iQOO Z10x 5G review: A well-balanced performer under ₹15,000

Mint

30-04-2025

2025 has been the year when budget smartphones—especially those around the ₹ 15,000 price bracket—have finally become exciting, and the iQOO Z10x is a prime example. It fixes many of the issues plaguing phones in this segment by offering a massive 6,500mAh battery, UFS 3.1 storage, a Full HD+ display, and a powerful processor—all wrapped up in a good-looking design. Since its debut in India, there's been a lot of buzz around whether this is the best phone you can get in its price range. I've been using it for about 20 days now, and here's my two bits on the device's performance.
Inside the Z10x's black-coloured box, you get a fairly standard setup: the device itself wrapped in plastic, a 44W adapter, a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, a clear plastic case, a SIM ejector tool, and some paperwork.
On the back of the iQOO Z10x, there's a rectangular camera module with curved edges and a glossy finish that is a fingerprint magnet. The rest of the back features a more muted matte finish which, while not repelling fingerprint and smudges entirely, makes them less visible.
On the front is a flat display with thick bezels around three sides and a chunky chin at the bottom. The left side houses the SIM card slot, while the right features the volume rockers and power button, which also doubles as a fingerprint scanner.
In case you're wondering, yes—the entire phone is made of plastic. That's expected at this price point. But to its credit, the Z10x manages to look modern and minimalistic, with an elegance that belies its budget tag. However, the in-hand feel could've been better—the sharp edges make it harder to grip securely or hold comfortably for long durations.
If this design feels familiar, it's because the Z10x is essentially a rebranded version of the Vivo T4x, which launched not too long ago. That's not necessarily a bad thing—especially considering the iQOO model is actually ₹ 500 cheaper than its Vivo-branded sibling—but it's worth pointing out. iQOO Z10x unboxing iQOO Z10x design iQOO Z10x comes in Titanium colour iQOO z10x features a thickness of 8.09mm
The iQOO Z10x features a 6.72-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate and peak brightness of 1050 nits. It's paired with a dual stereo speaker setup that gets decently loud, though the audio quality at high volumes leaves something to be desired. For what it's worth, there's also an option for an audio booster that raises the volume to up to 400 percent of the original.
If you're switching from an AMOLED panel, the difference is immediately noticeable. When placed side by side with the Infinix Note 50s—which comes with an AMOLED screen—you can see that the latter delivers more vivid and accurate colours, stronger contrast, and better dynamic range. Images simply look more lifelike and punchy.
The outdoor visibility of the Z10x isn't much to boast about either. While text doesn't get completely washed out in bright sunlight, the panel's excessive glare causes noticeable strain on the eyes.
Don't get me wrong—this isn't a bad display, especially for the price. But the comparison shows that if you're willing to stretch your budget slightly, there are better display options out there.
Performance:
The Z10x is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor based on TSMC's 4nm process. There is support for either 6 or 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage (yes, that's not a typo, UFS 3.1 under ₹ 15,000!).
If this is the first time you are hearing about this SoC, let me try to simplify things a bit for you. The Dimensity 7300 is generally a very good everyday workhorse that can easily handle your everyday tasks and even a bit of gaming, but it's not a chip made for gamers, so keep your expectations in check in that department.
In terms of benchmarks, the scores of iQOO Z10x are generally in line with the other phones with this chipset like the CMF Phone 1 (Review), Lava Agni 3 (Review), Infinix Note 50x (Review) and Oppo F29 Pro (Review). Here's a quick breakdown of all the numbers. AnTuTu: 6,24,994 (on par with Note 50x, slightly lower than F29 Pro and Agni 3)
Geekbench 6: 1019 (single-core), 2756 (multi-core)
3DMark Wild Life Stress Test: Best loop score – 849; Lowest – 845; Stability – 99.5%
The good news here is that there were no significant heating issues while running the benchmarks or even during prolonged gaming sessions.
As for gaming, BGMI does not currently support 90fps on this phone. The highest available setting is HDR graphics with Ultra frame rate. In COD Mobile, the phone supports a maximum of Very High graphics at Very High frame rate or Low graphics at Ultra frame rate.
Let's first get the specifications out of the way, the Z10x comes with a 50MP primary shooter and a 2MP depth sensor on the back with support for 4K 30fps video recording. Meanwhile, selfie camera gets an 8MP sensor with support for 1080p video recording at 30fps.
The primary shooter takes some eye pleasing shots in daylight with an affinity towards warmer skin tones but the details and skin tones can go for a toss in some cases. Surprisingly, the low light performance is actually very good for the price with decent details and colour reproduction. However, it does struggle with managing light sources with a glowy hue forming around bulbs or lamps that is often the case with budget phones.
I'm not a big fan of the selfie shooter, which tends to produce overly soft images that lack detail and appear slightly over-processed in daylight, and completely messes up the skin tones in low-light scenarios.
The camera is decent setup on the Z10x is decent for the price but not something you'll be boasting about anytime soon.
The Z10x runs on Funtouch OS based on Android 15, which is the same UI that you also see on all the Vivo phones. The phone is promised to get 2 years os OS updates and 3 years of security patches.
Some thoughts on Funtouch OS. This isn't the best Android skin out , but it's definitely not the worst either. A definite plus is that, unlike some other OEMs who bombard you with bloatware and ads, iQOO/Vivo allows you to disable most of that during setup if you're careful.
The not-so-good part is that suggestions for 'Hot Apps' and 'Hot Games' still creep into the UI and there are also some third-party apps like Snapchat, Truecaller, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, Phonepe, LinkedIn and Netflix pre-installed.
In terms of battery, there is a 6,500mAh lithium-ion battery running the show here, with a 44W fast charger included that can recharge it in about an hour and 15 minutes. Since I wasn't using the Z10x as my primary device, it's hard to pin down an exact number for screen-on time. However, it's safe to say that the phone will last well over a day of normal use, and the battery life can even be stretched to 2 days if you're conservative with the usage.
Let's move away from the simple narrative of listing the pros and cons and instead give you a straightforward answer for this one. If you are on a tight budget of around ₹ 13,000, there is simply no better alternative than the iQOO Z10x at the moment. But if you can stretch your budget a little over the ₹ 15,000 mark, there are a few slightly more attractive options in the market right now with an AMOLED display and some, believe it or not, with an even bigger battery.
First Published: 30 Apr 2025, 07:35 PM IST