With a specialty for low-cost smartphones with incredible specs, Infinix showed its love for the budget smartphone community. Can they win the hearts of the entire PH market yet again with the younger sibling the NOTE 30 series?
Now, on its 13th iteration (NOTE 12 is the last of the NOTE series in which they follow the numbering quite before jumping to a 30), we are hopeful that Infinix’s current trend of delivering good phones for less continues.
First off, the unboxing!
Infinix NOTE 30 is packaged in a typical two-piece packaging that is rather durable. It also has a plastic cradle to hold the real phone inside for further protection. Infinix’s use of a green color palette is also a huge plus because It draws attention. Additionally, the phone’s hardware information is readily available directly on the box, which is great!
The MPL and Infinix logos are shown side by side in a close-up above the box front art. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang professional League is referred to as MPL. And by-the-way, if it isn’t obvious enough, Infinix was the official sponsor of the MPL S11!
Details regarding the phone’s charging and storage capabilities are included underneath the front art.
The JBL emblem on the left side of the box denotes that JBL adjusted the phone’s audio system.
More features and technical details of the Infinix NOTE 30 4G are listed on the box’s back.
The NOTE 30 is no exception to Infinix’s history of being very generous with its accessory bundle. It includes a clear case, a set of wired 3.5mm earphones with an inbuilt microphone for phone calls, an Infinix 45W fast charger, and a USB Type-A to Type-C cable are all included in the package. You may select between a glass screen protector and a plastic one that is already pre-applied to the phone’s display at the manufacturer. There isn’t much more you could ask for in an accessories set.
DESIGN
We would generally describe the NOTE 30’s design as a modernish traditional style. Although its flat edges have an “iPhone”- like vibe, Infinix was obviously not trying for a carbon replica or anything like. The NOTE 30 has a distinctive appearance.
The phone is available in a trio of colors: the Interstellar Blue, Obsidian Black with a glass back, and the Sunset Gold variant that has a faux leather back.
There is no camera island as such, but the design team decided to still include an accented area. It has a very subtle rectangle pattern to it that catches all of the surrounding light and sends off colorful reflections. We kind of like how it looks, though some might find it a bit tacky.
The volume rocker, power button, and SIM tray are all placed exactly where they are, identical to the 5G version of the phone. The back side doesn’t attract or gather dirt at all, but the sides of the NOTE 30 are a constant mess of fingerprints and grease. Infinix made sure that the plastic there is extremely glossy in order to imitate metal, and to their credit, the effect is convincing. However, you’ll never be able to keep the frame of the phone even remotely clean.
A speaker grill, microphone outlet, USB Type C connector, and 3.5 mm audio jack are all located underneath the phone.
The NOTE 30 comes with IP53 ingress protection, which is kind of basic, but still much appreciated at this price point. The surface covering the display is some sort of undisclosed glass, but we would still recommend leaving the factory-pre-applied plastic screen protector in place or replacing it with the included glass one.
DISPLAY
The Infinix NOTE 30 has a solid display on paper. Stretching to 6.78 inches, it has FullHD (1080 x 2460 pixels) native resolution, which at that size works out to a very competent 388 ppi of density. It can also refresh at 120Hz, which is great to see. This display is actually very similar to the one inside the Infinix ZERO 5G, at least in terms of basic specs.
High refresh rate handling on the Infinix is good but still not perfect. Some extra work is required to make the auto mode better or, alternatively, Infinix could just implement a per-app refresh rate settings menu, which would allow you to pick and choose when to save on power and when to have the benefits of a smoother experience.
PERFORMANCE (Battery + Gaming)
In terms of performance and hardware, the Infinix NOTE 30 has a pretty big 5,000 mAh battery on board. The phone is also running on MediaTek Helio G99 chipset. It is a fairly-efficient 6nm chip, and we’ve seen this exact battery and chipset combo in a few other phones before. We know from experience that the combo is quite efficient in practice, and the Infinix NOTE 30 does not stray from the norm.
