Infinix Hot Note Review: Hot Big Teen

Touted and teased as Jim’s Big Thing, the Infinix Hot Note comes into the fray as a big boy, meant to fit into big hands, slide into big pockets, while being offered at an affordable price. It comes as a deserved upgrade to the Infinix Hot by coming with bigger screen, bigger battery, etc. But is bigger necessarily better?

Looking at its key features:

• 5.5-inch HD IPS display, with 720 ×1280 pixels (320 PPI).
• Android 4.4.2 Kitkat
• MediaTek MT6592 chipset with octa-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A7 processor, Mali 450-MP GPU and 1 GB of RAM.
• 8MP Autofocus camera with LED flash, with pixel count of 3840 x 2160 and Video recording of 1080p.
• 2MP front-facing camera, with pixel count 1929 x 1080 pixels and 480p video recording.
• Fully partitioned 16GB internal storage (11 GB usable).
• Dual SIM support, Both Micro-SIM, 3G switchable.
• 4000mAh battery, Non-removable with fast charging
• USB charging feature for other devices.

Main Disadvantages

• The front camera doesn’t cover a wide angle.
• Front bezels are too big
• 2 GB RAM here would’ve been more appreciated.

Read the full detailed Infinix Hot Note specifications, our Infinix Hot Note Hands on experience, as well as Infinix Hot Note Unboxing.

Hardware and Design:

The Infinix Hot Note’s body is made of plastic, with smooth and rounded edges. The back cover looks like metal, but on opening it you realize it is a thin plastic material, which will need handling with care to avoid breaking it. The bezels in front are particularly large, compared to more recent phone designs. They take up too much space. Infinix really should have made the back cover thicker, and implemented much smaller bezels, but then looking at the price, we can’t really ask for more. The right-hand side features the Power and Volume buttons. The 4000mAh battery at the back is sealed tight. At the top is the 3.5 mm earphone jack, while the charging port and microphone are found at the bottom.

Software and Display:

Here we have an Android version 4.4.2 KitKat, cleaned out and very similar to what is in the Infinix Hot. There are some Gesture controls built into this lovely device, including:

• Double tap to wake.
• Quick Start, which allows you to open certain apps by making gestures on the screen
• Waving answer: Answer a call by waving your hands over the sensor.
• Inadvertently Mode for locking the phone when it slides into your pocket , and more.

The inbuilt 16GB storage is fully partitioned as usual, with about 11 GB of it available to the user.

I noticed that the lowest brightness settings for this device is very, very dim – so dim that you can’t use the phone outdoors. This is a good way to save battery, and you can slightly increase it a bit to use as you wish.

On a scale of 1-10 I’d rate the display as 7. The display resolution is 720 ×1280 pixels with 320 PPI. As such, fonts are particularly large on this phone. The large, crisp display makes reading and browsing web pages quite appealing to the eyes.

Camera:
The Infinix Hot Note ships with an 8MP camera, which has a decent output. The images are just what you would expect from a typical 8MP camera – not poor and not outstanding. The images are sharp in well lit areas and a bit blurred in dark areas. The camera software is packed with lots of features, some of which can be activated in the settings: various scene modes, Face beauty, panorama, multi angle modes, plus multiple frames which you can use to add effects to your image captures. There’s also Gesture shot for taking shots when you do the peace hand sign and Voice capture. Say, “Capture” or “Cheese” and it snaps.

This mobile has a 2MP shooter in front that takes moderately good selfies. I’m only disappointed it doesn’t cover a wide angle. Actually, it appears no Infinix phone has the feature yet.

Multimedia:

Music Playback is good. It is not poor, but not exceptional, both with the external speakers and when used with earphones. Video playback is also enjoyable here, probably because of the sweet 5.5-inch screen or the long-lasting battery life. We have FM Radio here, also accompanied by FM Recording in place.

Performance:

Now unto one of the sweet spots of this phone. It is fast!! The octa-core processor glided through all the apps and games that I tried out. Picking up my Gionee M2 now feels so awkward and old school. See the results of its AnTuTu and Quadrant tests.

We have 1GB RAM for multitasking, which isn’t so bad, though we would have appreciated if the phone had an extra 1GB here.

Battery life:

This is one selling point Infinix used to advertise this phone, so we put it to test and gladly announce that it didn’t disappoint. I charged it full at 100% and used it for two and a half days before it went off. During that time, I used it consistently for a period of 14 hours. 3G was on throughout the time and all power saving gimmicks where switched off. Brightness was set to about 10%. The battery life is great!! Coupled with the Power Saving Mode and Ultra Power Saving Mode features built in, you can squeeze out even more time out of it.

As if that’s not enough, the Infinix Hot Note charges fast!! It requires that you must use the charger and USB cable that ships with it for it to work. Charging from 3% to 100% took exactly 2 hours, unlike the Gionee M2 where you have to wait for almost 4 hours to get a full charge. Superb stuff from Infinix!!

Miscellaneous:

The 2 SIM slots on the Infinix Hot Note are 3G enabled and switchable. Call clarity is okay. Web browsing is reasonably fast. The backlight for navigation buttons is absent, but I guess one can do without that.

By default, this phone can be used as a power bank, just like the Gionee M2. I discovered this while testing the USB OTG feature. Just plug your other gadgets into it to charge them from that meaty 4,000mAh battery.

Last but not the least, we also have a nifty feature in the settings called Hot Knot. I learnt it’s a new way of sharing files. Hopefully we’ll come across another device with the feature and give it a run down.

Final Verdict:

The Infinix Hot Note poses as a big teen. That kinda freshman that enters the school with lots of confidence, full of wits, toasting the hottest babes, and an envy for his fellow guys. Overall, it is a great phone to have. Asides a few issues with the design and the 1GB RAM, there is nothing else to dislike about this phone. It offers you great battery life, fast charging where you don’t have to wait for ages to charge your phone, and super fast performance.

Personally, I’m moved by phones that offer excellent battery life and that’s why I use the Gionee M2. I always say:

“There’s no difference between a beautiful girl without brains and a smart phone with bad battery life.”

This is a phone in whom I’m well pleased 8-). If you need a phone you can use to browse, read plenty, play games smoothly, and enjoy your movies without worrying about battery stamina, then look no further.

• Don’t miss our reviews.
• Follow our news on Google News.
• Join our WhatsApp Group, to be notified of the most important articles and deals,
• Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Author: Mister Mobility

Mister Mobility, a techie with a passion for storytelling. I have owned, used, and reviewed hundreds of mobile phones since 2001. I started Mobility Nigeria Tech Blog in 2008.