Expanding its popular Hot series, Infinix has come up with the Hot 10 Play in India. The smartphone has some interesting features, such as a 6.82-inch display, Helio G35 SoC and 6,000mAh battery, which are said to be tailored for youths who love watching high-quality videos and gameplay on a cinematic display. Priced at Rs 8,499, the device comes in four colour options- Morandi Green, Aegean Blue, Obsidian Black and 7° Purple. Let’s go deeper into this phone to understand how worthy it is for you.
Design
There are no much changes in terms of design, if we compare this phone with its predecessors. It’s lightweight and offers comfortable grip in your hands. It has a glass front, plastic back and plastic frame and has thin bezels giving more space for the display. Sporting a gem-cut texture design with flow pattern, the smartphone offers a glossy finish on the back that make it appear glittery, thus making the colour pop out and appear reflective. At the front is a water-drop notch which houses the selfie camera that makes it visually appealing, whereas on the back, there’s a dual rear camera panel at the top left and a centrally-aligned fingerprint sensor just next to it.
While there is nothing on the top, you’ll find a micro-USB charging port, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a mouth piece located at the bottom. On the left side, there is a 2-in-1 card slot that houses two 4G Nano-SIMs and a microSD card simultaneously, whereas the right side of the device features volume rockers and the power button situated at a very accurate spot, making them easier to reach with your thumb. These buttons are all sturdy and clicky and will not irritate you.
Overall, the smartphone is quite handy and looks decent from every angle. You’ll find no smudges on the back even after using it for a long time.
Display
The all-new Infinix Hot 10 Play features a 6.82-inch HD+ LCD IPS drop notch display with a resolution of 720 x 1640 pixels and a 90.66% screen-to-body ratio. The screen also comes with a narrow bezel and aspect ratio of 20.5:9. The display also has 440 nits of brightness and a 1500:1 contrast ratio. For durability, it comes with NEG’s more premium Dinorex T2X-1 glass protection on top of the display.
The display, by and large, produces accurate colours and fair contrast. The colours are saturated giving you a better viewing experience especially when you are watching a film or web series on OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video etc. The display exudes enough brightness to make the phone comfortable to use outdoors. Even under direct sunlight, you’ll be able to read text with ease. On the flip side, the display is a bit large as it’s the trend now, and you’ll have to shuffle your fingers to swipe down from the top.
Platform
The Hot 10 Play is powered by Helio G35 octa-core processor, which has a CPU clock speed of up to 2.3Ghz and a highly efficient 12nm production process. The processor is further backed by the Mediatek HyperEngine technology for intelligent dynamic management of CPU, GPU and memory. The smartphone offers 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage which is further expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. It operates on Android 10 with the latest XOS 7 skin enabling users to enjoy a smooth and faster software UX with refreshed icons and newly-designed interface screens.
In terms of performance, the smartphone is quite good for browsing internet, using different apps, watching videos and playing games (but not graphic-intensive). Although it’s definitely not for heavy gamers, the handset handled multitasking fairly well. You’ll notice a few lags, especially when the battery is very low.
While it offers a very clean user interface, the phone comes with some unwanted / default apps and promotional content – thanks to XOS 7 – that you can uninstall and remove, as per their importance.
Connectivity options on board include GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac and Bluetooth. For enhanced security, the device features a face unlock feature and a multifunctional fingerprint sensor that is not just for unlocking the smartphone but also for accepting calls, dismissing alarms, and quick-start apps. The fingerprint sensor is rear-mounted and fast enough to unlock your phone in a matter of micro-seconds.
Cameras
The Infinix Hot 10 Play comes equipped with a dual rear camera setup with a 13-megapixel main sensor with f/1.8 aperture and an AI lens. It has a quad LED flash and offers modes like slow motion video, and document mode. The handset also features an 8-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash. The front camera features include AI Portrait, 3D Face Beauty mode, wide selfie mode, AR Animoji, AR face motion detection, and more.
Photos shot with these cameras in the sunlight conditions are decent, with fairly good details, sharpness and colours. But they definitely struggled in the low light conditions, as the photos had weak details and exposure was largely poor. Portrait mode did a decent job, thanks to its blur capability. Both the cameras are able to shoot videos in full HD, 1080p at 30 frames per second. Hence, you’ll be able to get some good cinematic shoots.
Battery
Having a heavy-duty 6,000mAh battery happens to be one of the key selling points of Infinix Hot 10 Play, which is further backed by Power Marathon technology that optimises the power and increases battery backup by up to 25%. The battery gives a standby time of more than 55 days, delivering up to 23 hours of nonstop video playback, 53 hours of 4G talk-time, 44 hours of music playback, and 23 hours of web surfing. The company will not let you down on these claims. However, charging is a bit slow since the phone does not support fast charge. It’d be better to charge this phone while going to bed in the night.
Conclusion
The Infinix Hot 10 Play looks decent, has a large display, a clean user interface, and a reliable battery backed by Power Marathon technology. Camera is one department that will not satisfy you, followed by the device’s average performance. Overall, it’s a good buy in the given price bracket but you can’t ignore the competitors offering specs that are almost on a par with the Hot 10 Play. You can buy the device on Flipkart today.