Last time, Infinix had quite a smartphone to show off with the Infinix S3. With a flagship grade selfie camera and more than decently equipped internals, we deemed it capable of getting users well beyond the traditional selfie-holics interested. A month later, Infinix has taken another firm step on the podium with two other brand new devices, the Infinix Hot 6 and the Infinix Hot 6 Pro. Whereas some of the specs have been toned down from what the Infinix S3 had, Infinix’s next phones are looking even more impressive.
The Infinix Hot 6 Pro may have lost the Dual Speakers with Dirac 3D Stereo surround of the Hot 5, but it managed to shed off the annoying chins and used the extra space to fix in a bigger display. The Hot 6 Pro has more screen real estate than any of the other phones in the Hot series. The Dual camera set up which we saw on the Infinix Zero 5 is the eye roller on this device. At the affordable price tag attached to the Infinix Hot 6 Pro, you can’t obviously expect out-of-this-world features. But even without a world title on its resume, the Infinix Hot 6 Pro makes a fantastic first impression. A 6 inch HD+ infinity display, Snapdragon processor, Dual rear cameras, Face Unlock and a huge battery is a sweet package at UGX 539,000.
Key features of the Hot 6 Pro
- 4G LTE.
- 6″ 720p HD+ 18:9 Infinity Display.
- Dual 13MP AF + 2MP FF rear camera with dual LED flash.
- 5MP FF front camera with LED flash.
- Quad-core Snapdragon 425, 1.4GHz.
- 16GB ROM/2GB RAM or 32GB ROM/3GB RAM.
- 4,000mAh battery.
- Android 8.0 with XOS 3.2 Hummingbird.
- Dual nano SIM.
- MicroSD Support.
- FM radio.
- Standard 3.5mm audio jack.
Cons.
- Similar selfie camera from the Hot 5.
- Finger print magnet plastic back.
In the box.
The Infinix Hot 6 Pro’s retail package is virtually identical to that of the Infinix S3, except for the colour. Our review device came in a City Blue box, yours could be different. The box is generously filled with extra accessories – well above the average smartphone bundle.
So, the retail box of the Hot 6 Pro contains the mandatory charger and a microUSB cable, as well as a pair of nice-looking white in-ear headset. A SIM ejector is provided as well. You also get a screen protector – not tempered glass, but it can get you started until you go out shopping for accessories.
Finally, our retail package also had a silicon phone case. The downside is it’s not as nice looking as we would wish it to be. More so, it doesn’t offer as much protection from drops as a flip cover would. But we were glad it saved us from continously wiping the fingerprint grabbing plastic back.
We are happy that Infinix is continuously giving its customers one of the most generous retail bundles we’ve seen. If they improve the feel of the accessories to a more up-market quality, there will be more reason to smile.
Design and build quality.
The Infinix Hot 6 Pro is made of mostly plastic, which covers the back and all sides of the phone. The 2.5D curved display panel occupies the front part of the phone. The top part of the front panel houses the selfie camera, LED flashlight, notification light, ear piece and an array of sensors. Below the front pannel, there is nothing but a reduced chin. The right side of the phone is inhabited by the power and volume buttons while the left houses only the SIM card tray that also has the memory card slot. Whereas Infinix kept the top part clean, the bottom part was kept busy houseing the single loud speaker, micro USB port, microphone and the standard 3.5mm jack.
The Sandstone Black variant of the Infinix Hot 6 Pro we received looks great because the annoying black outline around the display is not visible here. Other colour versions of the phone suffer from that. The device dimensions are 160.43*76.21*8.3mm. While these make up a beautiful slim device, it’s not quite a successful mixture in making it a memorable phone.
The Infinix Hot 6 Pro is a pleasure to handle, perfectly fitting in both hand and pocket even with a 6 inch display. The plastic back may feel cheap if you are coming from more pronounced devices and it attracts fingerprints, making it necessary to continuously wipe the phone clean. But buying a nice looking case will save you from the cheap feel and fingerprint magnet back. But just like many Infinix devices, the design is solid, light, and beautiful – it’s a design that stands out.
Display.
The Infinix Hot 6 Pro has a 6″ Super HD+ screen of 720p resolution. It’s nicely saturated, it’s bright and contrasty, and has low reflectivity. The color rendering is great, with punchy colors, but not as punchy as an AMOLED screen. The Hot 6 Pro’s screen proved slightly brighter than the Hot 5 screen, and on par with the Infinite S3 display performances. Outdoors in the bright sun, the brightness comes a bit short though. But you can still read clearly from the screen without much effort.
The display suffers the same flaw that was seen on the S3, it remains bright even after dimming to the lowest values. But this time round, Infinix improved the Eye-Care setting to give the screen a sepia hue so you don’t strain your eyes when looking at the display for longer periods in dark environments
Camera and Photography.
Smartphone photography has improved over the years, especially in the top tier flagship devices. We saw a tripple rear camera Huawei P20 Pro, dual camera iPhone X and so many more multiple rear camera smartphones being released. While the Hot 6 Pro costs below USD 200, it presents dual rear cameras to users.
Dual Rear Camera.
The Infinix Hot 6 Pro uses a 13MP camera with Auto focus and a 2MP camera with fixed focus. The 13MP camera is the major camera and it shoots in a maximum resolution of 4160 x 3120 pixels. The 2MP only captures details and also aids in making bokeh effects when shooting portraits. There is also a dual LED flash to help you with some low-light photos.
