We’ve had the Infinix S5 for a couple of days now since it got announced. We got to play around with it, testing out its key features and this is our hands-on review of Infinix’s latest device
The S line of series in the Infinix brand caters to selfie-loving consumers but what else does it bring the table. I have used the Infinix S4 when it launched early this year and I absolutely loved it(Full Review) so I had high expectations jumping into the Infinix S5.
Before I dive in, here’s what you get in the box:
- The phone itself
- A screen protector
- A pair of earphones
- A 10W power brick
- A micro-USB charging cable
- A clear silicone back cover
- A sim ejector tool
- A user manual
- A customer service card
Design
The Infiinix S5 comes with an attention-grabbing design with a very premium-feel though its made of plastic and has a glossy finish that will attract fingerprints so you’ll have to use the silicon case provided.
Our unit is the colour-gradient cyan variant, although you can get the Infinix S5 in Nebula Black and Violet. The Quetzal design is so distinctive as it copies the texture of the Quetzal birds feather pattern that gives it the allure of a glass back.
You get an easy-to-reach fingerprint sensor at the back next to the 4 LED flashlights and a quad-AI camera setup comprised of a 16MP main camera, 5MP wide-angle camera that also takes macros, 2MP camera for depth sensing and a QVGA ‘AI’ camera.
Below the back of the phone is a medium-sized S icon above the “Designed by Infiinix” text.
In the front is the 6.6 inches with a resolution of 1600 by 720 pixels. The Infinity-O display has a 90.5% screen to body ratio and comes with a 20:9 aspect ratio. The display is nearly all-screen except for the interruption of the punch hole selfie camera which will get to in a bit.
You’ll love that almost full-screen experience if you are into binging multimedia content from videos, photos or just scrolling through the web and social media. The screen brightness when using the phone outside suffers but is manageable.
At the bottom of the phone, you get a mono speaker grill, a micro-USB port and a headphone jack. The buttons are well placed on the right side of the phone with the power and volume rockers with decent tactile feedback. The left side has the slot for both dual sim slot and a microSD card.
Software and Performance
The Infinix S5 comes with Android 9 Pie and XOS version 5.5 baked in. Powering the phone is a Mediatek Helio P22 processor. For RAM and storage, the Infinix S5 comes in two versions – a 4GB RAM with 64GB storage and 6GB RAM with 128GB. Our unit comes with the former configuration.
You get additional customisation features with XOS such as the Smart Panel.
So far performance has been zippy for day to day tasks but when the heavy stuff is thrown at it -graphics-heavy games like Asphalt 9 or PUBG will see frames drop or lag but light games like Ninja Arashi will fare well.
XOS is still annoying with the bloatware, pesky notifications and unnecessary ads. To have a smooth experience, try deleting the bloatware and get a custom launcher to customize the phone to your liking.
For authentication, you get Face Unlock and a rear fingerprint scanner – both of which are pretty fast and complements the other logging in methods such as PIN and Pattern
We’ll continue taking the Infinix S5 through its paces so stay tuned for our full review.
Cameras
The Infinix S5 spots 5 cameras, 4 at the back and one front-facing one -mall of them AI-powered. The rear setup features a 16MP main camera, 5MP ultrawide, 2MP for depth and a 2MP low-light sensor. For selfies, you get a 32MP front-facing camera.
You get to play around with beauty, bokeh, AR shot, Portrait mode, panorama, macro, HDR in term of camera modes.
Here are some samples:
The cameras produce decent photos but some lack vibrancy. Daylight photos turn out well but when put in low light scenarios, it starts to struggle.
Skin tones look natural and exposure is decent where it can. The Infinix S5 tries with the portraits and bokeh shots.
In good lighting, selfies are good and you can play around with AR shots.
Beauty mode smoothens and sometimes makes things worse for some shots. When you zoom in, you’ll notice the photos lack details so expect that.
HDR mode tries to balance the exposure and macro shot come out decent too.
Battery Life
The Infinix S5 packs a 4000mAh battery that will provide all-day battery life for light users but if you tax your phone you’ll have to juice it up later in the evening. Charging takes a while cause it is not fast charging capable but 2 – 3 hours to get fully charged from 0.
Connectivity
The Infinix S5 supports both Faiba 4G VoLTE ad Safaricom VoLTE so you’re spoilt for choice.
Pricing and Availability
The 4GB RAM/64GB onboard storage variant costs Ksh 16,499 shillings while the 6GB RAM and 128GB onboard storage costs Ksh 20,999.
The S5 Lite with 4GB 64GB and the 3GB 32GB variants will begin selling from Ksh 13,899 and Ksh 13,499 respectively.
For now, the Infinix S5 is available on Xpark, Infinix’s official online store and its branded retail stores.
So far, the Infinix S5 holds its own but for how long and does it stand against other devices in this competitive budget market?
