Infinix Hot Note Review: Octa Core Smartphone with 4000mAh Battery

Here comes another great and satisfying smartphone that would be introduce to Philippines sooner.

The Infinix Hot Note is the first smartphone that Hongkong based Infinix Mobile introduced here in the Philippines.

Its main features are a large 5.5 inch HD display, octa core processor, 2GB of RAM, an 8 Megapixel camera and a massive 4,000mAh battery. Here’s my review of this smartphone after using it for 7 days.

Infinix Hot Note Review:Design

Meet the Infinix Hot Note!

The front panel of the Infinix hot Note is just your usual Android phone – a big display with three capacitive buttons at the bottom and the earpiece, front camera and a couple of sensors above.

Its back cover stands out a little. Yes, it’s plastic but with a brushed metal texture and a metallic Infinix logo that further adds style. It can be removed to access the two SIM card slots and microSD card slot but a warning says “Do not remove built-in battery”.

Prying the back cover open reveals several card slots and the battery.

Speaking of the battery, this massive 4,000mAh cell inevitably renders the phone slightly thicker and heavier than its competitors. It’s still manageable though and even makes the phone feel tougher.

The power and volume buttons are rightfully placed at the right side of the phone while the audio jack it at the top and the microUSB 2.0 port is at the bottom.

Infinix Hot Note Review: Display

When I first turned on the Infinix Hot Note, its screen looked a bit low-res but changing the wallpaper fixed it. Wallpapers with solid lines don’t work well on 5.5-inch HD screens.

The display can go from comfortably dim at night to ligibly bright under harsh sunlight. I usually leave its brightness in auto mode and the ambient light sensor can accurately detect the perfect brightness level.

Color saturation and contrast are decent too. Discoloration only happens when the phone is tilted too much and viewed from the lower right and upper left corners.

Infinix Hot Note Review: XUI Software

XUI

The Infinix Hot Note uses a customized user interface called XUI on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop. This is the first time I heard about it which made me curious.

XUI offers several fun and cool themes.

It turns out that it merely changes some icons and design choices of Android Lollipop unlike the very different look of Xiaomi’s MIUI.

An interesting feature of XUI is its Ultra Power mode which extends the phone’s already long battery life to almost three days. Advance functions are disabled but aside from calls and texts; notes, calculator and the sound recorder are also supported.

Ultra Power can be activated in the Settings.

However, I’m a huge fan of the stock Android Lollipop user interface. Hence, I installed the Google Now launcher and said bye bye to XUI.

Infinix Hot Note Review: Performance

Infinix Hot Note Antutu and Vellamo scores.

The MediaTek MT6592 chipset gives the Infinix Hot Note the power of an octa core CPU with a Mali-450 graphics processor and 2GB of RAM.

It scores almost 30,000 points on Antutu Benchmark test and handles graphics intensive games such as Asphalt 8 smoothly. I haven’t experienced major lags especially while using the Google Now launcher.

It only stutters after clearing the recent apps tray or opening a lot of apps while using mobile data.

Infinix Hot Note Review: Camera

A sample picture shot with the Infinix Hot Note.

The 8.3 Megapixel main camera of the Infinix Hot Note takes good pictures for sharing on social media. It might look dull in the phone itself but the quality is better on a bigger screen such as a laptop.

Its default camera app is also worth mentioning. Taking pictures is fast and several character shots are built-in. These are fun to use specially the Bruce Lee kick.

Using the LED flash, photos taken during low light conditions look good as well. I’m just a little disappointed with the front camera.

Infinix Hot Note Review: Multimedia

Playing Eraserheads’ Ligaya on an Infinix Hot Note via Spotify.

The Infinix Hot Note is great for watching videos because it has a large 5.5-inch screen. It has a feature called ClearMotion which improves the quality of videos. They look smoother and has a 3-D like effect.

I’m not satisfied with the free earphones though. It looks cool but the sound it produces is low in bass and has muted mids. A better pair of earphones greatly improves the audio output such as the one from Xiaomi or JBL.

Its loudspeaker is what you’d expect in this price range. It’s great for listening to the top hits while taking a shower but useless in a crowded mall.

Infinix Hot Note Review: Telephony and Mobile Data

Using the Infinix Hot Note for text messages and calls is a smooth experience. Sometimes, the audio quality of the earpiece is bad. This may just be the effect of having a call over a 2G network though.

Speaking of 2G, the phone can access 3G networks for calls and mobile data connectivity. I tried using this while browsing the Facebook app and I was satisfied with the experience.

Accessing a website is another story though. I tried loading Pinoy Techno Guideusing the Android browser, pre-installed Opera Mini and Google Chrome but all are sluggish. Switching to a Wi-Fi network fixed the problem.

Infinix Hot Note Review: Storage and Sensors

With its 16GB of built-in storage, the Infinix Hot Note doesn’t have any problem in terms of storage space. Almost 12GB of this is freewhile the rest is used by the system and reserved for apps.

File transfer from the phone to a laptop is fast whether it’s the microSD card that’s involved or the phone’s internal storage.

Sadly, there are only three sensors on the device – a 3-axis accelerometer, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.

Infinix Hot Note Review: Battery

The bundled charger can re-charge the Infinix Hot Note in just an hour!

This is the area where the Infinix Hot Note does best. Its 4,000mAh battery can easily last up to two days of moderate use. That means minimal mobile data or Wi-Fi.

When the phone is always connected to a Wi-Fi network, the battery life drops to just a day. You’ll have to re-charge it at night.

Its powerbank function works well but it’s a feature that should only be used during emergencies.

Conclusion

Infinix Hot Note – definitely recommended!

I can recommend the Infinix Hot Note to those who are looking for a good smartphone with great battery life at an affordable price.

Infinix Mobile doesn’t have a specific date when they will launch this device but it should be very soon.

Infinix Mobile Hot Note Specifications

• 5.5-Inch HD IPS Display (720 x 1280 Pixels, 267 ppi)
• Android 5.1 Lollipop OS
• MediaTek MT6592 Chipset
• 1.4GHz Octa Core Cortex-A7 CPU
• Mali-450 MP4 GPU
• 2GB of RAM
• 8.0 Megapixel Autofocus Main Camera with LED Flash
• 2.0 Megapixel Front Camera
• 16GB Internal Storage
• Expandable Up to 32GB via MicroSD
• Dual SIM (Regular + Regular)
• 3G HSPA+, 2G EDGE and GPRS Networks
• Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Hotspot
• HotKnot
• Bluetooth 4.0
• GPS with A-GPS
• FM Radio
• USB OTG
• Powerbank Function
• MicroUSB 2.0
• 3.5mm Audio Jack
• Accelerometer
• Proximity Sensor
• Ambient Light Sensor
• 156 x 77 x 8.9 mm @ 172 g
• 4,000mAh Li-ion Battery (Non-removable)