Key Specs
| CPU | Mediatek Helio G85 |
| Memory | 128GB + 6GB RAM microSD card slot – Yes, up to 256GB |
| Display | 6.82″ 90Hz FHD+ IPS LCD |
| Camera | 50 MP, (wide) QVGA AI Lens Camera Depth Sensor 8 MP, (selfie) |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C 2.0, WiFi 5 |
| OS | Android 12, XOS 10.6 |
| Battery | 5,000 mAh, 18W Fast Charging |
| Available Colors | Sonic Black, Legend White, Tempo Blue, |
| Retail Price | 128GB + 6GB RAM – RM 599 |
How Does It Look?
The Infinix 20 follows suit to the brand’s design language. It’s simple, with a matte finish that’s just a little pearlescent with a matching frame color. Our unit is the Tempo Blue, as you can see. There are 3 other colors, Which are Sonic Black, Fantasy Purple and Legend White.
It’s the glossy area on the top left that houses a vertically stacked camera system and LED flash cluster.
The power-button fingerprint sensor was surprisingly snappy and gets you to your home screen rather quickly. Overall, it’s a smartphone that looks nice in color and feels easy to hold. It gets the basic fundamentals right and at its price point few would complain about. It’s undoubtedly a fingerprint magnet, this phone, but at least the TPU case that’s included makes plenty sure that you can still enjoy the color of your phone without getting your greasy prints on em.
Camera Setup
RM 599 is true value crunch when it comes to the camera department, and the Hot 20 really shows some decent potential, considering that it’s only a single-camera setup with some assisting AI-lenses.
You get a 50MP main shooter with 2 supporting sensors rather than tertiary, dedicated sensors. A 2MP depth sensor helps with portrait blurs and field, along with a QVGA AI camera lens that assists in auto-HDR and auxiliary photovideo features.
A setup takes decent wide angle shots along that’s heavily AI assisted, and the images produced were suprisingly decent.
Wide Angle
The one and only usable main sensor shoots nice and clean. It excels in daytime and takes a more flat and neutral tone which is rare for this price range. This leaves some photographers with some headroom for vibrant edits. The camera by default shoots in a 4064 × 3048 resolution so that makes it 13MP. The advertised 50MP is a dedicated mode that pretty much upscales the shot in post.
These upscaled shots improved some details but takes a little dip in sharpness so I would recommend shooting in default for the best results.
Close ups were interesting. we get some very decent level of detail with accurate colors, with the most noticeable drawback being focus loss and fringing towards the middle and the edges. This is a typical outcome since most of the work is being done by AI in post. Still, it works and passably gets the job done.
Dynamic Range is passable but easily overwhelmed
In overcast weather, Auto HDR kicks in and aggressively works towards neutralizing the image to make it as level as possible. This results in shots that suffer in highlights and sharpness, but overall detail is still well retained and easily on par with devices below the RM 1000 price point. I’d conclusively say that the Infinix Hot 20 has a decent single sensor with a hardworking post-process.
Zoom
Zoom’s all digital, and there’s only so much sharpening software can do to keep things realistic and true-to-life. 2x zoom is very usable, with good details and not-so-aggressive sharpening, even in non-ideal lighting. Beyond that, such as 5x zoom be a gamble. You can still make out the HSBC logo easily but with all the noise and digital cropping, things looked very painted-on, but at least it’s still visible. These were taken during the evening, which can be challenging for smartphones since they’re light sensitive devices.
Selfies
I was impressed by this fixed focus 8MP shooter. Skin tones were neutral with actual detail and colors. My hair and facial hair did not clump up together and its honestly very usable.
Portrait mode had some trouble with my hair on the left side, bluring the top layer. Most of my face is retained but I can’t help but feel that my eyebrows and ears were lightly blurred as well. Plus, the bottom right leaf was nearly not blurred and had more detail than the rest. There’s also a ghostly layer on my shoulders which gave a light halo effect which made me think It was foggy more than anything.
The Works
The Infinix Hot 20 comes with all the basics in terms of specs, but with a pretty decent processor for the price.
The screen’s pretty big, coming in at 6.82″ as a HD+ IPS panel capable of up to 90hz in refresh rate. This makes it snappier than the Infinix Note 12, but at the cost of coverage since the Note 12 sports a AMOLED panel but only goes up to 60Hz. Colors were average but serviceable to the untrained eye.
The dual speakers were above average, offering DTS compatibility. It does better than most entry-level competitors, but really lacks in punch and really weak trebles. Regardless, it’s still the better problem to have since most brands in this price range offer pretty weak audio setups.
As for gaming, a Mediatek G85 SoC takes care of graphically light games easily. You get 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, so you can install a couple of big titles and run some apps in the background with very little to worry about lagging. There’s also a microSD slot that supports up to 256GB cards so you can use that for your media files and photos so that you can maximise your internal storage for your apps and games. You can increase your RAM too via Extended RAM, which will eat into your internal storage to get up to a total of 11GB RAM for you to play with. It’s recommeded that you’d just stick to 8GB as going 11GB barely made a noticeable difference.
On 90Hz and just HD+ resolution, most games ran smoothly and without much heat. We definitely hit a couple of rounds on Mobile Legends with max details and it ran without a hitch. Framerates were pretty consistent, looming between 60 FPS in quiet moments and 56 FPS during intense teamfights.
Tougher to please games like Call Of Duty Mobile and Cookie Run Ovenbreak ran well too, with more or less a healthy 55 FPS – 60 FPS average. Call of Duty was the only title that generated more heat than the rest, but not up to an unbearable point. I’d say the chipsets pretty optimized and the phone’s numerous graphene layers are doing their job keeping the phone free from heat.
If you intend to play games like Genshin, we tested it out and did it for you. All we can say is, stay on 30FPS if you don’t want to burn your hands. It’s playable, but most below RM 1000 phones aren’t built for that kind of demanding games, so manage your expectations.
TLDR ;
Play simple, esports mobile games on Infinix Note 12 2023 = YES
Play 3D intensive, hardware demanding titles on Infinix Hot 20 = YES
Battery Life
With a 5,000 mAh battery, the Infinix Hot 12 20 can navigate through 2 days use before flatlining. It’s pretty expected to be honest, since the chipset’s pretty energy efficient even on 90Hz. If you’re heavy on gaming, you’ll still be able to get home with about 30% left in the tank from a long day of texting, streaming and playing a couple of 10 minute sessions in between.
The phone’s charged back up by the included 18W charger, and a full charge takes about 2 hours to complete, so this would be an overnight charge and not for those in a hurry.
Incredible Value Crunching
This is probably the most affordable phone I can recommend. The Hot 20 gets more ticks than crosses, offering users a solid smartphone experience with decent performance, serviceable photo-taking and some sense of style, all for RM 599.
You get a 90Hz screen at a lower HD+ resolution but to be honest that didn’t bother me, as the focus of the phone is about value and maximising performance, and games do well because a lower resolution is less taxing graphically.
These devices are a joy to review, and honestly, Infinix can keep this momentum up as the median asking price for what you get with their devices are pretty enticing to just about anyone needing an affordable solution.
