iQOO 15 Ultra - IntoDroid

Everyone says “gaming phone” like it means anything. The iQOO 15 Ultra is one of the rare devices that actually looks built to suffer.

Active Cooling, Finally Used Like It Matters

Most brands slap on “vapor chamber cooling” and call it a day. iQOO is throwing a literal fan at the problem.

The iQOO 15 Ultra is the first iQOO device with active cooling, using what the company calls the Ice Dome system. It’s a 17 x 17 mm fan that moves 0.315 cfm of air – not marketing fluff, an actual airflow number. That’s the kind of data you usually see in PC cooling, not phones.

Under that fan is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the same chip as the regular iQOO 15. The difference is how hard you can push it without the whole thing throttling itself into mediocrity after five minutes. iQOO claims it can sustain 144fps in seven popular titles while livestreaming, which is exactly where most phones give up and start dropping frames.

This is the first phone that can run Honor of Kings at Ultra Quality at 144fps while keeping the back of the body at 41.5°C. That’s still warm, but if this holds true outside of lab conditions, it’s a big deal for anyone who’s tired of their “flagship” dropping to 60–90fps mid-match.

Specs That Actually Target Gamers, Not Just Benchmarks

On paper, the core hardware is unapologetically high-end. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is paired with LPDDR5X RAM running at 10,667Mbps and UFS 4.1 storage. That combo isn’t just about speed tests; it matters when you’re juggling heavy games, background apps, and a livestream.

There’s also a dedicated Q3 gaming chip sitting next to Qualcomm’s SoC. Its job: resolution upscaling and frame generation. In plain terms, that means the phone can keep pushing high frame rates and better perceived image quality without leaning only on brute-force GPU performance. Think of it as borrowing a page from PC tech like DLSS/FSR-style tricks, but tuned for mobile.

The Ultra also brings two 600Hz shoulder triggers. These aren’t cheap, clicky afterthoughts; each supports customizable tap and swipe gestures. That opens the door to actual control advantages in shooters and MOBAs, not just aesthetic bragging rights.

Add dual-axis vibration motors and Dolby Atmos stereo speakers and you’ve got a device that at least attempts to treat sound and haptics as part of the experience, not filler bullet points. And yes, there’s an RGB LED strip on the camera island. It’s very on-brand for “gaming,” but at least the rest of the hardware justifies the look.

144Hz Samsung M14 Display: Built for Frames, Not Just Specs Pages

A gaming phone without a serious display is just cosplay. The iQOO 15 Ultra brings a 6.85-inch 144Hz OLED panel using Samsung’s M14 LTPO tech.

The LTPO part matters. It should allow the refresh rate to scale more intelligently, which is critical when you’re bouncing between 144fps gameplay, static UI, and video. That’s how you make a 7,400mAh battery last instead of watching it evaporate.

The panel supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR Vivid, and something iQOO calls Zreal, plus 118% P3 color coverage. This isn’t being pitched as just a gaming screen; it’s also clearly aimed at media consumption.

Full-screen peak brightness hits 2,600 nits, which is in the same punchy territory as the brightest mainstream flagships right now. DC dimming support will appeal to users sensitive to PWM flicker. For touch, you get a 480Hz multi-finger sampling rate – not a record on paper, but more than fast enough for serious competitive play, especially combined with the shoulder triggers.

Battery and Charging: Big Numbers With Real Trade-Offs

The 7,400mAh battery is the most aggressively pro-gamer spec here. iQOO claims an energy density of 867Wh/L, which helps explain how they squeezed that capacity into a body that’s 8.7mm thick and 227g.

Let’s be clear: 227g is hefty. This is not a compact, casual one-handed phone. It’s a portable gaming slab that happens to make calls.

Charging hits 100W wired (FlashCharge, with 55W PPS support) and 40W wireless. That’s in line with iQOO’s own vanilla 15, which carries a slightly smaller 7,000mAh pack at 8.1mm and 215g. So the Ultra is basically the “you know what you’re signing up for” version: more juice, more weight, more thickness.

For heavy gamers, those are reasonable compromises. A phone that can genuinely push 144fps with an active fan and giant battery is not going to weigh 170g and last all day. You either accept the trade-offs or stop pretending you want a real gaming phone.

Cameras: Surprisingly Serious for a Gaming-Focused Phone

Most gaming phones treat cameras like an afterthought. The iQOO 15 Ultra doesn’t.

The main camera is a 50MP Sony IMX921 with a 1/1.56-inch sensor and CIPA 4.5-rated OIS. That’s not top-tier 1-inch sensor territory, but it’s squarely in the “proper flagship” range.

Backing it up is a 50MP 3x telephoto with a 1/1.95-inch sensor, f/2.65 lens, and CIPA 4.5 OIS, plus a 50MP ultra-wide with a 107° field of view, 1/2.76-inch sensor, and f/2.05 aperture. On the front, you get a 32MP selfie camera with an f/2.2 lens.

Specs don’t tell the full story of image processing, but this setup is far from the usual “64MP random sensor plus useless 2MP macros” formula. If iQOO’s tuning isn’t a disaster, the 15 Ultra should be able to double as a respectable all-rounder, not just a PUBG handheld.

Who This Phone Is Actually For

Strip away the RGB and the gaming buzzwords and the iQOO 15 Ultra is targeting a very specific user: people who push phones hard for long, continuous sessions.

If you’re just doomscrolling, taking photos, and playing Genshin for 15 minutes on the train, this is overkill. The weight, fan system, and insane battery capacity make no sense for casual users when thinner, lighter flagships exist.

But if you play ranked matches for hours, stream directly from your phone, or live on high-refresh competitive titles, this thing is built for you in a way most “gaming” phones aren’t. Sustained 144fps claims, active cooling with real airflow specs, a Q3 gaming chip for upscaling/frame generation – this is more than a UI theme and a fancy box.

We still don’t have details like pricing, regional availability, or long-term thermals outside controlled tests. Those will decide whether this is a smart buy or just a cool concept that never leaves a few markets.

Right now, though, the iQOO 15 Ultra looks like a rare instance where a brand’s gaming pitch actually respects the people it’s aimed at.

Have thoughts on this? Share them in the comments.

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.

Tag: iQOO 15 Ultra

iQOO 15 Ultra: A Gaming Beast That Actually Backs It Up