When the HOT S was released some time last year, we thought it was the “special one”. A device that was good, yet Sally couldn’t put a finger on what exactly was good about it. Maybe it’s because it was the first of its kind.
Fast forward eight months later and we already have the successor to the Hot S. This time dropping the “Hot” branding that was associated with the entry-level Hot series.
The new S2, that came along a Pro variant, has a purpose. It isn’t just special but it’s meant to make your group selfies “wefie” better with dual cameras at the front being the highlight of the device.
Now that we have a successor, let’s see if one year really makes any difference:
Design and Display
Side by side, the Infinix Hot S and the S2 Pro have a lot of similarities. from the metal back with plastic top and bottom section to aid with cellular reception to the bottom firing speaker and traditional port placement. The front look similar aside from the 2.5D curved glass on the S2 Pro. The navigation buttons have also been changed from the traditional icons to smaller more decent looking dots but surprise, Infinix still hasn’t figured out how to backlight their navigation buttons.
Looking at the display, you will see a lot of difference. They both feature a 5.2-inch IPS display that is maxed out at 720p, but the quality of these displays are totally different. The S2 Pro’s display is much more pleasing to look at while that of the Hot S just looks washed out, especially if you are looking at them from an angle.
These two phones both feel premium and are easy to use thanks to their size. You won’t notice some drastic design changes, just feels like minor improvements to what was already a good design.
Software and Performance
The bread and butter of any device, or is that the camera? Well, even with a great camera but poor performance, a device will surely not be that pleasing to use. Well, the Hot S and S2 Pro share the same processor, the MT6753 clocked at 1.3GHz. Performance is fairly similar across the two but yes you will notice the Hot S struggling with some applications such as Facebook and Instagram while the S2 Pro runs more smoothly. All thanks to the 3GB RAM the S2 Pro carries while the Hot S has 2GB RAM, which is bad but…
Out of the box, the S2 Pro runs on Marshmallow, the same software that the Hot S runs on. However Infinix did release an update to bring Android Nougat to the S2 Pro, leaving the Hot S with the vintage software. If software matters to you, and it should, you will find that XOS on Nougat looks much better. I still have some issues with XOS generally, like the redundancy of an app drawer yet all the apps just appear on the home screen as well but having Nougat will comfort you as we await Android O.
Camera
This is what matters yeah? I know you probably just scrolled here and skipped the rest because you want to know whether the upgrade is worth it, well, to avoid swaying your decision, I will leave you to observe these images carefully and decide which one is pleasing to your eyes. I will then reveal which device took which picture towards the end of this article (don’t cheat).
So which ones do you like? Made your decision yet? Well, the images on the left side were all taken with the Hot S while the ones on the right were taken on the S2 Pro. So, let us know in the comments section which camera you prefer.
I did not include selfies taken with the wide-angle lens since that would not be a fair comparison. But it’s important to know that the S2 Pro has a two selfie cameras while the Hot S has the more traditional one camera. The wide-angle lens on the S2 Pro is for wefies and looks great if you want to capture a scene.
Conclusion
For those who already own the Hot S, I guess you could maybe wait for the next one unless you really want that wide-angle camera. However, for those that maybe battling between buying the older Hot S (currently retailing at Ksh.13,000) and the newer S2 Pro (retailing at Ksh.15,700), well, the S2 Pro is worth that price tag.
