Technically, it’s Infinix flagship offering but with mid-range specs, nevertheless can this phone impress us with its crazy quirks?
The Infinix Zero Ultra 5G is one of the most anticipated smartphones here in the Philippines, with its beefy specs and crowd-pleasing choices, it’s easy to see why the company behind the brand, Transsion Holdings is slowly gaining the upper hand versus other competitors such as Xiaomi, realme, vivo, and OPPO among others.
Is this smartphone can deliver to its promise? Let’s review it and see.
The box
Infinix wants you to know that the Zero Ultra 5G is as premium as it gets from them: a silvery, shiny almost satin looking box with prism-like effect over the Zero Ultra name and the 256GB storage with up to 13GB RAM lights up in a cesspool of colors, kind of like a very rare Yu-Gi-Oh! card that’s for keeps. And the box is also just like that, simply put, the box is well built. We’re off to a promising start.
The contents
Inside, you’ll find some documentations, the one dollar X-Gold Club, a jelly case (wait, there’s more); the Type-C cable, a Type-C to 3.5mm audio jack dongle, a sim ejector pin, and the mythical 180W ThunderCharge with Type-C port as well. But it doesn’t end there, they also included a card that gives you a chance to win a “limited edition NFT” when you decide to scan it. Your choice though, in our eyes– the only legit NFT/crypto is Rob Moya’s Lodicoin.
The back
The gossips are true: the Infinix Zero Ultra 5G is cool to the touch and it’s not a fingerprint magnet for sure, due to its Damascus-esque texture that looks like an old-school topography map drenched in white paint. But yet again, Infinix one upped themselves, achieving a 30k-40k look for around half of the price. We don’t actually know if the back is made from glass or made to look one but we’ll take a wild guess: it is. The frame is made from metal, that’s for sure, aluminum to be exact.
The camera bump seems pretty standard, but the eye-catching feature of all is the refusal of Infinix to include their branding front and center, only the Zero name can be seen on the lower-left of the Zero Ultra 5G’s body. Our unit is the Coslight Silver which is lighter (we use that word with a grain of salt here) and thinner than the much more heavier and wider Genesis Noir colorway. At 213 grams, it feels robust and not cheap at all.
The sides
On the side, you’ll get the power button, the volume rockers, a sim-tray and yes, they bothered to include a microSD slot for it. You’ll also get the Type-C port but no headphone jack, but they took care of that by providing a dongle for it. The downside however, it only has one down firing speaker so for us, it is lacking.
The display
As promised, the Infinix Zero Ultra 5G has a large 6.8 inch AMOLED display that’s also buttery smooth because of the 120Hz refresh rate in 1080p resolution, but we think the max peak brightness is bright enough outdoors but still, it can get a lot brighter. The 90.5% screen-to-body ratio is delightful, on the other hand. Infinix Zero Ultra 5G’s 387 ppi is more than enough but for us, it’s still a bit under clocked for that.
The camera
Is the 200MP camera worth the hype? The short answer is yes. But not too fast, Geronimo. While the 200MP camera works better as an ultrawide one, you can use the full megapixels when taking a picture, but man it ate a lot of storage, 60MP to be exact. The video seems fine at 4k@30fps, but it is not the best of the bunch. The selfie cam is okay though.
Gaming and battery
Of course it can game, but not that pedal-to-the-metal gaming. With around 430,000 to 470,000 points AnTuTu v.9.4, it can run most graphics intensive games like Call of Duty: Mobile and League of Legends: Wild Rift; but for more demanding games like Diablo: Immortal, Asphalt 9, and Genshin Impact, you may have to cut some slack for the processor, but it is reliable and power-efficient.
As for the battery, it sets back apart from the usual 5,000mAh and above threshold for a more slimmer 4,500mAh yet the Infinix Zero Ultra 5G can easily get you through the day. We actually tried charging the phone with the 180W ThunderCharge and the results we’re kind of a little underwhelming: it took 23 minutes from 1% to 100% when the phone is on and 30 minutes if the phone is turned off. Still pretty fast, but the 0%-100% in 15 minutes claim may vary, in our case for example.
Other perks
It packs 5G connectivity, the XOS 12 built on top of Android 12, is decent but not the best, and at this price point, there are still bloatwares to be found which is annoying because you’re paying top dollar for this.
What we like:
✔️ 200MP camera delivers well
✔️ Premium looks
✔️ Huge display
✔️ Fast charging (despite the really bold claims)
✔️ Memory card slot is still in there
✔️ Power-efficient Dimensity 920 is in there
✔️ Great value for money
What we dislike:
✔️ Display isn’t bright enough
✔️ Native headphone jack exclusion still unnecessary even with dongle inclusion
✔️ Only one speaker
FINAL VERDICT
Maganda na (3.7/5 stars ★★★★)
The Infinix Zero Ultra 5G is a great phone trying to be a flagship one with mid-range specs, for ₱21,999 — it’s a great value but we can’t help but to think all the unnecessary compromises such as the single firing speaker, the headphone jack, and the not-so-bright AMOLED display just to achieve a premium look. You can be premium while still retaining what most people like about it, Sony proved that. But this isn’t a top of the line smartphone, it’s a mid-range one inside a premium shell with a mid-range chipset, experimental cameras and a crazy charger some people will find appealing, but overall– it’s a decent phone worth the price it has.
