Infinix Hot 10 Review: Budget Gaming Champ

February 15, 2021

Hot series is among the most popular lineup in Infinix’s portfolio and today I have got the new Infinix Hot 10. Despite being a budget phone under $150, Infinix has included a big display and a powerful Helio G70 chipset in here. Let’s learn more about the Infinix Hot 10 in this review.

Infinix Hot 10 Specifications:

Body: 171.1 x 77.6 x 8.88-mm, 195gm, Plastic body with gem-cut finish
Display: 6.78-inches TFT IPS panel, Infinity-O panel
Resolution: HD+ (1640 x 720 pixels)
Chipset: MediaTek Helio G70 (12nm mobile platform)
CPU: Octa-core (2×2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6×1.7 GHz Cortex-A55)
Memory: 4/6GB RAM, 64/128GB storage (expandable)
Software & UI: XOS UI on top of Android 10
Rear Camera: Quad,
– 16MP primary lens
– 2MP macro lens
– 2MP depth sensor
– AI sensor
– Quad-LED flash
Front Camera: 8MP with dual-flash
Security: Physical fingerprint sensor (rear-mounted)
Audio: DTS Audio, 3.5mm headphone jack
Connectivity: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM), WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, GPS, Bluetooth, GPS, Micro USB, OTG
Battery: 5200mAh with 10W (5V/2A) charging
Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyro, Light, Proximity, Compass
Color options: Obsidian Black, Amber Red, Moonlight Jade, Ocean Wave
Price in Nepal: Rs. 18,490 (4/128GB)
Buy here (Daraz)

Infinix Hot 10 Review:

Quickly unboxing the device, you get the phone itself, a 10W charger, and a Type A to micro-USB cable. Infinix also includes a screen protector inside the box and you’re better off installing it since the phone doesn’t come with any kind of Gorilla Glass protection.

Design & Build

Glass front, plastic back, plastic frame
Reflective gem-cut design
Attracts fingerprints, smudges easily

Ports, Buttons

1 of 2

At the back, as you can see, it has a plastic body with a gem-cut design. It becomes visible while tilting the device at different angles. But because it has a glossy back, it attracts fingerprints marks and smudges quite easily. Thankfully, there is a clear case included in the box.

More on the aesthetics, the camera module hardly protrudes so there’s very little chance to get scratched while placing on a flat surface. Similarly, there’s a fingerprint sensor at the back, which is quite fast and accurate. Still and all, it is a massive phone. However, I didn’t find it to be bulky or heavy and the Infinix Hot 10 is quite ergonomic on hands too.

Display

6.78-inches HD+ IPS LCD screen
Punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera

On the display front, you are greeted with a big 6.78-inch panel. It’s your regular HD+ IPS LCD, so you can notice the lack of sharpness but only if you get very close to the display. Big screen with a compact resolution has been a common mantra in multiple Infinix phones and this one’s no different.

Barring the mediocre pixel density, the display quality is quite good. It is moderately bright with oversaturated colors and good viewing angles, although there is a slight hint of a bluish tint.

Throughout the review, I found the touch-response on the Infinix Hot 10 to be very good too. So yeah, pretty good display for the price. Likewise, if you look closely at the top bezels, you will notice two LED flash for the selfie camera that is placed on either side of the earpiece. And one of them also lights up during charging—thus doubling as a notification LED.

Performance

Octa-core MediaTek Helio G70 SoC (12nm)
4/6GB RAM with up to 128GB internal storage (expandable)

On the performance side of things, as I mentioned earlier, you get the MediaTek Helio G70 chipset, which is an excellent choice for gaming on a budget. By the way, Infinix already has a G70-powered phone available in Nepal, the Infinix Note 7.

And with a whopping 6GB of RAM onboard, during my usage, I didn’t notice any hiccups while doing normal tasks. Even multitasking is smooth and is void of any excruciating lag/stutter.

Gaming Experience

I am also quite satisfied with its gaming performance. In PUBG Mobile, you can bump the graphics to HD and frame rates to High. But for the best experience, Medium graphics and Ultra frame rate will result in smooth gameplay with no frame drops.

