Infinix Hot 7 review: Dual camera on front, affordable price tag - Is it really hot?

Infinix Hot 7 review: Acting on its aim to target the sub-Rs 10,000 segment in India, Infinix recently launched the Hot 7 - a smartphone that comes with dual rear as well as front camera setup and a 4,000mAh battery. The phone comes with a metal body with a notch at the top of the display and thin bezels on the sides. The Infinix Hot 7 is a successor to Hot 6 and 6X from last year and has been given a new look as compared to it previous generation models. The phone competes in a hot segment that recently witnessed the launch of Realme 3i. Is is this budget offering by Infinix really hot and deserves your money? Well, let's find out.

Infinix Hot 7 design and looks

As far as the design of Infinix Hot 7 is concerned, it is identical to the Infinix Hot 7 Pro, which is priced at Rs 9,999. The phone has a wide notch up front, a chin at the bottom, a dual rear camera setup aligned vertically, and a rear fingerprint sensor. At the back, the phone offers a metal finish that looks pretty smooth and sturdy. It can easily accomodate two SIM and a microSD card in its card tray slot. The design gives the phone a slightly premium look but the company could have give a dew drop notch on the front instead of a wide notch for selfie camera. 

Overall, the phone has a nice grip with slightly curved corners and edges, which it comfortable to carry around. It comes in three in Midnight Black, Aqua Blue, and Mocha Brown colours. We had the blue variant of the phone for review which looks elegant. The power and volume buttons are on the right side, while the SIM tray is on the left.

The smartphone features a 6.19 inch, HD+ resolution display at an affordable price tag. The IPS LCD display sports a 2.5D glass protection and 19:9 aspect ratio that delivers decent job to give you a decent viewing experience. However, it produces average colours, that might be a bumper if you are a media junkie. 

The Hot 7 comes with micro-USB port at the bottom which could have been replaced by a Type-C port to have an upper hand on the competitors. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack and loudspeaker grill. The top panel is completely blank. 

Infinix Hot 7 camera

For optics, the Infinix Hot 7 sports a dual camera setup at the back that includes a 13-megapixel primary sensor along with an f/1.8 lens and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor. The rear camera setup comes with smart features like PDAF, Dual LED Flash, AI Portrait, AI HDR, Night, Sports, Blue Sky, and Text. 

The rear camera performs really well in the daylight. But, the Bokeh mode steals the show here. It helps you get some really cool portrait shots. There are features such as LED Flash support and AI Beauty mode as well.

The front-facing camera setup comprises a 13-megapixel primary sensor with an f/2.0 lens and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor. Again, a dual rear camera setup is very rear for a phone in any price segment. Despite that, the front camera fails to create the same kind of magic and leaves much to be desired. 

Infinix Hot 7 performance 

The smartphone is packed with 2.39GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 SoC processor, coupled with up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 256GB) with a dedicated slot. This is an entry level processor and some of Hot 7's competitors are offering Media Helio P60 octacore processor or better. The Infinix Hot 7 runs on XOS 5.0 based on Android 9.0 Pie.  

The gaming performance on the phone was decent. You can play most games without trouble on the phone but on low to medium graphics preset. In fact, it would be too harsh to expect a phone of this price to run a heavy game on full resolution settings. We did face some issues with the phone during long usage. The phone's response time increased and it also heated up after regular usage of over 1.5 hrs. 

It is equipped with several built in smart features like bike mode, smart camera features and other pre-installed apps. Overall, the phone does the job for a medium usage user. It is packed by a 4000mAh battery supported by a 10W charger in the box.

Final verdict: Is it worth buying?

If you are looking for a budget smartphone that offers you decent features, smart camera and stylish design, you can definitely buy this one. The Infinix Hot 7 is priced in India at Rs 7,999 for the sole 4GB RAM + 64GB storage model and is available on Flipkart. Inifinix Hot 7 is a pocket friendly smartphone loaded with some decent specs. It faces a tough challenge in the form of Realme 3i which you should have a look at before making up your mind.

While this is what we think of this budget smartphone, don't forget to do your own research before purchasing the phone.