Infinix launched the Infinix Hot S3 a while ago and the prime focus of the phone is selfie users. We’ve seen Oppo and Vivo target the same segment of users in the past and they’ve been very successful in achieving the results that they intended to. The Infinix Hot S3 attempts to provide the same selfie experience at a reduced price while not compromising on the other specs.
In this review, we will be talking a little about the Design, Display, Specifications and more specifically about the Camera which is the USP of the device.
Design
The year 2018 is going to be all about thinner bezels and the new 18:9 aspect ratio, the Infinix Hot S3 does just that by reducing the bezels with the new modern aspect ratio. We’ve already seen a similar design on the InFocus Vision 3 which was offered in the sub 10k segment. Apart from the thinner bezels, the device follows the more conventional design of a smartphone. The primary camera is on the rear of the smartphone and is accompanied by a quad-LED flash, right below the camera and more to the center of the smartphone is the fingerprint sensor and the brand logo.
The volume rocker is to the right side of the device and the textured power button is just below the volume rocker. The bottom of the device houses the MicroUSB charging port along with the 3.5mm audio jack. The device is a dual SIM device and also supports the use of microSD card, the tray for both the SIM cards and the microSD card is to the left of the device. The device is built around a unibody metal casing.
Display
The Infinix Hot S3 comes with a 5.65-inch IPS LCD display with a FullHD+ resolution. The aspect ratio of the display is 18:9 which gives the device a very modern look similar to the more premium counterparts. The auto-brightness feature works very well and we found the display to be adequately bright in most conditions. The viewing angles are pretty good and certainly, we can’t expect more than what the company has to offer at this price point.
Camera
The camera is the show-stopper in this device, the Infinix HOT S3 is clearly aimed at the selfie audience and has the specifications to match it. The rear camera on the device is a 13MP camera while the front camera is a 20MP Sony IMX376 sensor with dedicated dual-LED flash and an aperture of f/2.0. The front camera is very quick to focus on the subject and comes with several beautification features built-in. Positively, the beautification done by the Camera is subtle and doesn’t look overly done as in the case of its competitors.
The beautification feature tends to brighten the image slightly while also trimming the jawline and making your skin appear smoother and the Infinix HOT S3 does each of them in the right amount. Also, the 82-degree wide angle lens helps you pull in more people into the selfie with a wider coverage.
Coming to the rear camera, despite decent attempts, it fails to keep up with the front camera of the smartphone and slightly lags behind. The rear camera is a 13MP camera with a f/2.0 aperture and yields average results. The camera takes pretty good images in daylight conditions but some of the images still turn out overexposed.
The rear camera is surprisingly slower to focus when compared to the front camera which can probably be fixed with a software update. We’ve captured several images using the smartphone and a few turned out pretty impressive with accurate and vibrant color reproduction alongside a balanced light schema. There is also a professional mode if you wish to tinker with the settings and get the best out of each image.
Check camera samples: Link
Performance
The Infinix Hot S3 comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset and has 3GB of RAM. The internal storage of the device is 32GB and there is also a 4GB RAM variant for a slightly higher price. We used the device for a few days and in our experience, the device handled regular tasks such as social media browsing, internet browsing and even Snapchat without any issues. We could run multiple apps in the background and quickly switch between them without any hiccups. The device could also handle more graphics intensive applications including Asphalt 8: Airborne and Modern Combat 5 without any lags although the device did start heating up at a point.
Battery
The battery is yet another thing that the device excels at alongside the fabulous front camera. We could get over a day and a half of extensive usage including gaming, browsing, photography, and video streaming. The device returned excellent results while streaming videos, using the camera, browsing the net on Wi-Fi and 4G, in our experience the device can be used for up to 2 days on low to moderate usage while intensive usage would still get you through the day thanks to the 4000mAh battery.
Software
The Infinix Hot S3 runs Android 8 Oreo out-of-the-box making it one of the only budget devices with the latest version of Android. The software on the device is a forked version of Android called the XOS 3.0 which brings changes to the System UI while adding certain functionality. The XOS in this device has most apps laid out on the home screen while also having an app drawer. The software also includes extras like the Freezer app which can be used to freeze the memory of apps that you don’t frequently use.
Verdict
The Infinix Hot S3 is a modern smartphone with a decent processor plus memory combination and is very much capable of day to day use apps. The device was successful in handling about everything that we threw at it without any lag. The camera on the rear is about average while the front camera is one of the best in the segment. The battery life on this device is again one of the best in the price segment.
The device is an excellent buy at the price, if you are looking to buy a new smartphone then you should certainly keep an eye for the Redmi Note 5 and the Redmi Note 5 Pro reviews that will be coming soon.
A Mini Note 5 pro for people with under 10k budget!! #Honor9LiteGiveaway
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