The Infinix ZERO 5G is the first 5G phone from the brand and is for the most part, impressive to say the least. This is because of the price to performance ratio that this device gives the customer. But what else does it have to offer? Find out in our review.
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
First let’s talk about the design of the device. At the back, the protruding camera hump is elegant and does stand out from a sea of devices with similar-looking camera bumps. This one is a smoothly curved camera hump that gives it a very premium feel.
It’s made out of plastic that looks very premium in its glossy finish but it is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. That is solved by the case that they include in the box which is always a plus for me.
On the front, the Infinix ZERO 5G packs a 6.78-inch display. The chin area is slightly thicker than the rest of the phone but it isn’t too obvious. It houses a punch-hole camera right in the middle which isn’t too obtrusive and isn’t the biggest punch hole I’ve seen.
As for buttons and ports, located on the right are all the buttons, specifically the power button (which doubles as a fingerprint scanner) and volume rocker. On the left side is your sim card tray, and a microSD card for expandable storage which is a rarity for phones these days.
Speaking of rarity, on the bottom is a headphone jack, and your USB Type-C port for charging and a speaker grill.
Display and Multimedia
For its display, it sports a 6.78-inch IPS display with Full HD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The display isn’t AMOLED and I assume that this is why they can offer this smartphone at a very competitive price point. As for color reproduction, it leaves quite a bit to be desired, especially if you’ve seen other phones equipped with AMOLED displays. Some media looks washed out on the screen and is on the bluer side of the spectrum.
The phone can reach 500 nits of brightness and is enough for most lighting conditions but you might want to head to shade if you are going to use this phone outdoors. I found it a bit hard to use the phone outside.
Audio quality was just okay. It was loud for the most part with the single downward-firing speaker but clarity leaves a lot to be desired. Call quality was good and you wouldn’t have a problem here.
Camera
We have a triple camera setup consisting of a 48MP wide sensor, a 13MP telephoto cameras and a bokeh camera. I have to say, in good sunlight the pictures come out great with good detail. Images produced with ample lighting produce vibrant colors and details are present. Highlights, like similar phones in this price range, are overblown in some scenarios.
When it comes to low light shots, it isn’t anything noteworthy in my opinion, some shots just come out muddy, but depending on your usage it may vary.
As for selfies, images produced look pretty okay, nice details, good colors, nothing that really stands out. Usable for social media posting but nothing more.
OS, UI, and Apps
Running the software department is Android 11 with XOS 10 UI. In 2022, I usually expect a certain level of refinement from an OS, even if it’s a skin. This one is one of the biggest cons I can say about this phone. The icons are a bit of a mess, with icon docks everywhere. The notifications tray has everything you need, but that’s the problem here, it’s all just splattered there in a very unorganized manner in my opinion. The neon green accents throughout the UI also didn’t impress me.
Out of the 128GB base storage that came with the device, we were left with a usable space of just 111GB out of the box.
For biometrics and security it comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner and facial recognition. Both scanners are snappy and I have nothing to complain about here.
Performance and Benchmarks
Under the hood of the Infinix ZERO 5G is a MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G chip, together with a Mali-G68 MC4 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage.
The day-to-day usage of the Infinix ZERO 5G is pretty impressive, especially at this price point. It’s very responsive and multitasking isn’t a problem. Take a look at the benchmark scores we got:
- AnTuTu v8 – 396,582
- Geekbench 5 – 719 (Single-core), 2,090 (Multi-core), 2,577 (OpenCL)
- PCMark – 8,370 (Work 3.0)
- 3DMark – 3,759 (OpenGL 3.1), 3,631 (Vulkan), 588 (WildLife Extreme)
- AndroBench – 987.45 MB/s (Seq. Read), 707.3 MB/s (Seq. Write)
Gaming performance is good and can even outshine other mid-range smartphones. Don’t expect it to run graphics-intensive titles perfectly, though, but the phone is a very capable gaming device and handles most games with minimal stutters.
Connectivity and Battery
The Infinix ZERO 5G comes with all the modern connectivity features such as WiFi, dual SIM support, Bluetooth 5.2, USB Type-C, NFC, and 5G.
When it comes to battery, the device gets a chunky 5,000mAH battery. It can last you a full day no problem and you may be able to get it to two. When we ran it through a standard video loop test it lasted us 16 hours and 20 minutes of playback. This phone really wins in the battery department.
It also comes with a 33W wired charger that can get you really fast charging speeds, so again, battery isn’t really an issue with this smartphone.
Conclusion
Priced at PHP 11,990, the Infinix ZERO 5G is definitely a winner in my books with a couple of compromises, which let’s be honest, at this price point is something you can live with. It delivers outstanding performance and is a reliable daily driver that you can use throughout the day.
Infinix delivers a winner with the ZERO 5G and if I were you, I’d take a hard look at this smartphone, as you get a trendy design, decent cameras, and really great battery life at a price point others can beat.
Infinix ZERO 5G specs:
6.78-inch FHD+ (2460 x 1080) IPS LTPS display, 388ppi
120Hz refresh rate
MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G SoC
Mali-G68 MC4 GPU
8GB LPDDR5 RAM
128GB UFS 3.1
microSD card slot (dedicated)
Triple-rear cameras:
• 48MP F1.8 main
• 13MP F2.5 telephoto, 2x optical zoom
• 2MP depth
16MP F2.0 front camera
5G, 4G LTE
Dual-SIM
WiFi 6
Bluetooth
GPS, A-GPS
USB-C
3.5mm audio jack
XOS 10 (Android 11)
5,000mAh battery w/ 33W fast charging
168.7 x 76.5 x 8.8 mm (dimensions)
199 grams (weight)
Cosmic Black, Horizon Blue, Skylight Orange (colors)
