Home » Infinix NOTE 30 VIP First Impressions: More than just a budget gaming phone

Infinix NOTE 30 VIP First Impressions: More than just a budget gaming phone

Written By Jose Altoveros
Published • July 6th, 2023
Hands-onMobile
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Infinix‘s new smartphone lineup for 2023 mainly consists of gaming phones. These include the Hot 30 and even NOTE 30 5G, both of which we’ve recently reviewed and are great phones given their respective price points. But if you have a bit more budget, and want something more powerful, Infinix has expanded the NOTE 30 lineup.

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Today, we’re doing a quick look at the new Infinix NOTE 30 VIP – essentially a more powerful version of the NOTE 30 5G. It’s running a more powerful Dimensity 8050 5G chipset, 12GB of RAM, and a faster charging speed of up to 68W. As for the price? It’s still under PHP 14,000USD 239INR 20,224EUR 227CNY 1,737, making it very affordable.

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In terms of design, the NOTE 30 VIP looks nearly identical to the NOTE 30 5G both from the front and rear. The unit we have also features a similar colorway to the NOTE 30 5G, and it looks great. The phone is still mostly made out of plastic, but it does feel durable. Since the back panel isn’t reflective, it doesn’t attract fingerprints or smudges either.

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Like the NOTE 30 5G, the NOTE 30 VIP features a USB-C port, 3.5mm audio jack, and dual-loud speakers tuned by JBL. The button placements are the same with the power and volume buttons on the right side, while the dual-sim card slot and microSD are on the left.

It feels nice to hold and looks great even without a case. For its size, the NOTE 30 VIP is relatively lightweight too, and is easy to grip and use with just one hand.

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The screen on the NOTE 30 VIP measures 6.67 inches with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. There are slim bezels all around with a punch out for the front-facing camera at the top.

The display looks great with vivid colors and deep blacks. There’s even an option to enhance screen colors in the settings if you want to make them more saturated and vivid. But I prefer the more natural colors. There’s a bright backlight too, perfect for those that are always out under the sun.

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Powering the NOTE 30 VIP is a Dimensity 8050 5G chipset, and it comes with 12GB RAM. But if you want more, RAM can be virtually extended by an additional 9GB, totaling to 21GB. For the Philippine market, there is only one storage option which is 256GB. It’s more than enough, but if you need even more storage, thankfully there is a microSD slot available.

From our initial impressions, the NOTE 30 VIP runs smoothly. No lags or slowing down when going through the menu or even when playing games like Genshin Impact, Mobile Legends, and Honkai Star Rail. However, we did have to tweak the settings a bit in order to make the Genshin and Star Rail run more smoothly. We’ll do more testing in the future and even include the benchmark scores in the review, so stay tuned for that.

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As for the camera, the NOTE 30 VIP features a triple camera system highlighted by a 108MP main, a 2MP ultrawide, and a 2MP macro camera. The cameras are great as we expected. Interestingly, the colors do appear to be more accurate this time around at least in perfect lighting conditions. You can check out some of the initial sample photos we took below.

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But what really impressed us is the capability for the NOTE 30 VIP to shoot 4K video. Yes, this phone can record at 4K@30FPS. Unfortunately, the Ultrasteady mode does not work with 4K (only works in 1080P@30FPS) but it’s a huge jump. We’ve recorded some footage on 4K and it looks great. The only downside is that you need a steady hand to record better quality.

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The battery on the NOTE 30 VIP is still a 5,000mAh unit, but it is now capable of charging at 68W when using the cable and charger that comes with the phone. What’s even more impressive is that this phone supports wireless charging at up to 50W. It’s almost unheard of at the price point Infinix is offering this phone.

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Speaking of price, the Infinix NOTE 30 VIP retails for just PHP 13,999USD 239INR 20,223EUR 227CNY 1,737, making it very affordable. And considering what it brings to the table compared to other smartphones in the segment, it is something to look out for.

We’ll post our full review of the new Infinix NOTE 30 VIP very soon so do stay tuned.

Infinix NOTE 30 VIP specs:
6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED, 120Hz @ 1080×2400 pixels
Corning Gorilla Glass
Mediatek Dimensity 8050 5G
12GB LPDDR4X RAM (up to 21GB dynamic RAM)
256GB UFS 2.2 storage, no card slot
Triple rear camera:
108MP
2MP
2MP
LED flash, HDR, panorama,
4K@30FPS video
Single front-facing camera:
32MP
HDR, panorama, 1080p@30/60fps video
GSM / HSPA / LTE / 5G network technology, dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE
GPS (L1), GLONASS (G1), BDS (B1I+B1c), GALILEO (E1), QZSS (L1) positioning system
NFC (market/region dependent)
No radio
USB Type-C 2.0, OTG
Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass sensors
Loudspeaker, 3.5mm jack
Android 13 based XOS 13
Li-Po 5000 mAh battery, non-removable
68W wired charging, USB Power Delivery 3.0
50W Wireless Charging
163.9 x 76.2 x 8.3 mm (6.45 x 3.00 x 0.33 in) dimensions
192g (6.77 oz) weight