iQOO's Neo 12 Puts a Cooling Fan Inside an IP68 and IP69 Phone, With a 9,000mAh Battery, for China

The fan is the news. Vivo calls it the Ice Dome active cooling fan, 17 × 17mm, moving up to 9,770 cubic centimeters of air a minute, with three speed modes and a double dust mesh. It sits on top of an 8.2K 3D vapor chamber that vivo says spreads heat 15% better than the Neo 11’s. The phone also carries iQOO’s own Q3 gaming chip alongside the Snapdragon.

Getting a fan past a water test took some fine print. The phone as a whole is rated IP68 and IP69 under China’s GB/T 4208-2017 standard. The fan’s air system carries a separate water-only rating, IPX8 and IPX9. Vivo’s IP69 test sprays 80°C water at the phone from four angles for 30 seconds each, and its IP68 test is 30 minutes under 1.5 meters of still water. The same footnote says “该机型并非专业防水手机” (this is not a professional waterproof phone) and that liquid damage isn’t covered by the warranty.

Vivo seems to expect the fan to collect dust anyway. Members get free cleaning at vivo service centers 12 times a year for the life of the phone, and the listed service includes dusting the fan.

Here’s how it lines up against its predecessor, iQOO’s own flagship and a US flagship, using each maker’s page:

	iQOO Neo 12	iQOO Neo 11	iQOO 15	Pixel 10 Pro
Chip	Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 + Q3	Snapdragon 8 Elite + Q2	Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 + Q3	Tensor G5
Battery	9,000mAh	7,500mAh	7,000mAh	4,870mAh typical
Wired charging	100W	100W	100W charger in box	30W charger or higher, sold separately
Display	6.83-inch 2K, 185Hz	6.82-inch 2K, 144Hz	2K	6.3-inch, 1–120Hz
Active fan	yes	no	no	no
Dust and water	IP68 + IP69	IP68 + IP69	IP68 + IP69	IP68
Weight	225–229g	215–216g	not compared	not compared

The battery is a fifth-generation silicon-anode cell with 33% silicon content, and vivo says it keeps at least 80% of its capacity after 1,150 full cycles in its lab test. The typical capacity is 9,000mAh; the rated capacity in the footnotes is 8,820mAh. That capacity costs weight: 229g and 8.67mm for the glass back, 225g to 226g and 8.5mm for the fiber back.

What vivo’s page doesn’t say: the price (it’s on the store listing, not the product page), the fan’s noise level or speed in RPM, how long the fan is rated to run, and whether the phone will sell outside China. Reports on the fan’s blade count vary, and vivo doesn’t publish one. For people who manage fleets of phones, the warranty line matters more than the IP rating: water damage is excluded even on a phone tested with 80°C jets.