The iQOO company is coming out with a flagship phone called the iQOO 15 Ultra. This iQOO 15 Ultra phone is supposed to be really good for playing games.. The iQOO company is also saying that the iQOO 15 Ultra will have a much better camera.

The iQOO company has been releasing some teasers over the past few days. The media has also found some leaks that back up these teasers. All of this information gives us an idea of what the camera on the iQOO 15 Ultra phone will be, like including the hardware and the software of the iQOO 15 Ultra camera. Below I will walk you through everything that the company has confirmed or given us a good idea about: the sensors, optics, stabilization and software stack of the camera system what those specs mean when you are actually taking pictures how the camera system of the phone compares to what other phones have and what you can really expect when you get the phone. The main things we know for sure come from things that iQOO has said and shown us and, from what other people who write about phones have reported about those things and some early rumors.

Executive summary (quick take)

The iQOO 15 Ultra will have a 50- Sony camera that can zoom in really far with a 3x periscope telephoto lens. This camera will also have stabilization. It is rated around CIPA 4.5. The iQOO 15 Ultra teasers show that this is an improvement. The main goal of this improvement is to make sure the iQOO 15 Ultra takes pictures when you zoom in from far away. The iQOO 15 Ultra will be great, for taking telephoto shots with this camera.

The phone seems to use Vivo and iQOOs ways of making pictures look better. They call these things the 3.0 Optical Reconstruction Engine and the Magic 2.0 Image Restoration Engine. These things help make the pictures clearer and fix them when they are taken in light. The Vivo and iQOO imaging pipelines are really good, at making details sharper and fixing pictures that’re too dark.

The rear cluster on the phone is going to have three cameras that are 50 megapixels each. This includes the camera, the ultra-wide camera and the 3x periscope camera. The front camera is 32 megapixels. We have seen this in the leaks and roundups far. This is what iQOO has been doing with their flagship phones so it is not a surprise. The rear cluster with the 50 megapixel setup is a big deal, for the new phone.

Real world benefits are really cool. You get performance when you take pictures from far away, in low light. The video is also more stable when you use the periscope feature.. The way the camera processes pictures is actually made for people who like to play games but also want a good camera. This means that people who play games and also like to take pictures will really like the camera on this thing because it is made for them.

These are the things that we will talk about in more detail below.

What iQOO officially. What the iQOO teaser actually means for people who are interested, in the iQOO news. The iQOO company gave us a sneak peek at something and now we are all trying to figure out what the iQOO teaser is really telling us about the future of iQOO.

iQOO has been talking about their camera on Weibo. They are really excited about the Sony 50MP periscope telephoto module. This camera has 3× zoom and something called CIPA stabilization. This is better than what they had. IQOO is also using their camera processing engines.

The posts do not say everything about the camera. They do not say what kind of sensors they are using or what the aperture is.. They are very clear about how good the telephoto quality is and how well the camera stabilizes. The iQOO camera is supposed to be very good, at taking pictures from away and it will not be blurry.

This is important because the periscope telephoto modules are really hard on the hardware of a camera. When iQOO talks about the periscope with a Sony 50MP tag and a specific stabilization rating it means they are trying to make the periscope telephoto modules really good, at taking pictures from far away. They want the periscope telephoto modules to be good not something they can use to make the camera sound better. The periscope telephoto modules are a part of what makes a camera good at taking pictures from far away.

The confirmed/strongly indicated hardware list (sensor + optics + stabilization)

From what people’re saying and the little bits of information that have been released here is the list of camera hardware that has been confirmed or is very likely to be part of the camera hardware. The camera hardware that is likely to be included is what we are looking at.

The new Sony camera has a cool feature. A 50 MP Sony 3× periscope telephoto. They have explicitly teased this 50 MP Sony 3× periscope telephoto. People are talking about this 50 MP Sony 3× periscope telephoto and the reports say it has stabilization, around 4.5 according to CIPA. This 50 MP Sony 3× periscope telephoto is the confirmed feature so far.

