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Introduction
The Infinix Zero 8 is only the second device from the Shenzhen company to make its way into the office. Partly the reason for this is the company's particular regionality, operational specific and localized popularity.
Though officially headquartered in China, Infinix actually has a big chunk of its roots in France, since the brand got its start in part after parent-company Transsion acquired the French manufacturer Sagem Wireless. A name that some of our older readers might recognize. Currently, Infinix research and development is mostly done in France and Korea. The brand's products themselves are especially popular in Africa and are now making their way to Asia and the Middle East.
Infinix specializes in high-value, budget devices. The company, however, has cultivated distinct visual styles for many of its handsets. We can only assume that this is part of a brand-building effort. One that we don't get to fully appreciate, due to the company's limited Western presence, but also something that immediately shines-through when you look at the Infinix lineup.
Infinix Zero 8
- Body: 168.7x76.1x9.1mm, 205g; plastic body and frame; Colors: Silver Diamond, Black Diamond, Green Diamond.
- Display: 6.85" IPS LCD, 1080x2460px resolution, 20.5:9 aspect ratio, 392ppi; 90Hz refresh rate.
- Chipset: Mediatek MT6785 Helio G90T (12 nm): Octa-core (2x2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G76 MC4.
- Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM; microSDXC (dedicated slot).
- OS/Software: Android 10.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, (wide), 1/1.72", 0.8µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, (ultrawide), 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth); 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro); Quad-LED flash, HDR, panorama.
- Front camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, (wide), 1/2.0", 0.8µm; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, (ultrawide), 1/4.0", 1.12µm; HDR.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 4500mAh; Fast charging 33W.
- Misc: Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass; FM radio.
The latest Infinix Zero 8 is a shining example of distinct visual language. The large and distinctive rhombus camera module on the back tends to leave a lasting impression. So much so, that we wonder why we haven't seen this particular visual distinction from other manufacturers. Its effect on the Zero 8 is only further enhanced by the memorable matching geometric pattern on its back. Put the pair together, sprinkle-in a couple of other interesting details, like the flat, recessed fingerprint reader and power-button combo and the dual selfie punchole cameras and you get a truly distinctly looking device.
Speaking of cameras, Infinix highlights these are one of the spotlight features on the Zero 8. The Quad Bayer sensor, around back is likely the Sony IMX686, which has already proven its salt on many occasions, in various other devices. Infinix has added some in-house AI on top of it, as well as ultra steady video capture and an in-house night mode. Then there are also the 90Hz display refresh rate and 33W of fast charging. All of this, in a budget package, with an MSRP of around $300.
Unboxing
Speaking of packages, the Infinix Zero 8 has a rather interesting retail box. The sturdy cardboard top half of it features eye-catching glossy accents and references to the rhombus, or diamond-shaped, if you prefer that, design aesthetic.
The Zero 8 itself resides in a secure cradle, made from plastic. In terms of accessories, you get a wall charger, rated at 5v@3A and 10V@3.3A, which is how the Zero 8 gets its 33W of charging. Alongside that, a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, with a rigid rugger finish and orange accents on the connectors.
Beyond these basics, Infinix has also thrown-in a pair of earbuds, complete with a microphone and company branding. Nothing too spectacular in terms of quality, but solid enough for a free add-on. Same goes for the transparent plastic case, included in the box. It even has a sufficiently big camera lip to offer protection for the camera front glass.
Slightly hidden alongside leaflets, there is also a screen protector. It's also nothing particularly special, just a soft one. Even so, it's clear that Infinix wanted its users up and running straight out the gate with the Zero 8, providing all of the essentials right in the box. There are even brand stickers, if you want to show some brand love.
Design, bill of materials
Just because you are making a budget phone doesn't mean it can't look the part. The Infinix Zero 8 is rocking a charmingly-distinctive design. Its back panel, in particular, is very memorable, mostly thanks to the rhombus or diamond-shaped camera hump. The accent surrounding it helps create a distinctive look, as well. So does the two-tone geometric pattern on the back panel. The camera hump, is arguably, on the taller side. But, that's just nitpicking.
Once you actually hold the Zero 8 though, the task of masking its budget nature becomes significantly more difficult. In keeping with what we expect from a handset around the $300 mark, the back panel is plastic and so is the middle frame.
The glossy finish on both tends to retain a lot of smudges easily. The back panel also has a big of flex to it, in part facilitated by the existence of a small internal gap between the 4,500 mAh battery pack and the panel. Again, like the choice of materials, this is something fairly common in this price segment, which we will not hold against the Zero 8.
On a more positive note, the Zero 8 feels very sturdy and is well put together. Despite that flex in the back panel, we just mentioned, the phone feels surprisingly and reassuringly dense. It is a bit bottom-heavy, in terms of weight distribution.
The Zero 8 manages to look very modern from the front, as well. Bezels, surrounding its 6.85-inch IPS display are very reasonably-sized. The bottom chin is just a bit thicker, presumably to house a more budget-friendly and easier to manufacture display driver board, that does not require some extra wrap-around setup. Even so, the Zero 8 once again punches above its price category with a "headshot" worthy of a modern midranger.
The double-wide selfie camera punch hole is a bit on the bigger side. At least it is not weirdly off-center or too close to either of the edges. More importantly, the presence of the punch hole is integrated into the UI very well. The clock and the notification icons are perfectly vertically aligned.
Infinix has even taken integration one step further in its XOS Android ROM, incorporating some animations that include the area around the selfie camera punch hole. Most-notably, switching between the main and the selfie cameras triggers a cool ring animation effect..
The display on the Zero 8 is covered with a Gorilla Glass 3 layer for protection.
