iQOO has added another budget phone to its Z11 family in China, and the new iQOO Z11i is trying to win on the simplest terms possible: big battery, fast screen, and a price that stays firmly in entry-level territory. It also brings back the waterdrop notch, a design choice most brands have quietly moved on from, which makes this phone feel a little retro in a very practical way.
The hardware sheet is aimed squarely at everyday use, not flexing at spec hunters. That said, the Z11i does pack more than the usual bare-minimum survival kit, including a 120Hz refresh rate, expandable storage, a headphone jack, and a 6,500mAh battery. In a segment where rivals often cut one or two of those to save cost, that combination is the whole point.
iQOO Z11i specifications
The phone uses a 6.74-inch LCD panel with HD+ resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels, a 120Hz refresh rate, and up to 1,200 nits peak brightness. It also supports DC dimming, a paper-like viewing mode, and TÜV Rheinland low blue light certification. Under the hood is the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset, paired with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, plus microSD expansion.
Battery life is the obvious selling point. The 6,500mAh cell supports 15W charging and reverse wired charging, while the software side is Android 16 with OriginOS 6 on top. That is a fairly current software package for a phone pitched this low, though the modest charging speed suggests iQOO is betting more on longevity than quick top-ups.
- Display: 6.74-inch LCD, 1600 x 720, 120Hz, up to 1,200 nits
- Chipset: Snapdragon 4 Gen 2
- Memory and storage: up to 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, up to 256GB UFS 3.1
- Battery: 6,500mAh with 15W charging and reverse wired charging
- Software: Android 16 with OriginOS 6
Cameras and durability extras
The camera setup is basic but serviceable: a 5-megapixel front camera and a 13-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and up to 1080p video recording. Elsewhere, iQOO has stuffed in the sort of extras that are easy to cut from low-cost phones but still matter to real buyers: a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C, Bluetooth 5.1, an IR blaster, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The company has also given the Z11i IP65-rated dust and water resistance, SGS five-star drop resistance certification, and a hybrid dual-SIM slot. That is a fairly aggressive durability pitch for this class, and it looks designed to make the phone stand out from cheaper models that may have similar headline specs but far less resilience.
iQOO Z11i price in China
The iQOO Z11i is on sale in China now in Ink Shadow, Qingfeng and Desert Gold. Pricing starts at 1,299 Yuan (~$190) for the 6GB + 128GB model, rises to 1,499 Yuan (~$209) for the 8GB + 128GB version, and tops out at 1,699 Yuan (~$237) for the 8GB + 256GB variant.
At that level, the Z11i is not trying to outgun mid-range phones on raw performance. It is trying to be the one that keeps going, survives a few knocks, and still gives you a smooth enough screen to make the compromises easier to forgive. The real question is whether that mix travels beyond China, because budget phones with big batteries are easy to sell; budget phones with a clean feature set and decent durability are harder to ignore.