Infinix Smart 8HD Review: Things we like and don’t

Just as we approach the end of the year and while Spotify Wrapped is still fresh on Instagram, Infinix wants to end 2023 on a high note. Its new budget smartphone, the Smart 8HD, is the talk of the town.

The introductory pricing of Rs 5,669 (combined with offers) seems too good to be true, especially when you take a look at the spec sheet below.

Here are a few questions that popped up in my mind while reviewing this phone, after taking into consideration the specifications and pricing:

• The Infinix Smart 8HD has an ‘HD’ in its name, so how good is its display?
• Given the limited physical RAM capacity, will the Infinix Smart 8HD be able to offer good performance for day-to-day tasks?
• For such an inexpensive phone, how much will I compromise on the user experience in terms of bloat when using the Infinix Smart 8HD?
• While it doesn’t have an ultrawide camera, how good is Infinix Smart 8HD’s primary camera, especially at night?
• Whoa, there’s a 5,000mAh battery in a phone priced below 6 grand, but can the Infinix Smart 8HD last an entire day? What about charging speeds?
• There’s a lot of buzz around this feature called Magic Ring on the Infinix Smart 8HD. Is it even useful?

After using the Infinix Smart 8HD for some time, I have got the answers. Read on to find out…

Infinix Smart 8HD Review: Things we like

Let’s kick off with things that really struck a chord with me.

Display

Despite not having full HD+ credentials, the Infinix Smart 8HD hits a home run with its fast 90Hz display. I understand Infinix’s psyche behind it – increasing the perceived speed is more important for this price than providing a laser-sharp display.

And it helps, because there are times when the transitions don’t quite load up that quickly due to the limitations of the phone’s processor, but your touch inputs are registered quickly, giving you the illusion of speed.

There’s an obvious compromise on the panel’s colours and viewing angles – it’s an LCD after all. But, the display brightness is very respectable.

Processor and hardware performance

We remember seeing people go crazy after witnessing the capabilities of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 in budget phones earlier this year. The UNISOC T606 is not the most exciting SoC to power a phone, but there’s a reason why it is still chosen time and again by phonemakers despite it being almost three years old.

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, it is very close to what the MediaTek Helio G88 achieves on AnTuTu and Geekbench. It also helps that it does not have a temper, and it runs cool without throwing tantrums.

Google Maps, one of the most intensive apps for a budget phone, ran without stuttering, and even with just 3GB of RAM, the Smart 8HD could remember what happened in the last three apps you opened. This, of course, depends on how much stuff you have loaded onto your phone.

Make no mistake; the Infinix Smart 8HD is not designed to run heavy games, nor can it stream full HD videos, but then nobody even expects it to do so.

A place where Unisoc’s chipset does let you down is in network connectivity. The T606 does not support 4G carrier aggregation, which enables users to obtain higher 4G speeds. This may seem like a small trade-off, but the MediaTek Helio G88 provides this and the difference in speed is noticeable, especially when you take into account that there’s no 5G in the picture here.

Software

The Infinix Smart 8HD runs the Go version of Android 13 with a thin layer of Infinix’s XOS 13 skin. If you ask me, it is one of the cleaner UIs out there. It does have a little bit of bloat – there’s a themes gallery, third-party app and games store, and Visha player, but that’s pretty much it. The rest is functional bloat – Spotify, FM player, and Infinix’s CarlCare after-sales service app. The best part is none of these pre-installed apps spam you with notifications without your consent.

Sure, there’s some stutter when navigating through menus and apps, but nothing ever crashes or goes blank. The reliability and predictability of the UI is what’s appreciated at this price, and that’s what Infinix has focused on.

Battery performance

We at MySmartPrice reviewed several smartphones in 2023, and the most popular battery capacity of Android smartphones is around 5,000mAh. The Infinix Smart 8HD not only sticks to this trend, but also comes with a Type-C slot – that’s something we haven’t seen at this price.

