These days it’s not all that difficult to find a really good budget smartphone under $250. It is however quite difficult to find a smartphone under $250 that can handle gaming and offer a good camera. The Infinix Hot 10S changes all of that. Read on for our Infinix Hot 10S review.
Design and Display
The Infinix Hot 10s is made of a plastic body with a textured back that makes the device not too slippery to hold, and it feels pretty well built for a plastic device. It houses a large 6.82-inch display with a very respectable 90Hz refresh ratio and a 720×1640 resolution (263 ppi). We appreciate how large the display is for a budget phone, and that it’s a 90hz display which helps make gameplay a smoother experience. However its viewing angles aren’t the greatest nor is its ppi, still, the display is perfectly acceptable for its price point. You can unlock the phone using the rear fingerprint reader, the lock screen, or face unlock.
Camera
Generally, smartphones that cost below $400 offer horrible imaging experiences, but the Infinix Hot 10S has surprised us. To that effect, the Hot 10S packs in a 48MP main lens with a f/1.79 aperture, Quad-LED flash, a 2MP depth sensor, and an AI camera. For selfies, there is an 8MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture and dual-LED flash.
There’s no wide-angle lens, but again, we’re not fussed at this price point. The shutter speed is impressively fast and the camera app offers slow-motion, time-lapse, Document mode, night mode, and a Beauty mode. Photos taken with night mode are mediocre and lack detail. On the other hand, daylight photos and photos taken in well-lit conditions are impressive with accurate color reproduction and great dynamic range. The resulting photos are way above average for a budget smartphone. Portrait shots produce a nice amount of detail too, with a solid bokeh effect and very good saturation. Selfie photos are respectable as well, but they struggle with exposure and are quite soft.
Performance
Powered by a MediaTek Helio G85, alongside 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, the Infinix Hot 10s is quite capable. When it comes to benchmarks, it earned a Multi-Core score of 1338. That positions it to be a bit slower than the Poco X3 NFC and the Redmi Note 8 Pro. Overall, its performance is solid, but its user experience is hampered by the XOS 7.6 skin running on top of Android 11 which is buggy and somewhat antiquated.
Battery life
Thanks to its 6,000 mAh battery, the battery life on the Infinix Hot 10S is surprisingly impressive – it’s actually amongst the best we’ve seen on a smartphone. We got about 2 days of light use from a charge. A slow 10w charger is included in the box. We wish it wasn’t such a slow charger, but at least one is included. The phone takes a little over 2 hours to charge fully.
Bottom line
If you can look past its buggy software skin and low-res display, the Infinix Hot 10s is a very capable budget smartphone that is worth considering, especially if camera quality and battery life are a priority for you.
The Infinix Hot 10S can be purchased in the U.S. from Alixpress for just $139, making it quite the steal.