Why There Might Not Be an iQOO 16 Ultra Model in 2026
Tipster Digital Chat Station (translated from Chinese) on Weibo claimed that iQOO will not launch the ‘Ultra sub-series’ for one generation. This indicates that the company has skipped the iQOO 16 Ultra.
In the comment section, as a response to a user’s query, the tipster said that iQOO had previously indicated its Ultra lineup would not be updated in regular years. Instead, the company will launch Ultra models when there are hardware or technological advancements (translated from Chinese).
If this leak turns out to be true, the iQOO 16 lineup will arrive without an Ultra model. The new lineup could include the standard iQOO 16 and iQOO 16T models, succeeding last year’s iQOO 15 and iQOO 15T, respectively.
The standard iQOO 16 is said to be on track for an early as September release. It is said to come with around an 8,500mAh battery capacity and is expected to run on Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro chipset.
The iQOO 15 Ultra was released in China in February this year with a starting price tag of CNY 5,699 (roughly Rs. 74,000) for the base variant with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It runs on Android 16-based OriginOS 6 and has a 6.85-inch 2K Samsung M14 8T LTPO AMOLED display with up to 144Hz refresh rate.
As mentioned, the iQOO 15 Ultra runs on a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, alongside up to 24GB of LPDDR5x Ultra Pro RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 4.1 internal storage. It has a triple rear camera unit, including three 50-megapixel cameras. It carries a 32-megapixel front-facing camera and a 7,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired and 40W wireless fast charging.
