Infinix S4 review: Impressive design, triple cameras on a budget

Priced at Rs 8,999, the Infinix S4 offers one of the best cameras at this range, an impressive design and a decent display along with a powerful battery.

Infinix, a smartphone brand owned by China’s Transsion Holdings, has recently launched the Infinix S4 in India for Rs 8,999. The phone packs in plenty of exciting features including a 4000mAh battery, premium, triple camera setup and a 32MP AI selfie camera.

On paper, the phone seems to be a feature-rich proposition. However, like any other phone, it has its strengths and weaknesses. Let’s take a look at how the phone fares.

Design & Display

The Infinix S4 comes with a 6.2 inch HD+ display with a resolution of 1520x720, 2.5D curved glass and a waterdrop notch at the top for the front camera. The S4 has a plastic build with a gradient finish at the back which fades off into black at the bottom and looks quite good. On the sides we get the volume rockers and power on/off button while on the left, there is dual-SIM and microSD card slot. The micro USB port, speaker grille, and a 3.5mm audio jack is placed at the bottom panel. The fingerprint sensor is located at the back and is fast enough to quickly unlock the phone. There are minimal bezels on the sides and a relatively thin chin located at the bottom of the phone. Overall Infinix has given a lot of attention to the design on the S4 and the phone does outperform in this aspect considering its price point.

Coming to the display, the 6.2HD+ display carries a waterdrop notch along with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The screen brightness is decent considering the price range. The screen is legible indoors but struggles a bit outdoors although the auto brightness feature works well for the S4.

Performance & Battery

The Infinix S4 is powered by an Octa-Core 2.0GHz, MediaTek Helio P22 chipset with PowerVR GE8320 GPU. It is backed by a 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 256GB via microSD card slot. Coming to the UI, the S4 uses the XOS 5.0 Cheetah skin on top of Android Pie. Overall the phone handles day to day usage well with minor stutters here and there. Apps take some time to load and there is some lag while multitasking.

On the gaming front, the phone handles casual gaming very well but struggles when it comes to graphic intensive games. While playing PubG, the phone runs on low graphic setting by default and we experienced several frame drops and lag during one session of the game.

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Infinix Smart 3 Plus: Good looking budget phone marred by weak performance

The Infinix Smart 3 Plus is perhaps the only phone in the sub-Rs 7,000 segment to have a triple camera module.

Hong Kong-based electronics maker Transsion Holdings’ smartphone brand Infinix recently launched the Smart 3 Plus – a budget smartphone with triple rear cameras. Priced at Rs 6,999, the Flipkart-exclusive smartphone seems to be a competitor to the Samsung Galaxy M10, Xiaomi Redmi 7, and Realme C2.

On paper, the Infinix Smart 3 Plus seems to be a decent entry-level smartphone. Let’s take a look at what it offers:

Design and display

The Infinix Smart 3 Plus has a 6.21-inch waterdrop notch-based IPS screen of HD+ (1520 x 720) resolution. The screen delivers sharp tones and good viewing angles, compared to smartphones in the same segment. The phone weighs 148 g, and has a slim profile of 7.8 mm, making it easy to hold and operate. The phone’s back has a glass-like appeal, which is actually a polycarbonate panel with glossy lustre.

Performance

The Smart 3 Plus is powered by MediaTek Helio A22 system-on-chip (SoC), a quadcore processor that operates at a maximum frequency of 2GHz. The processor is paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The phone boots XOS 5.0 Cheetah user interface, which is a heavily customised version of Google Android Pie.

Specifications aside, the phone handles day to day operations without any hiccups. However, the weak processor fails to handle multitasking jobs or multiple apps in the background. The OS-level customisations and bloatware are also to blame for phone’s sluggish performance. The phone has a dedicated game boost mode, which directs phone’s hardware resources towards a game in motion. However, the device is not suitable for graphic-intensive gaming titles such as PUBG.

Camera

The Infinix Smart 3 Plus is perhaps the only phone in its segment to have a triple camera module. The back camera set-up includes a 13-megapixel primary sensor, a 2MP depth sensor, and a low light sensor of unspecified resolution. On the front, the phone has an 8MP camera.

The rear camera module supports artificial intelligence-based auto scene selection, which recognises up to eight different scenes and adjusts the frame settings accordingly. The camera interface also features a customised Bokeh mode, allowing manual control to set the background blur effect.

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Infinix S3X review: Feature-rich smartphone with good battery, performance

Priced at Rs 9,999, the Flipkart-exclusive smartphone comes in three colours - Ice blue, sandstone black, and tradewinds gray.

