Infinix Hot 9 Review

Chinese tech giant Transsion holding’s online subsidiary Infinix recently introduced two new budget smartphones in India – Hot 9 and Hot 9 Pro. Both of these phones succeed the Hot 8-series, which according to Infinix was a hot seller on Flipkart and had over 4 crores searches.

The Hot 9 has been priced for Rs 8,499 while its Pro sibling retails for Rs 9,499 and Infinix seems quite confident about these two. We have the Hot 9 with us and based on our usage experience, here’s our Infinix Hot 9 review.

Infinix Hot 9 review: Price and Specifications

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Infinix Hot 9 Review: Design and Display

Design is one of the positive aspects of this budget offering from Infinix. It follows the prevailing industry trends including a punch-hole screen, vertically stacked rectangular rear camera array, and a glossy gradient back. The casing is made of plastic but the phone feels solid and sturdy.

Hot 9 is offered in violet and ocean wave colors which we feel are exciting but not garishly flashy. For this review, we have the violet shade with us, and we do think Hot 9 looks better than most of the phones in the segment.

The fingerprint sensor is present on the rear panel. Our Index finger can easily reach it, but it would have been more convenient were it positioned just a little lower. Similarly, the volume rocker and power button are placed slightly higher on the right edge. During my time with the phone, I often happened to lock my phone while trying to adjust the volume. No, I don’t have small hands, if that’s what you are wondering.

Once you flip over the phone, you will come face to face with a 6.6-inch HD+ LCD screen. Infinix has punched in a selfie camera on the left corner. The punch hole is bigger than conventional holes but honestly, that didn’t bother us. Displays on Inifinix phones usually tend to lean towards colder color temperature or bluish whites and that also is the case with Hot 9. The HD+ resolution is at par with other phones currently offer in this price segment. The brightness levels are decent so outdoor legibility shouldn’t be a problem.

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Infinix Hot 9 Review: Hardware and Software

Infinix’s love affair with MediaTek Helio P22 continues. The octa-core chipset that clocks up to 2.0 GHz is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage.

It is important to note that the phone is not meant for demanding gaming or running applications like Photoshop Express. The phone doesn’t feel snappy to us, but we didn’t face any stuttering while running basic apps.

Clearly, with Helio P22 at the heart, it is not meant for gaming. Even with not-so-graphic-intensive games like Teenpati and Ludo, we noticed a spike in temperature and rapid depletion in the battery.

Transsion Holding’s XOS custom ROM based on Android 10 is what you’d interact with. The software is feature-rich with all sorts of customization options available for the end-user. The bloatware, duplicate apps, and aggressive RAM management take away from user experience, but it would be unfair to criticize Infinix since adding third-party apps, bloatware, and UI-level ads is now an industry-wide norm.

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Infinix Hot 9 Camera Review

The Hot 9 also adheres to the industry trend of stacking multiple camera sensors. There are three cameras on the rear – 13MP, 2MP, 2MP. For Selfies, there is an 8MP single camera sensor on the front as well. Interestingly, Infinix has added LED flash on both sides for low light photography.

Once again, the camera performance isn’t Hot 9’s strong suit. We managed to click decent enough images in the proper daylight, but even then the phone struggled with focusing. There’s a bit of over sharping which is a common thing among phones in this price segment.

This is not a camera you’d take out very often in lowlight or tricky lighting.

Based on what we usually see in this budget, we didn’t expect much in terms of camera performance. The Hot 9 performed expectedly and isn’t something to write home about.

Infinix Hot 9 Review: Battery and Audio

The Hot 9 delivers an impressive battery life. We were able to consistently extract more than a days battery backup with easy on a single charge. If you are not a power user, the 5000mAh battery could easily last for 2 days. The phone comes with a 10W charger which means it is best to charge it overnight.

Let’s talk about audio. Infinix Hot 9 has a DTS badge stamped on the rear panel. Frankly speaking, the sound quality is decent but it isn’t that great. Audio output via headphone jack also deteriorates at high volume.

Infinix Hot 9 Review verdict: Should you buy it?

The Infinix Hot 9 makes sense as an entry segment smartphone where users primarily want their phone to get the basics right and to dabble with light tasks like browsing through their social media feeds, WhatsApp, video calling, mobile payments, etc.

The Infinix Hot 9 offers a flaunt worthy design and has a dependable battery. Having said that, Xiaomi’s Redmi 8 and Realme Narzo 10A that are similarly priced phones that offer slightly better smartphone experience.

Pros:

• Design
• Battery Life

Cons:

• Bloatware
• Aggressive RAM management

Infinix Hot 9 FAQ Answered