Infinix Hot 8

 

The much awaited infinix hot 8 has finally launched today in India for RS 6,999 which is approximately Ksh.10,144.
The phone which Leaked last month launched today and now takes offer from the Infinix hot 7 pro as the flagship of the Hot series.
The hot series is Infinix budget smartphone series well known for it's revolutionary specs including big displays, huge batteries and lovely sleek designs at an affordable price. Other Infinix phone series are the youth focused S series, the Note Series and it's flagship Zero Series.

All this phones have seen a huge success each released phone making alot of sales. However, the Hot series is the most enticing since it gives it's users a chance to own a phone with the latest smartphone technology at a very affordable price usually within the Ksh.10,000 mark. The Hot series have gained a lot of following since the hot 3.

The Infinix Hot 8 is a dual SIM phone with 4G LTE support something we strongly suggested it our earlier post that it was going to be it's major selling point. This was one of the major undoing of the Hot 7 especially now that Safaricom have launched 4G Volte support. 

Though the phone will work with Safaricom's LTE, it still remains a huge dissapointment for  faiba users since it doesn't support band 28, the 700 Mhz band used by faiba 4G mobile. This becomes the first Hot series smartphone to have LTE support. You can check out our list of Faiba 4G Compatible Smartphones most of which are from Nokia.

Just like what we expected from the leak, the Hot 8 has a beautiful design with a full front display made of thin bezels all around and a lovely waterdrop notch at the centre that's so small it is almost unnoticeable. 

This houses the 8 MP front camera with it's LED flash plus the proximity sensors. The waterdrop notch is the latest trend and we have already seen it in many phones released this year.

Unlike it's predecessor with a 6.2 inch display, the new entrant comes with a huge  6.52 inch screen the biggest ever in the Hot series. If you're used to smaller phones, it might take you a while to get used to this beast but am sure once you use it for a while you will never go back to tiny screen phones ever again.

The display has an HD resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels, the same HD display as the Hot 7. Though we would have loved to see a Full HD display of 1080 x 2460 pixels in this phone, at it's price we have nothing to complain about. This is also one of the reasons the phone is able to sell below 15 K. We hope the 269 ppi pixel density will still give us a good video experience. 

Another new feature that comes with this phone thanks to it's height and the waterdrop notch is the move from the usual 18:9 aspect ratio to a new 20:9 ratio. While the old ratio meant that the width of the phone is half the height, this new ratio means that the phone will look much taller than previous ones.

This is becoming another trend this year and despite the fact that not many videos support this aspect ratio there's no doubt it is the future of smartphone design and any video vendor will have to adjust to fit this new reality. The Hot 8 becomes the first Infinix phone and the second phone after the recently launched Oppo Reno to have the 20:9 aspect ratio.

Another feature that will be a major selling spec of this phone is the 5,000 mAh battery, the biggest ever in the Hot series and probably the first ever Infinix to have such a battery capacity. Even the recently launched Note 6, the Hot 7 and the Infinix S5 all had a 4,000 mAh battery. This brings us to an end to fast battery drain, and we believe the era of having to charge your phone several times in a single day is now gone.

The phone is powered by a Mediatek Helio P22 processor which is what we would expect for such a price.
Though quite basic, the Helio P22 has an octa-core CPU clocked up to 2 GHz and supports a number of AI operations including face unlock, camera bokeh effect and better camera functions including better low light performance and active noise cancellation.
Though it can support up to 6GB RAM, Infinix decided to limit the hot 8 at 4GB, which is commendable. The hot 7 pro had 4GB RAM.
Other phones powered by the Mediatek hellio p22 include Samsung Galaxy A10S, a number of LG phones like LG 40, Vivo V91 among many other budget smartphones.

These phones will form the major part of the Infinix Hot 8 competition  but this phone will surely lead as others follow.
Just like any other 2019 phone, the hot 8 runs on Android 9 (pie) atop Infix own XOS 5.0 UI.

Something to also note about this new device is the introduction of the fingerprint scanner, which is rear mounted. This was missing in the Hot 7 and now compliments the face unlock feature.

That said, the Hot 8 comes in a range of beautiful colours including cosmic purple and quetzal cyan.

Infinix hot 8 key Features/specs.

• Network:          2G, 3G and 4G LTE.
• Dimensions:    165 x 8.7 x 8.7 mm.
• Weight:             165 g.
• Screen size:      6.52 inch.
• Display type:    IPS LCD.
• Resolution:       720 x 1600 pixels
• Pixel density:   269 ppi.
• Aspect ratio:     20:9
• Screen to body: 81.5%.
• OS:  Android 9 (pie)
• Processor:   Mediatek Helio P22.
• RAM:   4GB
• Storage:  64 GB expandable up to 256 GB.
• Camerass:   Triple, 13 MP + 2 MP depth  sensor and dedicated low light sensor.
• Video:  1080p@30fps.
• Selfie Camera: 8 MP with LED flash.
• Battery:  Non removable Li-po 5,000 mAh.
• Sensors: proximity, light sensor,  Accelerometer,Compass
• Fingerprint: rear mounted.

Infinix hot 8 pros.

• Most recent OS.
• Huge battery.
• Sufficient RAM.
• Huge display.
• 20:9 aspect ratio.

Cons:

• Low screen resolution.
• Smaller internal storage.

Should you buy the Infinix hot 8?

For such a price, it is quite clear that this phone will greatly change the smartphone world, and we are likely to see a huge drop from other low range smartphone.

The hot 8 has some great specs to be found in a budget phone, including the 4 GB RAM which is commonly found in the midrange.

It's huge battery is another big plus for this phone, and we highly recommend to anyone who wants to enjoy midrange specs at a budget price.

What are your thoughts about this phone?

Also Read:Safaricom Tunukiwa bundles.

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