Infinix Hot 20
RM599.00
Pros
- Large display
- Good build quality
- Good battery life
- Affordable gaming phone
Cons
- Problem with camera app
- Launcher app can be improved
- Display is only up to 720p
The Infinix brand made its way to Malaysia recently and they left many footprints along the way, letting other brands know that the new kid on the block means business. Infinix brand smartphones are mostly targeted to the low and mid range users but still having the ability for heavy graphic gaming. There’s no surprise that new and young users are excited with Infinix’s gaming capabilities smartphone offers. And the new Infinix Hot 20 is one of them.
To make a good smartphone for gaming while keeping a low price tag, MediaTek chipsets were chosen to be the SoC that powers most of the Infinix smartphones. Bear in mind, MediaTek is a very strong contender to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoC, especially with the Dimensity series. And with the ability to add more RAM with the new RAM extension technology, Infinix is taking advantage of this feature by offering up to 11GB of RAM in their new Infinix Hot 20 line-up.
First Look at Infinix Hot 20
The unit that I received for review is the Legend White colourway and they come in three other colours – Sonic Black, Tempo Blue and Fantasy Purple. I do like the white version of it as it looks clean and elegant. The build is pretty solid and feels premium. AT this price point, I would think that it is absolutely worth the purchase.
The display is a large 6.82” in size with IPS LCD technology refreshing at a constant 90Hz refresh rate. The front facing camera sits in the middle near the top of the display and the screen almost fills up the entire front panel. Alas, you can easily notice a large chin at the bottom. It’s okay with me. But it may look a little out of place for some.
Around the back, there’s two large camera bumps that house the 50MP main camera with a large f/1.6 aperture, dubbed as their Super Nightscape camera. The Infinix Hot 20 also comes with a quad LED flash as well to provide that extra brightness for spontaneous shots in low light areas. More about the camera later on in the article.
Also to note, the back panel has a shiny surface which is usually a fingerprint magnet but since I am using the Legend White colourway, I can hardly see any fingerprint smudges. The white back panel looks premium as well because at one glance, it sort of looks like an expensive marble surface. But it’s all plastic here. Nevertheless, it looks good.
Moving to the sides, the volume rocker and the power button is located on the right side of the phone while there’s nothing on the left side except for the SIM/MicroSD tray. Nothing much at the top while at the bottom, you can see the usual USB-C port, a 3.5mm audio jack and the bottom firing speaker grille.
Overall, the Infinix Hot 20 is definitely a larger-than-usual Android device that is made suitable for entertainment and gaming. It is large enough to protrude out from my jeans pocket whenever I carry it around and it is visually obvious from afar. And since it has a shiny surface around the back, it can be slippery. So be wary of it when you place it in your pocket.
Performance and Daily Usage
As I mentioned earlier, the Infinix Hot 20 is powered by a MediaTek chipset. To be exact, it is powered by MediaTek G85 SoC which is made for gaming in mind. I honestly would prefer it to use the G95 version for that extra oomph when it comes to gaming. I guess they are trying to keep the price as low as possible while giving it the status as a gaming device with the G85.
To keep it simple, the MediaTek G85 comes with an 8-core processor with two of them being the high performance Cortex A75 core clocking at 2.0GHz and the rest is a low power Cortex A55 core with 1.8GHz clock speed. The G95 version however, is quite similar with two Cortex A76 cores clocking at 2.06GHz and six other Cortex A55 cores are clocking at 2.0GHz. So that is the difference between the two. However, both are using 12nm process technology, which is a little outdated by today’s standards.
In order to support the MediaTek G85, the Infinix Hot 20 comes with 6GB of RAM. But it comes with an additional 5GB of extended RAM that utilises part of the internal storage. So technically, you will get a total of 11GB of RAM on the Infinix Hot 20. It is a little odd but I don’t mind it at all. More RAM means more stable performance, in theory.
With that being said, it also comes with 128GB of internal storage for you to keep your memories alive. From what I’ve experienced recently, 128GB of storage should be the starting point for any upcoming phones, be it a low end phone or a mid range phone. 4GB of RAM as minimum is still okay, but bumping it up to 6GB is better. So the Infinix Hot 20 is sort of in the sweet spot.
In the software department, the Infinix Hot 20 is running Android 12 with their own XOS 12 launcher. I feel that their own XOS 12 interface needs a little more work but overall it looks fine. I also feel a little slight delay when it comes to touch responses when I type in my login PIN. Using the PIN to log into the phone only happens when the device restarted and I feel there is a slight delay on the touch response.
Browsing websites, using chat programs, looking at social media apps and some light gaming works well on the Infinix Hot 20. Multitasking works surprisingly well too with me opening the picture in picture (PIP) mode for YouTube while browsing some websites feels snappy.
With all the apps opened for multitasking, battery endurance is quite impressive. The massive 5000mAh battery can last me more than a day on a single charge even after a full day of use for entertainment and gaming. Come to think of it, I have experienced the battery lasted me close to three days when I don’t play games as much, plus less multitasking.