Controls, connectivity and sensors
Controls on the Infinix Zero 8 are straight-forward and well laid-out. You get a nice power button and capacitive fingerprint reader combo on the right-hand side. It is conveniently located height-wise, offers a satisfying tactile feedback and is easy to feel-around thanks to the recess it is positioned in. The fingerprint part of it is very snappy and accurate. Also, always-on. We have no issues with it.
Right above it - an equally well-placed volume rocker. Unfortunately, unlike the power button, this one feels very "mushy" and is not satisfying to click. Perhaps if Infinix had used metal, instead of plastic on it, for some extra weight, the situation might have been better.
All the other controls on the Zero 8 are positioned on the bottom bezel. These include a trusty 3.5mm audio jack, Type-C port, with just a basic USB 2.0 interface behind it, but still one that includes USB host support.
The single speaker on the Zero 8 is also here. There is unfortunately no stereo setup, not even a hybrid one.
The MediaTek Helio G90T is hardly a powerhouse, but is still perfectly modern in terms of connectivity options. In terms of network, our Infinix Zero 8 review unit features two nano SIM slots, which can both operate in simultaneous 4G mode - dual 4G VoLTE and 4G data. Advanced network features like IMS (VoLTE\ViLTE\VoWi-Fi) are also supported. The G90T is equipped with a Cat-12 4G LTE WorldMode modem with 3x CA and 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM. The fairly spacious SIM tray also has a dedicated spot for a microSD memory card.
In terms of local connectivity, the Zero 8 has Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.0 and an FM radio receiver. GPS is also, naturally on board. All basic sensors are covered too: G-sensor, e-compass, luminance sensor, proximity and a gyroscope.
6.85-inch 90Hz, LCD display
The 6.85-inch display on the Infinix Zero 8 is definitely an attention-grabber. That's primarily since the FullHD panel in question supports 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate.
The jump to 90Hz refresh rate makes a noticeable difference is smoothness, both for gaming and daily use. However, this situation with modern panels and their quality and behavior, especially the new high refresh rate ones is rarely is clear-cut as simply pointing-out the extra smoothness.
The panel on the Zero 8 is definitely smoother than a regular 60Hz IPS, but also exhibits a lot of fringing and ghosting, especially in text, while scrolling. The speed on the individual pixels seems to be a bit low. This results in smeared and harder to read text, at times and does slightly soil the extra smoothness the 90Hz mode offers. And it's not an issue related to 90Hz operation either. Dropping the refresh rate on the Zero 8 down to 60Hz does not fix the issue. Pixel response times are just sluggish.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.486 | 640 | 1317:1 | |
| 0.475 | 631 | 1328:1 | |
| 0.328 | 528 | 1610:1 | |
| 0.413 | 501 | 1213:1 | |
| 0.384 | 491 | 1279:1 | |
| 0.39 | 480 | 1231:1 | |
| 0.311 | 473 | 1521:1 | |
| 0 | 466 | ∞ | |
| 0.347 | 460 | 1326:1 | |
| 0.343 | 451 | 1315:1 | |
| 0.206 | 450 | 2184:1 | |
| 0.253 | 426 | 1684:1 | |
| 0.317 | 408 | 1287:1 | |
| 0.298 | 370 | 1242:1 | |
| 0.202 | 328 | 1624:1 | |
Even ignoring all of that weirdness, the panel on the Infinix Zero 8 simply fails to impress in other aspects. Its maximum brightness, as best we managed to measure, reached 450 nits, which is not too hot for an LCD.
The slow-to-react auto brightness mode also makes the Zero 8 hard to recommend for a good outdoors experience.
There is also a total lack of color modes on our review unit. A bit weird, seeing how even the cheapest budget handsets nowadays try to at least offer some control to the user. Points off there. Testing in the only color mode results in sub-par color accuracy, with an average deltaE of 7.6 and a maximum of 13.3. A simple white point adjustment slider could have gone a long way here as whites and grays have a bluish tint.
At least the contrast ratio isn't too bad and the panel has minimal light bleed at 0% brightness. However 450nits of max brightness remains lackluster.
HDR support adds yet another extra bit of weirdness to the mix. Yes, you read that right, at least on a software level, the Infinix Zero 8 reports that it supports both HDR10 and HLG. This is also backed-up by the fact that the YouTube app did, in fact, allow us to select HDR options in the quality selector.
YouTube HDR options • DRM check
In person, this didn't really result in a spectacular effect, though. If the Infinix Zero 8 does, indeed have support to interpret HDR data, it can't really do much to display it properly. We saw very little actual HDR benefits while watching some shadow-heavy HDR clips, we are familiar with. Even if somehow HDR worked and looked better on the Zero 8, though, another issue is the Widevine L3 certification. That means that none of the major streaming services, with available HDR content, like Netflix and Amazon will even serve that content to the Infinix Zero 8.
With the ongoing surge of high refresh rate smartphone panels, we have started to pay more attention to just how they handle their refresh rate. Like many others, Infinix decided to include an auto refresh rate option, alongside its toggles for 60Hz and 90Hz, but in our testing, the auto refresh rate mode never put the display in 90Hz. Not even once.
The forced 90Hz mode, however, worked just as expected. All system and downloaded apps ran in sync with the high refresh rate. We had no way of verifying which games hit the 90fps but there certainly was no framerate cap at 60fps like there is in Auto mode.
Battery life
The Infinix Zero 8 has a pretty sizeable 4,500 battery pack at its disposal. It also manages to mage pretty good use of that juice, delivering a solid endurance rating of 116 hours in its native 90Hz mode.
Drop the refresh rate down to a more comfortable 60Hz and the numbers start looking even more impressive.
That's not an insignificant difference in on-screen performance to observe. However, the flip side of the story is that the Zero 8 is clearly leaving unused battery life on the table and outright wasting it in its 90Hz mode. That's not a stab at the 90Hz mode, directly, though. It does what it is supposed to do - manually fix the refresh rate at 90Hz regardless of what is currently on screen, like a video player, playing our 24ish fps sample video.
