Infinix Zero 5 review: The flagship smartphone has a premium design and great battery life

REVIEW: ****

PRICE: Rs 17,999 (6GB + 64GB), Rs 19,999 (6GB + 128GB)

SPECIFICATIONS: Mediatek Helio P25 octa core processor, 6GB DDR4 RAM, 64 or 128GB storage (expandable, dedicated micro SD slot), 5.98-inch IPS LCD (1920 x 1080 pixels), 12MP wide + 13MP tele dual rear camera, 16MP front camera, dual SIM, 4G with VoLTE, WiFi n, BT4.2, 4,350 mAh battery, 197 grams

POSITIVES: High quality display, well built with aluminium unibody design, dual camera offers good results and portrait mode, good performance, XOS launcher has lots of features, 2 day battery life, USB Type-C with fast charging.

NEGATIVES: Large & heavy, has larger bezels, on-screen Android soft keys, camera sometimes hunts for focus lock, expensive considering the competition, video recording capped at 1080p.


Hong Kong-based Transsion Holdings already has a few brands up its sleeve. There’s iTel, Tecno and the online-only Infinix. We reviewed the Infinix Note 4 in August 2017 and were impressed by the value it offered: octa core processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage and 5.7-inch FHD screen for Rs 8,999. Now Infinix is back with their flagship smartphone and it is one of the only phones in this price range with 6GB RAM (that too the faster DDR4 type).

Like the Infinix Note 4, the Zero 5 is a large phone. It’s also heavy and much better built, with a premium design (contoured back, chamfered edges, 2.5D curved glass). You can get it in a choice of red, gold and sandstone (the red and gold colours have a white front).

There’s also a Pro version with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage — only available in bronze gold black. On each side, you’ll see a pop-out tray. One is a dedicated micro SD slot while the other holds two micro SIM cards. Around the back, it has a large glass panel that houses the dual camera system and LED flash. The fingerprint scanner is conveniently located in the center and works well.

The Zero 5 uses an IPS LCD display by JDI. It’s actually a pretty great display: full HD, wide viewing angles, high brightness and great colour. You’ll enjoy your multimedia on this big screen. That being said, this is still a 16:9 aspect display and it makes Infinix a little late to the game because everyone is rushing to get the slim bezel, 18:9 aspect ratio displays to market. But that’s not all: the wide chin under the display is completely useless. Neither does it have the Android buttons (which are on-screen) and neither does it house the fingerprint scanner.

Hardware wise, it’s got some decent firepower. The octa core Helio P25 combined with 6GB RAM makes quick work of all tasks. You can enjoy all kinds of games and multimedia with not a stutter to be seen. Infinix uses XOS based on Android 7.0 and there are a lot of nifty features included, from display adjustments, gestures, smart motion, themes, freezer (too offload apps you’re not using), dual apps, app lock, permissions manager, remote phone finder/wipe, blocklist and a unique sleep cleanup feature. There are a few apps pre-loaded but you can uninstall all of them quite easily.

Coming to the camera, the Zero 5 uses a 12MP wide angle + 13MP telephoto lens. This gives you a 1x to 2x optical zoom. The camera app includes modes like beauty, panorama, night, time-lapse, watermark, portrait and professional. You’ll also find features like a digital level, filters, HDR, grid and smile/gesture shutter controls. In portrait mode, you can adjust the aperture from a wide f0.8 to f11 — and you can refocus after capturing the image too. We got some good results in daylight but you have to be willing to put in a little extra effort. The camera occasionally takes longer to lock focus and we sometimes needed to control the shutter for better results. But the portrait and bokeh effects are generally pleasing. There’s also a bokeh effect for the front camera but it is best left out since it can’t detect edges accurately. The front camera works great in auto mode though.

Overall, we found it easy to praise the build quality, performance, screen, great battery life and camera on the Zero 5. But the 16:9 display and thicker bezels make it look like a phone from early 2017 — already dated! It’s a good effort but faces stiff competition thanks to the price. If dual camera and large, 6-inch, 18:9 display is what you want, the Honor 7x will give you that for `15,999 (4GB/64GB). If you need dual cameras and stock Android, the Mi A1 is available for `14,999. And finally, there’s also the Honor 9i, which includes dual front and dual rear cameras for `17,999 (4GB/64GB).