7 min read
Today I am doing Infinix Zero 4 Plus review for our readers. Smartphone market dynamics are in flux for the past few years. Although top slots are still occupied by giants like Apple and Samsung, other positions are being contested by a number of companies who have learned a key skill to capture the market — stuff kickass features and specs into a low budget phone. Sounds simple enough, right?
Well, this is a skill which still is still out of reach for many mobile companies. Samsung, HTC, Motorolla have all tried really hard to conquer the budget and mid-range market, but have failed to do so. The reason is their rigid business plans and lack of focus on this booming market segment. However, many other companies are excelling in this field, an example of which is Infinix. Their latest smartphone, Infinix Zero 4 Plus, aims to conquer the same, blossoming midrange market. It is a bigger version of the Zero Plus released last year. Let’s do Infinix Zero 4 Plus Review to see if it checks all the boxes required for it to succeed in this market.
Infinix Zero 4 Plus Review
Let’s see if it checks all the boxes required for it to succeed in this market.
Design and build
Zero Plus 4, like its smaller sibling, has a complete metal body construction. The tapered edges at the back and the antenna lines which extend at the top and bottom of the device look really good if you can just ignore the excessive amount of branding in the back. It might seem like ranting but if Infinix had managed to keep the back clean, it would have complemented the device much more than the row after row of branding in the back. Housing a 5.98-inch screen and some considerable amount of bezel, the device is larger than most smartphones in the market. So if you have relatively smaller hands and have trouble handling such large phones, you should probably stay away from this one.
Despite some minor complaints, it would be dishonest of me to say that I don’t like the design of this phone. This is one of the better-designed phones I have seen in past few years.
Display
Infinix Zero 4 Plus’s 1080p screen, which is stretched over a 5.98 IPS panel, is strikingly beautiful for its price. The colors are punchy and vibrant. With over 400 pixels per inch, the sharpness and quality of the image displayed on the screen can easily match those of higher end phones.
Some people might frown upon a 1080p screen and complain about it not having a fancier QHD screen, but in my humble opinion, 1080p is more than enough for anyone. Unless you want to spend your whole time looking for some sign of pixelation, you won’t be able to find any fault with the display.
The gorgeous display in front of Zero 4 plus is protected by a 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 coating. Its 2.5D aspect allows easier swiping and fluid finger motion over the display. Although the software experience is not particularly swiping dependent, it is good to know that whenever the need arises, the device will offer a good experience.
My major complaint with the display is that there doesn’t seem to be a setting for automatic brightness, This may pose some issue if you move continuously between areas of varying luminous intensity. Changing the brightness level manually from the notification bar becomes tedious after a while. Another issue which caught my attention is the absence of an oleophobic coating on the screen. The result is a fingerprint-prone display which requires a swipe of the shirt from time to time.
Software experience
Zero 4 Plus ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. It is laden with Infinix’s home brewed skin, “XOS Chameleon”.
This is one of the heaviest and most customized versions of Android I have seen in recent history. It still is not as ridiculous as compared to Huawei or Samsung’s offerings but it does customize a lot of different parts of the OS. It does offer some nice features like inbuilt screen recording, resource management, and in-built theme engine.
During my use, there was no slowdown or stuttering of the software on Infinix Zero 4 Plus. However, there were some graphical glitches while opening the multitasking view and switching between applications. I suspect that these may occur due to some software issue and will be patched in a future update.
Performance and Battery life
With a deca-core processor (10 cores) and 4 GB of RAM, Zero 4 Plus cruises through normal day to day tasks and light to moderate games. Its benchmarks are also impressive and show promising results in all key areas.
Aside from the expected high scores in multi-core section, its single core scores are also impressive. The device scored in the upper range in all departments including the 3D gaming performance section. You should have no problem playing latest games with this device.
Infinix Zero 4 Plus is equipped with a 4000 mAh battery. Combine this ridiculously sized battery with a 1080p screen and you get the power efficient beast that is this phone. It can easily last a day and a half of heavy usage on a single charge. The screen on time also stays mostly north of 6 hours. Overall Infinix Zero 4 Plus has both amazing performance and battery life.
One other thing which bothered me a little bit is that Zero 4 plus is apparently using a slower Wi-Fi chipset. Below is a comparison between Huawei Honor 6x and Infinix Zero 4 Plus on the same Wi-Fi network with no other device connected to the network. 6X was able to achieve full 70 Mbps upload and download speed of the network while Zero 4 Plus managed to hit only 43 Mbps download and 54 Mbps upload speed. I repeated the test several times but got the same result every time.
It might not be an issue to most of the customers but it does seem like Zero 4 Plus uses a slow Wi-Fi card. There was no considerable difference in 3G/4G speeds between it and any other device that I tried.
Camera
Considering the 20.7 MP camera with a huge bump at the back of the device, I had high hopes for this device’s camera. There is nothing particularly wrong with the camera, but it fails to impress like its display and performance did. Images that are taken in plenty of light turn out fine and there is plenty of detail to complement good colors that the camera produces.
However, things change quite a bit in low light. Although Infinix Zero 4 Plus boasts Optical Image Stabilization, which allows it to remain steady while allowing more light inside the lens, night time pictures turn out just as grainy as other cameras in the same price range. Same goes for the 13 MP front camera. In the end, the camera on Zero Plus 4 is perfectly adequate for casual picture taking and probably won’t amount to anything more than that. You can see some camera samples here.
Final words
So that was Infinix Zero 4 Plus review. It is an amazingly good device in its price category. Of course, your mileage may vary with the device with what you intend to do with it. If you plan to take ultra high-quality camera photos and are not a fan large devices which are sometimes harder to handle, this might not be the device for you. On the other hand, if you want good performance, awesome battery life, and a beautiful display, you will definitely enjoy using this device.
Infinix Zero 4 Plus is currently available in Pakistan at a price of PKR 29,999.
