Hong Kong-based Infinix forayed into India back in August with Hot 4 Proand Note 4 smartphone. Last month it launched the Zero 5, a mid-range smartphone with a large 5.98-inch display, dual rear cameras and a 4350mAh battery for Rs. 17,999. Is the phone worth the price? Let us find out in the review.
Unboxing
We recently unboxed the smartphone, check out the video.
Box contents
- Infinix Zero 5 smartphone in Sandstone Black color
- In-ear Headset with microphone
- USB Type-C Cable
- Micro USB to USB Type-C Adapter
- 2-pin fast charger (5V-9V – 2A/ 9V-12V – 1.5A)
- Clear protective case
- SIM ejector tool
- User Manual and Warranty Card
Display, Hardware and Design
The smartphone has a 5.98-inch Full HD 2.5D curved glass display with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels and a pixel density of 368 PPI and 85% NTSC Color Gamut from JDI. The display is bright, offers good color output and the sunlight legibility is good even in bright outdoor. The screen also has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection that protects it from scratches. It has a screen-to-body ratio of about 72%, and one-handed usage is not comfortable.
It has a 16-megapixel camera next to the earpiece along with the usual set of proximity and ambient light sensors and also has notification LED. It also has gyroscope and magnetic sensor, otherwise known as magnetometer for VR headset.
Even though there is a bezel below the screen, it uses on-screen buttons. The volume rockers and the power button are present on the right side along with SIM slot and the microSD card slot is present on the left side. Loudspeaker grill, USB Type-C port, microphone and 3.5mm audio jack are crammed on the bottom.
It is one of the few smartphones with dedicated dual micro SIM slots and a microSD card slot that accepts cards up to 128GB.
On the back there is a 12-megapixel ( wide-angle) and 13-megapixel (telephoto) dual-camera setup on a glass part. The dual-tone LED flash is present in the middle. The fingerprint sensor is present below it along with the Infinix branding. The phone has a metal body with antenna lines running on the bottom part of the back. Holding the phone gives a solid feel, but the smooth back is slippery to hold. It is recommended to use the bundled clear case that comes in the box. You don’t get a lot of rugged case options for the phone. It measures 166.38 x 82.38 x 7.95mm and weighs 197 grams that makes it bulky to keep in your pocket.
It has a 4350mAh built-in battery with support for xCharge 18W fast charging.
Camera
it has a 12-megapixel primary camera with wide-angle lens, Sony IMX386 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 1.25 μm pixel size and dual LED Flash along with a secondary 13-megapixel camera with telephoto lens, Samsung S5K3M3 sensor, f/2.6 aperture and 1.0μm pixel size offering 2x optical zoom and portrait mode. On the front there is a 16-megapixel camera with LED flash, f/2.0 aperture and Samsung S5K3P8 sensor.
The camera interface is easy to use with toggles for flash and HDR on the left side along with different filters (Movie, Memory, Mono, Calm, Cool, ELegant, Gorgeous and Fresh). On the right side it has option to capture images in auto mode by default, portrait that uses dual cameras, professional to adjust metering, exposure, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, focus and zoom (up to 2x optical and up to 10 digital). It also has Beauty, Panorama, Night, Watermark and Time lapse interval modes.
Coming to the image quality. Daylight shots were decent , but some images came out dull during cloudy or poor lighting conditions. Macro shots were good and focus is fast. Depth enabled shots lets you capture with effective f/11 to f/0.8 using both the cameras. When the aperture reduces, you can see the blurred parts clearly. The depth effect looks better when taking portrait shots of people compared to objects, but if you are capturing a group of people, those in the edge doesn’t get focused properly. You can also refocus a part in portrait shots after they have been taken. It uses the secondary 13-megapixel telephoto lens for 2x zoom without any loss. Low-light shots have noise and images with flash is overpowering, especially in closeup shots. The 16-megapixel front camera with flash is decent, but it doesn’t focus everyone clearly in a group shot.
Check out some camera samples (Click the image to view full resolution images).
It can record videos at 1080p Full HD video resolution at 30 fps. Quality is good. It has time-lapse, but doesn’t have option to record slow motion videos. Check out the sample below.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat) with Android security update for September and custom XOS Hummingbird V3.0 UI on top. The company doesn’t say when it will get Android Oreo or even Android 7.1 update.
