Xiaomi and Realme are two big brands that often make the news when a new mainstream or mid-range phone comes out. Because these brands keep putting out new products so quickly, it’s easy to forget about the smaller ones, which sometimes have very interesting products. The Infinix Zero 5G is one of them. As far as I know, it’s the only smartphone with a 2X optical zoom telephoto camera that costs less than Rs. 20,000. The Zero 5G is also the first 5G product from the company. It came out in February 2022 and has a variety of good features.
Even though there are a lot of 5G smartphones around the Rs. 20,000 price point, does the Infinix Zero 5G have enough good features to be recommended? Let’s find out here Infinix Zero 5G review, price and specifications.
Infinix Zero 5G Price in India
The Zero 5G from Infinix has been released in a single model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Officially, it costs Rs. 19,999, but Flipkart is selling it for Rs. 17,999 right now. There are three color options for the phone: Cosmic Black, Horizon Blue, and Skylight Orange.
Infinix Zero 5G design
The Infinix Zero 5G is a tall phone that is almost impossible to use with one hand. In fact, it’s a bit taller than an iPhone 13 Pro Max (Review), which says a lot. It’s a good thing that it’s only 8.77mm thick and weighs only 199g. The glossy finish on the black model’s all-plastic body makes it easy to get fingerprints on it. Smudges are easy to see and don’t come off easily, which makes it hard to keep things looking clean.
The way the back camera module seems to rise through the back panel makes me think of the Oppo Find X5 Pro. It looks good and gives the Zero 5G a bit of a different look from the other phones in its class. The back panel, on the other hand, is made of polycarbonate, and after a few weeks of using this phone without a case, the bottom did get a few small scratches.
The volume and power buttons are on the right side of the phone, but they are a little too close to the frame, so they don’t feel very good. There is a fingerprint sensor built into the power button, but it can be hard to find by touch alone. The Infinix Zero 5G has a tray on the left side that can hold two Nano-SIM cards and a microSD card to add more storage. The speaker, headphone jack, and USB Type-C port are all on the bottom of the frame.
The Infinix Zero 5G has a full-HD+ IPS LCD screen that is 6.78 inches in size. It also has a refresh rate of 120Hz, a touch sampling rate of 240Hz, and a brightness of 500 nits at its brightest. Infinix hasn’t said if the screen has any kind of scratch-resistant glass on it. The space around the screen isn’t too big, but the hole for the camera could have been a little bit smaller.
The Infinix Zero 5G comes with a 33W charger, a Type-A to Type-C cable, a screen protector, a clear silicone case, and a tool to take out the SIM card.
Infinix Zero 5G Specifications
The Zero 5G from Infinix has a pretty powerful SoC. The MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC is a fairly new and power-efficient chip that is usually found in more expensive phones like the OnePlus Nord CE 2 (Review) and Oppo Reno 6 (Review). The Zero 5G uses this SoC, which supports 13 5G bands and dual-5G standby. Now that we have a better idea of when 5G will come to India, you might want to pay close attention to this when you buy your next phone. Infinix also says that it has used LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, which are not often seen in this price range.
The Infinix Zero 5G has all the sensors and navigation systems you’d expect. You get Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6. The phone doesn’t have stereo speakers or an official IP rating, but it does have FM radio. The Zero 5G has a pretty big 5,000mAh battery, which should help it last at least one full day, if not more.
The Zero 5G runs XOS 10, which is Infinix’s version of Android, but it is still based on Android 11. The good news is that Infinix has already promised to release the Android 12 update, but it won’t be out until August 2022. I have to say that XOS isn’t my favorite Android skin because I don’t like how busy the UI elements are, and it can be hard to find what you’re looking for at times.
There are a lot of apps that come preinstalled that tend to send unwanted alerts to your notification shade. I also noticed that some apps, like AHA Games, Palm Store, Hi Browser, InSync, and others, are useless and can’t be removed. Some basic settings, like the graph of how much battery is being used, are buried too deep in menus, making it hard to find them unless you use the search function.
We did like some parts of the user interface, like the XArena games app, which looks cool and lets you change some UI settings while you’re playing. But Twitter and Google Photos were also found to be games, which was strange. I hope that the Android 12 update will include a skin that works better.
