iQOO, the sub-brand of Vivo in China, already confirmed to enter India this month. iQOO has started teasing its first smartphone in the country, which will offer 5G and liquid cooling support. As it already confirmed, the iQOO 5G phone will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset. iQOO will launch both 5G and 4G variants of its first flagship smartphone, but the former will be pretty much useless as we don't even have 5G network in at least one city. Besides the flagship smartphone, iQOO is also rumoured to launch a mid-range device that will take on the likes of Realme and Xiaomi in the Asian sub-continent. In China, iQOO is a sub-brand of Vivo, but in India, it will be operating as an independent brand competing with Vivo itself.
iQOO 5G Phone India Launch to Happen This Month
Last month, iQOO revealed that it would be entering the already crowded Indian market in February. Going by the reports, iQOO 5G phone will be launched during the second week of February, while the brand will officially launch before that. Already, three iQOO smartphones with model numbers- iQOO Pro, iQOO Neo and iQOO Lite received trademarks in India. Also, two iQOO smartphones with model numbers- I1927 and I1928 received BIS certification in India.
The iQOO Pro could be the brand's 5G smartphone, whereas the iQOO Neo could be the 4G smartphone powered by the same Snapdragon 865 SoC. The iQOO Lite may arrive with a mid-range SoC, probably the Snapdragon 730G chipset. Qualcomm recently launched Snapdragon 720G chipset in India, but we are not sure whether iQOO will be using it already.
5G Smartphone in India Will Not Make Any Sense Now
iQOO will be coming up with India's first Snapdragon 865 smartphone which will have 5G support. At this point, 5G smartphones in India doesn't make any sense as the government is yet to conduct 5G spectrum auction. Telecom operators are backing off from 5G spectrum auction, thanks to mounting losses. Vodafone Idea already stated its intentions of strengthening 4G network itself for now before heading for 5G launch. For now, the DoT is in the process of allocating 5G spectrum required for trials. We are not expecting telcos to launch 5G in India this year.