Infinix, a smartphone brand owned by China’s Transsion Holdings, has recently launched the Hot S3X smartphone. Successor of the HOT S3, launched earlier this year, the Hot S3X comes with a bigger 6.2-inch screen, dual rear cameras and a selfie camera with AI enhancements. Priced at Rs 9,999, the Flipkart-exclusive smartphone comes in three colours – Ice blue, sandstone black, and tradewinds gray.

Design : Like the Infinix Note 5, the Hot S3X has a plastic build of glossy finish. Infinix has put a lot of focus on the design elements and there is no denying that the phone does not look like any other budget smartphone. The phone’s polycarbonate frame also has a glossy design, which looks and feels premium. On the front, there is a notch-based screen that stretches from edge-to-edge leaving negligible bezels, except for a thick one on the bottom chin.

On the chassis, there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the top and speaker, microUSB port and microphone on the bottom. The volume rocker and power button are on the right side, whereas, the dual SIM card slot is there on the left side.

Overall the S3X feels premium and you probably would not know that this phone is a budget offering.

Display : The S3X has a 6.2-inch of a tall 19:9 aspect ratio. The screen has a notch on the top, accommodating front camera, ear piece, LED notification light and sensors. The screen has HD+ (720 x 1500 pixels) resolution, which falls short of covering the usable screen area, therefore, the screen looks pixelated. Other than overall pixel ratio, the phone’s screen is bright, clear and vibrant. The notch is small, compared with other smartphones in the same segment. However, there is no provision to disable it.

The screen renders good colours and has satisfactory sunlight legibility. Good colour output and the large screen estate on the S3X makes it a good proposition for multimedia enthusiasts who like watching videos on the go.

Camera : The S3X has a dual camera module on the back, featuring a 13-megapixel primary sensor, mated with a 2MP depth lens.

On the front, there is a 16MP selfie camera capable of taking satisfactory shots that are good enough for use on social media. The camera has a beauty mode backed by artificial intelligence capabilities, which irons out imperfections in the frame such as marks, skin tone, etc.

Photos captured using rear camera are decent too. With dual rear cameras, the phone supports portrait mode that does its job neatly and show no cloning effect on the object edges or in the background.

Both the cameras deliver satisfactory output in good light. However, struggles in low light conditions.... Read More

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itel A62 review: Balanced budget smartphone with 18:9 screen, dual cameras

The itel A62 is a budget smartphone with dual rear cameras, a face unlock feature, a multi-functional fingerprint scanner and a modern 18:9 aspect ratio screen.

Transsion Holdings, a Chinese manufacturer behind the smartphone brands like itel, Infinix and Techno, may have a limited visibility in the online market in comparison to behemoths like Xiaomi and Samsung, but it is a fastest growing company in the offline space. The company recently launched the itel A62, a budget smartphone with dual rear cameras, face unlock feature, multi-functional fingerprint scanner and a modern 18:9 aspect ratio screen.

For a budget smartphone, the itel A62 has a solid build quality. It does not have a metallic or the glass build of the current generation smartphone, yet the laminated plastic unibody of the phone feels sturdy and has a solid touch to it. The phone’s front is covered by a 5.65-inch HD+ screen in 18:9 aspect ratio. The screen looks colourful and has good viewing angles. The tall aspect ratio makes it ideal for multimedia content playback such as videos and photos.

On the back, the phone sports a dual camera set-up, which looks similar to the camera set-ups seen in current generation Xiaomi devices. Even the network antenna lines are shaped identically to the one seen in the recently launched Xiaomi Redmi Y2. Overall, the back looks clean and offers no-frills design that is in line with other budget smartphones.

Coming on to the performance of the smartphone, the itel A62 is not a powerhouse but has enough resources to keep it going without any hiccups. The phone boots Android 8.1 Oreo covered under an unknown skin. The operating system runs smooth and has ample customisations option. The user interface looks neat and the phone performs consistently in day-to-day tasks.

For a budget smartphone, the phone’s face unlock mechanism is smooth and it unlocks the phone swiftly in well-lit environments. In low light, the fingerprint scanner on the back comes handy and it unlocks the phone much faster than the face unlock mechanism.

Priced at Rs 7,499, the itel A62 makes a balanced proposition in the entry-level budget smartphone segment. It has a great build quality and a modern 18:9 aspect ratio screen. Importantly, the phone is available on both the select online platforms and offline retail stores, making it easily available for purchase. The phone also comes with a replacement warranty under which the company promises to replace the phone for any manufacturing defects within first 100 days from the date of sale.

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