Performance and battery life of Infinix Zero 5G
Once you get used to how the XOS user interface works, the Infinix Zero 5G is not a bad phone. I wouldn’t choose this black color, especially if you like to keep things clean, because it’s hard to keep fingerprints off of it. From what I can see, blue and orange should be more forgiving. The Zero 5G’s screen gets very bright, so I had no trouble using it outside, even when the sun was out. But because this phone is so big, it’s hard to use with one hand unless you turn on “one-handed mode.”
On the phone’s screen, streamed videos looked good, with good colors and enough brightness. HDR videos can’t be played, and they look washed out when they are. The sound from the single speaker is pretty loud, but I missed having stereo sound. The refresh rate of the screen doesn’t change, so if it’s set to 120Hz, it will stay at that rate even if you don’t touch it.
We noticed that if you leave the refresh rate set to “Auto,” it only runs at 120Hz on the home screen and in the Gallery app, but switches to 60Hz in other apps. For smoother scrolling within apps, you’ll need to force the refresh rate to 120Hz. Then, you’ll get 120Hz or 90Hz (depending on the app) in apps as well.
| NETWORK | Technology | GSM / HSPA / LTE / 5G |
|---|
| LAUNCH | Announced | 2022, February 08 |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Available. Released 2022, March 03 |
| BODY | Dimensions | 168.7 x 76.5 x 8.8 mm (6.64 x 3.01 x 0.35 in) |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 199 g (7.05 oz) | |
| Build | Glass front, plastic frame, plastic back | |
| SIM | Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) |
| DISPLAY | Type | IPS LCD, 120Hz, 500 nits (peak) |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 6.78 inches, 113.7 cm2 (~88.1% screen-to-body ratio) | |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2460 pixels (~388 ppi density) |
| PLATFORM | OS | Android 11, XOS 10 |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | MediaTek MT6877 Dimensity 900 (6 nm) | |
| CPU | Octa-core (2×2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) | |
| GPU | Mali-G68 MC4 |
| MEMORY | Card slot | microSDXC (dedicated slot) |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | 128GB 8GB RAM | |
| UFS 3.1 |
| MAIN CAMERA | Triple | 48 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF 13 MP, f/2.5, 50mm (telephoto), 1/3.1″, 1.12µm, PDAF, 2x optical zoom 2 MP |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Quad-LED flash, HDR, panorama | |
| Video | 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps |
| SELFIE CAMERA | Single | 16 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 1/2.76″, 1.12µm |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Dual-LED flash | |
| Video | 1080p@30fps |
| SOUND | Loudspeaker | Yes |
|---|---|---|
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| COMMS | WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth | Yes | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS | |
| NFC | No | |
| Radio | FM radio | |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go |
| FEATURES | Sensors | Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
|---|
| BATTERY | Type | Li-Po 5000 mAh, non-removable |
|---|---|---|
| Charging | Fast Charging 33W |
| MISC | Colors | Cosmic Black, Skylight Orange, Horizon Blue |
|---|---|---|
| Models | X6815, X6815B | |
| Price | About 250 EUR |
| TESTS | Performance | AnTuTu: 419083 (v8), 487639 (v9) GeekBench: 2169 (v5.1) GFXBench: 19fps (ES 3.1 onscreen) |
|---|---|---|
| Display | Contrast ratio: 1610:1 (nominal) | |
| Camera | Photo / Video | |
| Loudspeaker | -27.6 LUFS (Good) | |
| Battery life |
Endurance rating 140h
|
Source: Gsmarena
Infinix Zero 5G Review and Verdict
On paper, the Infinix Zero 5G has a good mix of features, which is why you will be interested in it in the first place. It has a powerful 5G SoC that works with a good number of 5G bands, a long-lasting battery that charges quickly, and an above-average telephoto camera. But because the other cameras don’t work well and the software is hard to use, it’s hard to recommend this phone.
If you’re looking for a good telephoto camera in this price range, I suggest spending a little more on the Motorola Edge 20. It has the same powerful 5G SoC, but it has a 3X telephoto camera, a 144Hz AMOLED screen, and an IP52 rating. If you can only spend Rs. 20,000, you can choose from great phones like the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G and the Realme 9 5G Speed Edition.