An unusual orange phone dressed in vegan leather arrived in a large box a few days ago. It’s so refreshing to see a different looking device, that I couldn’t help but sit up in interest. The Infinix Zero 5G costs Rs 19,999 and looks great for the price. It also has some features you typically get only on more expensive phones. 

Let’s dive into that box. The first that that catches your eye is the phone and its citrus orange back. It could have looked really cheap in another material, but it happens to be in ‘vegan leather’ which both looks and feels great. It does have that leather texture and so is neither slippery nor a magnet for smudges. How sturdy it will be in the long term only time will tell. The cameras have been ‘un-bumped’ in a style that’s becoming popular this year. Just a soft undulation leads to the lens circles. 

Other items in the package include a 33W charger and a cable, a transparent back cover in case you want to keep that phone pristine, and the usual bits. Somehow the box makes a statement because of the way it’s designed. 

The other colour variant of the Zero 5G is a glossy black, for those who want to keep it subtle for their own reasons. This is a large phone with a 6.78-inch LTPS display. But it’s miraculously slim for something that has a 5,000mAh battery. It’s not a one-handed phone, but it’s not tiring to hold. 

The display is usable but a little dull as it’s a non-AMOLED. Set it to dark mode and you can come to terms with it fast enough. Brightness peaks at 500 nits, which is more than many at this price. There’s no notch thankfully but a punch hole that is quite prominent. The screen has a 120Hz refresh rate and it makes a big difference to how fluid the phone feels. Touch sampling is 240Hz. You can also set the touch to be more (or less) responsive. The display does have its limitations including no Widevine L1 certification support though it does support HDR10 content. There are also no stereo speakers and the one speaker you do get is loud but sharp. 

Looking around the edges of this phone one will find a headphone jack. The power button is totally flush with the body and perhaps should have stuck out a little to be immediately findable because it houses the fingerprint sensor. The SIM tray supports dual SIM plus a memory card. 

The chief prized feature on this phone is the chipset it runs on: MediaTek’s Dimensity 900, chosen with gamers in mind. It comes with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM (with 3GB expandable) and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage — specs that you would find on a more expensive phone and not so often on budget ones. If you use this device you’ll be impressed at how smooth and lag-free affordable phones are now becoming. Benchmark scores bear that out as well. Note that it’s a 5G phone and it supports some 13 bands. Not long ago, companies were charging a big premium for that. 

What ruins the fun on the Zero is its software which is unpolished and has a general lack of appeal. On top of Android 11 Infinix runs its XOS interface. There are a ton of native apps you will not particularly want. 

The main camera has a 48MP Samsung sensor. There’s a 13MP portrait camera, a 2MP depth camera and no ultra-wide which is unfortunate. The selfie camera is a 16MP. The cameras are adequate but don’t buy this device for its photography capabilities. 

For its price, this phone has a nice design, is a great performer and comes with many features that are rare in this category. Software lets it down somewhat as do the absence of stereo speakers. Cameras are middling. Overall, a strong contender. 

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