The main camera is 50 megapixels. This is probably a sensor made by Sony. It is like the cameras on the iQOO and Vivo phones. Some people think the iQOO 15 phones will have three 50 megapixel cameras. We do not know the model of the main sensor yet.. People think it will be a big sensor like the ones on other expensive Android phones. The sensor will probably be, around 1/1.95 inches. This is what you would expect from a premium Android phone like the iQOO 15 family variants. The iQOO 15 family variants are likely to have cameras.

The new phone has a 50 MP -wide camera or maybe a secondary sensor that is just as good. There have been a lot of leaks and people talking about what the phone will have. Many of them say it will have a 50MP -wide camera, along with the periscope and main camera. This means that the 50 MP ultra-wide camera, the periscope camera and the main camera will all have the number of pixels. The difference between the 50 MP -wide camera the periscope camera and the main camera will be, in the type of lens they use.

32 MP front camera — listed in several leaks and roundups as the selfie sensor.

The camera has a feature called OIS/CIPA stabilization for the telephoto part. This means the telephoto, which is also known as the periscope has a CIPA rating of 4.5. This rating tells us that the camera has good mechanical and algorithmic stabilization. This is great because it will help take pictures in low light when you use the telephoto. It will also be useful when you are taking videos from away and you are holding the camera in your hand. The OIS/CIPA stabilization, for the telephoto will make a difference.

Notes on uncertainty: we do not know the details of the optics. Like the aperture numbers and the sensor model for the main camera, which could be the Sony IMX882 or some other member of the IMX family. We also do not know the focal lengths. The company iQOO has not published all of these details in their teaser leaks. Instead the official posts from iQOO talk about what the camera can do, like 3 times zoom and strong stabilization and imaging engines, rather, than just listing out the specifications.

Imaging engines and software: “Nice 3.0” and “Magic 2.0”

iQOO is talking about two things that help with image processing: the Nice 3.0 Optical Reconstruction Engine and the Magic 2.0 Image Restoration Engine. These are like the brains behind the image processing. They help with things like making the image look sharper reducing noise and combining frames to make a better picture. The Nice 3.0 Optical Reconstruction Engine and the Magic 2.0 Image Restoration Engine are, like the software that controls how the images are processed. They do things like demosaicing, noise reduction and super-resolution. They also help with stabilization- image combination. The iQOO Nice 3.0 Optical Reconstruction Engine and the iQOO Magic 2.0 Image Restoration Engine are what make the images look really good.

So what does that usually mean when you are actually doing it:

The hybrid multi-frame stacking method combines pictures taken at different times. This helps keep the details clear and reduces the noise in the picture. This is really important when you are using periscope sensors to take pictures from very far away. The hybrid multi-frame stacking is very useful, for taking pictures with these smaller sensors at long range.

AI-guided restoration to reconstruct fine detail lost in compression or from sensor limitations — often named differently by brands, but functionally similar to Vivo’s prior processing pipelines.

The camera has a way to make pictures clearer. It uses the gyro data and the positions, from the image stabilizer. These are sent to the image signal processor. This helps to line up the frames before they are combined. This is really important when you are taking pictures with the telephoto lens. The telephoto lens is the one that makes away things look closer.

Computational zoom improvements for higher digital zoom levels (e.g., combining a 3× optical base with super-resolution to extend useful zoom to mid-double-digit ranges).

So even if the periscope is a 3× module the software will make sure that the images are still good and have lots of details even when you zoom in really far. The periscope and its software work together to make this happen.

Zoom performance — optical vs. hybrid vs. digital

The camera has a good optical zoom. It can zoom in 3 times with the periscope. This is because of the optics. They make sure the picture is still very clear when you zoom in that much. The optical zoom is 3 times, which’s great, for taking pictures of things that are far away.

