Infinix Hot 30i Review: Yay or Nay?

Infinix has been selling budget phones in Nepal and is trying to establish itself in this crowded market by offering stand-out features on its phones. So, we reviewed the Infinix Hot 30i to see how good their chances are.

Howdy, welcome to our review of the Infinix Hot 30i. We’ve been using the phone for over a week now and compiled a list of pros and cons for the phone. The phone we used was the upper variant with 8/128GB storage. However, the phone is also available in 4/64GB. Alright, let’s get started by looking at the specifications below.

ALSO READ: Redmi 12 Price in Nepal (April 2024 Updated)

Infinix Hot 30i Review

Flashy Design

• 164 x 75.75 x 8.4 mm
• 191 g
• Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
• Diamond-cut design plastic back

The Hot 30i has a diamond-cut design on its back. It shines when light hits it at different angles. We used the Diamond White color option and the back didn’t catch a lot of fingerprints.

Both the cameras and flash have separate modules and protrude out the back which causes the phone to wobble when used flat on the desk. That said, it’s still quite usable for tasks that don’t require precise input.

Holding the phone, it feels solid in the hand as the phone weighs around 190gm. The small lip between the frame and the display would feel weird when using the phone. It felt as if the phone had a case on it.

The Hot 30i has a diamond-cut design which comes out in certain lighting condition.

The volume rockers and power button, which doubles as a fingerprint scanner, are placed on the right side of the phone. The fingerprint scanner is placed quite decently so that even people with smaller hands can reach it easily and we had no issues using it. It’s fast and accurate.

The left side of the phone consists of the sim tray while the bottom has the 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone, USB-C, and single downward-firing speaker. The top is clean.

Fast Display

• 6.56 inches IPS LCD
• 720 x 1612 pixels
• 90Hz refresh rate

The Hot 30i has a fairly decent sized 6.56 inches HD resolution display which is nothing special and exactly what you would expect at this price range. But something that is special would be the 90Hz refresh rate which makes the phone feel fluid and responsive.

At this budget, it’s pretty rare to find fast refresh rate phones. Scrolling and animations all work at 90Hz whereas Youtube is limited to 60Hz.

The phone gets up to 500 nits of brightness which is not a lot. Outdoor visibility is only decent with visibility in direct sunlight causing issues. We often found ourselves squinting our eyes to see the content on screen.

The IPS display is fast but doesn’t get bright enough for good outdoors visibility.

With that said, indoor usage had no issues and the screen colors are pretty neutral. We enjoyed watching videos on Youtube and there were no noticeable frame drops or lags.

Average Performance

• Mediatek Helio G37 (12nm)
• Octa-core (4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53)
• PowerVR Rogue GE8320
• 8GB RAM 128GB storage

The phone comes in two configurations: 4/64GB and 8/128 GB. The one we tested was the 8/128GB and all tests were performed with +8GB virtual memory to get the best results. The Helio G37 is a chip we often see on budget offerings. It’s a 12nm Octa-core (4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53) CPU and the phone comes with PowerVR Rogue GE8320 for the GPU.

Daily usage is fine. App opening can take some time but app switching is fast and RAM management is also decent. Can hold apps in memory for quite some time.

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Well, the performance is decent with benchmark scores coming over the average of other competitors with the same chip. Also, the thermals stay relatively cool which is really good.

We couldn’t run the 3D mark test as the device didn’t support all Vulkan features required for the test.

The haptics of the phone are surprisingly decent given the price. The feedback from the motor is good and has consistent strength. Typing was a pleasant experience on this device.

GAMING

We ran PUBG Mobile and got an average of 24.8 fps with balanced graphics and medium framerate. During the time of our testing, this combination was the highest we could go. The phone heated to a peak of 39.8°C and the average temperature was 38.6°C. The frame rate consistency was good and the temperature didn’t cause any issues allowing the gameplay to be enjoyable.

The situation was quite similar with Asphalt 9. We got an average of 22.6 fps with High quality preset. The phone got to 35°C on average and peaked out at 38°C and the overall gameplay was quite smooth.

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Casual games like Alto’s Odyssey, and Subway Surfers played smoothly as well.

Average Camera

• Rear Camera: 50 MP, f/1.6, 4.11mm, 1/2.76″, 0.7µm, AF
  • QVGA, (depth)
  • Video: 1080p@30fps
• Front Camera: 5 MP, f/2.0, 2.79mm, 1/4.96″
  • Video: 1080p@30fps

The Hot 30i has a dual camera setup with one of the cameras being used for depth so you really only have 1 camera to play with. Let’s talk about that main 50MP camera first.

