[REVIEW] iQOO 10 Pro is a Chinese jewel with a beautiful BMW design and a record 200 W charging

Content and quality of packaging

As we have already mentioned in several reviews, regarding the quality of the packaging, we can completely rely on our partner Trading Shenzhen in this regard. It was no different in this case either.

The smartphone box came packed in another cardboard box with a layer of bubble wrap. The whole thing was still wrapped in a standard silicone envelope with a layer of adhesive tape. There were also gifts in the form of a mini USB fan and an EU adapter for the charger.

As we again ordered an exclusive BMW edition of the smartphone, the packaging is also adapted to it. The smartphone box is black with an interesting bevelling of its upper and lower parts. Inside there is a smartphone, case, charger and USB-C cable. Since it is a BMW edition, we also find a card from the BMW Motorsport workshop.

Design and quality of workmanship

The new limited edition iQOO 10 Pro has a very similar design to its predecessor, the iQOO 9 Pro. The back is mostly white with a leather structure and stripes in BMW colors. The difference is only in the upper part, where the cameras are located. This time, the entire top third of the back cover is glossy black, including the slightly protruding rear camera module.

However, we have to mention one reservation we have about the included smartphone case. It is all white with the logo of the brand and its partner BMW. It slips slightly in the hands, but mainly, in this case the smartphone completely loses its beautiful and premium design, since its entire back side, except for the camera module, is covered with a white cover.

The smartphone holds comfortably in the hand thanks to the curved edges, and as soon as you hold it in your hands it will be clear that it is a premium and flagship model of the brand. The construction is aluminum and the quality of the processing is excellent.

Layout of elements

Nothing has changed in terms of the layout of the smartphone's individual elements, and you will find everything exactly where you would look for it. The bottom edge contains a charging USB-C port, a microphone, a slot for SIM cards and speaker.

On the opposite, upper side, we find the second microphone and IR sensor. The left side is empty, and the right side has its place for the volume control buttons together with the button for lighting the display, or turning the smartphone on or off.

Beautiful AMOLED display with LTPO technology

The new iQOO 10 Pro kept the same AMOLED display with a diagonal of 6.78" from last year's model. It is a Samsung E5 panel with a resolution of 1440 x 3200 px with a high refresh rate, 120 Hz, which is slowly becoming the standard, which we are very happy about. The novelty is the third generation of LTPO technology, which takes care of automatic adjustment of the refresh rate based on current needs.

Another positive is the high brightness, which can reach up to 1500 nits, so the display is beautifully readable even on a sunny day in direct light. The aspect ratio of the display is 20:9, the pixel density is 423 ppi, covers the entire DCI-P3 color profile and supports HDR10+ technology.

We have absolutely no reservations about the display, as it is currently almost the best available on the market. The curved edges of the display, which cause reflections on the edges, can be a negative for some.

Latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1

The smartphone is powered by a processor from the American company Qualcomm, Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. It is made with 4 nm technology and consists of eight cores. The high-performance core is based on the ARM Cortex-X2 architecture with a clock frequency of 3.2 GHz.

The other three cores are based on the Cortex-A710 architecture with a frequency of 2.5 GHz, and the remaining four cores, which are more energy efficient, are based on the Cortex-A510 architecture with a frequency of 1.8 GHz. All cores use a shared 6 MB L3 cache.

We had a version with 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256 GB of UFS 3.1 storage. Based on the parameters, it is clear that we do not need to talk about sufficient performance at all. With such hardware, you can play any game without hesitation.

We also tested the smartphone in the popular AnTuTu benchmark, where it scored 1 points, placing it second behind the ASUS ROG Phone 090.

Fastest charging in the world

The new iQOO 10 Pro can proudly boast the title of the fastest smartphone charger in the world. It supports up to 200 W charging, which we haven't had the chance to see with any other smartphone yet. This is the fastest charging technology in the world.

Even with the 120 W charging that Xiaomi MIX 4 came with, we were amazed by the speed. As a reminder, the MIX 4 charged from 20 to 100% in about 14 minutes. You can charge the iQOO 10 Pro with a 200 W charger at unbelievable prices 10 minutes.

You can see the entire charging process in the table below:

In addition to fast wired charging, we also have 50W wireless charging and 10W reverse charging.

But the durability is not so great. Here again we only get to the standard less than one day of battery life on a single charge. In addition, the battery percentages in this case run out quite quickly, so sometimes we had to recharge the smartphone twice a day.

On the other hand, charging your smartphone to 50% in 3 minutes and 100% in 10 minutes is perfect. However, the life of the battery with such fast charging is questionable. After connecting to the charger, we have the option of choosing between fast and super-fast charging, but in both cases the smartphone heats up quite significantly.

Origin OS Ocean environment

Like the Vivo X80 Pro or last year's iQOO 9 Pro model, the new iQOO 10 Pro runs on Android 12 with the Origin OS Ocean graphics superstructure. It is one of the most customizable superstructures we have seen. You can customize a really huge number of elements to your liking, from the classic wallpaper to the animation when charging, touching your finger, along with different settings of colors or shapes of individual elements in the environment.

In our opinion, the superstructure is really excellent, both graphically and functionally. Unfortunately, there were occasional minor hesitations that we did not notice in previous models. Some apps got stuck a couple of times, or once we even had the wallpaper disappear from the background of the home screen.

However, during the first week of testing, we received two updates with some bug fixes. It can be seen that the manufacturer takes care of his environment and tries to correct mistakes.

