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.