Infinix entered the smartphone market only last year and has been launching phones consistently, even though many people haven’t heard of the brand.
Its Note 5, a battery-focused entry level smartphone, was launched late August to take on phones like the Motorola G6, Asus Zenfone Max Pro and Xiaomi Note 5.
The Note 5 is an Android-One powered device – the stock Android experience being the first good thing about the phone. At Rs 9,999 this is also the most affordable Android One phone in the market.
Looks wise, the Note 5 is a bit too 'Huawei', given its reflective blue back panel. Although it does give you an impression of a glass body, it actually is made of polycarbonate plastic. The single camera on the back and the flash are placed in a single housing – so, it might look like a dual camera setup at first glance. The fingerprint sensor lies at the back.
We are not fans of such a glossy finish on the back panel of the phones and on this one especially it looks rather cheap.
The phone comes with a 5.99 inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The thin bezels and the curved screen edges give the phone a more premium look. The Infinix Note 5 looks better from the front than from the back.
The Note 5, being a budget phone, comes packed with rather modest features. It comes powered by an Octa-Core processor clocked at 2Ghz. It comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage (expandable to 128GB via MicroSD). The display is a 5.99-inch 2160x1980.
The display on the phone is great. It has easily one of the best displays in the segment – there is no pixellation or lag and the display is bright enough to be used under the bright sun.
The colors are crisp and vivid and the edge-to-edge display makes watching videos a delight on this budget pick.
Performance on the Note 5 is also good, given the specs that the phone has. It can handle hard core gaming and the RAM works quite well in order to make the phone multitask. However, it does have a bit of a lag if you make the phone really work. We played some PUBG on the phone as well, which it handled easily.
The controls in the game though weren’t as smooth as some Snapdragon 600 series phones but it gets the job done.
The Infinix gets a 12-megapixel shooter at the back and a 16-megapixel camera on the front. The camera is decent, it clicks good pictures, but there are much better options available in the same price range. The camera also comes with a portrait mode that uses AI to blur the background. The edges are not precise and there is inconsistent blur in every snap.
Selfies taken with the Note 5 are detailed, but the saturation is a bit over the top, making the photos noisy. Portrait mode for selfies also doesn’t give precise edge detection.
The 4,500 mAh battery on the new Note 5 is massive. Not once did we feel the need to charge the phone more than once in a day. Although heavy gaming does compromise the battery to some extent, its not enough to make it drain before you get to your charger. Impressive!
Overall, the Infinix Note 5 is a decent phone for its Rs 9,999 price tag. However, phones like the Redmi 6 and the Honor 7C have similar specs, but come at a lower price, giving you more options to look at before spending your money. The glossy back and the average camera are trade offs. What we like is that it is powered with Android One, it has a huge battery and a good display.
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