The iQOO Hybrid zoom is really something. It has a 50MP periscope and advanced processing. This means iQOO will probably give us good 5× to 10× zoom experiences. They do this by combining the periscope data with the sensor and super-resolution.

Some people think the iQOO family will have high digital zoom. They are talking about up to 100× zoom.. The truth is, the quality of the zoom is not that good when you go past 10, to 20×. The iQOO Hybrid zoom is still a great feature.

When we talk about zoom we have to consider what companies say it can do like zooming in one hundred times versus how well it actually works. In life digital zoom is useful for zooming in around ten to thirty times and this depends on how much light there is and if the camera can stay steady. The special periscope lens and better stabilization will make it easier to use the zoom when it is set to five times to twenty times, which is better, than other devices that do not have this special stabilization feature.

Stabilization and video capabilities

The teasers clearly mention CIPA 4.5 for the periscopes stabilization. CIPA numbers are important for the periscopes stabilization. The higher the CIPA numbers are for the periscopes stabilization the better the periscopes stabilization is. This means that the periscopes stabilization with CIPA numbers, like CIPA 4.5 will be very good.

I think sharper pictures can be taken with telephoto cameras even when it is really dark. This is because the camera is not shaking much when it takes the picture so the image is not blurry. Sharper handheld telephotos are great, in light.

The new phone has a video when you use the tele lens. This is because it has two kinds of stabilization. One is called periscope stabilization. The other is algorithmic stabilization. These two things together should make the video look really stable and clear even when you are recording in 4K at 30 or 60 frames per second. You will also be able to hold the phone in your hand and get a shot even when you are using a higher resolution. Some people who write about phones think that this phone will have great video features like the expensive phones do. This is because the phone has a chipset and is meant for playing games and streaming video. The video features on this phone should be as good as the ones, on the expensive phones.

When this thing comes out I want to see a things. I want to know the frame rates for 4K and 8K modes. I also want to know if they are using EIS and OIS together for smooth 4K60 video on the telephoto lens.. I am curious, about any special video modes that use the gyro data to make the video look really smooth and cinematic like the kind of thing you see in movies.

Main camera and ultra-wide: expected behavior and strengths

While the periscope is the hero teaser, the main and ultra-wide matter a lot for everyday photography:

The main sensor is going to be a 50MP sensor that’s pretty big. It is supposed to be around 1/1.95″ which’s the same size as the one in the iQOO 15 family.

The main sensor being bigger means it can collect light.

This is good because it makes the pictures look better when it is bright outside and when it is dark.

You can expect the main sensor to take pictures every day and it will be really good, at taking pictures with a lot of bright and dark areas at the same time, which is called HDR and the main sensor will do this very well.

I really like the idea of a -wide camera. An -wide with a high resolution of 50 megapixels would be amazing. It would let me take detailed pictures when I want to capture a wide scene.. When I use the ultra-wide mode it would be great to be able to focus on things that are close to me.

If the ultra-wide camera has a sensor the phone can still take great pictures. The processing engine can make up for it by taking pictures at once and combining them which is called multi-frame stacking. It can also fix any distortion so my ultra-wide pictures look perfect. The ultra-wide camera is really important, to me. I think these features would make it very useful.

The main thing people want from iQOO is a camera system with three 50MP lenses. This system should let iQOO have the color style in all the photos it takes no matter how far away the subject is. It should also make it easier for iQOO to combine photos and crop them when using the zoom feature. This way iQOO can give people better zoomed, in photos.

The way iQOO thinks about cameras is different from companies.

IQOO wants to make cameras that’re really good and can take amazing pictures.

Let us see how iQOO camera strategy is different from phone companies like Samsung and Apple.

IQOO is trying to make its cameras better than what Samsung and Apple’re offering.

The iQOO camera strategy is very important because it helps iQOO sell phones.

People like to buy phones with cameras that is why iQOO is working hard to make its cameras the best.

We will look at what iQOO’s doing and how it is different from what other companies are doing.

IQOO is using technology to make its cameras better this is something that other companies are not doing.