Similarly, you can play COD Mobile on Medium graphics and High refresh rate smoothly. I did experience frame drops while playing Asphalt 9 at high graphics but you can easily dial down the settings for optimized gameplay.

To further enhance your gaming experience, Infinix has also included a dedicated Game Mode. It improves your gameplay through effective management of CPU, GPU, network, and other relevant resources. You can even use the game mode app to re-map the volume up/down button for additional in-game functions.

UI/UX

Like with all the Infinix phones, this one also comes with XOS skin based on Android 10. The problem with this skin is it comes with a lot of bloatware and you will frequently be bombarded with ads. And the only way to turn them off is to disable the notification of the app altogether.

Talking of other features, there’s something called “Power Boost” which has a list of features that you can either turn on or off to get your desired battery endurance. The phone also has a dark mode which is rather unpolished and still needs improvement as is not entirely customized for all apps.

Cameras

Quad-camera setup at the back
(16MP main, 2MP macro, 2MP depth, AI lens)
8MP selfie camera inside the punch-hole cutout

Cameras

1 of 2

Another not-so-good aspect of the Infinix Hot 10 is its cameras. It features a quad-camera setup with a primary 16MP primary lens, and the other 3 being 2MP useless lenses.

Infinix Hot 10’s lenses are the epitome of a gimmicky camera setup.

And even, the images from the supposedly standout 16MP lens are not very impressive.

Normal Images

They’re lacking in detail and color processing is also a bit off.

Normal

1 of 7

It’s only with good lighting that the camera brings out acceptable images. But again, it’s a budget phone and we cannot expect its cameras to be exceptional, I guess.

Portrait Images

The portraits are not so bad though. Like with primary images, if you manage to capture portraits in good lighting, they come out usable.

Portrait

1 of 4

Still, the subjects look a little soft. You can also change the amount of background blur as per your liking, so that’s a handy feature to have.

Selfie Images

As far as the selfies are concerned, even they suffer from the lack of sufficient saturation.

Selfie

1 of 4

Also, low-light images are plainly soft and the background lacks proper exposure management in many instances.

Nighttime Images

On a different note, the Infinix Hot 10 comes with a dedicated night mode that helps make the pictures brighter in a low-light environment.

Nighttime

1 of 8

But sadly, this feature plays no role in making the images sharper or bring out more details. However, it does bump the saturation to a large extent which makes the images look very unnatural.

Videography

On a surprising turn of events, the Hot 10 can shoot 2K videos from both front and back cameras. The footages are extremely shaky and lack exposure control. Even scaling down to 1080p will not make stabilization better.

All in all, like with all budget phones, this one too does not have that impressive camera performance. But it would have been better if the company had provided a better primary sensor instead of giving 4 unnecessary lenses, 3 of which are completely useless.

Battery

5200mAh battery with 10W charging (Micro USB)

As far as the battery is concerned, Infinix Hot 10 has a big 5,200mAh cell whose endurance is quite impressive. I would go as far as to say that the battery is one of the scarce redeeming qualities of the Infinix Hot 10.

I was consistently able to get up to 8 hours of screen-on-time. My usage mostly consisted of binging YouTube, browsing social media, and gaming. So it’s fair to say that this phone will easily last over a single day under normal usage. But charging up the battery takes quite a lot of time since the phone only supports 10W charging via the Micro USB port.

Audio

Down-firing mono speaker
3.5mm headphone jack

About the speaker, the phone has a down-firing one that can get loud enough. It is good enough for casual gaming and for watching videos. It is better than speakers in most budget devices even though it suffers from distortion at high volume.

Conclusion

To conclude, I think the Infinix Hot 10 is a standout budget gaming smartphone. Its price is similar to that of the Poco C3 and Samsung Galaxy M02s, but the Hot 10 offers much better performance and a bigger display too.

So, if you are on a tight budget, but still want a good gaming phone, the Infinix Hot 10 is indeed a very good option. But bear in mind that the Hot 10 doesn’t have a reliable camera, so if you want a good camera phone on a budget, I suggest you cash out a bit more and get the Poco M3 or the Moto G9 Play.