The Infinix ZERO 30 5G is one of the latest offerings from the Chinese smartphone brand that aims to deliver flagship features at a budget price. The phone boasts a 144Hz display, a 108MP triple-camera setup, and a 5000mAh battery with fast charging support. But how does it perform in real life? Is it worth the price? Let’s find out in this review.
Design & Display
The Infinix ZERO 30 5G has a sleek and modern design that feels well-made and premium in the hand. The phone is slim with a thickness of just 7.9 mm and weighs 185 g. It also has a glass front and back with a frame that feels like metal, giving it a solid and sturdy feel. The back has a soft, satin-like touch and a gradient color scheme that shifts depending on the angle of light.
The display is one of the main highlights of the phone. It has a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2400×1080 pixels. They curve on the side, surrounded by very narrow bezels. The display is very smooth and responsive, thanks to the 144Hz refresh rate that makes everything look fluid and seamless. It also has an in-display fingerprint scanner, which is fast and reliable.
The 144Hz refresh rate is unheard of in this price range. In daily use, however, it is indistinguishable from a 120Hz refresh rate. Still, it makes a noticeable difference in gaming and scrolling.
The display also has good brightness, contrast, and colors, making it suitable for watching videos and browsing the web. It also has good viewing angles, and good legibility under the sun.
The Infinix ZERO 30 5G has the power and volume buttons on the right side. while the left side is bare. At the bottom resides the SIM tray, a microphone, a USB-C port, and the main speaker. The earpiece functions as a second speaker aided by speaker vents (found at the top with another microphone) to form a stereo pair.
The phone also has IP53 certification, which means it has protection from dust and water ingress. Its not waterproof, but it can cope with sweat and splashes of water and rain.
Cameras
The Infinix ZERO 30 5G has a triple-camera setup on the back, consisting of a 108MP main camera with a 1/1.67″ Samsung ISOCELL HM6 sensor and OIS, and a wide f/1.65 lens, an 13MP ultra-wide camera with an f/2.2 lens, and a 2MP depth sensor with an f/2.4 lens.
Surprisingly, the main camera took really good photos in bright lighting conditions, with excellent details, sharpness, and dynamic range. Granted, the photos looked over-processed at times with over-saturated colors, but they still looked good and certainly will look great on social media.
There’s no optical zoom, but the phone supports up to 10 times digital zoom. On the camera app, you have 0.6x, 1x, and 3x zoom options. Colors and details remain acceptable, but there is a slight loss in sharpness.
Low light and night shots are decent, thanks to the OIS, which helps control camera shake. Colors and dynamic range look good.
One of the highlights of the Infinix ZERO 30 5G is its selfie camera, backed by 50MP shooter housed in a punch-hole cutout on the top center of the display. The selfie camera is impressive as well, with good details and skin tones. It also has a front facing flash, should you need a fill light or more illumination in low-light conditions.
Performance
The Infinix ZERO 30 5G is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 8050 chipset, an octa-core processor clocked at up to 3GHz. The phone has 12GB of RAM (plus up to 9GB more of virtual RAM) and 128GB of internal storage, which can be expanded via a microSD card slot.
Despite being announced in 2023, the chip is actually a rebadged Dimensity 1100 which was released in 2021. However, its still a decent mid-range processor with good performance across the board, able to handle multitasking and gaming well, while offering a lag free and responsive experience.
The phone runs on Android 13 with Infinix’s XOS 13 on top. The OS is cleaner and looks better than older iterations. There are still some bloatware and duplicate apps, but its noticeably less than most Chinese phones in the market. Moreover, unwanted apps can be easily disabled or uninstalled if you’re not going using them.
The XOS offers a good number of customizations. You can change the themes and icons, swiping animations, desktop grid size, and more. One annoyance I stumbled upon was the inability to stop the XOS launcher from rotating. Unlike other phones, auto rotate includes the launcher, which I found unnecessary.
Interestingly, the phone comes with its own AI assistant called Folax. According to Infinix, it uses ChatGPT to process and execute instructions.
As for gaming, Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG ran without issue on high graphics settings and frame rates. Genshin Impact, on the other hand, defaults at medium, and eked out average performance. There were some stutters when things got busy, but otherwise its playable. Lowering the graphics settings (and your expectations) greatly improves gameplay. Moreover, we noticed the phone heating up as our gaming session progressed.
The Infinix ZERO 30 5G also has a game launcher called XArena with various features such as hiding notifications, temperature control, and other tweaks to improve the gaming performance. It also has Infinix’s Dar-Link engine, which uses AI optimizations to boost CPU, and GPU performance.
Here are the benchmark scores of the Infinix ZERO 30 5G.
The scores of the Dimensity 8050 and Dimensity 1100 are not that far apart. It also outperforms the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G, and is slightly on par with the Snapdragon 870.
Battery Life
The Infinix ZERO 30 5G has a massive 5000mAh battery that can easily last a day of moderate usage. For heavy users, that means charging in the early evenings. This also means that, like most smartphones, you will be charging the phone come night time. But thanks to the 68W fast charging support, you won’t be waiting for too long.
Charging is surprisingly fast using the included 68W charger. Infinix claims that a 30-minute charge yields 80%, which we found to be close to the truth. A full charge took us just 55 minutes to complete, which was impressive in this range.
Verdict
The Infinix ZERO 30 5G is surprisingly a great option for anyone looking for a budget-friendly smartphone with premium features. It offers a lot of value for P14,999, with its smooth display, impressive cameras, decent performance, and long-lasting battery life.
It is not perfect, though, as it has some drawbacks such as the dated processor and the increase in temperatures during gaming. However, these are minor issues that can be overlooked for the price.
If you are looking for an affordable smartphone that can handle your daily needs and more, then you should definitely consider the Infinix Zero 30 5G as one of your choices.
The Infinix ZERO 30 5G is comes in three colors: Rome Green, Golden Hour, and Fantasy Purple, priced at P14,999. The handset is available in Infinix stores nationwide and online on Shopee, Lazada, and the SM Malls Online app.
Infinix ZERO 30 5G specs
| Display | 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, 2400×1080, 144Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate, 2160 PWM dimming, 10-bit, 950 nits |
| Processor | Mediatek Dimensity 8050 |
| RAM/Storage | 8GB+256GB 12GB+256GB |
| Rear Cameras | 108MP main, ISOCELL HM6, f/1.65 13MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 2MP, f/2.4 |
| Front Camera | 50MP, f/2.45 Flash, ISOCELL JN1 |
| Network | 5G, 4G LTE, dual SIM |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC |
| Others | USB-C, in-display fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers, FM radio, 3.5mm headphone jack, IP53 protection, VC liquid cooling |
| OS | XOS 13, Android 13 |
| Colors | Golden Hour Rome Green Fantasy Purple |
| Battery | 5000mAh Battery, 68W wired fast charging |
