The Infinix Hot 30 series was launched in the Kenyan market sometime last month and it comprises of three models, that is the HOT 30, HOT 30 Play and HOT 30i models. This series is the successor to the Infinix Hot 20 which was launched last year.
We managed to get our hands on the Hot 30 and took the phone out for a spin, here are our thoughts.
Build
The Hot 30 measures 6.64 x 3.02 x 0.33 inches which I found to be generally comfortable in the hand. It has a metallic frame and plastic back which is glossy making it look premium, actually a couple of people actually asked me about the brand which means that people definitely notice it.
The Hot 30 features a 6.78-inch FHD+ screen with a slim bezel at the top and bottom giving the phone a screen-to-body ratio of approximately 84.5 per cent. It has a 1080 x 2460 resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio which translates to 396 pixels per inch density. This coupled with a 90 Hertz refresh rate gives a crisp display that you will definitely enjoy when playing different media like Netflix and gaming. The screen comes with 600 nits peak brightness which makes it usable even when outdoors under direct sunlight.
The phone has stereo speakers with DTS sound which are an absolute delight to listen to when gaming or when watching a movie on Netflix.
The selfie camera is located at the top of the screen with the right edge featuring the volume up and down rocker plus power button which also doubles up as the fingerprint sensor. The left edge has the sim card tray that can house two nano-SIM cards, a microSD card expansion slot. The bottom of the phone holds a mono speaker, Type C charging port, a microphone and an earphone jack. At the back we have the camera bump which houses the dual cameras as well as the dual led flash.
Performance
Under the hood, the Hot 30 rocks a Mediatek Helio G88 chipset which is an upgrade from the G85 of its predecessor. It has 256GB of internal storage and 8 GB of RAM and Android’s latest memory fusion (virtual memory extension) that enables the phone to increase RAM by an extra 8GB by taking space from the storage. This combination ensured that I did not experience any lags when performing any tasks, switching between apps or even gaming.
The Hot 30 runs on the Android 13 operating system straight out of the box and a XOS 12.6 interface. The phone unfortunatly comes with some bloatware, however, these can be disabled or uninstalled with ease.
Camera
The Hot 30 comes with a 50MP main camera, and 8MP selfie camera which take some good photographs. The photos were well-detailed, with decent saturation, dynamic range. However, I found that the cameras struggled a bit in some low light conditions.
Both sets of cameras can shoot videos in 1080 pixels up to 30 frames per second which means that you will be able to get some good and decent videos for your content.
Check out the photos.
Battery
The phone features a 5000 mAh non-removable battery supported by an 33Watt flash charging power brick with the phone charging from 0-100 in about 1 hour.
A user gets a full day’s heavy use from a fully charged battery, so everything from listening to music, to reading and browsing as well as gaming is possible. While light usage can see the battery lasting up to 3 days.
Conclusion
You should definitely buy this phone if you are a looking for a budget friendly device that has a capable processor, quality display and good battery life.
Pricing And Availability
The Infinix Hot 30 series smartphones are available at any of the Infinix official retail stores countrywide, Safaricom’s official retail shop and online at Masoko, Jumia and Kilimall.
The phones in the series are prices as folows.
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- Hot 30i: Ksh 15,499
- Hot 30 Play: Ksh 18,399
- Hot 30: Ksh 22,899