Infinix’s newest entry-level smartphone, the Infinix Hot 30i will surely captivate the hearts of people on a budget! Will it be one of the greatest deals of the century or will fall into the abyss?
Infinix is a smartphone company that had modest beginnings but rapidly established a reputation for providing inexpensive handsets for the general public with hot features!
Unboxing!
The packaging is rather good for an entry-level phone. With various additional straightforward, basic design decisions that assist to draw attention to several important elements like the storage options and charging speed, Infinix’s packaging has an identity, and the packaging for this phone does a great job managing that identity.
The phone’s specifications and features, among other details, are listed on the rear of the package. This is advantageous since buyers can see that their money was well spent when purchasing the phone.
A closer look at the phone’s model name design along with subtle texture design features.
As an entry-level phone, it has a standard box. Well, with the unboxing out of the way, let us proceed with the phone itself! Here is a quick specs overview of the Infinix Hot 30i first:
DESIGN
First off, is the design.
Entry-level phones typically place a greater emphasis on the design than the hardware. This image makes it quite evident how lovely the phone’s back design is; it has a high-end, glossy appearance.
The camera arrangement is somewhat protruded in this position where the phone is resting on its front. The speaker grill, a USB type C port, and a 3.5mm headphone connector are all located on the bottom of the phone.
The phone has a sim and memory card port on its left side, while a power button with a fingerprint reader and a volume rocker are located on its right side.
DISPLAY
Next up is the phone’s design which is as expected for an entry-level phone.
It lacks the same quality feel as on its back due to the display’s large bezels, pronounced chin, and dew-drop display. It appears respectable, affordable, and adequate for the price.
The Infinix Hot 30i has a 6.56 inch 720p IPS LCD display, which is already good enough for most media viewing. It is not great, but for the price point, it should be decent.
CAMERA QUALITY
The phone has a respectable camera set-up but it is not really a good camera phone. It needs sufficient exposure to provide good-quality shots.
Poor night mode on the phone makes it obvious that the photographs are noisy and that the software isn’t doing a great job of cleaning them up.
The portrait mode on the phone is poor, with certain details being blurred and sometimes no blurring of focused items. It is also a little aggressive, as seen by Beng’s headshot on the right, where the software has also obscured portions of her hair.
Lastly, the selfie camera is doing just a decent job for selfie photos. The quality is alright, but it is nothing to write home for.
PERFORMANCE (GAMING+BATTERY)
For its performance, the phone’s chipset is a Unisoc T606 so expecting more from this phone is akin to expecting rain in a desert.
In day-to-day usage, jumping from one app to another should be a good experience but it does have some minor lags. For instance, in the Youtube app, the scrolling could be a bit jittery.
Overall it’s a good device for basic tasks such as calling, WhatsApp messaging, browsing the Internet, and video watching.
SOUND
The phone’s audio is not great as expected from an entry-level phone. It only has loudspeakers and the good thing is it has a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The speakers are pretty powerful, however the sound quality degrades as the level increases.
USER EXPERIENCE
The device boots on old Android 12 OS out of the box with XOS 12 on top. We wished it came with Android 13, since now many manufacturers are offering the latest software.
Nonetheless, the XOS, as always, is feature-rich. You’ll find lots of utility features such as peak proof, eye-care, focus mode, and kids mode, among others.
However, when swiping from top to bottom to open the quick actions panel or notifications panel, we did find some lags. But that happens when you do not use the device for some time, let’s say for a day or two. In continued usage, it’s less but it’s still there.
There’s bloatware on the phone just like other Infinix phones, but again all of that can be disabled and some of it can be uninstalled.
Still, we hope Infinix reduce the bloatware further and focus more on the UI efficiency.
What we like:
- Premium back design
- Good storage for an entry-level phone
- Good battery capacity
- Decent price point
What we don’t like:
- Subpar photo and video quality
- Subpar processor
- Thick bezels
- Bloatware in the UI
CONCLUSION:
Infinix did a fantastic job creating this phone. The phone is an excellent all-around phone for most people, despite certain quirks including thick bezels and a prominent chin as well as minor performance drops with different applications.
However, it is pretty bothersome to remove certain bloatware before using the phone for more effective usage. The UI might use more improvements. For an entry-level phone, people shouldn’t really expect fantastic specifications and features, but this one is already good for the price.
Here is the phone’s specs page:
The smartphone’s price list is as follows:
| PRICING | RAM | STORAGE |
| Php4,299 | 4GB | 128GB |