If Auto mode worked as intended, instead of simply behaving as a second 60Hz toggle, we could have theoretically had the best of both worlds here. Especially considering how well the Zero 8 managed to hold its charge while in standby. It is worth noting, though, that its attitude towards notifications while in standby is a bit too aggressive for our taste. The IMs we tried did manage to push a notification through, even if a few minutes late, but many other apps had to wait until we woke the phone, resulting in an avalanche of new notifications. Not ideal, but potentially fixable.
Using the included 33W charger to top-off the Infinix Zero 8 is a very speedy affair. Especially for a budget device. You need less than 20 minutes to get from zero to 20% charge. 25 minutes gets you to 50% and you are looking at around 65% at the half hour mark. Things naturally start to gradually slow down in the higher percentages, though, with a full charge taking an hour and twenty minutes in total. That's really solid performance from a budget device.
Plus, we have to appreciate the little battery care extras that Infinix has included in its XOS7, like the ability to toggle a battery full chime, so the phone doesn't have to pointlessly stay pinned at 100% and charging for prolonged periods of time, to the detriment of the battery. Also, to the same end - an automatic battery trickle charge function for overnight charging.
Loudspeaker quality
The Infinix Zero 8 has a single bottom-firing speaker at its disposal. That means you only get mono audio. There is no hybrid setup with the earpiece or anything of the sort. The speaker itself is largely unimpressive. It only managed an average loudness score in out tests and its frequency response is acceptable, but unremarkable too.
Infinix does include a fairly feature-rich DTS equalizer for the Zero 8. We tried running our test with it set to auto mode, as well and got very similar results. Having DTS on also hurts maximum loudness a little bit, but seems to generally provide a small, but still measurable boost to bass. That's the curve we included in the database. Since there is a full manual equalizer, you can, at least, tune the speaker to be a bit more pleasant to your ears. Or, alternatively, provide it with something like a treble boost, for the sake of clearer dialog, if you do a lot of movie watching. It's something.
Android 10 with XOS 7 on top
Infinix has a custom XOS launcher of its own. The Zero 8 is running version 7 of it, but not a lot has changed since the last XOS 6 skin, we saw on the Infinix X5 Pro.
OSX is still one of the heaviest and busiest skins we have seen in a while. It comes chock-full of extra features, which you may or may not appreciate.
The Zero 8 also has a ludicrous amount of pre-loaded applications, most of which can easily be defined as "bloat". There are advertisements all over the place. So much so that you are constantly bombarded with these from the very first moment you first set-up the phone. Out of the box, the notification bar tends to get filled-up with persistent notifications and ads almost faster than you can get rid of them. Even the app drawer itself features a row of app ads at the top.
Various ads all around the UI
Granted, some of these pre-installed apps are created by Infinix and do serve a particular purpose. Other third-party ones are more or less launchers and hubs. Instant games, in the sense of web-based gaming experiences are a common sight among the latter. While not necessarily bloat in the traditional sense, these tend to generate an obscene amount of notifications, which is the point at which we start taking issue with them. Some of these notifications are persistent, as well.
Notification hell
We can only imagine that Infinix is leaning hard into this strategy in order to subsidize its phones as much as possible and bring down end-user costs. We can respect that, but it is something worth noting, going into the Zero 8. Be prepared to spend some time uninstalling things. Some of which might even require ADB command line uninstalls, since they are protected apps.
We can somewhat understand and justify third-party app deals. However, the bloat on the Zero 8 extends to some basic features, which is a lot harder to forgive. For instance, the default keyboard prompts the user for quite a few permissions and access to all sorts of information the first time you try to type. Other core parts of the UI do the same too.
Keyboard and other permission request and nagging prompts
Even putting privacy and security concerns aside, this simply makes for a cumbersome experience. Initial setup on the Zero 8 was truly annoying, with prompts and wizards and permissions all over the place. After that, many of the apps we tried launching, had some data, access or account requirements of their own to nag about. Some of these apps install even more bloat and shortcuts on the Zero 8.
It's an amazingly poor user experience overall. Once XOS7 gets properly decluttered, it does become noticeably more usable, though.
Upon successful screen unlock with the fingerprint reader, or face unlock, you will be taken on a homescreen that's basically the same across all launchers - a Google widget, and shortcuts for the most important apps.
The leftmost pane holds cards, which is another word for widgets. There is a ton of those, some of them contain ads, but you can disable those (thankfully).
There is an app drawer if you decided to use one - the strange A-Z orange icon at the bottom. There is a lockscreen "magazine" feature for changing its wallpaper automatically, if you are into that sort of thing.
Lock screen • Homescreen • Cards pane • App drawer
The notification shade itself is nothing out of the ordinary. It can fit three rows with six quick launch icons for each row and right under the icons, you will find the screen brightness slider.
Multitasking is a familiar affair and the task switcher allows for split-screen mode. Only apps that officially support non-fullscreen operation are listed, though. XOS7 does not attempt to force the behavior on other apps.
Notification shade • Quick toggles • App switcher • Split-screen mode
There are a ton of useful settings such as battery saving options, themes, smart panel, social turbo, gestures, and what not. So many, in fact, that the top of the Settings menu even features a carousel of settings banners. Kind of an odd choice, which, given the ad-laden state of the rest of the UI can easily be mistaken for yet another ad spot.
Settings menu and suggestion carousel
In no particular order, here are some of the more standout settings. The Infinix Zero 8 has a pair of audio enhancements. One is the oddly-titled "BesLoudness", which acts like a small, but noticeable volume booster for the loudspeaker. Frankly, we don't know why anyone would want to turn it off, which makes is wonder why even have the toggle. Regardless, it's there. And so is the much more-justified DTS menu. It comes with a few presets, as well as a full-on manual equalizer.
