Infinix Hot 30 Review

Introduction:

The Infinix Hot 30 is a budget smartphone that offers too much as an entry-level smartphone. It comes with a 90Hz 6.78-inch IPS LCD display with a 96% DCI-P3 color gamut, gaming-centric SoC Mediatek Helio G88 chipset, 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and 256GB of internal storage.

At first glance, we are very surprised that Infinix included all these features while keeping the price at RM599 as listed at their Shopee store, which also makes us wonder have Infinix took some step back in certain areas. In this review, we will test the Infinix Hot 30, and try to see how practical the Infinix is while check has Infinix back down in certain areas.

Infinix Hot 30 Overview:

The Infinix Hot 30 has a simple yet elegant design with a glass front, plastic frame, and plastic back. The immediate feeling when touching the phone is how graceful it looks. We got the Sonic White variant, and we just love how beautiful the shell reacts to light. However, this is where we realize where Infinix might have cut down on its cost.

The frame around the phone is actually made of plastic but painted to look like metal. While it looks nice, this frame generally provides little protection to the phone when dropped. It measures 168.7 x 76.6 x 8.4 mm and weighs 196g, which is relatively light considering its large size.

The device also has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for added security. We like how Infinix created a shallow canyon to help users feel their way to the sensor, giving it a more premium touch.

Hardware:

The MediaTek Helio G88 chipset and octa-core CPU provide decent performance for everyday use. The SoC comes with 2 Cortex-A75 cores at 2 GHz and 6 Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8 GHz, paired with a Mali-G52 MC2 GPU. The device also has 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of internal storage.

Infinix includes the option to extend up to 8GB worth of RAM with virtual RAM expansion. This sounds good, except that the storage used in the Infinix is the older generation EMMC, which is about three times slower (at least) than the more modern UFS memory. As virtual RAM expansion uses internal memory to serve as a swap partition or cache for RAM, slower internal storage generally gives little to no impact on user experience, if not made worse.

The phone also comes equipped with a whooping 5000 mAh Li-ion battery. The large battery is enough to sustain whole day use with frequent gaming included. Official data suggest it takes only 30 minutes to get 55% of charge, but our mileage only gets us about 45% worth of charge, and to achieve a full charge from 10%, it takes us about 1 hour 24 minutes.

Other than the usual WiFi and Bluetooth, the Infinix Hot 30 also comes equipped with NFC. This provides users with the option to use their phone as an NFC access card or with certain banks as a bank card option.

Infinix Hot 30 Screen:

The Infinix Hot 30 comes with a 6.78-inch IPS LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1080 x 2460 pixels. The display is also capable of reaching a peak brightness of 600 nits, and according to official specifications, it covers 96% of DCI-P3. With this amount of detail, it is a shame that Infinix did not get the phone HDR certified.

We tried to install Netflix, but the app is not supported. Instead, we watched some shows with Prime Video. At 1080P FHD, the screen shows strong contrast in movies, and in scenes with strong differences between light and shadow, the Hot 30 is capable of displaying them flawlessly.

In games where the SoC manages to catch up, such as Free Fire by Garena, the game’s visuals are smooth and vibrant. Controls are well-registered with immediate feedback. If users are into casual gaming, this phone will not disappoint.

Infinix Hot 30 Camera:

The dual-camera setup on the back of the Infinix Hot 30 consists of a 50MP primary sensor and an unspecified secondary camera.

50MP main camera

The main camera sensor is a Hynix Hi5021Q, which, as far as we can tell, is currently unique to the Infinix Hot 30. The sensor is a humble 1/2.55-inch with an f1.6 aperture and a 6-element lens. Thanks to the Helio G88, the camera is capable of shooting HDR and a great night mode. However, it is only capable of shooting 2k 30 Fps video instead of the common 4k.

One interesting thing we noticed is that there is no simple photo mode when taking pictures. Infinix opted for an AI mode where AI decides what mode to apply according to the scene. Compared to the normal camera mode, the AI camera is significantly more agile in selecting which mode to apply, resulting in images with great lighting.

The Hynix camera is capable of capturing great images with great dynamic and vivid colors. The images look sharp too, and its Super Night mode captures sharp images in low light.

Unknown secondary camera

The secondary camera is a real mystery for me. There is no way of accessing it in the settings, nor was there additional optical zoom range. It is likely being used as a LIDAR sensor for focusing or other functions. Nonetheless, this effectively makes the Infinix Hot 30 a single image sensor phone for a while. Is that bad? No, we much rather phone manufacturers focus their resources and effort into one camera sensor that excels in what it’s doing than a few sensors that can’t take proper images.

Audio:

Just like the screen, audio is another area where the Infinix Hot 30 shines. It comes with dual speakers in a stereo setup, and the speakers are capable of pumping out 24-bit/192kHz audio, commonly known as Hi-Res audio.

The audio is also tuned by DTS, an American company famous for their audio engineering and advancements in movie sound technology. With DTS, users of the Infinix Hot 30 gain a few audio modes that give an extra boost to their audio experience, while also allowing adjustments to boost certain frequencies or sound stages.

And of course, let’s not forget the old faithful 3.5mm headphone jack for those who prefer wired headphones.

Infinix Hot 30 User Experience:

Overall, the Infinix Hot 30 user experience is a bit of a mixed bag for me. The XOS V12, based on Android 13, provides a good UI experience. In this variant of the Hot 30, Infinix has collaborated with FreeFire, a battle royale game by Garena, and the general UI design reflects it.

We are a bit confused by the strong use of yellow color, which often blends the app and its background. Also, while the amount of bloatware is not the worst we’ve seen, it still presents itself as an unwelcome sight.

Also, with this hardware, how gameable is the Infinix Hot 30? Again, not much. On lighter games like Firefire, the phone can max out its settings and be played smoothly, while on the other hand, on AAA game titles like Diablo Immortal, the game was not optimized on this platform, so we could only play it on the minimum setting.

It is worth mentioning that on Genshin Impact, even on the lowest possible setting, the phone still struggles to deliver a smooth gaming experience. However, this did not come as a surprise, as Genshin Impact is a highly demanding game, and even a higher range of SoC would sometimes have problems running it smoothly.

Infinix Hot 30 Conclusion:

The Infinix Hot 30 is a budget smartphone that offers good value for its price. Many of its features, such as a 90Hz screen with a wide color gamut, point-and-shoot-like camera experience, stereo audio, and 5000mAh fast-charging capacity, are rare at the price point of RM599.

Yes, in certain areas, Infinix has taken a step back, such as in the build quality and the secondary camera being a mystery, as well as eMMC storage. However, overall, the phone is still a strong package. Priced at RM599, we would say the Infinix Hot 30 are still a decent offer for those looking for a budget smartphone with decent features.

If you’re interested in knowing more about Infinix’s more advance model the Infinix Note 12 2023, check out our review here.

Help us!

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