Infinix Note 8 Review: Heading in the Right Direction

Infinix Note 8 is here barely half a year after the launch of the Note 7.

The smartphone company has been churning really nice devices the past few months – from their flagship Infinix Zero 8 and the budget Infinix Hot 10.

The Infinix Note 8 is their new midrange device costing a thousand more shy above 20K.

As a successor to the incredible Note 7, the Infinix Note brought its A game and I’ve had the pleasure to use it as my daily driver for a good amount of time for this conclusive review.

Infinix Note 8 Unboxing and First Impressions Review: The Upgrade Was Worth The Wait

Design

Infinix Note 8 is an incredibly designed smartphone. The build quality, though plastic, has greatly improved.

There’s a color-gradient back that alot of you are going to love.

There’s a lot of different colours to choose from as the Infinix Note 8 comes in Deepsea Luster(our unit), Silver Diamond and Iceland Fantasy.

At the back, you’ll see the Infinix logo at the bottom and a rectangular camera bump that houses the quad camera setup which include a 64MP main camera, 2MP macro camera, 2MP depth camera and another additional 2MP AI lens.

The 64MP lens is an upgrade form the 48MP main camera on the Infinix Note 7.

Next to the cameras is a quad-LED flash.

In terms of buttons, you get a power button which has also incorporated a fingerprint sensor, and volume rocker button on the left side.

Another upgrade is on the charging port. Infinix finally brought in Type-C port. We also get microphone, headphone jack and speaker grille.

Coming to the front is the huge 6.95″ LCD screen that fills it almost entirely thanks to the near bezel-less design.

a nearly edge-to-edge screen on the Infinix Note 8

The chin is however relatively thick.

The display is interrupted at the top left corner with a punch hole cutout that hosts 16MP selfie camera and a depth sensor next to it.

It’s a pretty lovely screen.

The display is more than good enough and gets decently bright indoors and under shade but it will struggle outdoor.

You’ll enjoy consuming multimedia content – be it reading, scrolling social media, browsing the web, streaming movies, listening to music or gaming.

At the top bezel, we have a soft flash and earpiece that works with the bottom speaker to offer stereo sound.

DTS Audio processing adds to that immersive experience too.

In terms of connectivity, 4G VoLTE is available for all networks including Faiba. The slot supports two nano-SIM cards and an additional external microSD card.

Wherever you go, the Infinix Note 8 will be the center of attention.

Performance

Another improvement the Infinix Note 8 gets is the internals.

Infinix now sports an octa-core Mediatek Helio G80 processor, Mali G52 GPU, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage which you can expand with an external microSD card.

That’s a lot of horsepower for gaming and multitasking. You’ll never have to worry about what tasks the Infinix Note 8 can’t do.

No performance hiccups with this one

Also, Infinix Note 8 comes running on Android 10 and XOS 7.1.

Some of the nice-to-have features from Android 10 include system-wide dark mode, Focus mode(a compliment to Digital Wellbeing), new gesture navigation systems, boosted privacy, security and notifications (Grouped silent notifications)controls, better location permissions, Google Assistant “handles”, native screen recording, native desktop mode, QR codes to connect to Wi-Fi plus more features.

XOS has its neat custom features such as the smart panel that allows you to quickly access frequently used apps and tools.

Other features inlcude Social Turbo and Game Space.

Social Turbo is more WhatsApp oriented as you can record audio calls, a video beauty mode that smoothens the skin and brightens it in video chat, WhatsApp stickers and Peek mode that lets you save the messages you missed.

Game mode comes handy for immersive and non-disruptive gaming.

General performance is top-notch. Infinix Note 8 seemed to have no problem keeping up with my frequent app-switching, multitasking between opening multiple Chrome tabs, streaming Spotify, playing Call of Duty mobile.

You’ll never go wrong with the Infinix Note 8.

In terms of everyday tasks, Infinix Note 8 feels very responsive.

Battery

Infinix Note 8 ships with a huge 5200mAh battery. Another feature worth mentioning is we now get USB-C charging port.

Infinix included 18W fast charging too to quickly juice up the phone when need arises.

For context, you can go to 60% from empty in less than hour and another 40 minutes, to fully charged. Not bad.

I was getting a lengthy 9 hours of battery life in terms of screen-on-time – and this is with heavy usage.

Average use can last up to a day and more when your load becomes light over the weekend.

Most of the time, I was ending with between 30% to 25% of charge at the end of the day.

Infinix Note 8 delivers a healthy battery life.

No more battery anxiety with the Infinix Note 8

Cameras

Another upgrade is in the camera department. We now have six cameras.

We have two at the punch-hole cutout – a 16MP selfie camera and another depth sensor for shooting portrait selfies.

At the back, we have a new 64MP quad-camera setup which also includes a 2MP depth, 2MP macro and 2MP AI lens.

Camera performance is impeccable for a phone at this price.

Shots came through with vibrant colours and details especially if you shot on the 64MP mode.

Portraits and bokeh have really good background separation as you’ll see.

Outdoor shots come out with decent dynamic range.

Lowlight performance is impressive too and better than its predecessor’s.

Infinix Note 8 cameras mostly take eye-catching images to see and share on social media platforms.

Selfies retain detail and clarity too.

Here are some shots:

Selfies and Portraits

Regular Shots and Bokeh shots

Lowlight and Super Night Mode comparisons

For Video, Infinix Note 8 added nifty little features. You can record videos at 2K, 1080p or 720p. You can also shoot short video with added filters and music – perfect for shooting videos for social media platforms like TikTok or Insta Stories.

Ultra steady mode comes in handy for shooting non-shaky videos.

I’m plenty pleased with Infinix Note 8’s camera performance.

There’s bokeh mode for video which I loved playing around with even on lowlight which is quite impressive.

There’s video beauty mode included.

All in all, Infinix Note 8 is a solid all rounder in terms of camera performance. For its price, Infinix Note 8 is worth the splurge if you’re a shutterbug on a budget.

Conclusion

Infinix Note 8 is the most forward-looking Note in the series in the budget category with a nice selection of hardware, design and overall performance.

I like the direction in which the Infinix is going with its recently launched phones and now with the Note 8 that’s resetting expectations as it sits in a happy middle ground.

Infinix Note 8 is a great mix of features and functionality at a really good price

The upgrades are huge leaps forward as the Infinix Note 8 reimagines cost and value for budget midrange devices.

I give props to Infinix for packing a lot of value(like a lot) into a 20K smartphone. You are getting a nicely designed device, big fantastic screen, excellent battery life with fast USB-C charging, consistent cameras and top-of-the-range performance.

If you have the money, go pick the Infinix Note 8. It’s one of the best devices in the 20K range right now!

Infinix Note 8 stacks up surprisingly well against its competition and stands out way above what a 20K device would offer.

In short, Infinix Note 8 is an excellent budget midranger smartphone, period.

Pricing and Availability

Infinix Note 8 goes for Ksh 21,799 online (Xpark – Infinix’s online shop, and Kilimall) and in Infinix’s official retail stores(Full list of stores here) countrywide.

Now Read:

Infinix Note 7 Review: A Welcome Upgrade

Infinix Zero 8 Review: Walking That Big Talk

Infinix Hot 10 Review: Blew My Expectations