Infinix Hot 9

Infinix Hot 9

The Infinix Hot 9 is a very unique device, centering their focus on content consumption and battery. It has a great design, usually associated with pricier devices of the past. That brings the focus to the front of the device, and how comfortably content can be consumed. The specifications include a large display, an Helio A25 chip, 2/32GB memory 5,000 mAh battery. Let’s see the compromises and additions that it took to make this device in this review.

Infinix Hot 9 price in Kenya & key features

Display and design

The Hot 9 comes with a very tall 6.6 inch IPS LCD screen with an infinity-o punch-out design on the top left to house the front-facing camera while being the least intrusive implementation when it comes to content consumption. The bezels are narrow enough but the chin is a little overstated, delivering an 82.8% screen to body ratio. The build is plastic, both back, and frame, and it has a quad-camera module at the back and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. We keep the earphone jack but still retain the micro-USB connector.

Performance and storage

The Infinix Hot 9 comes with the more powerful entry-level chipset, the Mediatek Helio A25 processor, coupled with a quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex A53 CPU and a PowerVR GE8320 GPU. We have RAM choices of 2/3/4GB and on-board memory storage choices of 32/64/128GB, in addition to a dedicated microSDXC slot for that additional expandable memory.

This combination delivers budget level performance, enough for daily use without unnecessarily feeling underwhelmed. This is enough processing for budget level computation and many would find this kind of power sufficient. The expansive RAM would make multitasking easier and faster opening of apps, which is a plus.

Camera

The Infinix Hot 9 shoots with a quad-camera setup, which is rather impressive considering its price point. First up is the 16mp primary wide lens, a 2mp macro shooter, a 2mp depth sensor, and a QVGA light sensor, apparently for night shots. The photos are usable, decent, and well exposed in optimal lighting conditions.

It might struggle to implement other modes such as bokeh, portrait, and panorama, but that was expected. The night mode is disappointing, as the light adds blur to the night shots instead. It can also record HD video at 30fps. The selfie camera is equally competent with a single 8mp wide-angle sensor, good for decent selfies, especially in good lighting, capable also of HD video at 30fps, with HDR support.

Battery

The Infinix Hot 9 truly shines when it comes to the battery. The 5000 mAh non-removable Li-Po battery which is a 2 day plus battery even for a power user, making a great case for continuous content consumption, browsing, and listening to music. We only get standard 10W charging which means that the battery may take up to 4 hours to charge, which is why it would be optimal to charge overnight.

Software

The Infinix Hot comes with XOS 6.0 based on Android 10. We have still got the bloatware highly associated with other Infinix devices, usually numerous unnecessary preinstalled apps and ad services that seem to run off the system irrespective of whatever app you might be using presently. It not optimal, but the option to add themes adds a little party to the UI.

Most of the bloatware can now be uninstalled or toggled off but then, not having it in the first place would have been a joy. The UI is still light, fast, and intuitive, and once one gets over the displeasure of the bloatware, it is seemingly easy to use and straight forward.

Recommendation

The Infinix Hot 9 5 Air is a great value proposition. The massive screen, the huge battery, quad-camera, and beautiful design makes a great case for an individual who is willing to overlook the entry-level chipset in exchange for a little bit more computational power. See also Xiaomi Mi 9T.

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