Sound enhancements
Power Marathon is the Infinix take on a battery management hub. It has all of the basics covered, including schedules and settings for killing or limiting background activity on a per-app basis.
Power marathon hub
It is worth noting that it is not the only phone health management hub, included on the Zero 8, though. There is the Phone Master app, which can also invoke some automatic process-killing activities, for power saving. Those are, interestingly enough, a separate set of functions, entirely. There is sort of an ongoing theme of doubling features in XOS7.
The CPU cooler bit immediately caught our eye. Turns out, it just offers to close some of the app that are using more resources at the moment or were doing so a while ago. Which, indeed, should lower overall system temps.
Phone Master
Since we are already on the topic of assistive apps for the phone itself, XOS7 has a few other pre-loaded apps, technically also in that category. There is Carlcare, which seems to be dedicated to getting aftersales service for Infinix phones including tips, phone and chat support and service center locations.
Infinix seems to operate on a digital warranty basis, which gets activated the first time you set up the phone. Neat!
There is also the self-explanatory Feedback app. Overall, even though we would have preferred a more orderly approach, with one single central location for all of these features. We appreciate the extra attention to aftersales support and service on the part of Infinix.
Carlcare and Feedback app
Speaking of lack of proper organization in XOS7, theming support is surprisingly robust here, but is split into a settings menu, which can only set items you already have downloaded or created and a separate XTheme app, for all of the actual customizing.
On the plus side, there is plenty of content to explore in the online repository. Better still, all of it seems to be free for the taking. At least we didn't stumble- across a paid item ourselves.
Themes and wallpaper settings
XTheme app
XOS7 still have more options and interesting apps to offer, so back to listing. System navigation is on a classic on-screen button setting, by default. You can, however, opt for familiar gestures instead or leave the buttons and just swap the pack and recent apps controls.
System navigation options
Game Mode is prominently featured on the Infinix Zero 8. It actually consists of two parts - one is an app, which holds some settings, as well as detailed statistics on in-game time and usage. More-interesting here are the Parental controls, which allow for strict gaming limits. There is also, a rather clever background resource optimization scheme, which lets you select apps that you want and app that you don't want the OS to kill and otherwise disable for resource, while in-game.
Game Mode options
In order to actually get Game Mode working in a game, you need to have it centrally enabled, either through the above menu or the quick toggle in the notification shade and then have your game either automatically or manually tagged by the features.
Once all of these are in order, you can swipe from either side of the screen in-game and bring-up a game bar or HUD, if you will. Once again, the features here are self-explanatory. We would have preferred a more numerical indication of current CPU and GPU loads. But, other than that, we don't really have a lot to complain about.
Game bar
One extra hidden feature is the ability to map on-screen controls to the volume up and down keys. This works rather well for certain games. It's definitely not on the same level as say, the ROG Phone 3 and its amazing multi-functional AirTrigger controls and extensive mapping software. Even so, it's a rare sight on mainstream smartphones, in general.
Extra points to Infinix for really taking inspiration from the top dogs in the mobile gaming niche and putting the extra effort for a surprisingly competent implementation of its own.
MagicButton mapping
XOS7 has a few assistive features outside of gaming, as well. Smart Panel is a quick menu, which can be summoned by swiping left or right, from the edge of the display, anywhere in the UI. It can house a number of tools, as well as app shortcuts and even a volume slider. Pretty convenient.
Smart Panel and gestures
And then there is the standard slew of gestures. One of which is double-tap to wake.
Social Turbo is a particularly curious feature. Especially since it resides in the main settings menu, instead of being a separate app, making it something of a low-level, core extra. It contains a set of upgrades for WhatsApp. Things like a beauty filter for the camera, custom icons and the ability to peek at messages, without marking them as read. Very specific stuff. We can only imagine that this is one example of Infinix catering its offerings to its particular markets and customers.
Social Turbo
This local-market approach to XOS7 at least partly explains the inclusion of some of the pre-installed apps on the system. Things like Boomplay - an app with a very similar look and feel to Spotify, which offers both a free tier for music streaming and a paid subscription.
Boomplay
Same goes for apps like Games Lobby, AHA Games and Palm Store. Both of these are alternative app stores, of sorts. Well, Palm Store is and it features plenty of deceptive titles and descriptions, often masking ad-heavy and potentially malware-ridden actual APK downloads. We would recommend staying away from it.
Games Lobby offers a quick way to play HTML browser-based games. Apparently, those are popular on the markets Infinix operates. AHA Games seems to offer a little bit of both - game downloads, as well as "Instant Games". All of this is likely subsidizing the Zero 8 and bringing down its cost, so we won't be complaining too much.
Palm Store
AHA Games and Games Lobby
These should frankly be on the top of your list of apps to instantly uninstall, since they are the most vocal, when it comes to spamming notifications. There is no real loss in doing so either, since the Infinix Zero 8 still has a full Google suite of apps installed. This includes the Play Store, as well as basics, like Files and Photos. We were even a bit surprised to see that Chrome is the default web browser.
Pleasantly so, since Infinix could have easily gone for a sponsored deal with any number of odd Android web browsers out there. Sadly, unlike the browser, the default keyboard did not escape some sort of deal, with the KiKa keyboard as the pre-loaded one.
Default Google apps
In another odd setup, Infinix has some of its own in-house apps pre-loaded in XOS7 and certain ones basically double features, already covered by Google apps. Like the Files app and the default AI Gallery, which is, honestly, not bad at all. It even offers a decent set of basic editing options and some extra features for cleanup, photo compression and hiding items.
AI Gallery
We don't really have anything against these apps, since they both look and work well. Same goes for other core apps that Infinix has developed, like the calculator, calendar, clock, notepad, sound recorder, weather and video player.
There are a few weirder and more out-there first-party additions, as well. Magic Line is a nifty AR-based doodling experience for the camera. X-boy is weirder still, placing an Infinix mascot on a surface and then playing animations for it, again in AR. YoParty can connect multiple devices together to play music in a synchronized manner.