MAIN CAMERA

The main camera had fast focus and good dynamic range but darker areas can have details crushed in some shots resulting in only somewhat decent photos. It can be hit or miss but at this price, we really can’t complain much.

Normal photos are binned at 12MP. They have a slight pink tone but the overall colors are neutral. Daylight images are good with decent details captured. The photos average about 3 – 4MB in size.

The 50MP photos have a slightly green tone compared to the binned photos. They also capture more details and the image is cleaner when zoomed in. Photos average about 14 – 18MB in size.

Close-up shots retain good detail and focusing was quick. The bokeh looks natural and is pleasing.

HDR tends to boost shadows. It can alter the color of the objects in that area as a result.

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Well, we tried out other modes this phone has on offer. Starting off with the panorama mode. Panorama stitching is decent but can really mess up sometimes if it loses the reference point.

Also, the white balance on some shots comes out completely off. This was very noticeable in shots with lots of clouds, which shifted the white balance to a slightly warmer tone, completely missing the actual cold tone in real life.

There’s no dedicated night mode but AI scene detection makes adjustments for the shot. It’s not anything to be impressed by, however.

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PORTRAITS

The rear portrait mode is not very good. The color and skin tones are natural, but the edge detection is bad and causes ghosting near the edges. In some shots, parts of the background blended in with the foreground and is a letdown overall.

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FRONT CAMERA

Indoor shots with backlight will activate HDR and can seem artificially processed. There’s not a lot of detail in the image itself as the front camera is only 5MP and darker areas have visible noise.

Also, the colors are not very accurate. The front portrait mode has half-decent edge detection. It detects sharp edges correctly but struggles with more natural, organic edges. Especially the hair can get a bit wonky.

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In bright natural light, it is able to capture more details. The photo comes out sharp but still has a visible level of noise. The skin tone is natural and photos don’t look over-processed.

However, brightly lit objects can have their color altered. We also see a LED flash at the front, it’s been a while since we’ve seen that.

VIDEOS

The phone is able to shoot up to 1080p@30fps. The video lacks stabilization. The video has decent details but can look a bit oversharpened.

Not anything special but not horrible. For the price, video is usable.

Large Battery

• Non-removable Li-Po 5000mAh battery
• 10W fast charging

For some reason, our unit didn’t display battery usage. So, we’re just vaguely going by the user experience here.

Anyways, over the 3 days from a full charge with some gaming, benchmarks, and youtube, we were left with around 50% charge with an estimated 4-hour SOT.

The phone also features a LED notfication light for charging status.

For charging, the phone came with a 10W adapter, and it takes over 3 hours for a 0-100% charge. Yikes.

Decent Software

• Android 12
• Infinix XOS

Well, we weren’t expecting much in software optimizations as it’s a budget phone. The phone comes with Android 12 out of the box with Infinix’s XOS running on top.

We got 2 updates after unboxing the phone. And yeah, all testing was done with the latest software version as well.

We saw a couple of bloatwares in the form of Beez, CarlCare, and YoParty which were installed on the phone. Most of them can be removed except for a couple of Infinix’s in-house X-software.

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As stated before, the battery usage chart wasn’t available on our unit. Restarting the phone didn’t fix it and maybe it’s a software bug that can be fixed with an update. 

The software also has customization options as you’d expect for a custom skin running on top of Android. You have the double tap to wake/sleep screen, dynamic colors, and App Cloner. You also get gestures and actions with the phone like “flip to mute calls”, “raise to answer” and many others.

Final Thoughts

So this was our Infinix Hot 30i review. For a phone that starts at under Rs. 15K, the Hot 30i is quite decent. It may not be the best at any specific category but at this budget, it has a good overall performance and consumers should go in with lowered expectations as well when shopping at this budget.

The 50MP camera will shoot decent photos in good lighting condition and the photos are good enough for social media. It’s not the best performer in games but the level it performs at, it’s enjoyable. Don’t expect to run highly graphical intense games on a phone in this budget really.

The only complaint we can really make is that it supports only 10W fast charging for a big battery of 5000mAh. It can take over 3 hours for a full charge, that’s quite long in this day and age.

It’s a good first phone for younger people or a good gift for your elders to stay connected on social media.

Hardcore phone users might want to look away, not only from this phone but from this price range.

So that was our review of the Infinix Hot 30i? How’d you like that? Let us know in the comments below!