Infinix is still not able to fully replace our mid-range and flagship smartphones Realme or Xiaomi
7/10Rated by FerraInfinix Hot 12 Play
Table of contents
- Appearance
- Screen
- Performance and autonomy
- Camera
- Competitors
- Realme C25S
- Samsung Galaxy A13
- Total
Appearance
On the front side, Infinix Hot 12 Play, of course, is nothing special - a typical “brick” with rounded edges and rather thick (by modern standards) frames around the screen.
Infinix Hot 12 Play
However, from the back he is, I would even say, handsome. A little flimsy, but still beautiful. Something reminiscent of Samsung, in a good way.
There is also a fingerprint scanner on the back.fingers. In my opinion, if the manufacturer does not place the scanner on the screen, then it is better than in the side button. The smartphone, by the way, supports NFC, so paying with a mobile phone (through the Mir Pay application, for example) works.
Few budget smartphones are as beautiful
The bottom has a USB-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. FM radio is supported.
The charging connector is modern (Type-C), but the classic 3.5 mm headphone jack is also left
All buttons are on the right.
If you thought that smartphones with 6000 mAh are too thick, forget it - this is no longer the case.
On the left is a slot for SIM cards and a memory card.You can put two SIM cards, and MicroSD. This is convenient – now it’s often either a hybrid slot or you can’t install a memory card at all (in Realme 9 Pro +, for example).
And two SIM cards will fit, and you can increase the memory without compromising communication
Screen
The screen of the Infinix Hot 12 Play is perhaps the mostthe "cheap" part. Yes, it supports a 90Hz refresh rate, but that's not good either. Firstly, “ghosting” is often noticeable on the screen - you know the effect, as if the phone had been in the cold. That is, it seems to be 90 Hz, but with a sharp change in the picture, you can sometimes catch a glimpse of how lazily the information from the previous frame is redrawn.
Infinix Hot 12 PlayMaximum brightness level (Max/Min))324/2.96 cd/m2 Contrast (higher = better) 1600:1 Color Gamut (sRGB) (90-100% - ideal) 90% DeltaE (less = better) 6.41 Gamma (ideal - 2.2) 2.3 Color temperature (ideal = 6500K) 9000K
9000K is already such a white color that we all remember from hospital lamps
Secondly, very often when unlockingsmartphone, the frame rate of all animations is extremely low, even when forced to set the setting to 90 Hz. It has happened to me more than once that I pick up the phone and at first I think that the setting has gone astray by 60 Hz. But after a while everything will be back to normal. However, this time is not “literally a second”, but 5-10 seconds.
Thirdly, low brightness for IPS (324 cd / m2, asbudget Motorola or some Lenovo K14 Plus, by the way), very inaccurate color reproduction, and to the heap - the screen is too “blue”. The measured white balance is 9000K, but that's because our editorial colorimeter doesn't display results above that threshold when we check it out. However, there is no white balance setting. There is only the “Eye Protection” mode, which, firstly, does not allow you to set the schedule, and secondly, it also does not have a white balance setting! It turns out that the user has only two options - either the screen will “blue”, like signs on the streets of Tokyo, or “red”. Well, or you have to install third-party utilities and fiddle with the settings.
Well, one last thing:The smartphone comes with Android 11 and the proprietary XOS 10 shell. By default, in this shell, all controls are done with gestures. If you like this, then no problem, but I find it much more convenient with buttons. During all the testing, I never got used to the gestures, although I tried. And I spent a long time searching for where they hid the control switch in the settings (for some reason, searching on my phone didn’t help). Do you know where? In the “Settings” section > “System” > “System navigation”. The logic is just crazy. In the system section, people usually look for the version of Android, or the amount of RAM, or the code name of the smartphone, but this is not the same!
Performance and autonomy
The smartphone runs on a Unicos T610 processor, which,by the way, not so bad and quite fast for smartphones for 10 thousand in Russian retail (well, or 7-8 thousand in Chinese). The same Realme perfectly knows how to “cook” Unisos, take at least Realme C21Y. Performance - at the level of Snapdragon 662.
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CPU performance in the Geekbench 5 benchmark
As for autonomy - here, on the one hand, it is very good. Well, the truth is 6000 mAh all the same. One of the most enduring modern smartphones in general.
On the other hand, two Realme with 5000 mAh surpassed Infinix inscores on our tests. Moreover, one of them is C21Y on the same Unisoc T610, and the second is GT Neo 2, which already has a Snapdragon 870. But Realme are still “cheaters” in the field of battery optimization. Is that… Realme C25S with 6000 mAh left far below. How? Well, that's it - the cheat code didn't work, apparently.
Time of full discharge of smartphones in minutes (reading, video, games)
Well, in general, the feeling that, nevertheless, although heUnisoc T610 is a good processor, but 90 Hz screens are a heavy burden for it (see the previous paragraph about problems with the screen). So, here Infinix got a little excited. But thank you for NFC.
