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Infinix HOT 10S Review

Infinix Mobile is one of the smartphone companies known for its value offerings, and the release of the Infinix HOT 10S continues that trend, offering a large screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, triple-rear cameras, and a massive 6,000mAh battery, starting at just under PHP 6K. But can it compete with other budget smartphones in the market? Find out in our review.

Table of Contents

Design and Construction

The Infinix HOT 10S has a tall form factor with a 3D curved back making it comfortable to hold even with its size. The back is made of a glossy polycarbonate with a diamond pattern, making it look more youthful and eye-catching at the same time. However, it is highly prone to fingerprint smudges, so we recommend using the free hard case included in the box. Our unit has the Morandi Green colorway, but it is also available in Black, Purple, and Heart of Ocean.

At the back are its rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, triple camera module with an LED flash, and Infinix branding.

Situated on the left side is the dual-SIM card tray with a dedicated microSD card slot.

While on the right are its volume rockers alongside its sleep/wake button.

Nothing can be found at the top, while at the bottom are its 3.5mm audio jack, primary microphone, and loudspeaker. I know it’s already 2021, but yes, we still have the old micro-USB port here.

It is also worth mentioning that the Infinix HOT 10S feels a little hefty, but we can attribute that to its large battery capacity.

Display and Multimedia

The Infinix HOT 10S sports a 6.82-inch IPS LCD panel with HD+ resolution. Although not exactly hi-res, it has a 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate, which enables smooth visuals and good touch response that is beneficial in gaming. A nice compromise if you ask us, but still depends on the user’s preference.

It produces punchy colors and has decent viewing angles. It’s not as vibrant as we prefer so using it in the bright outdoors can be an issue. Overall, this display is okay. It is not great but is enough for scenarios like browsing through your social media apps, gaming, and watching Netflix and YouTube.

The speaker quality, on the other hand, is decent. It can fill up the room at maximum volume but might sound a little muddy, so we highly recommend taking advantage of the 3.5mm audio jack while it’s there for a more immersive media-consuming experience.

Camera

The Infinix HOT 10S has a 48MP F1.8 wide lens, a 2MP F2.4 depth sensor, and an AI lens. For selfies, we got an 8MP front camera. Even though the back is composed of three lenses; the latter two are there to aid the main camera for effects. The image quality coming from the 48MP sensor is decent, you’ll get punchy colors with enough details and dynamic range in well-lit conditions. What’s not so good about it is that there are scenarios where the contrasts are crushed, making the overall image quality washed out and a bit noisy.

There’s also a night mode, which is effective in brightening a dark scene. But in return, you’ll lose detail, making the images look a little muddy. The colors also suffer and look pale. Portrait mode is also present and does its job well, however, it makes the subject, especially the skin, softer than we prefer.

The Infinix HOT 10S can shoot videos up to 1080p at 30fps. However, since there’s no OIS, clips taken from this device can be shaky, especially when taking videos while walking. Additional features include Slow Motion, Beauty Mode, AR shot, Documents scanner, panorama, and timelapse.

OS, UI, and Apps

Running the software department is Android 11 skinned with XOS 7.6. The UI looks clean, straightforward, and easy to navigate. There’s also a lot of customization options baked inside to suit your preference. You can adjust things like icon size, folder thumbnail, and even the text color, just like most Androids.

It also comes with some extra apps from Infinix like XShare, XClub, AHA Games, and other utility apps like file manager, Phone clone, and Xtheme. Out of 128GB of storage, there’s 115GB of usable storage, and if that is not enough, you can opt to expand it via the microSD card.

Performance and Benchmarks

Under the hood of the Infinix HOT 10S is the MediaTek Helio G85 chipset with a Mali-G52 GPU, 6GB of RAM. The configuration can handle basic to moderate tasks, from casual web browsing, editing photos in Lightroom, and up to playing graphically intensive games such as Genshin Impact and Asphalt 9 in low to medium settings.

As for the benchmarks, check out the scores below:

AnTuTu v8 – 218,327
Geekbench 5 – 348 (Single-core), 1336 (Multi-core), 1184 (OpenCL)
PCMark – 7,342 (Work 3.0)
3DMark – 1,846 (OpenGL 3.1), 1,384 (Vulkan), 899 (WIld Life)
AndroBench – 302.28 MB/s (Seq. Read), 186.74 MB/s(Seq. Write)

It is also worth noting that it gets hot when used for extended periods of time, especially when playing games. Also, when several apps are running in the background, navigation can feel a little sluggish at times, even with 6GB onboard, so we highly suggest you close the apps running in the background every once in a while. For biometrics and security, there’s the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and face unlock, which does its job well.

Connectivity and Battery Life

The Infinix HOT 10S comes with standard connectivity features such as 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, dual-SIM card support, and NFC.

The Infinix HOT 10S is equipped with a massive 6,000mAh battery with support for 10W fast charging. It was able to last for a day and a half when mostly connected to WiFi. With LTE on, we still get a full day with it.

In the PCMark’s Battery Test, it was rated for 22 hours and 18 minutes, while our standard video loop test, which involves playing a 1080p video on loop with Airplane mode turned on at 50% brightness and volume, and headset plugged in, got us 17 hours and 14 minutes of playback. Charging, on the other hand, takes more than 2 hours, which isn’t surprising considering its size and low charging rate.

Conclusion

Even with its shortcomings, this smartphone is still a solid daily driver. You’ll get a 90Hz screen refresh rate on its large 6.82-inch display, a decent set of cameras, and a massive battery. If you’re a casual user who needs a device for streaming content and playing light games, this one will serve you well. The micro-USB port, though, can be a downer for some, but it’s not a serious disadvantage considering its asking price. At PHP 5,990USD 102INR 8,653EUR 97CNY 743 for the 4GB + 64GB and for PHP 6,990USD 119INR 10,098EUR 113CNY 867 for the 6GB + 128GB, the Infinix HOT 10S is one of the most affordable Helio G8-powered smartphones you can get right now.

So what do you guys think about the Infinix HOT 10S? Let us know in the comments section below!

Infinix HOT 10S specs:
6.82-inch HD+ (720 x 1640) IPS TFT display
90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate
MediaTek Helio G85
4GB, 6GB RAM
64GB, 128GB storage
Expandable up to 512GB via microSD
Triple rear cameras:
• 48MP
• 2MP
• AI lens
8MP front camera
4G LTE
Dual-SIM (nano)
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth
Fingerprint scanner (rear)
3.5mm audio jack
micro USB
XOS 7.6 (Android 11)
6,000mAh battery
171.5 x 77.5 x 9.2mm

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Arel Ebana

Arel studied Material Science Engineering at Mapúa University while working part-time as a multimedia producer in YugaTech. He is also a theater actor, cinematographer, and editor at Tanghalang SAWAKAS, and Vincentiments. He has been doing films for a year while doing stage performances for 5 years already.