The iQOO 16 officially debuted in China a few days ago as the vivo sub-brand’s latest flagship smartphone. Now, the local arm of the company has confirmed that the device will be making its way to our shores, and pretty soon to boot.
As a quick refresher, the phone launched with a new design with a revamped camera module and a few notable upgrades. Among the improvements is a new display supplied by Samsung. To be exact, it uses the brand’s M16 emissive material and 2K LEAD 2.0 technology. The 6.85-inch AMOLED panel offers a 1,440 x 3,168 pixel resolution, a 165Hz refresh rate, and 10,000 nits of local peak brightness.
Furthermore, the handset is among the first to launch with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon mobile platform, namely the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. The new flagship chipset promises powerful performance, and the brand has paired it with its in-house Q4 chip, offering support for full-scene ray tracing, game super resolution, and frame interpolation. In China, the phone is offered with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM, plus up to 1TB of storage.
Beyond that, the device packs an 8,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired and 40W wireless charging. For heat management, the smartphone comes with an 8,500 mm² vapour chamber. It runs on Android 17 via OriginOS 7 right out of the box. Additionally, it is equipped with a PC emulator that supports almost 100 titles.
On the subject of imaging, the iQOO 16 sports a triple camera setup on the rear. This arrangement comprises a 50MP 1/1.3-inch primary shooter, a 50MP periscope telephoto lens built on a Sony sensor, and a 50MP ultrawide snapper. As for selfies, a 32MP front camera is housed in a punch-hole cutout. Other features of the phone include a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, symmetrical dual speakers, as well as IP68 and IP69 ratings for dust and water resistance. In China, the device is offered in three colours: Chasing Light, Legend, and Racing Track.
For now, iQOO has yet to disclose when exactly the phone will arrive in Malaysia. However, the company did mention that the device is expected to make its local debut in November 2026.
(Source: iQOO press release)
