Infinix Note 5 Review: Best Stock Android Phone Under Rs 10,000

Transsion Holding market share is on a rise in India. As per the latest IDC quarterly results (Q2, 2018) its quarterly shipments of smartphones stand at five percent which of course clubs phones under several brands including Infinix, Techno and iTel, and Spice.  The company’s online wing, Infinix, has taken its next big leap and has finally decided to join Android One platform and the Infinix Note 5 becomes its first Android One based smartphone in the country. (Infinix Note 5 review हिंदी में पढ़े)

But can it challenge the duopoly of Xiaomi’s two popular kids – Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Y2? Lets find out in our Infinix Note 5 review:

Jump To:

• Infinix Note 5 Review : Specification
• Review Infinix Note 5 : Box Content
• Infinix Note 5 Review : Design And Build
• Review Infinix Note 5 : Display
• Infinix Note 5 Review : Performance ans Software
• Review Infinix Note 5: Camera Performance
• Infinix Note 5 Review : Battery, Connectivity and Audio
• Verdict For Infinix Note 5 with Pros. & Cons.

Infinix Note 5 Specifications

Infinix Note 5 – What’s in the box

• Phone
• Power adapter
• Micro-USB cable
• Screen Protector
• Ejector Pin

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Infinix Note 5 Review – Design and Build

Infinix Note 4’s (review) successor appears to have evolved with elusive changes in design. Infinix has embedded all modern traits including an 18:9 display on the front and mirror finish for the back cover.

The reflective glass-like finish gives it a distinctive look in crowded affordable smartphone space. However, it also means that the Infinix new Note is a smudge magnet. It has slanting edges which ensure that phone fits well in the hand. There is 2.5D glass on the front with a large chin and forehead. It features a micro USB port, speaker holes and 3.5mm audio jack on the bottom. While the left edge is like a clean slate, the right edge features plastic volume rocker, a power key and a dual Micro SIM and one microSD tray.

The phone boasts of a massive 4500mAh battery, however, it doesn’t really feel proportionally heavy while holding it in hands. With big batteries inside, weight management becomes an important aspect. That is where Infinix has done really well.

Its hard glossy polycarbonate back probably also proved beneficial in keeping overall weight under check. As for build quality, we applied pressure with our two thumbs and it didn’t budge. Passed!

The brand hasn’t mentioned anything about the Note 5 display protection, therefore, its best to use a screen protector and a case and thankfully Infinix is providing both.

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Infinix Note 5 Review – Display

Like all Infinix phones, the Note 5 display favours rich colors and plays to the galleries, which is perhaps what most users like. The phone houses an 18:9 with full HD+ resolution (1080 x 2160pixels) and 480dpi. The Note 5 screen is sharp and vivid with good contrast levels. The white point is, however, a little too blue for our taste. Like most other Android One phones, the Note 5 doesn’t have an option to tweak colors.

Buyers who aren’t picky about display quality should be happy with the display quality. 

Infinix Note 5  Review – Performance and Software

Let’s discuss the Note 5 software first. For the first time, Infinix is offering pure Android in its device out-of-the-box. It comes running on Oreo 8.1.0 with July security patch. It is refreshing to see an Infinix phone with no bloatware.

As per Google’s Android One policy, a manufacturer can only pre-install only three its apps from its side and so Infinix adds its own XOS Camera 3.0, XClub and Carlcare apps. The good thing is you can uninstall both XClub and Carlcare apps. Infinix also promises Android P upgrade for the phone.

The Infinix Note 5 debuts with MediaTek MT6367 chipset (also known as Helio P23) featuring under the hood. The chipset eight Cortex A53 cores all clocked at 2.0GHz and it is accompanied by Mali-A71 GPU.

For your review, we tested the 3GB RAM and 32GB storage variant of the phone. For the first time, apps took an extra second to load into cache but once loading was done usage was smooth. Multitasking experience wasn’t bad either.

As for gaming, we tried out PUGB while at highest settings we noticed some frame drops and temp too notched up by a couple of centigrades, nothing alarming though. Having said that all, we can’t really complain as it does fairly well as per its price.

Infinix Note 5 Review – Camera Performance

The Note 5 rear panel is studded with a 12-megapixel camera which has a 1.25-micron pixel size, f/2.0 aperture and an LED flash. For selfies, Infinix added a 16-megapixel camera on the front which company says have been optimized for the low light.

Well, in our test, the Note 5 rear camera fell short of our expectation. The images taken in both daylight and in low light had visible noise and details were not as well pronounced as compared to the competition. The Note 5 images show decent dynamic range, though.

Where it manages to impress us is the selfie camera performance. It manages to beat likes of Realme 1 in selfies. The selfies look clean and have a good amount of details in them. Even in indoors, the camera manages to take decent selfies.

Infinix Note 5 Review – Battery, connectivity, and Audio

The Infinix Note 5 boasts of a massive 4500mAh battery which is clearly one of its high points. We have been using this phone for past couple of weeks now and each day I went to bed with around 30-percent battery left in the tank.

Thorugh out the day, I used my phone for web surfing, staying in touch with my friends and family over the phone and on social media, a bit of WiFi tethering and for entertainment. As for the audio quality, it is average at best.

We didn’t face any issue with call quality in our area.

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Infinix Note 5 – Should you buy it?

The Infinix Note 5 is one of the best-looking devices Infinix Mobility launched so far in India. What else works in its favor is a vibrant display, decent performance, excellent battery performance and, of course, Android One based clean Oreo software. While the rear camera fell short of our expectation, the selfie camera performed really well.

With such features, the new Infinix smartphone is worth considering in the budget mobile segment in India. Especially for people looking for Xiaomi Redmi alternatives.

Infinix Note 5 Pros and Cons