X-boy • YoParty
All and all, Infinix has thrown a lot into XOS7 for different reasons and with various goals. Some extras are definitely more thoughtful than others and seem to work surprisingly well. Game mode was a truly pleasant surprise. Other bits are clearly shoehorned-in for financial reasons. Thankfully, those can be removed. You do need to go into XOS7 with the corresponding mindset, though. Once you invest some time into cleaning it up, it can provide a rather pleasant custom Android experience.
Performance benchmarks
The Infinix Zero 8 is based on a Mediatek MT6785 Helio G90T chipset. It's manufactured using a 12nm process and it includes a pair of faster 2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 cores and six more Cortex-A55 ones, clocked at up to 2.0 GHz. Our unit, as tested, has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage.
In the GPU department, we have a Mali-G76 MC4 pushing pixels on to a panel, with a native FullHD+ resolution of 1080 x 2460 pixels. While that does put the GPU in a bit of a strenuous situation, overall, the Helio G90T is one of the more potent chipsets available in the budget smartphone segment.
Naturally, we wouldn't pit the Infinix Zero 8 against flagship or even mid-range offers. Instead we've opted for a colorful selection of other recent budget chipsets, like the similar Helio G85, G80 and the P35 solutions from MediaTek. Also, competition like the Snapdragon 665, 720G, as well as some manufacturer-specific chips, like the Samsung Exynos 850 and the Kirin 810, by HiSilicon. All of these, attainable within the budget of the Infinix Zero 8.
GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
591 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
570 - Realme 6
548 - Infinix Zero 8
532 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
493 - Xiaomi Redmi 9
362 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9
361 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
315 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
310 - Infinix S5 Pro
187 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
184
We kick things off with some pure-CPU numbers and GeekBench. The overall trend, set by these results, seems to apply to most of the other synthetic runs too.
Important observations include the fact that the Helio G90T, as integrated in the Infinix Zero 8, is performing to spec, mostly matching the results of the Realme 6 and Redmi Note 8 Pro, equipped with the same silicon.
Realme appears to be squeezing a bit more performance out of the CPU on average, but within a variance only noticeable in synthetic runs and not in real-world use.
GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
1862 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
1785 - Realme 6
1726 - Infinix Zero 8
1663 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
1622 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
1385 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
1339 - Xiaomi Redmi 9
1325 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9
1292 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
1100 - Infinix S5 Pro
1039
Both the Snapdragon 720G and the Kirin 810 appear to consistently outpace the Helio G90T. Conversely, the Snapdragon 665 seems to lag a bit behind it and, like common numbering logic suggests, so do the Helio G85, G80. The Exynos 850 seems to really fall behind in raw performance. However, it does have efficiency on its side, with its 8nm manufacturing process.
AnTuTu is a more compound benchmark, involving GPU runs and also taking into account memory. Even so, we can see the overall device positioning carried over. The Infinix Zero 8 is actually leading the G90T pack this time around and definitely holding its own.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
325777 - Realme 6
288931 - Infinix Zero 8
282348 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
279355 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
254000 - Xiaomi Redmi 9
201829 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9
200414 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
168699 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
161572 - Infinix S5 Pro
117533 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
107157
You don't really buy a budget handset with the intent of getting an ultimate gaming powerhouse. It is perfectly realistic to expect a smooth experience out of most modern Android games, short of the most demanding ones. Current titles are so well-optimized and seamlessly adapt things like rendering details, distance, effects and even resolution that with the respectable scores shown here by the Zero 8 and its Mali-G76 MC4 GPU, you can easily expect a smooth experience.
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
53 - Realme 6
50 - Infinix Zero 8
49 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
48 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
42 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
19 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
19 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
16 - Infinix S5 Pro
12
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
49 - Realme 6
45 - Infinix Zero 8
42 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
40 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
36 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
28 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
18 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
16 - Infinix S5 Pro
11
Mind you, rendering at a FullHD+ resolution is still not exactly ideal for this caliber of chipset. HD offers a lot more headroom. You can see how that is working to aid the on-screen performance of the Samsung Galaxy A21s in these charts. Though even then, its Mali-G52 still falls short in the GPU department.
Luckily, you don't have to settle with a lower-resolution panel to render games at a less-stressful resolutions. Most titles will do that themselves and there are plenty of tools out there to achieve that effect too. Remember, there fps numbers are based on purely synthetic and unrealistic loads.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
34 - Realme 6
31 - Infinix Zero 8
30 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
30 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
29 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
13 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
13 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
9.4 - Infinix S5 Pro
8.2
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
30 - Realme 6
27 - Infinix Zero 8
26 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
26 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
24 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
19 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
12 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
11 - Infinix S5 Pro
7.3
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
21 - Infinix Zero 8
18 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
18 - Realme 6
18 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
18 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
7.1 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
7 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
6 - Infinix S5 Pro
3.7
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
18 - Realme 6
16 - Infinix Zero 8
15 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
15 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
14 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
11 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
6.5 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
5.9 - Infinix S5 Pro
3.2
There's little point in ramping-up the benchmark run intensity on the Infinix Zero 8, beyond a pure curiosity. In the tough Aztek runs, with both OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan APIs, the previous, slight fps lead the Snapdragon 720G and Kirin 810 seemed to have over the Helio G90T are lost in various overheads and system bottlenecks. Hence, there GPU setups really are quite comparable.
Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Infinix Zero 8
10 - Realme 6
10 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
9.9 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
9.4 - Huawei P40 Lite
8.6 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
6.6 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
4.1 - Infinix S5 Pro
1.8
Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
12 - Infinix Zero 8
11 - Realme 6
11 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
10 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
10 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
7.1 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
4.5 - Infinix S5 Pro
2.3
As is usually the case, 3DMark's more granular scores offer a more clear-cut and well-organized way of grading raw performance. Again, the synthetic variances are there, but really slim and practically non-observable in real-world use.
