Infinix Hot 7 review: Perfectly hot to handle!

The demand for a budget phone in the country is immense and Infinix has been able to adequately deliver in this segment. After their Hot 6 series from last year, the Hong-Kong based smartphone manufacturer has introduced the Hot 7 series – Infinix Hot 7 Pro and Hot 7.

We already had a chance to use the Infinix Hot 7 Pro, and to know our verdict on the higher variant of the Hot 7, you can click here to read our Hot 7 Pro review. Now, coming back to the Hot 7 – the smartphone comes with a dual camera setup, both in front and back. A huge 4000mAh battery to power it, and in front a 6.19-inch full HD notch display with really thin bezels on the sides. The phone is made of metal just like the Hot 7 Pro and has the same 64GB storing capacity. Unlike its higher variant, the Hot 7 packs a 4GB RAM and an entry-level octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 SoC processor.

After using the Hot 7 for quite some time, we share our honest opinions on the device.

Build and design

The Infinix Hot 7 and Hot 7 Pro lie on the same parallel of latitude when it comes to design and looks. Just like its higher variant, the Hot 7 has a metal body, a standard wide notch upfront with a selfie camera, a chin at the bottom, thin bezels on the sides, a dual rear camera setup aligned vertically, and a rear fingerprint sensor.

A well-built metal body ensures the robustness of the device and gives it that premium look we always look for in a mobile phone. Altogether, the curved edges and corners help to maintain a nice grip and avoid any accidental slips while holding the smartphone. The SIM tray and MicroSD slot are on the left-hand side while the power button and volume keys are placed on the right. On the bottom are a micro USB port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the loudspeaker.

Infinix Hot 7 comes in three different colours – Midnight Black, Aqua Blue, and Mocha Brown colours. As you can see, we had the one in the Aqua Blue colour.

Display

The display screen is a 6.19-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 720x1500 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19:9. In our tests, the display did not compromise on anything as we were very satisfied with what was in our hands. Perfect for viewing images, videos or whether you’d like to binge on your favourite Netflix show, the device delivers.

We did not encounter any bad pixels or any such issue. Many budget devices tend to get smoggy when switched to full brightness. While here the colours seemed perfectly fine, in low and high brightness both and did not lose details.

Battery and OS

A huge 4000mAh battery is at work here. It takes somewhere around 2 hours to completely charge the phone from 0-100 per cent and it easily holds until the next day. One can easily use this phone stress-free without worrying about the next charge.

Infinix has one of the smoothest operating systems which perfectly associates with the battery – very light, very easy to understand and totally customisable. The XOS Cheetah v5.0.0 over the Android 9 Pie comes with many of its own pre-installed apps that can be removed if needed.

Other features include silent screen recording mode, bike mode, WhatsApp mode (In this mode only WhatsApp uses data in the background), game boost, one-hand mode and a freezer where if any app is moved, it simply stops consuming data.

The gesture control on Infinix phones is one of the best that we have come across. Simple gestures like swiping left, right, up and down over the screen while the display stays off help you to shuffle through your music playlist.

Performance

The Infinix Hot 7 comes with a 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage and runs on an octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 SoC processor. Decent specs for a phone priced at this range. The phone easily lets you perform general day to day operations such as calling, texting, clicking photos, hearing music, watching videos and surfing the internet, etc.

Now we tried playing high-end games such as PUBG, Asphalt in full graphics and as expected the phone kept lagging throughout, while switched at the lowest, the phone gave a satisfactory performance. Being a low budget phone, we did not expect it to perform as a fully-fledged gaming device and we don’t recommend it for playing high-end games.

We did run a couple of benchmarks and interestingly, it managed to score higher than the Hot 7 Pro. The Hot 7 scored 88195 in the AnTuTu benchmark and 5443 in PCMark’s work performance test while its higher variant scored 79154 in the AnTuTu benchmark and managed 5350 in PCMark’s work performance test. Apparently, the processor did make a difference here.

Camera

The Hot 7 has a 13MP+2MP camera in front and rear. Both are AI-equipped and include different shooting options and modes. The back camera has an f/1.8 aperture while the front comes with an f/2.0 aperture. The layout is sorted, every key on-screen is marked with captions and you can swipe right and left on the screen to switch between camera modes.

The default AI camera automatically adjusts the tones and focuses on the subject while clicking pictures. The final processed images were balanced and almost perfect with AI in control of everything. The HDR and Bokeh mode proved to be very useful and we were really happy with the results. Overall for a low-budget device like this, the camera clicks very well.

Default AI mode

HDR mode

Bokeh mode

Verdict

The Infinix Hot 7 is priced at Rs 7,999 and has all the latest features including gesture controls, face unlock and a fingerprint scanner. If you are searching for a good-looking phone with decent specs and you don’t want to burn a hole in your pocket then this is for you.