Infinix Smart 6 is the latest entry in India’s affordable smartphone segment, which has seen fewer launches this year. The entry-level phone packs a Mediatek Helio A22 processor, an 8-megapixel dual rear camera setup, a 5000mAh battery and a 6.6-inch HD+ display. At Rs 7,499, is the Infinix Smart 6 the best entry-level phone you should consider? We have used the phone for about a month, so find out what we think about it in our review.
Infinix Smart 6
7,499
What Is Good?
- Good battery life
- Can click decent selfies
- Colour rich display
What Is Bad?
- Slow charging
- Poor low-light camera performance
- Average performance
- Bloatware
Infinix Smart 6 Review: Design and Build
The Infinix Smart 6 sports a simple design that looks good. But, it has a glossy finish which catches fingerprints and smudges quickly. On the flip side, you get an antibacterial material coating on the back. However, we were not able to test that claim.
The phone’s rear also hosts a square camera module and a fingerprint sensor. However, the camera module can be a little misleading, as it gives an illusion of having four cameras. Instead, it houses only two sensors, and two LED flash modules.
Coming to the ports and buttons, the device features a micro-USB charging port, a speaker grille, and a headphone jack on the bottom. The right side of the frame houses a power button and a volume rocker. On the left, there’s a full-sized SIM card slot that can house two SIM cards and a microSD card.
Despite its large size, the Infinix Smart 6 is comfortable to carry all day.
Infinix Smart 6 Review: Display and Audio
The Infinix Smart 6 flaunts a 6.6-inch TFT display with an HD+ resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels. It can be yanked up to 500 nits of brightness and has a screen-to-body ratio of 89%. It has thick bezels and a water drop notch that surrounds the front-facing camera. It does look outdated, but at this price point, it’s acceptable.
Since this price segment is all about survival, you will mostly find displays lacking punchy colours. Interestingly, the Infinix Smart 6 comes out as an exception. The display produces rich colours while gaming, video streaming and browsing. However, in a few cases, it feels oversaturated. The brightness is adequate indoors, but legibility under direct sunlight leaves a lot to be desired.
The Infinix Smart 6 gets a single bottom-firing speaker that is loud enough to watch movies and videos on YouTube. It is pleasantly surprising to see DTS support in a device this affordable, and it greatly enhances the audio quality.
Infinix Smart 6 Review: Battery Life and Charging
A key highlight of the Infinix Smart 6 is its beefy 5,000mAh battery. Most of our time on the device passed on watching the videos on YouTube, but we also played games for roughly an hour every day, clicked a few pictures and videos and scrolled the web on Chrome. Despite a moderate workload, the phone had 56% battery by bedtime. So, on average, we were able to squeeze out at least two days of use from the Smart 6.
Charging the phone is a bit difficult. Not only does it use a MicroUSB port, but it only charges at a meagre 10W charger capacity via the bundled charger. It takes about three hours to juice up the battery, so you may want to find a hobby to pass your time as the phone charges rather slowly.
Infinix Smart 6 Review: Performance and Software
The Infinix Smart 6 uses a dated Mediatek Helio A22 processor that is based on 12 nm fabrication. This is paired with up to 2GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. You can allocate about 1GB of storage to virtual RAM too. Due to the eMMC storage, the virtual RAM doesn’t do much to improve performance. The device has a storage capacity of 64GB, which is good, considering the fact that its competition offers only 32GB of storage. With an external microSD card, the storage can be expanded up to 512GB.
The device boots XOS v7.6 which is based on the Android 11 Go edition. It is loaded with a lot of bloatware that can be uninstalled. Sure, the bloat comes in the way of your experience, but that’s one of the ways smartphone companies manage to keep the prices of their smartphones low and still earn a margin from ads.
Besides that, the app drawer is nowhere near the stock version, but it does have several useful features, on-screen translation, social turbo, smart panel, theft alert, kids mode and eye-care mode.
In terms of performance, you’ll find the phone gasping for breath even while unlocking the device. The delay in opening up apps like Instagram, Facebook, Spotify and Gmail is noticeable. Multitasking can also be a bit bothersome, and so is competitive gaming. Casual games like Subway Surfers, Temple Run, Dr Parking and Coach Bus Simulator ran fine, but battle royales like Battlegrounds Mobile India and Call of Duty: Mobile were tough to play.
We also observed that using YouTube to play videos consecutively often crashed the app. We can’t put the finger on the reason for this, but it was unnerving.
Biometric options include the fingerprint sensor at the rear and face recognition that works using the front-facing camera. The former was fast to unlock the device, but the face sensor failed in most attempts.
Infinix Smart 6 Review: Camera
The rear camera module of the Smart 6 comprises an 8-megapixel sensor and a depth camera, whereas the front houses a 5MP front camera. The camera app features basic modes such as time-lapse, beauty, portrait, panorama, HDR and video mode.
- The 8-megapixel rear primary sensor captures average pictures with okayish details and natural colours in the daylight. The sensor is neither of high quality nor of high resolution, so even though colours look good indoors, the details take a hit as you zoom in.
- Low light pictures clicked by the Smart 6 have considerable noise in them and appear soft. Images were taken in artificial lighting that featured a yellowish tone, and the sensor struggled to focus on the subject. The secondary depth lens doesn’t seem to be doing much. We didn’t observe a noticeable difference between shots clicked with and without the portrait mode.
- Selfies clicked in daylight have natural skin tone, well-reproduced colours and ample amount of details. But in artificial light, the pictures often appear soft with low details. In extreme low light conditions, the camera struggles to focus on the face, and we get to see the yellowish tone present in shots clicked by the primary rear camera.
- Videos can be recorded at a maximum of 1080p/30fps for front and rear cameras. The videos appear fine in daylight conditions but have noise in poor lighting. The mic produces a muffled sound and captures a lot of background noise.
Infinix Smart 6 Review: Verdict
The Infinix Smart 6 is a good entry-level purchase for those who want good battery life and a punchy display. However, it falters in providing a reliable rear camera, fast charging and snappy performance.
Also Read: Realme C30 First Impressions
The Infinix Smart 6 is priced at Rs 7,499 and has very limited competitors. The alternatives like the Poco C31, 9, and Redmi 9A pack better processors but aren’t as affordable. The recently launched Realme C30 is the only competitor we can think of that’s evenly matched to the Smart 6 in terms of pricing, and it offers similar performance and features packed in a slightly different design.