3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
2818 - Realme 6
2570 - Infinix Zero 8
2537 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
2494 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
2363 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
1125 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
888 - Infinix S5 Pro
449
3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p
Higher is better
- Realme 6
2619 - Huawei P40 Lite
2603 - Infinix Zero 8
2556 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
2447 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
2357 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
1037 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
901 - Infinix S5 Pro
614
All things considered, the Infinix Zero 8 is very adequately equipped for its price bracket. The MediaTek Helio G90T is a solid performer, that won't be topping any benchmark charts, but is still one of the better budget choices.
It is also great to see that Infinix has implemented the chip properly and is making full use of its potential. Mind you, that's despite the bloated software experience the custom XOS skin delivers. It is worth noting, however, that the Zero 8 gets fairly hot under load. It is advertised as having a 3D vapor chamber for cooling. If that is indeed the case, perhaps it needs some extra engineering work for future models.
Our suggestion for future improvements to the overall user experience would definitely be focused on cleaning up the UI and UX quite a bit. That way, the raw hardware performance can actually be translated to a snappy, smooth and less-cumbersome Android experience.
Quad camera setup on a budget
Infinix has thrown a total of four cameras on the back of the Zero 8 and another two up-front. That's definitely a very PR-friendly number to have, especially on a budget phone. Not to mention, that it works well with the diamond geometrical design on the back of the Zero 8.
That's all fine and dandy, but Infinix is keeping a rather tight-lipped when it comes to camera particulars. We know, for a fact, that we have a 64MP Quad Bayer main camera at the helm. One with a size of 1/1.72 inches and 0.8µm pixels. Our best guess is that this should be the popular Samsung GW1 sensor. Though, the Official Zero 8 specs sheet lacks such information. There isn't even an aperture number. The phone reports f/1.9 in software, which we are going to have to believe.
The ultrawide camera is another mystery. We know it uses an 8MP sensor - 1/4.0-inch in size, with 1.12µm pixels. And that's about the extent of the info. While this mostly matches the specs of the Samsung ISOCELL S5K4HAYX sensor, powering the ultrawide camera of the Samsung Galaxy A41, we know that the ultrawide on the Zero 8 actually has autofocus! Color us surprised. That's not something you see too often and especially on a budget device.
Beyond that, there are two extra 2MP cameras on the Infinix Zero 8. Info on these is practically non-existent. We can only imagine that at least one is a depth sensor. The other is listed as a macro unit by some sources. However, from our testing, we can confidently say that the Zero 8 rightfully leverages the autofocus capabilities of its ultrawide to do macros.
Making the entire camera information situation even more confusing and making us think that, perhaps neither of the 2MP cameras is particularly important in any way and is simply included for the same of camera count. Covering either one up does not seem to trip-up any camera mode in a perceptible way, so there is that.
Camera UI
The camera app on the Infinix Zero 8 is straight-forward and well organized. The "AI" part of the software comes down to scene recognition, as signified by the small icon on the viewfinder. It's far from the most sophisticated system we have encountered, but it seems to do a fairly good job identifying the contents of the shot.
We appreciate that things like the 64MP mode toggle and the HDR mode selector are front stage and center as quick toggles, instead of being buried in settings. Naturally, some of the toggles change according to the currently active camera. The ultrawide, for example, does not have 64MP mode. The same is true for the equally well-organized settings menu, which changed depending on which mode you launch it from.
Camera app settings
Camera performance on the Infinix Zero 8 is a mixed bag. Naturally, there is quite a bit of expectations adjustement involved when going into a budget phone. Especially on that hasn't necessarily focused all of its efforts into the best possible camera experience, but has also splurged around for other things, like a high refresh rate display. That being said, modern Quad Bayer cameras have already proven their salt time and time again and are known to bring a certain level of hardware potency to the table. On top of that, again speaking strictly about hardware, Zero 8 also has the benefit of rocking autofocus on its ultrawide camera.
Starting with the main 64MP snapper, in its default auto AI camera mode, we get some 16MP stills, which can only be described as unimpressive.
Infinix Zero 8 main 16MP camera samples
Shots are soft and very grainy. And it's not just uniform areas, like the sky or grass that are suffering. The issue is visible all throughout the frame. Detail in finer patterns is frequently lost. At the same time, the algorithm sometimes makes up some non-existent geometrical shapes of its own.
Dynamic range is a bit narrow, too. Colors are a bit more desaturated than what we would have liked to see. But that's definitely low on the list of issues we see here. HDR does have some positive effects on the main camera, recovering crushed details in the shadows. However, Auto HDR is not consistent enough and doesn't always kick-in when needed. Here are some shots from the main camera, with HDR forced to OFF.
Infinix Zero 8 main 16MP camera samples, NO HDR
Moving on to the 8MP ultrawide camera, we get a perfect visualization of our biggest issue with the camera experience on the Infinix Zero 8 - inconsistency. Compared to the main camera, colors here are totally different. Frankly, we like the more-vibrant color science of the ultrawide a bit better. The main point, however, is that there is room for improvement and a more unified look and feel is one thing that could use work.
Infinix Zero 8 ultrawide 8MP camera samples
Shots from the ultrawide still look quite soft and grainy. However, both are on a much more acceptable scale here since we are talking in ultrawide camera terms. Dynamic range is even more limited and the 8MP snapper on the Zero 8 has a clear tendency to frequently overexpose. HDR helps noticeably more here than it did for the main camera. Even its auto triggering mode is a bit more accurate. Here are some shots with no HDR.
Infinix Zero 8 ultrawide 8MP camera samples, NO HDR
By default, ultrawide shots go through an algorithm that crops away some of the frame and does its best to straighten-out the objects the in frame. The one on the Zero 8 does a fairly competent job, which we can appreciate from these ultrawide samples, taken with the correction toggled off.