It has XOS Launcher version has a customizable quick settings toggle, custom home screen that lets you adjust icon size, desktop grid and more. It has headlines that shows news in the homescreen, auto app arrangement and smart arrange options. The user interface looks similar to what we had seen with other Chinese handset makers.
It has one-hand mode that lets you shrink the screen to 4.7 or 4-inches in size. There are also lot of gesture and smart motion options such as tap to wake, quick start to start the device by making gestures with your finger over the screen, wave to unlock the phone and turn the phone to put a call on silent.
Out of 6GB of RAM you get 4.4GB of free RAM when default apps are running in the background. Out of 64GB of storage you get about 50GB of usable storage.
Apart from the usual set of utility apps and Google apps, it has Flipkart, Multi account app that lets you use two accounts on WhatsApp, Facebook and other compatible apps, PHX Browser, Calcare Service app for device support, XCloud, XClub, XHide, XShare and XTheme apps.
Fingerprint Sensor
The phone has a fingerprint sensor on the back. Placement of the sensor on the back is good, since it is where your index finger rests when you are holding the phone. It is quick to unlock the phone, immediately after you place your finger on the sensor and also unlocks the screen. It also warns you if you use the same fingerprint again. You can add up to 5 fingerprints.
Music Player and FM Radio
It has a custom music player app and also has FM Radio with recording and FM Alarm option. Loudspeaker output is good and clear even in full volume. Since the loudspeaker is present on the bottom part of the phone, audio doesn’t get muffled when you are placing the phone on a flat surface. Audio output through headphones is good as well.
Connectivity, Calling and Messaging
It has 4G support with support of 4G VoLTE for Reliance Jio. Both the SIMs support 4G, but you can enable 4G only in one SIM at a time, while the other goes to 3G. You can set the default SIM for voice call, messaging or data connection. It has Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS and USB OTG support.
Since this is a dual SIM phone you get option to call or send SMS from either SIMs. It comes with AOSP and TouchPal keyboard options. Calls were clear and we did not face any call drops, but the earpiece quality is not the best if you are in a noisy environment.
Performance and Benchmarks
Coming to the performance, it is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek Helio P25 16nm processor with eight ARM Cortex-A53 core clocked at 2.6GHz per core. It has 6GB of RAM. Performance is decent most of the times, but there is a bit of lag occasionally in some apps, especially when typing. This should be fixed with software update. Thanks to 6GB of RAM, multitasking is smooth. ARM Mali-T880 GPU offers decent gaming performance in most games. The phone gets a bit warm on 4G usage and gaming, but it doesn’t get too hot to handle. Check out some synthetic benchmark scores.
It topped the AnTuTu Benchmark 6 by scoring 65430 points.
It managed to score 845 points in the Geekbench 4 Single-Core benchmark.
It managed to score 3887 points in the Geekbench 5 Multi-Core benchmark.
It topped the 3D mark Ice Storm Unlimited GPU benchmark.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the 4350mAh built-in battery offers great battery life. On full charge it lasts for a day even with heavy use. With average use it easily lasts for 2 days. You can enable standby intelligent power saving mode to extend the battery life when the battery is low. You can also free apps that are not used for long time to save power.
It achieved One Charge rating of 17 hours and 49 minutes, which is good for a phone with a large screen and a 4350mAh battery. Since it comes with xCharge 18W fast charging, it can charge from 0 to 100% in about 2 hours and 20 minutes and from 0 to 50% in just 46 minutes. Check out the complete set of battery life test results here.
Conclusion
Overall, the Infinix Zero 5 is a decent smartphone with a large screen, good battery life with support for fast charging and dedicated SIM slots. Dual camera for portrait shots is decent, but the implementation is not the best and the image quality could have been better. Since it is a huge phone and is quite heavy some might not prefer it.
The phone is available exclusively on Flipkart for Rs. 17,999. To summarize, here are the pros and cons of the smartphone.
Pros
- Good display
- Good build quality
- Dedicated SIM slots and microSD slot
- Brilliant battery life and support for fast charging
Cons
- Average camera performance
- Might be huge and bulky for some