Infinix unveiled the Gen-Z focussed Hot 30 series which includes the top dog – Hot 30, the Hot 30i, and the Hot 30 Play. You can read our full review of the Hot 30 here and now we take our turn with the Hot 30 Play.
UNBOXING
Hot 30 Play comes with a nice green box with blue bottom containing:
- The case
- Type-C cable
- 18W charger
- Earphones
- Sim ejector tool
DESIGN
The Hot 30 Play is a gorgeous phone, especially in this Bora Purple option – I’m a sucker for Purple. More purple phones, please.
Besides the color, the phone has a nice feel to it. Infinix went with a light glass-like design to make the phone look and feel premium.
We get two islands for the cameras and a third one for the LED flash. We’ll talk about these below.
At the bottom, we have the Infinix logo. To the side, we have the side-mounted fingerprint reader embedded in the power button plus the volume rockers.
The nano-sim card slot is on the left with slots for two cards and an extra for expandable storage.
At the bottom are the headphone jack, microphone, type-C headphone jack, and bottom-facing speaker.
Coming to the front is the gorgeous 6.82-inch screen rocking a 90Hz refresh rate and HD+ resolution.
It is slightly disrupted by the punch hole cutout for the front-facing camera.
The screen is beautiful and bright and I got to binge-watch my favorite Netflix titles.
You’ll love interacting with the phone, from scrolling social media, browsing, and even gaming thanks to the fast refresh rate.
PERFORMANCE
Infinix Hot 30 Play doesn’t just look the part, it delivers equally impressive performance.
It rocks Helio G37 chipset paired with 8GB of onboard memory and up to 8GB virtual RAM. We also get 128GB of onboard storage as well.
It also comes with Android 13 and XOS 12.6 straight out of the box.
This combination held its own during my few weeks with the Hot 30 Play. You can easily multitask and game with no lag. However, heavy titles like Genshin and PUBG will need to be played at their medium graphics settings for smooth gameplay.
BATTERY LIFE
Powering the phone is a 6000mAh battery that can pull two days effortlessly. No battery anxiety with this one.
I was ending the day with around 40% after heavy use which was nice. This meant I could use it the following day and if I have moderate to light tasks, then it could be charged later in the evening.
We get an 18W charger included that charges albeit quickly but you’ll need to be patient to juice up the humongous battery.
You’ll need an hour and 45 minutes to get it to 86% from empty. To get it from 0% to 95%, you’ll need 2 hours and 12 minutes.
CAMERAS
The Hot 30 Play doesn’t have the same setup as the big brother but the lenses are equally as good.
We have a 16MP main with a depth sensor for the rear cameras. We have an 8MP selfie camera for the front.
Video recording is capped at 1080p 30fps for both back and selfie videos.
The phone takes really nice photos and selfies during the day. The colors, the background separation, the details, the sharpness, and the dynamic range are all decently captured.
When it gets dark is when the phone struggles a bit. It still managed to get really good photos and selfies despite it lacking a dedicated night mode as you’ll see below.
You’ll definitely like taking shots with the Hot 30 Play.
VERDICT
Infinix Hot 30 Play is ticking off the checkboxes of what you’d expect in a sub-20K smartphone. Eye-catching design, incredible performance, dependable cameras, and solid battery life.
All these features make the Hot 30 Play make a spot for itself as one of the best smartphones under 20K in Kenya right now – so if that’s your budget then I highly recommend checking it out.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Infinix Hot 30 Play is available for Ksh 18,399 at the company’s retail stores countrywide and online too at XPARK – their official online store.
- Hot 30i: Ksh 15,499
- Hot 30 Play: Ksh 18,399
- Hot 30: Ksh 22,899
