Following up on its teaser from last month, iQOO has officially confirmed that it will be launching the Z7 mid-range smartphone series for the Malaysian market next week. Unlike the line-up’s debut in China prior to this, the local release will only see the arrival of two variants, namely the standard Z7 and the Z7x, therefore lacking the entry-level Z7i model. Just in case you missed it, both of the former mentioned have been discovered in SIRIM’s database prior to the brand’s announcement.
Both the iQOO Z7 and Z7x sport identical designs, complete with the same 6.64-inch flat LCD display that offers 1080 x 2380 pixel resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate and DCI-P3 colour space. However, keep note that only the screen on the vanilla model comes with HDR10 support. Besides that, the duo also features a side mounted fingerprint scanner, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, as well as a USB-C port for data transfers and charging.
Internally, the standard Z7 packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 782G chipset that’s paired together with up to 12 GB of RAM and up to 256 GB of UFS 2.2 storage. There’s also onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, as well as Android 13 via the brand’s Origin OS 3 platform out of the box. Its battery has a 5,000 mAh capacity and supports 120 W fast charging, making it the first mid-range smartphone to feature a charging rate of this speed. According to iQOO, five minutes of charging is enough to provide the handset with enough power to play five hours worth of streaming video.
Imaging-wise, housed within the vertical dual-camera setup on its back is a 64 MP primary with OIS, and a 2 MP depth sensor. Situated within the punch-hole cutout on its display, meanwhile, is a 16 MP front-facing camera.
Next up is the Z7x variant, which comes with a Snapdragon 695 SoC instead, as well as up to 8 GB of RAM and up to 256 GB of UFS 2.2 storage. It’s also worth noting that it is the only model from the series to support storage expansion of up to 1 TB via microSD. Like the Z7, the phone also features Android 13 via Origin OS 3 and Wi-Fi connectivity, though its onboard Bluetooth support is the slightly older 5.1 version. Besides that, powering the handset is a larger 6,000 mAh battery, which comes with a lower 80 W fast charging support.
For photography and video, found on the back of the iQOO Z7x is a dual-camera setup that consists of a 50 MP primary, and the same 2 MP depth sensor as its sibling. In front, on the other hand, is a 8 MP selfie camera housed within the cutout on its display.
The all-new iQOO Z7 mid-range series is slated to launch in Malaysia on 10 April 2023 via a live stream on the brand’s social media channels at 3 pm. As expected, the local pricing for either model or their expected configurations will only be revealed by then. But for your reference, the vanilla Z7 starts from CNY 1,600 (~RM 1,026) in China, while the Z7x starts from CNY 1,300 (~RM 833).
