Tipster Yogesh Brar broke the news on X, saying iQOO has only one budget Z series phone left on its India calendar for this year.Everything else, he claims, has been scrapped.That's a big shift for a brand, that built its name on flagship specs at a fair price.India's market runs on tight prices,and any flagship stepping too far past that sweet spot risks losing buyers fast. The iQOO 15 launched at Rs 72,999 for the base 12GB and 256GB model, and it's already crept up to Rs 76,999 after a price hike.Cross that eighty five thousand rupee line, and iQOO stops looking like the affordable flagship brand it built itself as. Didn't take long for memory costs to eat into that gap. DRAM and NAND prices have climbed hard this year, and phone makers can't just absorb the hit forever. And iQOO isn't alone here.CMF, the budget arm of Nothing,has already dropped its own Phone 3 Pro for the same reason, and Nothing confirmed there won't be a follow up to the Phone 3 this year either.
Here's the thing, iQOO hasn't said a word about any of this officially, and the phone's certification process hasn't even started yet. Word is the iQOO 16 will still land in China, likely around October or November, running on the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro chip.Feels a bit rough for Indian fans who've waited a year for the follow up to the 15, not gonna lie.For now, the only new iQOO phone confirmed for India is a budget Z series handset, expected to be the Z11 or Z11 Lite.
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