The iQOO camera strategy is a part of what makes iQOO phones special.

IQOO phones have good cameras this is one of the main reasons why people like to buy them.

Let us take a look at the iQOO camera strategy and see how it compares to other companies, like Samsung and Apple.

In the beginning of 2026 the big camera companies are competing with each other. They are focusing on a things:

* making the main camera sensor really big, like one inch or even bigger

* creating high resolution zoom lenses often with 5 times, to 10 times zoom

* and making the image signal processors really powerful.

When you compare this to what other companiesre doing:

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra and other camera- flagships like these have huge main sensors and team up with Leica for multiple lenses.. The iQOO does things a bit differently. It has a balance of things. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra has a tele lens with 50 megapixels and a periscope. It also has optical image stabilization. The main camera and ultrawide camera have resolution. The iQOO focuses on making zooming to use and works well for gaming and streaming. It is not, about how big the sensor is. If you look at flagship launches you can see the difference.

Samsung and OnePlus and Vivo phones have a lot of competition. Many other companies also offer camera parts and advanced computer tools.. Iqoo phones might be better because they have really good stabilization and tools that are great for gaming and streaming videos. If the company is really focused on gaming like they say then their camera features will be awesome, for people who like to stream games.

In short: iQOO is not doing anything new with the camera but it is putting together really good tele cameras with top notch processing and connectivity that is great, for gaming so iQOO is creating something that stands out from the rest.

Practical shooting scenarios — what to expect in the real world

Street telephoto shots are really great with this camera. It has something called CIPA 4.5 stabilization and 3× optical zoom. This means you can take pictures of buildings and people from away and they will be a lot clearer, than the pictures you take with your phone. You can even take these pictures with your hand. They will still look good.

Night telephoto shots will be better too.. You have to remember that the camera can only do so much. If you are taking a picture at night the camera might not be able to take the picture enough.. If the person you are taking a picture of is moving the picture might be blurry. Street telephoto shots with this camera are really something.

The light main camera is really good because it has a large main sensor and it uses something called multi-frame stacking. This means it should take pictures even when it is dark. The pictures will have bright parts and nice dark parts. The camera also has imaging engines that help it focus on making the picture look clear and detailed, without making it look too smooth or fake. The light main camera should produce good low-light stills with the imaging engines helping to render detail.

If you are a content creator you can expect this video to have good handheld video that does not shake much. The video will probably have strong 4K options. The video software will also have features that support streaming and gaming capture. For example it will have microphone combos and low-latency Wi-Fi features. This makes the phone very appealing to content creators who like to game or live-stream. The phone is great, for content creators who do these things with video.

When you are taking pictures of wildlife or sports with your phone it is okay to zoom in a bit like five to fifteen times. The pictures will still look good if it is bright outside.. If you zoom in too much the pictures will start to look blurry and you will lose some details. This happens with phones but the special periscope lens and the software on this phone will help you take better pictures from farther away, than other phones without this feature. Wildlife and sports pictures taken with this phone will be better because of the periscope and the software.

Limitations and realistic expectations

The optical zoom is 3 times. That is an useful tele lens but it is not a very powerful 5 times or more periscope. If you really want a camera that can zoom in far like 5 to 10 times then other devices with stronger optical zoom might be better, for you. The iQOO will have to use computer tricks to make the zoom work better.

When you look at the zoom on a camera there are two kinds of zoom. There is the marketing zoom and the usable zoom. The marketing zoom is what you see on the specs like 100 times zoom.. The truth is, the image quality will not be good if you zoom in more than 10 to 20 times. Those big numbers are like a fun thing to have, rather than something you can use every day. The marketing zoom is not the same, as the zoom so you should not expect to get good quality images at those high zoom levels.

