iQOO 13 debuts with Snapdragon 8 Elite, RGB camera ring and huge battery

The first crop of Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphones are here and the iQOO 13 looks to take things up a notch with a class-leading display, upgraded cameras and a massive 6,150 mAh battery.

The display on the iQOO 13 is slightly larger than its predecessor at 6.82-inches and it uses the latest Q10 light emitting material which helps it achieve 1,800 nits peak brightness.

The BOE-made LTPO 2.0 AMOLED panel features a 1,440 x 3,200px resolution and a 1-144Hz variable refresh rate. It also gets the trendy micro-quad curved corners which looks like a flat display but has subtle curves on all four corners. There’s a 32MP selfie cam and an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner embedded in the display.

The back of the iQOO 13 features a substantial RGB lit camera ring which features 72 light effects. That includes 12 color combinations and carious effects like pulsing and spiraling.

The RGB ring light can display notifications, react to music playback and show your charging status. It can also indicate wins and kills in select gaming titles like Honor of Kings.

The camera department features three 50MP shooters – a 1/1.56-inch main (IMX921) with OIS, a 2x telephoto lens 1/2.93-inch and a 1/2.76-inch ultrawide shooter with an f/2.0 aperture.

iQOO 13 ships with OriginOS 5 based on Android 15 in China while the global version should ship with FuntouchOS 15 once it launches in December.

The new device also comes with a 6,150 mAh silicon carbon battery that supports 120W wired charging. Another upgrade for this year is the added IP69 rating dust/water ingress protection.

iQOO 13 comes in Legend White, Track Black, Nardo Grey, and Isle of Man Green colors. Pricing starts at CNY 3,999 ($560) for the 12/256GB trim and tops out at CNY 5,199 ($730) for the 16GB RAM and 1TB storage trim.

Shipments in China start on November 10. The phone is expected to make its global debut in December.