Infinix Hot Note Review

Display and Multimedia

The Hot Note has a 5.5-inch display – the minimum size for a phablet, with HD resolution or equal to a decent 267ppi. It has good viewing angles on the left and right side but color shifts when viewed for the top left and bottom right. One notable feature hidden in its settings is Clearmotion which simulates higher frame rates for videos resulting to smoother playback.

It is also worth noting that the Hot Note’s display is one of the brightest we’ve encountered for a phone of its class, making it very legible even when outdoors. It could use a tweak though when it comes to minimum brightness as it is still too strong when used in dark environments like a movie theatre or bedroom at night.

As for the speaker placed at the bottom rear, it is capable of producing an acceptable level of loudness and decent amount of bass. Not exactly booming but it is audible and crisp.

Camera

Handling the imaging department is the 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 2 megapixel front facing. The main camera snaps quick and is capable of two captures per second. Image quality is decent with good colors given the right conditions however when shooting indoors it tends to choose a slower shutter speed even when there’s abundant lighting, this results to images that are slightly blurred.

It doesn’t have a lot when it comes to in-camera features. It has HDR, Face beauty, Panorama, Frames, voice capture, gesture shot, and smile shot. The front camera, on the other hand, doesn’t offer much as well but will suffice for selfies thanks to its wide-angle lens.

As for video recording, the Hot Note can shoot videos at 1080p resolution at 30fps in 3GP format. It has good quality and decent dynamic range. Watch the sample below.

OS, UI, and Apps

The Hot Note’s software department is handled by Android 5.1 Lollipop with the company’s own user interface called XUI. It stays loyal to Lollipop’s material design down to the color scheme which is good for those who want a stock yet eye-catching appeal for a default launcher.

What the XUI brings to the table are the company’s proprietary apps like the Xender which lets you wirelessly transfer images, videos, files, even installed APKs to another Xender to another Infinix smartphone or PC. And HotKnot, which works like NFC, lets you easily transfer files between two Infinix devices in close proximity.

Other features include XContacts which lets you upload and download your phone contacts to and from the cloud (requires an X Account), Xwallpaper, Themes, Font Manager, and Standby Network Manager (prevents selected apps from accessing the network when screen is off). The XUI also comes with its own System Updater which means it accepts OTA updates from the company. We were told that Infinix Mobility is already testing Android 6.0 Marshmallow for their devices including the Hot Note.

As for pre-installed apps, the Hot Note comes with a lot of it. Aside from the usual Google offerings, it has Palmchat, Palmplay, Carlcare, SwiftKey, BBM, Opera Mini, WhatsApp, WPS Office, and Lazada. The good thing is, all of them can be uninstalled, giving you 10.97GB of usable space from the total 16GB. You can further expand it with microSD cards with up to 32GB.

Next Page: Performance and Benchmarks, Battery Life, Conclusion