When it comes to taking pictures some things are important. Having an imaging engine and getting the settings right can make up for a smaller lens.. The computer programs used also play a big role in how the pictures look. The pictures taken with an iQOO phone will look the way Vivo and iQOO want them to, with their color and sharpness style. This might be different, from phones that try to make pictures look more natural. IQOO phones will have the photographic style, which is decided by Vivo and iQOOs software choices.

What to watch for at launch (Feb 4)

When the phone is officially shown to everyone, which is happening on February 4 in China look out for:

Full camera spec sheet: exact sensor model numbers (e.g., Sony IMX series), apertures, periscope focal length (in mm equivalent), and OIS travel specs.

I want to know more about the video mode. What are the maximum resolutions and frame rates for each lens in the video mode? Can I use 4K60 on the tele lens in the video mode? Do the video mode and the camera combine EIS and OIS for refresh rates, in the video mode?

When you are looking at a camera you should check out some sample photos. See if it supports RAW files. Look at the samples and what other people are saying in their reviews to get an idea of how good the photos really are. You should also find out if you can edit the RAW files using software because that is something that a lot of people want to do.

When you look at the pricing and the different models you should know that the “Ultra” versions can have camera setups. This can vary depending on where you’re what configuration you have. So it is an idea to check which camera package you will actually get in your area when you buy the “Ultra” model.

So what is the point of all this. Who actually needs to care about this thing?

Mobile gamers who also make videos will really like the iQOO. It is very good for gaming. It also has a great telephoto camera. This makes the iQOO a great choice, for people who create videos because they need a phone that can do lots of things well and take pictures. The iQOO has performance and it is flexible so mobile gamers who make videos can use it to do what they need to do.

People who want a tele performance, on their phone: if you like taking pictures with your phone from far away and you want your videos to be steady then the periscope and the improved CIPA rating are really important. The periscope and the improved CIPA rating make a difference if you want good tele performance.

People who really love photography might still want top of the line phones if they need the biggest camera sensor or the most powerful zoom. These people like the best things.. The iQOO phone is good for many people because it has a little bit of everything. The iQOO phone has a balance of features that will make a lot of people happy. They want a phone that can do things not just one thing really well. The iQOO phone is great, for people who want versatility, which means they want a phone that can take pictures in many different situations.

Quick comparison snapshot (tele focus)

The iQOO 15 Ultra has a good camera. It is a 50MP Sony camera, with a 3 times periscope. This means the iQOO 15 Ultra can take pictures from far away. The iQOO 15 Ultra also has something called CIPA 4.5. This helps the iQOO 15 camera to take good pictures of things that are far away. The iQOO 15 Ultra camera has a lot of software support which means it can do a lot of things to make the pictures look better. The iQOO 15 Ultra is focused on taking pictures from far away which is why it has a tele focused camera.

Camera first rivals, like some 2025/26 Ultra models might have bigger main sensors or more powerful optical zoom from 5 times to 10 times. This is really good for when you need to take pictures of things that’re very far away or you want the best possible picture quality, from the main sensor of the Camera first rivals.

Final thoughts

The iQOO teasers for the 15 Ultra make it very clear that this phone is a deal. It wants people to think it is a camera and a great device for playing games. The 50MP Sony 3× periscope camera is the feature. It is a balance because it keeps the phone pretty thin but it still takes great pictures from far away. The iQOO and Vivo imaging systems work together to make the pictures look better. This means the phone should take pictures from far away and be good for making videos, especially for people who are always on the go and want to create content, with the iQOO 15 Ultra. When the new product launches people will probably talk about how amazing the zoom numbersre but what is really exciting is that it will actually be better at taking pictures from far away than phones that do not have a special stabilizer on the lens. This is because it has a stabilized periscope that helps make the pictures clearer. The handheld tele behavior on this device will be genuinely better, than phones that lack this feature.

I’ll update this analysis with hands-on review notes and sample images once reviewers get the device — but based on the confirmed teasers and the consistent leak ecosystem, the iQOO 15 Ultra is shaping up to be one of the more interesting balanced flagships in the early-2026 crop.