Infinix Zero 5 review: A decent mid-ranger with a potent dual camera
Inifinix, the latest entrant in the Indian market, made its debut with the advent of two entry-level smartphones — the Note 4 and Hot 4 Pro. But the company now strives to grab some market share in the mid-range segment with its Zero 5 smartphone. The company unveiled the device earlier this month at a starting price of Rs 17,999, while the Pro variant with higher RAM and storage is priced at Rs 19,999 and will be selling through the e-commerce website Flipkart starting November 22.
The Zero 5 comes with a big display, a MediaTek P25 processor and a dual camera setup which is a bold move for the company. But will the device survive in the fierce mid-range battle where devices like Xiaomi Mi A1, Honor 9i have already made their mark? Let’s find out.
Specifications
- 5.98-inch, Full HD JDI display
- Corning Gorilla Glass
- Helio P25 MT6757, 2.6GHz processor
- Mali-T880 GPU
- Rear camera: 12MP wide-angle SONY IMX386, 6P Lens + 13MP Tele-photo lens
- Front camera: 16MP 4 in 1, Samsung S5K3P8, 5P Lens, Flash, f/2.0
- 6GB RAM + 64GB ROM
- 4350mAh battery, Type C, 18W, xCharge – fast charge technology
- OS XOS 3.0 based on Android N
- Fingerprint sensor, G-Sensor, proximity, light, compass, gyroscope, RGWB,
- Dual micro card +
- Bluetooth 4.2, OTG, 4G (VoLTE, ViLTI – Jio), 3.5mm, dual SIM
Design
Design wise, the Infinix Zero 5 is a huge phone sporting a metal unibody that offers a good grip and premium feel. It comes in three colour variants — Bordeaux Red, Champagne Gold and Sandstone Black. The Red colour variant especially has a striking resemblance to the iPhone 7 Red edition, while the rear camera placement looks inspired from Huawei’s P9, sans the Leica lens.
It also has a fingerprint sensor on the rear panel which is pretty accurate and fast. The company has worked on the design well and that shows when you hold the phone in your palm.
Display
Up front, the Infinix Zero 5 uses 5.98-inch of the real estate to flaunt a full HD JDI display with 2.5D curved glass. The LTPS IPS panel produces decent brightness and colours come out vivid. The video experience on the phone was good and the viewing angles are also impressive.
The company has chosen not to use any Corning Gorilla Glass coating here. Overall the display qualifies as decent and does a good job in sunlight as well. Brightness could have been better, but considering the price of the phone that’s asking for too much.
Camera
The biggest highlight of the Infinix Zero 5 is the incorporation of a dual camera setup which the company touts as a 'real dual camera smartphone.' It boasts a 12MP wide angle lens and a 13MP telephoto lens for the DSLR -like bokeh effect alongside the 2X optical zoom and up to 10X digital zoom.
The portrait pictures are quite satisfactory and offer ample amount of details with good colour reproduction. The image processing takes time though but the results are good under favourable lighting conditions. The low light photography on the device is underwhelming and you can notice the noise in photos. For selfies, there is a 16MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture that offers bokeh and beauty mode.
The front camera is, however, a bit disappointing and you shouldn't expect much from this sensor. The processing takes a lot of time and you will have to hold the phone for quite some time for a still selfie. No matter what, the noise is still pretty evident in all your selfies.
Performance
The smartphone is powered by a MediaTek Helio P25 MT6757 clocked at 2.6GHz coupled with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. For graphics, the company has tucked in a Mali-T880 GPU. The Zero 5 Pro, in turn, brings 128GB storage to the table with same specifications as the Zero 5. The performance of the device is smooth by far, but we will surely test the performance of the phone while playing extensive games and heavy apps. It runs Android Nougat with XOS 3.0 UI on the top. The UI is fluid and we didn’t notice lag while navigating or switching between the apps.
On the connectivity front, the smartphone offers 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2, OTG, 3.5mm headphone jack and 2 dual micro card slots. The device draws power from a 4350mAh battery which can keep the device running for a long time. The device managed to be alive for a whole day after heavy usage that included video, music streaming and social media apps and voice and video calls. The xCharge technology provides up to two hours talk time or six hours of offline music playback time with just five minutes of charge.
Wrap up
Overall, the Infinix Zero 5 is a decent smartphone with impressive features on the brochure. The Zero 5 can be a good alternative to Honor 9i but it’s hard to recommend this phone over the likes of Xiaomi Mi A1 which offers similar functionality but at a lower price.
The device is priced aggressively and can be a decent bargain if the company takes care of few rough edges by pushing updates at the right time. But if you look beyond the flaws, the device does offer a good set of cameras, a good display and a decent performance for a price of Rs 17,999.