When it comes to games, the Infinix Hot 20 is made for gaming, sort of. The underrated and misinformed MediaTek G85 SoC is not popular with most Malaysian gamers because of the old rumours that MediaTek chips heat up easily. I never believed those rumours. I have been admiring MediaTek’s perseverance all these years. I have tested phones with G95 and G85, both chipsets can power some capable gaming phones while keeping the price low.
Running PUBG Mobile on the Infinix Hot 20 is fine. It’s just similar to a Snapdragon 720G to me. There are some hiccups in the beginning of the game but when everything is loaded up, it feels smoother. Gameplay is fun, all thanks to Infinix Hot 20’s large display. Screen response is just about right, not much delay here as opposed to the earlier mentioned delay after the phone restarts. Since it comes with a 3.5mm audio jack, it is wise to have an earphone on. The single bottom firing speaker doesn’t do any justice to the gaming sound quality.
Battery endurance when it comes to gaming is good. On full charge, I can go on for more than 3 hours of continuous gaming before I have to jab in the charger. Another thing to note, the Infinix Hot 20 does not heat up after a long gaming session, even when benchmarking it on Antutu. So the old rumours about MediaTek chips heating up doesn’t apply anymore.
Speaking of Antutu, the Infinix Hot 20 managed to hit 244309 score. I was hoping it would be higher. It may not look like much but gaming is not bad on this device. However, I feel that the Infinix Hot 20 may face some trouble if I play Genshin Impact instead. Too bad I didn’t get to try that. And on Geekbench, the Infinix Hot 20 managed to obtain 366 points on single-core score and 1417 points on multi-core score.
Overall performance and usage of the Infinix Hot 20 is okay. They want to create an affordable gaming phone with a MediaTek Helio G85 chipset, they got exactly that. Although it didn’t cross off all the good points in performance, in some ways, it is a capable phone.
Camera and Photography
There are two huge camera bumps at the back. The one at the top houses the main 50MP f/1.6 camera while the one in the bottom houses the depth sensor. For the front selfie camera, it is an 8MP wide angle camera that managed to shoot some okay shots for me.
The main camera is also dubbed as a Super Nightscape Camera that will absorb more light thus giving it a clearer image in low light areas. The large aperture of f/1.6 will help absorb more light onto the sensor. But we can only see the results to know if this is true. That being said, we can have a look at the photos below and you can be the judge.
When shooting photos in bright areas, I didn’t have any problem with getting good results. Most, if not all photos turns out great. Focus is on point and the colours are vibrant and details are just about right. This is the same with the selfie camera. Unless the subject is in motion, selfie photos brings in good facial details but somehow it loses on the colour saturation a little bit.
Brightly lit indoor areas are good as well. I find that taking indoor photos looks just the way I was expecting. Noise is kept low, details are good and overall, I’m happy with the results. The autofocus works well but at times, it took a little longer to “fine tune” its focus on a subject. Same goes with the capture button on the camera app. I took slightly longer to snap a photo, even after I pressed the button a few times. I don’t know why this is happening but I get it was the app problem.
When it gets dark, my expectations for a good nightography shots is pretty high since the Infinix Hot 20 is dubbed as the Super Nightscape Camera. All I can say is that when the dark area is nicely lit up with some lights in the surrounding area, photos turns up good. It is not bad actually. Noise is kept low as well even in the dark area of the photo. But in terms of colour accuracy, it may have missed a few details. When shooting in an almost complete darkness, I can see bits of noise around the dark areas.
In conclusion, the camera performance is as good as most mid-range phones these days and I am not that disappointed with the “nightography” capabilities on the Infinix Hot 20. The only annoyance that bugged me was the shutter lag between the time I pressed the button and when the phone actually snaps a photo. Perhaps the Infinix team should check on the camera app for this and squash a few bugs along the way.
Conclusion
The Infinix Hot 20 is a good mid-low range device. I find that it can be better if it comes with a Helio G95 but I’m guessing they are trying to keep the price low so that everyone can buy a gaming phone. In terms of gaming performance itself, I would give it a 6.5/10 rating. While it is capable of running PUBG Mobile rather smoothly, it may face problems with more graphic demanding games such as Genshin Impact.
For the camera and photography, I believe it is more about the software enhancements. The 50MP camera that comes with Infinix Hot 20 is basically based on Sony’s popular and universal camera sensor (I forgot which model). The camera hardware itself is good, but it is all about the software’s post-processing capabilities that defines the overall image quality. Autofocus tends to miss a few times as well.
The Infinix Hot 20 is good for everyday use, gaming and entertainment. The large display will appeal to many users making it fun for gaming and watching movies. The battery can last quite a while too and if you’re careful with your usage, you can extend the battery life up to 3 days without charging.
So if you’re thinking of getting a cheap and capable “gaming” phone, the Infinix Hot 20 is worth looking at. It is also a beautifully designed phone and it also feels premium. It is bigger than most phones and yet it is quite thin. If you already have a gaming phone, you can get the Infinix Hot 20 as your second phone for other uses. In the end, the choice is yours.
You can now purchase the Infinix Hot 20 from Infinix’s official Shopee page for only RM599.00.
