gaming sessions, you’re trading noise and complexity for bragging rights. Until we see how the 8 Elite Gen 5 behaves in this chassis, the fan is more about optics than guaranteed real‑world gains.
Q3 Gaming Chip, RGB Strip, 600Hz Triggers: Leaning Hard Into the Gimmicks
Alongside the main SoC, iQOO is pushing a Q3 gaming chip dedicated to upscaling and frame generation. That’s a smart direction in theory—similar to what we’ve seen in the PC world with technologies that boost perceived frame rates without fully rendering every frame.
But again, the teaser doesn’t answer the obvious questions. How much latency does this add? What’s the visual trade‑off? Which games actually support this properly? Without those answers, the Q3 sounds more like a spec line for the product page than a must‑have feature.
Then there’s the RGB LED strip on the back—firmly planting this as a “gaming phone”—and 600Hz shoulder triggers. The triggers could be legitimately useful for shooters and racing titles, but 600Hz touch sampling on triggers starts to feel like chasing a number for its own sake. The teaser doesn’t explain ergonomics, travel, or haptics. Just the headline figure.
If you’ve used any gaming phone in the last few years, you’ve seen this pattern: stack visual flair and big numbers, but leave out the usability details. The iQOO 15 Ultra teaser follows that playbook almost too closely.
7,400mAh Battery: Big Cell, No Charging Details
One of the most promising specs is the 7,400mAh battery. That’s huge by mainstream flagship standards and exactly what you’d want in a phone pitched at heavy gamers and media users.
Because this is iQOO, the teaser strongly implies fast wired and wireless charging, but never gives actual numbers. The only real hint is indirect: the vanilla iQOO 15 offers 100W wired and 40W wireless, so expectations for the Ultra will naturally be high.
The catch is simple: capacity without charging context is only half the story. A 7,400mAh cell will last, sure, but how fast can you realistically top it up between matches or during a commute? The teaser leaves that blank, which feels like a missed opportunity if iQOO really had something impressive to show.
Cameras: 50MP Periscope Sounds Great, Details Don’t
The video gives the camera section about as much attention as you’d expect on a gaming‑centric phone: brief and tightly controlled. We’re looking at a triple‑camera setup with a 50MP Sony periscope lens offering 3x optical zoom and CIPA 4.5‑level optical image stabilization.
A 50MP Sony periscope sounds solid on paper, and 3x is a practical zoom level for portraits and general telephoto shots. CIPA 4.5‑level OIS should help with stability in low light and when zoomed, but there’s no mention of sensor size, aperture, or the other two cameras in the array.
That’s the recurring theme: the teaser gives us just enough to sound impressive, but not enough to judge whether the 15 Ultra is genuinely versatile as a camera phone, or just “good enough” while the budget and focus go to gaming features.
Display and Audio: 144Hz LTPO OLED, Samsung M14, Dolby Atmos
On the front, the iQOO 15 Ultra packs a 144Hz LTPO OLED built on Samsung’s M14 tech. 144Hz is great for fast‑paced games and smooth scrolling, and LTPO suggests variable refresh for better power efficiency.
Using Samsung M14 panel tech should mean solid brightness, color accuracy, and longevity, but again, the teaser doesn’t bother with nits, PWM behavior, or resolution. This feels like another case of relying on buzzwords instead of giving users the numbers they actually care about.
Audio gets a quick mention too: stereo Dolby Atmos speakers. That’s table‑stakes for any performance‑oriented flagship in 2026, and without info on tuning, loudness, or driver layout, it’s just another line in the spec sheet.
Blade Runner Meets Cyberpunk… With Color Names
The teaser closes on style instead of substance: two launch colors, 2049 and 2077. Yes, those sure look like nods to Blade Runner 2049 and Cyberpunk 2077.
I like a good sci‑fi reference as much as anyone, but when your phone is branded around future‑obsessed franchises and your marketing is all numbers and neon, expectations jump. You’re promising something aggressively forward‑looking. What we’ve seen so far, though, is a familiar formula with fancier badges.
If you strip away the color names and lighting, the 15 Ultra teaser could be from almost any gaming phone launch over the last few years.
Big Potential, But iQOO Needs to Prove It
On paper, the iQOO 15 Ultra is ticking the right boxes for a 2026 gaming‑leaning flagship: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with active cooling, a dedicated Q3 gaming chip for upscaling and frame gen, 600Hz shoulder triggers, a 7,400mAh battery, 144Hz LTPO OLED on Samsung M14 tech, stereo Dolby Atmos speakers, and a 50MP Sony 3x periscope with CIPA 4.5‑level OIS.
The disappointment comes from how safe and hyper‑curated this teaser feels. No thermal charts. No charging speeds. No real camera breakdown. No actual gameplay examples showing what Q3 frame generation does to latency or image quality. Just an aggressive spec montage aimed at people who already wanted this phone.
Maybe the full launch later today will fill in the gaps and turn this from another RGB‑heavy spec monster into a legitimately well‑rounded flagship. Right now, though, iQOO looks like it’s repeating the usual gaming phone routine: flex benchmarks and features, leave the hard questions for reviewers.
Check back soon as this story develops.