5G rollout is just around the corner in India and smartphone manufacturers have now switched gears to focus on more budget 5G smartphones. The Redmi 11 Prime 5G (First look) was among the most recent budget 5G smartphones to have launched in India. The likes of Realme, Poco and Motorola have also launched 5G smartphones for around Rs. 15,000. Joining the race is iQoo with the latest Z6 Lite 5G, its most affordable 5G smartphone in India. 

The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G sits at the bottom of the Z6 series in India. It has been launched with two RAM and storage options. The base 4GB RAM variant with 64GB of internal storage is priced at Rs 13,999, whereas the variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage is priced at Rs 15,499.

Although the retail box is as big as any other iQoo smartphone, it is surprising to see that the iQoo Z6 Lite 5G does not come with a charger in the box. The company has included a note instead, thanking customers for “contributing towards the planet by reducing carbon emission.” Users will have to use a compatible fast charger that supports 18W charging or purchase one separately from iQoo to charge the 5000mAh battery. You don’t get 3.5mm wired earphones in the box either but you do get a USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable, a transparent case, and a SIM ejector tool along with the phone.

iQoo Z6 Lite 5G comes in two colour options, Stellar Green (pictured above) and Mystic Black

Our iQoo Z6 Lite 5G review unit is the Stellar Green colour. Those who want a less flashy looking phone can opt for the more subtle Mystic Night colour option. Although the Stellar Green variant has a glossy finish, fingerprints are not easily visible. 

The phone has a flat frame and is 8.25mm thick. On paper, the iQoo Z6 Lite 5G might seem heavy at 194g but in reality, it does not feel as much. The top edge of the phone has the dual-SIM tray, whereas the bottom edge houses the 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB Type-C port and the single speaker grille. On the right side of the phone are the power and volume buttons. The power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner, which is quick at detecting fingerprints and unlocking the phone.

The Z6 Lite 5G has an all-plastic build but thanks to the gradient colour palette, it does not look cheap. In fact, a couple of my friends mistook it for a much pricier premium device. However, the water-drop notch on the front gives it away that the phone is actually a budget device. It does make it look a little dated but it’s hard to complain at this price.

iQoo Z6 Lite 5G comes with an 8-megapixel front camera.

The phone sports a 6.58-inch IPS LCD display with a full-HD+ resolution. The typical characteristics of an LCD tends to limit the Z6 Lite 5G’s brightness levels and colour vibrancy. While the display brightness is enough for indoor use, you might want to push the brightness bar to the max when outdoors. 

The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G’s display also supports 120Hz refresh rate for a smooth scrolling experience. Compatible games should also be able to take advantage of this, and I will be testing this in the full review. iQoo claims that the phone should also offer very good performance compared to others in this segment, courtesy of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 SoC. This is the world’s first smartphone to feature this SoC, and according to iQoo, users can expect higher AnTuTu benchmark scores compared to competing phones. We will test this claim in the review, and also run other performance tests to see if these higher numbers actually have any meaningful impact in real-world use.

While the phone offers 5G, it only supports two bands (n77 and n78) in India. The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G uses LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.2 internal storage. There is also support for storage expansion up to 1TB via a microSD card. 

iQoo Z6 Lite 5G’s camera module design is similar to other Z6 phones in the series

On the back, there is a rectangular camera module housing two large circular cutouts for the 50-megapixel primary camera and 2-megapixel depth sensor. The water-drop notch on the front features an 8-megapixel camera for selfies. We will test the camera performance of the phone in our full review.

Lastly, the software. The iQoo Z6 Lite 5G runs on the Android 12-based Funtouch OS 12 out of the box. The software has a fair bit of third-party apps preinstalled, along with Vivo’s first-party applications. You can choose to uninstall the unnecessary apps.

iQoo Z6 Lite 5G runs on the Android 12-based Funtouch OS 12

With a starting price of Rs 13,999, the iQoo Z6 Lite 5G competes with the newly launched Redmi 11 Prime 5G, Samsung Galaxy M13 5G, Realme 9i 5G, Redmi Note 11, and other smartphones priced under Rs 15,000. We will be testing the device to see how it fares against the competition, so stay tuned for our full review of the iQoo Z6 Lite 5G only on Gadgets 360.