Camera
Camera in a smartphone… How can I tell you… If there is a lot of light around, then it can produce a very decent picture. Unless you suddenly make a mistake with the focus, this also happens.
1/14
Main camera Infinix Hot 12 Play
A little light falls - and now soap, noises, and further down the list. At night, the Infinix Hot 12 Play is of no use at all. Well, yes - there is, in fact, only one module here, there is no over-width.
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Infinix Hot 12 Play Selfie Camera
The same goes for selfies. During the day, you only need to follow the focus, and in poor lighting it is better not to get the camera.
By the way, the smartphone shoots night videos at 20 fps instead of 30 fps.
Competitors
Infinix Hot 12 PlayRealme C25SSamsung Galaxy A13operating systemAndroid 11 + XOS 10Android 11 + Realme UI 2.0Android 12 + One UI 4.1Screen6.82'', 720x1612 pixels, 20:9, IPS 90 Hz, 259 ppi6.5'', 720x1600 pixels, 20:9, IPS6.6'& #x27;, 1080x2408 pixels, 20:9, PLS (IPS), 400 ppiCPUUnisoc T610, 2x Cortex-A75 2.0GHz + 6x Cortex-A55 1.8GHzMediatek Helio G85, 2x Cortex-A75 2.0GHz + 6x Cortex-A55 1.8GHz + 4x Cortex-A55 2.0GHzGraphicsMali-G52Mali-G52 MC2Mali-G52RAM4 GB4 GB4 GBStorage device64GB + MicroSD64GB + MicroSD64GB + MicroSDConnectionNFC, LTE, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDouNFC, LTE, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11ac), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDouNFC, LTE, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11ac), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDouCamerasMain double:13 MP f/1.8 + 2 MP f/2.4, video quality: up to 1080@30 FPS Front: 8 MP f/2.2 Rear triple: 48 MP f/1.8 + 2 MP f/2.4 (Macro) + 2MP f/2.4 (Depth Sensor), Video Quality: Up to 1080@60 FPS Front: 8MP f/2.0 Rear Quad: 50MP f/1.8 + 5MP (Super Wide) f/ 2.2 + 2 MP (macro) f/2.4 + 2 MP (depth sensor) f/2.4, Video quality: up to 1080@30 FPS, Front: 8 MP f/2.2Battery6000 mAh 6000 mAh 5000 mAhDimensions170.5×77.6×8.3 mm164.5×75.9×9.6 mm165.1×76.4×8.8 mmWeight195 g209 g195 gProtection classno no noPrice13 thousand rubles 16 thousand rubles 17 thousand rubles
Realme C25S
Realme C25S
In general, I wanted to take as my first competitorRealme C21Y smartphone - it is built on the same Unisoc T610 as the Infinix Hot 12 Play. However, Zhenya Kharitonov (our chief editor) insisted that, for the purity of the genre, I talk about the Realme C25S, which also has 6000 mAh. Well, maybe this is for the better, because in the case of the Realme C25S, Realme actually managed to make a smartphone with 6000 mAh, which is somehow equal in battery life to smartphones with 5000 mAh… Against this background, Infinix ends up working much longer (about the same as Realme C21Y, which, however, only has 5000 mAh). On the other hand, the Realme C25S is much faster in terms of system performance (although in benchmarks there is not much difference between its Helio G85 and Unisoc T610 processors), and it also has a better camera. Unless there is a 90Hz screen, but considering how this mode works on Infinix, it’s also for the better.
Samsung Galaxy A13
Samsung Galaxy A13
Quite an interesting option from Samsung, which“almost everything is the same”, but with a Full-HD screen (but without 90 Hz), and the camera, with all the limitations of super-budget Samsungs, will be better. The phone itself, again, is more compact, although the diagonal is only 0.2 inches smaller.
Total
Infinix Hot 12 Play is a smartphone for those whoautonomy and appearance are more important than the camera, screen, and, in fact, the brand. The smartphone is beautiful, it works for a long time, it has NFC for paying with Mir Pay and replenishing all kinds of travel cards. Well, it is still inexpensive, especially considering the promo price of 11 thousand rubles. After all, even Realme C21Y, which is almost a year old, still costs 11.5 thousand in DNS, and Realme C25S costs 17 thousand (we are now talking about official retail, we ask Aliexpress fanatics not to get excited, we will chat about your realities separately another time). “Gray” options can be found cheaper, of course, but it would be unfair to compare the official price and the “gray” one.
On the other hand, on sale for 13 thousand rubles(price without promo) there are already time-tested options, such as Realme C21Y (the same, only the screen is a little brighter and better color reproduction), or add a little money and buy Realme C25S (better camera, but the processor is more eating and therefore autonomy is a little worse).