Infinix Hot S Hands-on, First Impressions

Aside from the Note 3 Pro, Infinix also introduced to us a similarly specced offering but packaged in a smaller body. Here’s our initial impression of the Infinix Hot S — a lower-midrange Android handset at just Php7k.

The Hot S has a no-frill design with its candy-bar angular chassis. It’s got a 5.2-inch HD display resulting to a 282ppi pixel density. It may not break the 300ppi barrier but the smaller display size is a great option in the sea of large smartphones. Above the panel is a prominent 8-megapixel front-facing shooter and its earpiece along with hidden sensors. It uses three capacitive keys below for phone navigation and operation.

The right side of the phone houses the volume rocker and the power/lock button while the left has the hybrid card tray. It allows you to have two SIM cards at the same time or opt the second slot for a microSD card for more storage space.

The top side has the 3.5mm headphone jack leaving the micro-USB to be located at the bottom flanked by grilled holes for the loudspeaker and microphone.

The back of the phone has a subtle class when we first saw it. It’s a generic-looking rear panel but the curved edges have a certain appeal to our eyes. Like most phone nowadays, the rear is made of aluminum with plastic divisions on top and bottom. The rear camera is a 13MP sensor with phase-detection autofocus and has a dual-LED flash to help in low-light scenarios. A circular fingerprint sensor is also present for added security to the device.

The phone is powered by a MediaTek MT6753 octa-core processor paired with 3GB of RAM. It’s a common but aging chipset on most budget-friendly handsets like the Hot S. It also has 16GB of expandable storage and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with XOS on top of it. XOS is Infinix’s take on the Android system and despite the vast changes throughout the UI, it’s generally responsive and doesn’t show any sign of lag.

There’s 4G LTE onboard along with Wi-Fi 802.1b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 for connectivity needs. Lastly, it has a respectable 3,000mAh non-removable battery.

Infinix Hot S X521 specs:
5.2-inch HD IPS display
1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 octa-core CPU
Mali-T720 MP3 GPU
3GB RAM
16GB storage
up to 128GB via microSD
13MP AF rear camera w/ LED flash
8MP front camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, A-GPS
USB OTG
XOS (Android 6.0 Marshmallow)
3,000mAh battery
148.8 x 73.2 x 8.1mm
140g

The Infinix Hot S is currently available exclusively through Lazada for Php6,990USD 119INR 10,098EUR 113CNY 867.  See Infinix Hot S listing here. We’ll be taking the Hot S for a spin for a full review in the coming days.