Infinix Zero 8 ultrawide 8MP camera samples, no distortion correction
Although there is no dedicated telephoto camera on the Zero 8, it still offers a 2x toggle, alongside the regular digital zoom. That's not to say that the 2x isn't digital. It is, entirely so. There is some upscaling involved, as well, since the shots still come out in 16MP.
The automatically-applied amount of sharpening is a bit more heavy-handed in zoom mode, though, which might not be to everybody's taste. Even so, the results don't look too bad. As long as you don't pixel-peep, they are perfectly usable.
Infinix Zero 8 2x zoom 16MP camera samples
You can capture shots in the native 64MP resolution with the main camera of the Infinix Zero 8. Many Quad-Bayer camera implementations tend to offer that feature and in most cases, the small gains in detail are not worth dealing with the hassle of bigger files, slower capture times. Not to mention that Quad-Bayer sensors are really not meant to be used in this manner, without pixel binning.
However, on the Infinix Zero 8, in particular, there could be some solid justification for using this mode, over the standard, in some cases. Particularly, when you want a sharper-looking photo overall, with better defined finer details. In regular mode, the Zero 8 muddies a lot of the finer details with its soft reproduction, toggling 64MP mode on is actually a viable approach to addressing that issue.
Infinix Zero 8 main 64MP camera samples
However, noise tends to get worse in 64MP mode, which is expected. You have to deal with bigger files. On the plus side, the Zero 8 tends to capture 64MP stills rather quickly. There is very little delay, compared to what we have seen on other Quad-Bayer phones.
Interestingly enough, 64MP mode is available in 2x zoom mode, as well. That means that there is even more upscaling involved to get the final shots. The more heavy-handed sharpening algorithm does tend to mask a lot of the upscaling issues, though. Again, depending on what you end-goal is, there is a point to be made about using 64MP mode, even for zoom shots.
Infinix Zero 8 2x zoom 64MP camera samples
The Infinix Zero 8 can do portraits. Thanks to a dedicated depth sensor, these look very nice. The depth effect is convincing and also adjustable in the camera app.
Portrait mode options
Subject detection and separation above average, with just the occasional mistake here and there and mostly with very tough areas, like hair. Non-human subjects work surprisingly well too.
Infinix Zero 8 portrait samples
Macro mode is one of the highlights of the Zero 8 camera experience. Like we mentioned, these are actually leveraging the autofocus capabilities of the ultrawide camera. Hence, the resulting shots are 8MP big. Already better than what a 2MP or 8MP dedicated fixed-focus camera would have delivered. These look great, with plenty of depth and the benefit of the more vibrant color science of the ultrawide.
Infinix Zero 8 macro mode samples
Before we move on to other tests, here we have the main 64MP camera of the Infinix Zero 8 in our extensive photo compare database. We include entries in both 16MP mode and 64MP mode for your pixel-peeping pleasure.
Infinix Zero 8 against the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro in our Photo compare tool
64MP: Infinix Zero 8 against the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro in our Photo compare tool
Video camera quality
The Infinix Zero 8 can capture video at up to 4K@30fps on its main camera. That includes both 1x and zoomed 2x mode. You also get 1080p@30 and 1080p@60fps. The 8MP ultrawide is naturally limited to FullHD video. All of these get saved in h.264 format - AVC video, with 48kHZ AAC audio. The latter is just mono, though.
Videos look a bit underwhelming at maximum resolution. Colors are rather dull, but the main issue has to be the limited dynamic range. Shadows get absolutely crushed. The video is also rather susceptible to vibration. The wind in these samples is obvious. However, this is with stabilization turned off.
Dropping the resolution down to FullHD produces competent enough results, compared to 4K, but not really impressive in absolute terms. Same exact issues apply here, but with less detail. We checked bitrate as well and that's not the problem here.
Since there is no dedicated telephoto camera on the Zero 8, it is natural that 2x clips exhibit the exact same characteristics. To the phone's credit, these are usable, though.
The ultrawide camera produces noticeably softer and noisier footage, but its colors are livelier.
The Infinix Zero 8 offers EIS on both of its main and ultrawide cameras. It is called "Anti Video" inside the app and that's not even a joke. Silly translation issues aside, it works great with both cameras. You can see it in action for yourself. The only real limitation is that it caps resolution on the main camera to FullHD.
Here is the Infinix Zero 8 in our video compare database.
Infinix Zero 8 against the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro in our Video compare tool
Selfie camera quality
The selfie camera setup on the Infinix Zero 8 is quite potent. The main 48MP camera here is also a Quad-Bayer unit and produces 12MP shots. These look great, with a lot of detail, great colors, and sharpness. Honestly, they leave little to be desired, outside, perhaps, flagship-grade features, like autofocus.
Infinix Zero 8 12MP selfies
Infinix Zero 8 12MP selfies
Auto HDR detection for the selfie cameras on the Zero 8 is also spotty at times. When it does kick in, it typically has a very noticeable, positive effect on shots. Especially those involving bright backdrops and shadows on facial features. Here are some HDR OFF shots for comparison.
Infinix Zero 8 12MP selfies, NO HDR
In comparison, the 8MP ultrawide secondary selfie snapper, once again, falls a bit short. Especially in the dynamic range department.
Infinix Zero 8 ultrawide 8MP selfies
HDR is practically vital here, so just leave it on. Again, a few shots with HDR off, for comparison.
Infinix Zero 8 ultrawide 8MP selfies, HDR OFF
Portrait shots are a thing on the selfie side, as well. Unlike their main camera counterparts, you don't really get any settings here. Just frame things right until the algorithm picks up your face properly and shoot. Of course, results aren't as good as with the main camera, but do manage to look rather convincing.