Gaming
With Mobile Legends running at 60 frames per second and the maximum settings, the phone can handle games fairly well. The settings and frame rate for Genshin Impact and Call of Duty: Mobile are both set to Medium with a 60 frame per second frame rate. Genshin Impact does, however, exhibit some stuttering, as seen in the video above, but it is minimal, especially if players adjust the game’s visual settings.
Battery
With a pretty huge 5000 mAh battery and a speedy charger, the phone is a great offer for its price. It advertises 45W fast charge support with its bundled charger. The charger supports standard USB 5V@2A output and a proprietary [email protected] output. You better hold on to this specific charger to make use of the phone’s fast charging at its optimal speeds.
CAMERA QUALITY
Moving on, the “64MP Ultra Clear Triple Camera” setup on the NOTE 30 is something Infinix is trying to advertise. In fact, there are three cameras total when you consider the ones on the phone’s back. However, the NOTE 30 only actually features a single 64MP back camera.
A closer look at the specs sheet immediately shows that the other two rear cameras are a 2MP supplemental camera that is probably used to capture depth information for portraiture and something referred to as a “AI CAM”.
The main camera takes decent photos in good lighting conditions. The dynamic range is good, and colors are accurate. However, detail can be a bit soft in some cases.
Also, the camera struggles in low-light conditions – noise is visible, and colors can be washed out. The camera does a great job but it is highly recommended to have good lighting conditions.
Its night mode is also good enough, respectable, but there is nothing special going on for it.
Selfie camera test
The 16MP selfie camera of the infinix NOTE 30 4G has managed to take some respectable pictures, but with some apparent noise when the lighting is insufficient.
Video Quality test
In terms of video quality, the Infinix NOTE 30 4G produces good results in most conditions. The main camera captures pretty good detail, even in low-light situations. The colors and dynamic range are also good, although they can be a bit oversaturated in some cases.
The Infinix NOTE 30 4G produces good quality video for a mid-range smartphone. The main camera is capable of capturing good detail in both bright and low-light conditions but do not expect too much from a budget phone.
SOUND
The speakers has been tuned with the help of JBL. The top speaker, doubling as the earpiece, has openings facing both forward and up, making it harder to cover with a palm. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with the bottom speaker, which you can cover up quite easily.
You can, however, address some of these issues if you spend enough time inside the included DTS Sound platform. Audio options are surprisingly in-depth and abundant. You get some presets, as well as a manual equalizer.
USER EXPERIENCE
Infinix has its own XOS Android skin, which has undergone several iterations over the years. XOS is now up to version 13, and that’s what the NOTE 30 is running, along with the latest Android 13 core underneath.
XOS is chock-full of features and options. Perhaps even overwhelmingly so but the thing is, bloatware is abundant, and Infinix has included quite a few of its own apps and third-party ones, often with overlapping feature sets.
The important thing to note is that XOS 13 works smoothly, with no hiccups or stutters, despite the influx of apps. So Infinix has done its job pretty well on that front.
What we like:
- 120Hz refresh rate display with good viewing angles
- 5000 mAh battery capacity and 45W fast charging
- JBL tuned audio quality
- Powered by a fairly fast Helio G99 processor
- Good rear and selfie camera quality for its pricepoint
What we don’t like:
- A rather large camera island
- The display is an IPS LCD which is inferior to AMOLEDs
- Bloatware
- Poor software support from Infinix
- Doesn’t have stereo speakers
CONCLUSION
The Infinix NOTE 30 is a great phone for anyone looking for a powerful and affordable device. It has a large display, a powerful processor, and a long-lasting battery. The camera is also good, and the phone comes with some useful features.
BUT! It has bloatware which is fairly annoying but good thing it can be removed. The camera island is also a bit large which is somewhat off, and its display is only an IPS LCD. Infinix is also not well known for great software support so keep that in mind. Also, albeit being tuned by JBL, the phone only has two loudspeakers, impacting the audio quality by a margin.
With that in mind, the phone scored a stunning 4 stars in our review! Well done by Infinix!
Click below for its specs page:
