At first glance, it is easy to mistake Infinix’s new budget offering for an upper-midrange smartphone. Its sleek profile, smooth back panel, and curved AMOLED display exude a feel that is not commonly found in the sub-Rs 20,000 price segment. This makes its Rs 16,000 price tag very impressive. Last month, we reviewed its younger sibling, Infinix Note 50x, and found it to be a complete package under Rs 15,000. Now, we turn our attention to the Note 50s. Here is our in-depth review of the Infinix Note 50s after using it for a week.
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In This Article
Infinix Note 50s Review: Design and Display
Here’s what you get inside the Infinix Note 50s’ retail box:
- Smartphone
- 45W power adapter
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- Opaque silicone cover
- SIM ejector
- User manual
- Warranty card
- Information booklet
The Infinix Note 50s comes in 3 back panel variants – Marine Drift Blue (Vegan leather finish), Burgundy Red (Metallic finish), and Titanium Grey (Metallic finish). The vegan leather variant uses scent microencapsulation technology to release a fragrance. This fragrance lasts up to 6 months, according to Infinix. For this review, we used the Titanium Grey unit.
The Note 50s’ build quality and finish are vastly superior to any other smartphone in its category. While the back panel is made out of plastic, its metallic finish and matte texture lend it an amazing in-hand feel. It smoothly curves into the frame, providing a nice grip. The camera panel looks identical to the one on the Infinix Note 50x.
The curved plastic frame houses the volume rocker keys and the side button on its right edge. The flat bottom edge houses the SIM tray, primary microphone, USB Type-C port, and primary speaker grille. Up top lie the secondary speaker and noise-cancelling microphone. There is an IR blaster on this phone, but it is positioned in the camera panel. The SIM tray, much to our disappointment, does not incorporate a slot for a microSD card.
Moving on, the 6.78-inch curved AMOLED display has a stellar 144Hz refresh rate and can reach a peak brightness of 1,300 nits. The catch is that the 144Hz refresh rate is limited to the Settings, Phone, and Messages apps only. Even the regular interface works at a maximum frame rate of 120fps. Having said that, the touch response of the display is very smooth, and the browsing experience is very satisfying. The smartphone does a good job of reducing accidental touches along the curved edges of the display. There is a dedicated ‘Edge Mistouch Prevention’ feature that lets you decide the size of the area where you want to prevent accidental touches.
The curved AMOLED display rises to the occasion while streaming movies and TV shows across OTT apps like Netflix, Prime Video, and JioHotstar. While the curved edges do reflect some surrounding light, it does not affect the viewing angles in a major way. The deep, rich, and punchy visuals produced by the display lead to a very pleasant experience. The Infinix Note 50s also boasts a dual speaker setup tuned by JBL, but the audio output does not reach an acceptable level of loudness.
When it comes to protection against dust particles and water splashes, the Infinix Note 50s is rated IP64. The smartphone is compliant with MIL-STD-810H standards, too. While we didn’t perform a drop test, the smartphone can easily absorb a fall from the pocket to table top.
Infinix Note 50s Review: Performance and Cameras
The MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultimate SoC lies at the heart of the Infinix Note 50s. The smartphone packs 8GB LPDDR5X RAM and is available in 2 storage variants:
- 128GB: Rs 15,999
- 256GB: Rs 17,999
On the Geekbench 6 app, the Note 50s scored 950 points in the single-core test and 2,853 points in the multi-core test. These numbers translate nicely into everyday use, as the smartphone does a great job of handling routine tasks like video calling, instant messaging, emailing, web browsing, media streaming, and navigation. Apps take minimal time to load, and multitasking is a breeze.
With the graphics set to the lowest setting, the Note 50s is able to run games like Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt Legends Unite at 120fps. The gameplay is smooth and lag-free. However, when the graphics are shifted to the maximum settings, some lag and jitters creep into the gameplay. For a budget smartphone, the Note 50s does a good job of managing the thermals while gaming. The back panel warmed up slightly after 20 minutes of consistent gaming.
The Infinix Note 50s runs the Android 15-based XOS 15 out of the box. There are a lot of bloatware apps on the device. We recommend taking some time while setting up the device and getting rid of the apps you don’t need. Infinix has promised 2 major OS upgrades for this smartphone, which is on par with the competition in this price bracket.
XOS 15 takes design inspiration from Apple’s iOS and Xiaomi’s HyperOS. The clever animation around the punch-hole cutout on the display gives it the appearance of the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. Infinix calls its variation the ‘Dynamic Bar’. This pill-shaped bar displays alerts and notifications for calls, recorder, charging, stopwatch, and more. If you’re using Google Maps for navigation, the Dynamic Bar displays turn notifications when the app is minimised.
AI features are slowly trickling down to budget phones, but we’re yet to see a major manufacturer equip its affordable offerings with state-of-the-art intelligent features. Infinix has taken a step in the right direction by integrating its full AI suite on the Note 50s. Its in-house Folax Assistant does a great job of answering queries while at the same time carrying out basic tasks like launching apps, calling contacts, starting a timer, and more. It is surprisingly good at speech input but takes slightly longer than its counterparts to process the request.
The AI eraser tool in the native photo editor does a good job of removing small objects from images. It takes a fair bit of time to do this, but it is nice to see a budget smartphone offer this feature. The native voice recorder can transcribe and summarise voice notes with ease. You can feed text documents to Folax and have it extract key information from them. If you’re composing an email, the Writing Assistant can help you word it better. There are a couple of real-time call translation tools onboard as well, but they need to be further tuned and worked upon before they can function as intended.
Despite having a sleek form factor, the Note 50s manages to pack a 5,500mAh battery. On a full charge, the smartphone can easily last a day of regular use. During the review period, our daily tasks on the Infinix Note 50s consisted of video calling, emailing, social media browsing, media streaming, photography, and gaming. We got good mileage out of the battery, ending each day with ~20% charge left in the tank. The smartphone supports 45W wired charging and takes over an hour to reach a 100% charge.
The rear camera panel of the Note 50s houses a 64MP primary shooter, a 2MP depth sensor, an IR blaster, an LED flash, and a Halo light. The Halo light activates while shooting videos, triggering the voice assistant, charging the device, launching a game, and other activities.
The 64MP primary shooter takes good pictures in outdoor daylight conditions. The images showcase vibrant colours and good dynamic range. What we like about this smartphone is that it does not overprocess the images to make them more ‘social media ready’. The final results are natural-looking, and the camera does justice to the scene. In limited lighting conditions, the ‘Super Night’ mode in the native camera app does a good job of eliminating the noise and brightening the subject without overexposing it.
Portrait shots taken with the Note 50s are focused and vibrant. The portraits have a great background effect, but the smartphone sometimes struggles with edge detection. There are 2 zoom levels onboard: 1x and 2x. The front-facing 13MP camera takes clear selfies while applying subtle tone and texture correction effects. The front and rear cameras can record 4K videos at 30fps.
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Verdict
The Infinix Note 50s ticks a lot of boxes for us. Its sleek form factor and durable build quality alone put it in the upper echelon of budget smartphones. The smooth AMOLED display coupled with a well-optimised software makes the smartphone ideal for everyday use. The expansive AI suite is the cherry on top. As far as cameras go, the Note 50s may lack an ultrawide sensor, but its primary shooter delivers whenever it is called upon, irrespective of the lighting condition. At Rs 15,999, the Note 50s is a very easy recommendation from us.
Infinix Note 50s: Pros
- Sleek form factor
- Metallic finish
- Curved display
- Good gaming performance
- Good main camera
- AI features
Infinix Note 50s: Cons
- Dual speakers aren’t loud enough
- Contains bloatware