The dual 13MP + 2MP rear camera lenses and the dual LED flash are placed in the top left corner of the phone’s back in a horizontal format. The cameras bulge out alittle out of the flat back, and if the phone is put on its back on a flat table, the little elevation can be noticed that’s if you take time to examine that. But that didnt pose any deffects on usability. There is no secondary microphone as seen on other phones.
The camera interface is pretty much standard – you get four shortcuts on the top (HDR, Flashlight, Full screen, Filters and settings toggles) and three controls on the bottom (switch cameras, camera shutter, gallery toggles). The settings gives you access to Delay capture, Touch capture, Gridlines, Level, Auto watermark and other advanced settings. In the advanced settings, you can put on/off shutter sound, GPS location, alter photo resolution among others. Swiping to the left or right of the XOS 3.0 camera UI takes you through the included modes of Auto, Video, Portrait, Beauty, Panaroma, Night, Time lapse and Professional modes.
Infinix didn’t include nifty AI camera features on the Hit 6 Pro. The panoramas on the Hot 6 Pro turn out pretty nice but you have to pan around really slowly for the stitching to be successful and to avoid artifacts. You can snap pano shots in both landscape and portrait modes, but the latter comes with higher field of view and resolution.
Front camera Of Infinix Hot 6 Pro
The selfie camera didn’t change. It’s the same 5MP that featured in the Hot 5. While the selfies still look good, we would be happier if an auto focus camera was used this time round. Although the selfies are social media ready (hey slayers!), the Infinix Hot 6 Pro falls short on our list of top affordable best selfie smartphones.
Face Unlock and Fingerprint.
Face Unlock is the new way to unlock your phone without moving a finger. Just placing the Hot 6 Pro at a reasonable distance from your face unlocks it, that’s all it takes. Capturing the face doesn’t require much effort either. Just open the included Face Unlock app to register your face. Face Unlock can be used to unlock the phone in the lock screen interface. The front LED panel can be used to illuminate the face in darker environments, so face unlock on the HOT 6 Pro can work anywhere.
Also included is a fingerprint reader at the back of the phone. It was intelligently calculated and placed where the index finger rests as you hold the phone. So unlocking the phone is pretty easy using this fast fingerprint reader. But just like many fingerprint readers, your finger has to be dry to read it easily. You can add up to five fingerprints which can be assigned different tasks such as unlock, unlock and launch particular apps or make a call. The fingerprint reader can also be used to take photos, accept calls, record calls (by long pressing) and dismiss alarms.
Processing Power.
On the inside, the Infinix Hot 6 Pro is powered by a newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 chipset (as compared to the old SD 430 that powers the Infinix S3 —don’t mind the numbers) with an four CPU cores clocking at 1.4GHz. The processor was built for the entry level smartphones and power consumption of the chip is better. The processor is given a helping hand of 2GB of RAM for the 16GB variant of the Hot 6 Pro and 3GB of RAM for the 32GB variant. Our review device was a 2GB RAM version and we didn’t experience any lags during normal usage of the phone. The phone however slowed down when we played heavy games or switched quickly between apps. Also, there was noticeable lag in the first few minutes when mobile data connection was enabled. This is because of the different apps trying to sync to the network especially Messenger, WhatsApp and Facebook apps. But after a while, the snappy performance kicks in.
Connectivity.
The Infinx Hot 6 Pro supports 4G LTE network with up to 150Mbps of download speed. It is also a dual nano-SIM device. The rest of the connectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n and Wi-Fi Direct. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.1, GPS and an FM radio. NFC isn’t available on the Infinix Hot 6 Pro. There is a microUSB 2.0 port for charging and data connections. Media transfer mode is supported for accessing the phone’s built-in memory via a USB connection.
Battery life.
The Infinix Hot 6 Pro features a 4,000mAh battery, which is similar to the unit powering the previous Hot 5. The Hot 6 pro couldn’t match the performance of its predecessor on heavy usage because it supports more battery demanding 4G LTE connectivity and a larger screen. But thanks to a more energy efficient Snapdragon processor, the phone survived through a full day. Charging the big battery is quick since the phone has Quick Charge 2.0 technology. Going from 0-100% takes about an hour.
The Infinix Hot 6 Pro’s endurance is outstanding on normal usage, even without any battery saving enhancements turned on. It could last you nearly 2 days on a single charge, which is amazing if you only make a few calls, send texts, play music, check emails and other light duty tasks. The Hot 6 Pro is an addition to the top affordable smartphones with strongest batteries.
Other features.
The notification light on top of the display is a vital piece of hardware. It blinks green to alert you of unopened notifications or Low Battery level by blinking red. Also, it lights green when the battery is fully charged. Sadly, that’s all you get. Don’t expect more colours for per app notifications.
The lock screen wallpapers change whenever the phone is locked. This is if you didn’t change to a specific wallpaper of your choice. The generic XOS wallpapers are beautiful and colourful. Each wallpaper is given company of a motivational quote! While we can’t actually call this a feature, we are happy Infinity is motivating users.
Conclusion.
The infinix Hot 6 Pro is a solid upgrade to the Hot 5 and brings some new features. The Dual camera setup takes nice photographs but Bokeh effects are sometimes a hit and miss. The huge HD+ screen is great for videos and games. The Snapdragon processor is snappy and more battery efficient. The Hot 6 Pro is an all day phone, it’s 4,000mAh battery holds up. We can go on and on with the positives since Infinix had almost all vital boxes checked with the Hot 6 Pro.
The Infinix Hot 6 Pro is certain to impress at the very first touch. The feel in hand is nice – never mind the plastic profile. The selfie camera that was pasted from the older Hot 5 and the fingerprint magnet back might well be the deal breakers, but the alluring price tag should give many users a second thought about the phone.
