India’s 5G smartphone segment has been on the rise in the past couple of years. Today, the latest smartphones from most OEMs support 5G connectivity. However, a new trend as emerged in 2023, one that prioritises offering 5G smartphones at a more affordable price.

And one of the newest smartphones to follow this budget 5G smartphone trend is the Infinix Hot 30 5G. Coming in at just Rs 12,499, the Hot 30 5G is one of India’s most affordable 5G phones. The Infinix Hot 30 5G arrives in two versions – 4GB/128GB and 8GB/128GB (Rs 13,499). We managed to get our hands on the Infinix Hot 30 5G and here are our thoughts.

Design & Build

The Infinix Hot 30 5G arrives in two colours – Aurora Blue and Night Black, ours arrived in the former. The Blue model has a matte finish that was resistant to smudges and fingerprints. While the finish does present the appearance of glass, the back and frame are both made of plastic.

The back panel does have a shimmering pattern with the large camera bump opting for a sparkling silver finish. While the phone looks good, it isn’t quite as comfortable to hold from the side as compared to the back of the device. However, the case included in the box does help fix improve some grip.

The device was on the heavier side given the plastic build, weighing 215 grams, and measuring 9.19mm thick. The handset also boasts an IP53 rating for resistant to minor splashes. The Infinix Hot 30 5G features the traditional button layout.

The power button and volume rocker sit on the right, while the former doubles as a snappy fingerprint reader. On the bottom, there’s a headphone jack, speaker grille, and USB Type-C port. Lastly, you get a SIM tray with three slots on the left and another speaker grille on the top.

Display

For the display, the Hot 30 5G opts for a large 6.78-inch FHD+ (1080 x 2460 pixels) IPS LCD panel. The screen boasts an impressive 120Hz refresh rate, which can be scaled to 60Hz, 90Hz, or 120Hz manually or set to default using the Auto-mode.

With a peak brightness of 580 nits, the screen is easily visible under direct sunlight and doesn’t lose out on its sharpness irrespective of the brightness level. The LCD screen reproduces colours accurately and supports Widevine L1 support for watching content in HD resolution.

The one drawback while watching content is the thick bezels on either side. For a budget 5G smartphone, the panel here is well-above the average, offering the Full HD+ resolution as well as a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The Hot 30 5G also features excellent rich sound for its price, courtesy of the dual-stereo speakers that ensures loud yet clear audio quality.

Performance

In terms of performance, the Hot 30 5G is equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 6020 SoC, a 7nm octa-core chipset. The chip is paired with up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. The device also supports RAM expansion, up to 16GB. We did put the Hot 30 5G through its paces to see how it fared.

In Geekbench 6, the Hot 30 5G managed a single-core score of 701 points and a multi-core score of 2017 points. Moreover, the phone managed an overall AnTuTu score of 419013 points. We were unable to run BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Asphalt 9: Legends on medium settings without any hitches in performance.

We did notice the phone getting a little warmer while gaming but not too hot to handle. Moreover, the Hot 30 5G performs rather smoothly when handling day-to-day, multitasking activities. Overall, performance was quite admirable for a budget smartphone.

Cameras

Moving on to the cameras and the Hot 30 5G opts for a 50 MP primary sensor paired with a secondary AI lens. Up front, the device’s hole-punch cut-out houses an 8 MP selfie camera. The rear camera can record video in up to 2K resolution at 30fps, while the front camera is limited to 1080p video at 30fps.

In daylight, the main camera on the Hot 30 5G takes shots with surprisingly good detail and sharpness. The dynamic range was quite decent, although photos did tend to look a bit oversaturated. The level of sharpness and detail did fall during the late evenings and in dimly lit indoor settings, where darker areas of a scene.

At night, we switched to the Super Night mode, which improved image quality by reducing noise and enhancing detail and sharpness. Dynamic range with the night mode was also decent. The main camera managed to capture natural skin tones in portrait mode, although images appeared too soft and edge detection wasn’t always on point.

The selfie camera on the Hot 30 5G reproduce a decent level of detail, although dynamic range was limited. Again, for a budget smartphone, the selfie camera did surprisingly well in well-lit scenes. However, image quality fell apart in low light or in dimly lit settings.

The Hot 30 5G can record 1080p or 2K video at 30fps, while the front camera is limited to 1080p at 30fps. The phone also has several camera features, including Bokeh Video, Beauty, Film, and Google Lens support. Overall, I’d say the Infinix Hot 30 5G punches above its price in the primary camera department, although selfie camera performance did leave a little to be desired.

Battery

Battery life is easily the most impressive aspect of the Hot 30 5G. The device packs a massive 6,000 mAh battery that easily gave us a day and a half of battery life and can go up to two days with moderate usage. Draining the entire battery in a single day felt close to impossible.

However, the massive battery also comes as a drawback as the phone only comes with an 18W charging solution. So despite the presence of fast charging support, the Hot 30 5G takes over two hours to go from 0 to 100 percent. In an era where most phones charge in little over 30 minutes, two hours seems like an age.

Software

On the software side, the Hot 30 5G is covered by Android 13-based XOS 13. XOS 13 has a ton of features built-in including eye-care, focus mode, plenty of widgets, split screen, and more.

The Hot 30 5G also comes with its own dialer that is far more convenient than the Google’s stock app. XOS 13 does have its fair share of bloatware but a lot of it can be uninstalled, although the phone doesn’t throw a lot of spam notifications your way.

However, the overall UI experience does leave a lot to be desired and that is primarily down to the fact that Infinix has spoilt us with the interface on the GT 10 Pro. Infinix isn’t quite clear on software support for the Hot 30 5G, but the phone will likely only get the Android 14 update and around one to two security patches.

Verdict

For an affordable smartphone, the Hot 30 5G just about ticks all the right boxes. The Hot 30 5G is a well-rounded smartphone under Rs 13,000. The large and smooth display coupled with the crisp speakers, versatile chipset, and massive battery, make the Hot 30 5G a solid entertainer, whether you’re consuming entertainment or gaming.

The main camera is also one of the best in the segment, while the phone’s design does catch the eye. However, the Hot 30 5G isn’t without its caveats. Software for one does leave a lot to be desired, while charging could be faster.

Moreover, the MediaTek chip here does fall behind the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC on the Redmi 12 5G. We’d still recommend the Infinix Hot 30 5G as it is easily one of the most versatile 5G smartphones under Rs 13,000 in India.

Best Mobiles in India