New flagship model from the subsidiary brand Living we tested in the Chinese version, which is traditionally associated with problems with notifications. These are sometimes delayed, or appear only after opening a specific application, despite different settings and locking between running applications.

The disadvantage is also the impossibility of displaying notifications from selected applications on the always-on display. Only notifications about missed calls or SMS messages are displayed here. On the other hand, despite the Chinese version, NFC payments work using the Google Wallet application (Google Pay), which you just need to install and set as default.

Three cameras

In terms of photography, the iQOO 10 Pro comes with last year's hardware. The sensors are identical to those we had the opportunity to see in the iQOO 9 Pro model. The novelty is the V1+ chip from the Vivo workshop, which has the task of improving the photographic output. The positives are the gimbal stabilization of the main camera and the standard optical stabilization of all the remaining cameras.

Excellent main camera

The main camera of the flagship model from iQOO is, in one word, excellent. He has an unbelievably good dynamirange, thanks to which there is a minimum of overburns or underexposed areas in the photos. Places in the shadow are not unnecessarily too dark and, on the contrary, directly lit buildings are not too bright.

As for the colors, they are slightly embellished compared to reality, they are more saturated and overall the photo has a higher contrast. If you open the photo immediately after taking it, you will notice how the system slightly adjusts the image. The result is beautiful and sharp photos full of vivid colors.

It does well indoors, and also in low light. Even a dark subway, at the end of which there is a sunny sky, is no problem for this smartphone. Of course, the dimly lit interior is also embellished and visibly illuminated, but these photos are very eye-catching and interesting to look at.

The older brother from the parent company Vivo, the X80 Pro model still has a slight advantage, but the camera in the flagship model from iQOO is also very good.

Ultra-wide camera

Compared to the main camera, the ultra-wide-angle camera provides a shot with a viewing angle of up to 150 °, and a fish-eye mode is also available, the so-called fish-eye. The ultra-wide-angle camera has a slightly weaker dynamirange and offers cooler and brighter colors, but its output is still above average.

If we focus on the shadows, they are due to the weaker dynamioccasionally darker, but still do not tend to merge into black. The details are thus not lost even in the shadows, but they are less pronounced than with the main camera.

It also copes well indoors in low light, and even in a really dark room with low light, it captures beautiful details and brightens the entire photo. Compared to reality, the images are again slightly improved, but they have their charm.

Triple optical zoom and macro

On the rear camera module, you can notice the inscription "40 x", right next to the telescopic lens. However, this is more about marketing, since the 40x zoom is only digital. The optical zoom in this case is a maximum of 3x, which is still a decent number.

Even close-up shots will please you with their high quality and good dynamirange and pleasant color presentation. There is also a macro mode that can be turned on/off or set to automatic. So if you approach an object close enough, it will automatically activate.

Macro mode shots are also very good and one can really win with it and capture beautiful shots.

Night mode

Even when taking photos in the evening in standard mode, a longer shutter speed is automatically set, which allows us to get very nice night shots even without activating the night mode.

With night mode on, the photos are even slightly brighter, but the difference between standard and night mode is minimal in most cases. For comparison, we attach several images captured with normal and night mode.

Photos from the ultra-wide camera are slightly darker with warmer and more saturated colors compared to the main camera. However, the sharpness is still very good, similar to a telescopic lens.

Video

iQOO 10 Pro offers a maximum resolution of up to 8K, but only at 30 fps. In this mode, the video is not completely smooth, but it mainly lacks stabilization. It is, however, available at 4K / 60 fps, although only in a level called Standard. When you turn on better stabilization, Ultra, the video resolution automatically switches to 1080p / 60 fps.

The standard stabilization is not perfect, but it is completely sufficient for normal use. In order to achieve more beautiful and especially smooth shots without unnatural movements and jerking, we would need an external stabilizer. However, the image quality of the video is at a very good level.

Ultrasonic fingerprint reader

Here again we find a top-notch ultrasonic fingerprint reader in the display, which reacts extremely quickly. They will also be pleased with its dimensions, which offer a large enough area to place one of your fingers.

As we mentioned above, in the settings you can customize not only the design and size of the space for placing your finger, but also the animation of its activity.

Connectivity and speakers

Despite the fact that we are testing the Chinese version of the iQOO 10 Pro smartphone, we have access to all mobile networks, including the most famous 4G band, which is used in Slovakia mainly in villages, 800 MHz (B20).

Other wireless connectivity of the smartphone includes Bluetooth 5.2, NFC and WiFi version 6 support.

iQOO 10 Pro does not have a second separate speaker on the top, well namiit is often played by the loudspeaker, which we also use during telephone calls. The overall sound output is decent, even if it is not among the absolute top of the market. The sound is relatively clear even at higher volumes and is well balanced.

iQOO 10 Pro: Final evaluation

We had the opportunity to test the new flagship model from Vivo's subsidiary iQOO 10 Pro in a special BMW edition, similar to last year's iQOO 9 Pro. Compared to the older model, it brings a renewed Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, a changed design and especially brutally fast, up to 200 W charging.

With a maximum charging power of 200 W, the smartphone charges in about 10 minutes, which is currently the fastest charging in the world. The other parameters remained almost unchanged compared to last year's model, and overall the smartphone maintains a very high level, whether from the point of view of performance, photo quality, charging or unlocking speed using the ultrasonic fingerprint reader in the display.

The negatives of the Chinese version are delayed or sometimes non-functioning notifications and several pre-installed applications that are of no use in our country.