Sunday, January 17, 2021

Infinix Note 8 Hands-On

There are many smartphones in the budget category on the market offering different sets of features, specs, and design. A Hong Kong-based smartphone company, Infinix, recently entered the Philippine market and brought a lot of budget contenders. One of which is their newest addition to the Note line, the Infinix Note 8. it offers a massive 5,200mAh, quad-rear cameras, and a huge 6.95-inch display. Want to know more about this device? Read our initial thoughts below!

The first thing we noticed was that this device is tall, which translates to a massive screen real estate, ideal for people who love binge-watching content on your smartphone. The rear looks stylish with its glass-like back finish with a geometric accent; it attracts fingerprints easily, so we highly suggest using the clear case included in the box. The unit we have is in the Deep Sea Luster colorway, but it is also available in Silver Diamond and Iceland Fantasy. Also, at the back, we will find its quad-rear cameras and an Infinix logo. On the other hand, it feels solid and premium with a little heft to it.

Checking out the display, we have a huge screen measuring in at 6.95-inch IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 720 x 1640 with a pixel density of 258ppi.

Situated on the top left corner of the display is a cutout for its dual selfie cameras. Located at the top is the earpiece, which is also one of the smartphone’s stereo speakers. The glass is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass which Infinix didn’t specify.

On the right, we have the volume rockers along with its side-mounted fingerprint scanner that doubles as the sleep/wake button. Although the volume buttons’ location is a little bit hard to reach, the buttons are clicky. It is also handy which is ideal for those with small hands.

Situated on the left is the dual nanoSIM card tray with a dedicated microSD card slot.

At the bottom is the microphone for calls, a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB-C port, and one of the smartphone’s stereo speakers.

Powering the Infinix Note 8 is a Mediatek Helio G80 chipset coupled with a Mali-G52 GPU, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. It is powered by a massive 5,200mAh with support for 18W fast charging. Running on this device is Infinix’s XOS 7.1 based on Android 10.

As for its cameras, we get a quad-rear camera setup consisting of a 64MP primary, 2MP macro, 2MP depth, and 2MP AI camera. For selfies, we got a 16MP sensor coupled with a 2MP depth camera. We will put these cameras to the test in our full review. For now, you may check out our sample shots below.

The Infinix Note 8 comes t an affordable price of PHP 8,490. We will explore more of the device’s performance on our full review, so stay tuned.

Infinix Note 8 specs:
6.95-inch HD+ (720 x 1640) IPS Infinity-O LCD display
2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3
MediaTek Helio G80 octa-core CPU
ARM G52 MC2 GPU
6 GB RAM
128 GB storage
Expandable up to 2TB via microSD
Quad rear cameras:
• 64MP (main)
• AF portrait
• macro
• AI lens
Dual-front cameras (16MP + portrait lens)
Dual SIM (nano)
4G
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth
Dual speakers + DTS Audio Processing
GPS
USB Type-C
Side-mounted fingerprint scanner
Face unlock
3.5mm audio jack
XOS 7.1 (Android 10)
5200 mAh battery with 18W charging
175.3 x 78.76 x 8.95mm
Deepsea Luster, Silver Diamond, Iceland Fantasy