The Smart 8HD can easily go beyond a day’s worth of use given its low-power processor and LCD screen. In our tests, it had a screen-on time of about seven hours.

Primary camera performance

There are many pleasant surprises about the Infinix Smart 8HD’s cameras. For starters, it can auto-detect a scene and apply HDR on harshly backlit scenarios. These two things alone make it stand out among a sea of budget phones.

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Many of my friends were left flabbergasted trying to guess the price of the phone that clicked such good shots in the day. Despite the low 16-megapixel resolution, it can click some surprisingly clear photos.

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The quality of images steadily deteriorates as the lighting goes down, but it is never so bad that you can call it trash. For many, the fact that it can click noise-free photos without giving grief in processing will be convincing enough for a phone this affordable.

Infinix Smart 8HD Review: Things we aren’t sure about

There were some grey areas about my experience with the Infinix Smart 8HD.

Magic Ring

The whole concept of the iPhone’s Dynamic Island was to give users a quick, fun glance at stuff that gets buried under the notification tray while giving them the ability to interact with it. This includes tracking Swiggy/Zomato deliveries, keeping a check on voice recordings… you know the rest.

Infinix’s Magic Ring in its current state is a half-hearted attempt at doing the same, but the information it shows can be easily seen on the top of the notification shade. At the moment, it only shows charging status, low-battery indication, and calls in the background. Out of these, only the last use case adds value to my experience.

I’m hoping either Infinix or third party app developers will take a look at this really powerful visual tool and unlock its potential in the future.

Design

Infinix seems to be betting on the aspirational yet budget-conscious psyche of buyers under Rs 6,000, and it has gone all out on it. The Smart 8HD is unapologetic about taking obvious design and functional cues from the iPhones, blatantly calling the design ‘iPhonic’. So, it’s got the same boxy design with flat edges, and a faux-triple camera arrangement on the rear.

I’m a person who loves flashy, minimalist stuff – I rock a bright yellow bike and bright orange shoes, but even then I wish there was a little less ‘bling’ in the colour variants of the Smart 8HD. That’s just a personal choice, and I’m guessing most people will slap a case on it anyway.

While I understand many people get a skin just to make their budget phone look like an iPhone, there’s still some room for originality here, especially when you are playing with plastic backs. Take the Infinix GT 10 Pro for instance – it appears to be an all-new design, but it derives inspiration from many phones.

Infinix Smart 8HD Review: Things we don’t like

Finally, here’s the stuff that didn’t make the cut for us.

Charging

The Infinix Smart 8HD takes its own sweet time to charge up. It goes from 0-100% charge in about four hours, because it comes with a measly 10W charger. We understand that charging speeds are of the least priority to a person buying a budget phone. But, in these four hours, a person can go watch Animal in the Cineplex and still have time to reflect on their life choices.

Secondary camera

Even Infinix hasn’t mentioned what the secondary camera of the Smart 8HD does… is it a portrait or a macro camera?

As per our testing, it is a portrait, because when we turned on the portrait mode and covered the second camera ring, we were shown a prompt to not do that. But given how far AI algorithms have come, and how the selfie camera can take portrait selfies without a secondary camera – I do not see the point of including it.

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The money splurged on including such a vestigial feature might have been better used in increasing the charging wattage maybe? Think about it from a marketing standpoint too: ‘18W TRULY fast charging’ versus ‘dual 13MP camera’. We like the ring of the former.

Infinix Smart 8HD: Should you buy it?

Yes. Hands down, this is one of the best deals you can get throughout the wide spectrum of smartphones. It is almost like a good short film made on a tight budget, with a well-written script.

It has got a good camera, a fast display, a fuss-free interface, and more importantly, respectable performance.

We wish Infinix traded the secondary camera for a faster charging speed, but again, slim pickings at this price.

If you are pinched on money or need a spare phone to just make calls, the Infinix Smart 8HD can be the perfect choice for you.