Full Detailed Review of The Infinix HOT NOTE Smartphone

On Monday the 9th of March Infinix released the smartphone we have been waiting for all these years - a worthy and significant successor to the much loved Infinix Alpha (X570). Thank goodness, the wait is finally over and this newly released smartphone or phablet called the Infinix Hot Note (X551) is the perfect successor to the X570.

Although Infinix believes that the Hot Note is a successor to the Infinix Hot, the constant users and lovers of the X570 will agree that the Infinix Hot Note X551 is that perfect successor to the Infinix Alpha since both X551 and X570 are both phablets. 

The Inifnix HOT NOTE is a wonderful smartphone and for the short period of time of it being used, we can say this is a powerful and perfect smartphone especially for the price its being offered. The question you may have been asking is "what makes the Infinix Hot Note so unique to be called the perfect successor the Alpha?" See details after the jump.

The Infinix Hot Note aka X551 is a phablet with outstanding performance and specs especially seeing how low cost it is. It comes in 4 different colors: anthracite grey, copper brown, Champagne gold and Mint green. Below we present to you the different specifications of the smartphone.

In the Box

Upon purchasing your Infinix HOT NOTE it should come in an attractive packaging. The contents of the newly bought device should be your Infinix X551 smartphone, a micro USB cord, a USB charger head, a 3.5mm earphone, a manual and a screen cleaning cloth as shown below.

Once the phone is taken from the box you will notice how comfortable it is to old. Also no splatter of Infinix on the front except subtly at the back close to the middle and Hot Note at the bottom close to the speakers.

When you put on your device using the button from the right side of the phone just below the volume keys, you are greeted with the gentle infinix logo and then phone is quickly booted into the Android 4.4.2 home screen. On the front is a led notification light but could'nt get it to work.

Network and SIM card

The Infinix HOTNOTE comes with a dual one mini SIM card for slot 2 and a micro SIM card slot for SIM 1 which you insert by opening the back case from the bottom close to the USB port. Once the back case is opened, the SIM card slots will be revealed and you can gently and easily slide in both the SIM 1 and SIM 2 into the slots. Another great plus is that both SIM card slots supports GSM/WCDMA so you can use 3.75G network connection on both SIMs.

The X551 supports both the 2G, 3G, 3.75G or better known as the HSPA+ technology for data transfer. It should be noted that the 3.75G network technology gives data transfer speed as much as the 4G transfer speed. Also the network bands of the Infinix HOT NOTE are 850/900/1800/1900 MHz for GSM and 900/2100 MHz for WCDMA.

These network bands mean that if you find yourself on other countries like UK, USA etc, you will still be able to use your smartphone as it would be compatible with those networks excepts for maybe some Chinese networks.

Weight and Dimemsions

The X551 is not just a great smartphone, it s also a well designed device with appropriate weight and dimensions to allow for good handling. Most 5.5 inch devices are not easy to hold or even operate on one hand but the X551 is very easy to hold and and also comfortable. 

Hence the bezel was trimmed to be as close to the screen as possible. The Infinix HOT NOTE has dimensions 156 x 77.88 x 8.9 mm and weights just 172g. The cutting according to Infinix was done using the CNC laser technology which allows for high precision in the cutting and finishing of the metallic body of the Infinix HOT NOTE phablet.

Screen Resolution and Display

The display and screen resolution of the Infinix HOT NOTE is very astounding. It comes with a 5.5 inch HD IPS-TFT display that allow for great colours and good viewing angles. It should also be noted that it has a very short refresh rate which means that this device display would be very great for gaming.

Not only is the display a good one, the resolution is also impressive. It comes with a resolution  720 x 1280 pixels. Viewing documents, browser contents and other files on a sunny day was splendid. I had no issues with it and with my smartphone-enabled gloves on, using the device was not hassle.

Operating System and Processor

Am sure you can easily guess that the operating system for the Infinix HOT NOTE is Android KitKat 4.4.2 which is currently the most common Android OS. The fluidity of the 4.4.2 android kitkat is amazing especially when you have a stock Android with a 1GB RAM on it which is what you would find on the X551 smartphone.

Under the hood running things and making sure your phone stay in good shape is the 1.4GHz octa-core MediaTek processor. The 8 cores processor allow for a better multitasking than a quad core processor hence you get a very non-laggy experience when the device is in use - something we have already experienced with the Infinix Zero smartphone.

Like that is not enough, you have the popular very reliable MALI 450 as the GPU of choice to make sure that all those graphics intensive applications can be handled without qualms.

