Infinix hot 8

Perfect For Its Price

Remaining committed towards the budget segment, Infinix recently expanded its much-appreciated Hot series with the launch of Hot 8 smartphone in India. The main highlights of this device are its 6.52-inch HD+ display, triple rear cameras and a massive 5,000mah battery. Affordably priced at Rs 7,999, the Infinix Hot 8 is currently available at the special limited price of Rs 6,999 on Flipkart. Although the phone seems to be quite exciting considering its price and look, is it really a good deal? Let’s get into the detail of this device to find out how worthy it is.

Design

The Infinix Hot 8 looks quite decent and it is more neat and pleasing to the eyes than many of the smartphones in the budget segment. It’s quite sleek and has the round edges that add to the feel of the device. It comes in various colour options such as Quetzal Cyan, Cosmic Purple, Shark Grey and Midnight Black. I had the Quetzal Cyan unit for review and it really felt good to me. The best part is that the smartphone doesn’t feel that big in your hand and hence, it does not slip from your hands. The smartphone is not as heavy as its size would suggest, especially considering the massive 5,000mah battery used inside the device.

On the right side of the phone are the volume buttons and screen lock button which are just fine. The SIM and memory card slot is on the left, with space for two SIMS and micro SD card. The loudspeaker, USB port, microphone and a 3.5mm headphone jack can be found on the flipside below. The notch shelters the selfie clicker right below the ear-speaker and hiding like a ninja, there’s a front LED flash too on the left side of the notch. The back panel has gradient colour finish with the fingerprint scanner at the centre and the triple rear camera module aligned vertically on the top right corner. The Infinix logo is present under the fingerprint scanner and the Hot branding is at the bottom.

Overall, the phone is very compact and can be easily used single-handedly. This

new proportion of design is something every handset maker is trying to deliver and Infinix too has done it very timely.

Display

The all-new Infinix phone sports the screen size of 6.52-inch, having a resolution of 720x1600 pixels with

20:9 aspect ratio. With very minimum bezels and a minidrop notch, it gives a 90.3 per cent screen to body ratio which is all made up of a 2.5D glass that supports maximum brightness levels touching up to 450 nits. It has IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen.

The display is sharp, nice, big and compact for watching movies or your favourite web series. The viewing angles are perfect and it works well in bright sunlight conditions. It’s like a mini-theatre if you are fond of watching videos on the go.

Platform

The smartphone is powered by an octa-core Mediatek Helio P22 processor clocked at 2GHZ coupled with IMG Powervr GE8320 GPU. It comes packed with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage which is further expandable up to 256GB via microsd card slot. The smartphone runs on Android 9.0 Pie based on XOS 5.0.

Although the phone manages to perform everyday tasks at ease without any glitches, it’s not good for high-end games and even multitasking. The graphic-intensive games such as PUBG, Sniper 3D, Templerun, etc. take too much time to load. What’s frustrating even more is that while playing these games, it is very difficult to switch the apps. The touch fails to respond as quickly and efficiently.

Besides, there are some unwanted pre-installed apps that need to be deleted, in order to free storage space and make a way for the apps and tools of your choice.

There is no issue with unlocking the phone, as face unlock feature, fingerprint sensor, number code unlocking and pattern lock work perfectly.

Cameras

The smartphone boast of a triple camera setup – a 13MP + 2MP + a dedicated lowlight sensor and a quadled flash on the back. In the front is an 8MP sensor accompanied by a LED flash. The camera UI is pretty basic, for switching on to different modes, as you either have to swipe right or left. Different modes here include a bokeh mode, an AR shot mode, beauty mode and finally the panorama.

If you look at the performance of the cameras, the image processing is quite decent. The details are well preserved and the images come out quite sharp. However, in low-light conditions or indoor, the camera may find it difficult to properly focus and click photos as good as it does in daylight. The quad-led flash on the back is really bright and comes in very handy while shooting in dark.

Battery

It’s backed by a massive 5,000mah battery, which definitely is a major selling point of the phone. The battery lasted for over a day while playing games, using social media and surfing browsers. Interestingly, it did not consume too much time to charge the device fully from zero. Also, the phone did not heat up.

Conclusion

The smartphone stands tall on its claims of offering outstanding specs and features from a triple camera setup and a massive 5,000mah battery to a huge display. Although it’s not meant for gaming needs, this smartphone can be your ideal companion for watching movies and shows of your choice. Packing all the goods, the Infinix Hot 8 is perfect for its price. ■