One of the three new smartphones from Infinix and the most affordable of the bunch is the Infinix Hot 4 Pro — a 5.5-inch Android handset with decent specifications and LTE at a sub-Php6k price tag. Here’s our full review of the device.
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
Up front, the Hot 4 Pro looks like your typical Android smartphone with the 5.5-inch display dominating it. Above it are the earpiece, 5MP camera, sensors, and LED flash. Down below are three unlit capacitive buttons for navigation – Recent apps, Home, and Back.
The left side is devoid of any physical keys, while the right side houses the volume rocker and power/lock button.
Up top is the headset jack, while down at the bottom are the microUSB port and microphone.
Flip it on its back and you will see the 13MP camera, LED flash, fingerprint scanner, and loudspeaker. Take the backplate off and it will give you access to the two SIM card slots, and dedicated microSD card slot. The battery is also visible here but fixed to the chassis with screws.
Build-wise, the Hot 4 Pro is pretty hefty which can be attributed to the big battery. To help manage the weight, the body is mostly made of plastic. It’s solid though and well-made.
As for the design, it may look generic on the front but has something visually appealing at the back. The camera and fingerprint scanner are housed in a metallic frame, while the backplate has a slightly textured crisscross design. Overall, it’s still a nice-looking device.
Display and Multimedia
The Hot 4 Pro enters the phablet category with a 5.5-inch display. Resolution is a bit modest at HD which equates to 267ppi. It’s still good though especially for casual users, has natural colors, and wide viewing angles.
The loudspeakers, on the other hand, is nothing to be impressed about. It’s audible but very trebly. It’s okay for hands-free voice calls but for movies and music, better stick with good headphones or external speakers.
OS, UI, and Apps
Like its other new Infinix siblings, the Hot 4 Pro runs Infinix’s XOS v2.0.0 aka Chameleon and based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The layout is pretty much close to vanilla but with some tweaks which are evident in the icons and app drawer.
All applications are placed on the home screen, however, XOS still uses an app drawer icon to bring up a vertical list of all those apps in alphabetical order. We find it redundant and never really got to using it.
Speaking of apps, the Hot 4 Pro doesn’t have much from third-parties except for Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Palmchat, which you can uninstall. Other apps include those from Google as well as Infinix themselves.
Storage-wise, it doesn’t have a lot at 16GB with around 10GB left for the user. The good thing is it supports microSD cards through its dedicated slot.
Camera
Imaging is handled by a 13MP camera and a 5MP front for selfies. The rear camera can produce good photos with sharp details and well-saturated colors. Autofocus is fast in bright conditions but struggles in dim environments which can result in out-of-focus images. The front camera, on the other hand, will suffice for casual users. Nothing ground-breaking here but it has a front-facing LED flash for selfies in the dark. Take a look at some samples below:
As for videos, it maxes out at 720p resolution at 30fps which can be saved in either MP4 or 3GP format. Colors are good but details are oversharpened which is painful to look at. Watch the sample below:
Performance and Benchmarks
The Hot 4 Pro is powered by a MediaTek MT6737 quad-core CPU clocked at 1.3GHz, Mali-T720 GPU, and 2GB RAM. Although specs are modest, it was able to handle tasks pretty well. UI and animations are smooth, while the fingerprint scanner is responsive. Gaming is not an issue and we were able to play Asphalt Xtreme. There are some slight drop in frames in action-packed moments but minor enough to be ignored. Check out the benchmark scores below:
* AnTuTu – 25,186
* Quadrant Standard – 2,744
* Vellamo – 1,200 (Multicore), 947 (Metal), 2,071 (Chrome Browser)
* 3D Mark – 102 (Sling Shot ES 3.1)
* PC Mark – 1,844 (Work 2.0)
Connectivity and Call Quality
Connectivity is pretty basic on the Hot 4 Pro. There’s 4G LTE, dual-SIM, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. As mentioned before, it has a dedicated microSD card slot so you’re not limited unlike the hybrid setup used by other smartphones. There’s USB OTG as well so you can transfer files easily. As for call quality, so far it’s good as long as you’re in an area with good coverage.
Battery Life
Among the three new Infinix smartphones, the Hot 4 Pro carries the second-biggest battery at 4,000mAh. Combine that huge fuel tank with modest specs and you’re looking at really good battery life. We easily got a day and a half with light calls and SMS, heavy social media on WiFi, and light gaming. PC Mark’s battery benchmark even rated it a solid 14 hours and 13 minutes.
Like its big brother, the Note 3, the Hot 4 Pro also has different power modes to maximize battery performance: High-performance mode, Normal mode, and Power saving mode. There’s Ultra Power mode as well which limits the phone to basic functions to further extend battery life.
Conclusion
The Infinix Hot 4 Pro might be an entry-level offering but it offers some notable features not always found in a smartphone at this price range – decent performance, solid build, good camera, LED flash for the front camera, fingerprint sensor, and long battery life. At Php5,990 it’s an attractive offering for those with a tight budget.
The Infinix Hot 4 Pro is available at Lazada. See listing here.
Infinix Hot 4 Pro specs:
5.5-inch IPS LCD display, @ 1280 x 720 pixels, 267ppi
1.3GHz MediaTek MT6737 quad-core CPU
Mali-T720 GPU
2GB RAM
16GB storage
up to 32GB via microSD
13MP AF rear camera w/ LED flash
5MP front camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.1
GPS, A-GPS
USB OTG
Fingerprint sensor
XOS (Android Marshmallow)
4,000mAh battery w/ quick charge
152.6 x 76.2 x 8.8mm
175g
Pros:
* Solid build
* Good rear camera
* Long battery life
* Affordable price
Cons:
* UI needs some improvement
* Low internal storage
Great article. The bar was the very model and was pre-oval. I traveled and took photos on this phone. Of course now the model is already outdated, but it was generally super. I travel often and autonomy is important to me, as I once looked for airline tickets for several hours on the https://mytickets.ae/avia and the phone showed itself perfectly.
good article
Just bought used Hot 4 in Nigeria (https://jiji.ng/mobile-phones/infinix-hot-4-pro-x556) I’m impressed, very good phone in its price! I’m so satisfied with it. In my opinion good budget phone
Hello team,
I placed my infinix hot 4 pro in my pocket for several hours then the screen turned into zephyr and will not comeback to original..
Kindly assist how to fix it ????
Nice device though. I like this phone since I bought it.
Thanks for reviewing!!!
haahaha amputa gago lang mag review yugatech 16gb internal low? masyado ata mataas expectation nyo pangit nyo mag review hampaslupa
tanga nakin kasi yung memory 10gb lang usable gago
does it have a gorilla glass.
I thougth the infinix hot 4 pro support via micro sd slot of to 128 gb??
Dragontrail po ba to or gorilla glass?
any comment/idea on allegations that many phones from china, including some models of infinix, were infested with android malware?
Some of the paragraphs were cut from the previous review on Note 3 pro. Should have at least made reference to the previous. This piece got really boring to read.