One of  the great features with this device is the quick launch feature in which you can launch an app when you wake up the phone by drawing an alphabet. For example, the following alphabets will do these:

 Double tap the screen to wake up/sleep it.- Draw a “I” to access the dialer- Draw a “E” to access the browser- Draw a “W” for wechat- Draw a “C”for the camera- Draw a “O” for Facebook

Battery Capacity and Features

One of  the high selling points of this smartphone is the battery life. Its so awesome I feel like a heavy burden was taken off my back. As a user of the iPhone, i constantly have to charge my phone at least 3 times a day to have juice in it. However, since I started testing out the Infinix HOT NOTE, a single charge per day was enough to last me with all my heavy duty activities. This is thanks to 4000mAh LiPo battery in the device.

The smartphone comes with a non removable inbuilt battery of 4000mAh that is way above most smartphones or phablet in the market. Although you may be quick to say that the amount of battery doesn't really mean it will last well, however, I can say for the past few days that its being in my possession, the battery as lived to its 4000mAh capacity.

Not only is the battery good, furthermore, Infinix has decided to implement the fast charge technology yo find in recent Samsung devices. According to Infinix Mobility, with Infinix fast charge, you can charge you phablet from 0% to 75% within 55mins  and up to 50% within 25mins. 

The phablet don't only have a great battery, it also comes with inbuilt battery management app which helps you to automatically manage your battery depending on the battery juice left.

To charge the device, the provided USB cable is plugged at the bottom right side of the device and then charging should begin. The charger head delivers 3.1A current.

Memory and RAM

When a phone this good comes with a enough memory then we can say the phone is super good and that is what we will call the Infinix HOT NOTE - a super good smartphone.

Each unit of Infinix HOT NOTE will come with 16GB internal memory in which 10.6GB is made available. This is to allow for pictures and other contents to be stored on it. However, if you so much desire more space on your device, the extra memory card slot which supports up to 32GB of SD card should do the trick. Although Android KitKat 4.4 is capable of supporting up to 64GB memory card so if you have that much don't hesitate to slide it into the device.

In order to make apps run smoothly, a 1GB RAM is bundled in with the device. These of course should be enough for most users even though 2GB and 3GB RAM is other of the day now.

Camera

In this time and day, a phone without camera is considered a useless old mama's phone so its important we state that the Infinix HOT NOTE comes with 8.0 mega pixel AF camera capable of taking  great pictures with pixel resolution as high as 3264 x 2448 pixels. It also has geo-tagging feature, face detection and a dedicated LED flashlight just below the camera for taking pictures in low light areas.

The camera is situated at the top right side with the LED flash light just immediately below the camera. Videos can also be recorded @30fps for 1080p videos and 720p @60fps.

Front camera comes equipped with 2.0 mega pixel FF camera with image resolution as high as 1936 x 1096 pixels. The camera is also capable of doing a video call if the need arises.

Connectivity and Sensor

The Infinix HOT NOTE is equipped with a dual band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless chip for those that love to connect their devices to wireless networks. Also, it has option to turn your phone to a wireless router; hence it has the Hotspot feature. Furthermore, it has Bluetooth v4.0, HotKnot 2.0 for sharing files and standard micro USB port for connecting the device to both a computer for exchanging data or for charging. It will bring peace of mind to some to know that this device also supports USB OTG.

GPS and AGPS accuracy on this phablet is exceptional. Within a matter of seconds, it makes my location known something that some smartphone takes minutes to determine an example is the Blu 5.0C smartphone.

Also when it comes to sensors, the Infinix HOT NOTE comes with the usual light, proximity, gyro and Hall sensors.

Other features

Other features of this smartphone apart from its fast charge technology are its ability to have letters be drawn on the screen to launch certain applications. 

Furthermore because of the partnership between Jumia and Infinix, every buyer of Infinix HOT NOTE will get 2GB data 100% free and free music streaming from MTN. 

Also it has FM Radio, ebook reader, Voice recording a smart cover that can be used to turn of the display when its not needed. 

Furthermore, the  Infinix HOT NOTE comes pre-installed with Gmail, flashshare, Whatsapp, Facebook etc.

Price Tag

Guess what, for a phablet with these much juicy specifications, one would expect that the price would be around to N35,000 - N40,000 range, however, the Infinix HOT NOTE is available for purchase for only N23,900 from Jumia website here

Now isn't this price a good value for money? In our opinion, this is a great phone or phablet as you may want to call it and for just few days of usage its premium feel is well felt. hence for the price tag it has and the specifications and features, we give this device a 8/10

What are your thoughts regarding this Infinix HOT NOTE? Drop them in the comments section.

Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for more smartphone news.