Infinix Zero 8 selfie portraits
Video capture is, naturally, a thing on the selfie cameras, as well. The bigger 48MP one, in particular, can do 4K@30fps. It looks very impressive. Especially in terms of detail.
Of course, you can't have unrealistic expectations here, since the dynamic range isn't amazing and it is a fixed-focus unit. Even with these limitations in place, the results are still very impressive.
Dropping the resolution to FullHD kills a lot of detail, so we wouldn't recommend it. Unless, of course, you are bumped-down by enabling EIS on the selfie camera. It works surprisingly well, even if the crop in the frame is a bit tight.
The 8mp ultrawide can do 1080p@30fps, regardless of whether you are using EIS or not. Here is a stabilization comparison for it. We frankly see very few cases, if any, when we would opt for the wide camera for video purposes, instead of the very impressive main one.
Low-light camera quality
The Infinix Zero 8 struggles a fair bit with low-light photography. Shots generally come out a bit noisier and softer than we would have liked to see. Even so, if you refrain from pixel-peeping, the main Quad-Bayer snapper produces perfectly usable results.
Infinix Zero 8 main 16MP low-light camera samples
Things to be mindful of is the tendency of the camera to really blow-out lights. This can generally be counteracted with some careful manual spot exposure. Also, the Zero 8 is prone to focus hunting in low-light.
Once again, 2x zoom shots, taken from the main camera, exhibit pretty much the same qualities as their regular, 1x counterparts. The more heavy-handed approach to sharpening here almost works in their favor.
Infinix Zero 8 2x zoom 16MP low-light camera samples
Here are some shots from the main camera in 1x and 2x mode in 64MP mode.
Infinix Zero 8 main 64MP low-light camera samples
Infinix Zero 8 2x zoom 64MP low-light camera samples
The ultrawide camera really struggles to produce a competent shot in low-light conditions. Still looks particularly soft. Plus, autofocus on the ultrawide gets really thrown-off by the lack of light. You need to be really careful to not end with a straight-out of focus shot.
Infinix Zero 8 ultrawide 8MP low-light camera samples
The Infinix Zero 8 has a dedicated night mode. It only works on the main camera and doesn't really offer any options. That's quite unfortunate, since we were hoping that it would be the saving grace for the otherwise underperforming ultrawide.
Infinix Zero 8 main 16MP night mode samples
We have to say that night mode really makes a noticeable difference. It produces consistently better results than simply using the main camera. The capturing and stacking process is surprisingly snappy.
Low-light selfies are not something to phone home about. Most of the texture and fine details is generally lost here. Even so, the Quad-Byer main snapper definitely holds it own. It's more than adequate for a budget phone.
Infinix Zero 8 selfie low-light samples
Ultrawide selfies look vastly different and you can clearly see the algorithms struggling hard to combat noise and the limited dynamic range and leaving a lot of softness behind in the process. We would shy away from this camera in low-light.
Infinix Zero 8 ultrawide selfie low-light samples
Night mode is available for selfie shots as well. Unfortunately, once again, it only works on the main camera and not the ultrawide. Too bad, really, since it does an impressive job. Well, skin texture and finer details still get lost more often than not, but it is definitely worth waiting through the night mode shot for the better and more balanced exposure alone.
Infinix Zero 8 selfie night mode samples
Finally, we also took a quick low-light video at 4K, with EIS turned OFF and without a tripod. So, pardon any small shakes. It's a bit noisy, and light sources are causing the Infinix Zero 8 quite a bit of trouble. Beyond that, though, it is surprisingly usable, with plenty of detail.
It is worth noting that the camera app appears to have some automatic behavior that disables the 4K resolution options from time to time. We believe it could be related to low-light conditions, though that doesn't really make much sense. Perhaps it's a bug. Just putting it out there.
Competition
Infinix is not really a major player on the international scene. The company has a solid history behind its back and a strong presence and plenty of fans, just seemingly limited to a few key markets. The company's strongest markets are Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria but they've recently started a push on the Indian market.
The MSRP for the Infinix Zero 8 is around $250, which is the price we would base our pool of competitors on. However, it is worth noting that, for now, at least, the Zero 8 is shaping up as a local release, with limited availability. Getting hold of one outside these markets will likely be a major hassle and will probably pile some import and customs fees on top.
As you can imagine, this price point is an actively contested one, and there is plenty of choices. Samsung actually has at least a few viable devices, part of its ever-growing A and M families. The Galaxy A51 packs similar hardware to the Infinix Zero 8, including a four-camera setup, with a Quad-Bayer main snapper. Plus, a major draw here is the Super AMOLED panel. It's not a fast one, and only does 60Hz, but the benefits in color and contrast are obvious. You won't be getting quite as potent of a battery and charging setup, though. And the Galaxy A51 could be pushing the limits of our budget.
Keeping that in mind, if you can get your hands on a Galaxy M31s, it seems to offer even better value for money, rocking the same overall internals, but with a higher-res 64MP main camera and a bigger 6,000 mAh battery, with faster 25W charging. That one seems only to be selling in India at the moment, though.
Samsung Galaxy A51 • Xiaomi Redmi K30 Ultra • Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro • Realme 6
Xiaomi has more than a few devices to offer. If you can get your hands on a Redmi K30 Ultra, it seems to offer the best, all-round value, including things like an AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate, a quad-camera setup with a 64MP Quad-Bayer and a dedicated telephoto and a 4,500 mAh battery, with 33W charging, just like the Infinix Zero 8. Sadly, it is also somewhat limited in availability and pushing the budget a little.
The Redmi Note 9 Pro might be easier to acquire, but it does come with quite a few sacrifices, the OLED panel, 5G and the telephoto. At that point, it might be better to go for some extra savings with the Redmi Note 9 or look into the slightly older, but better value Redmi Note 8 Pro. Not an easy decision there.
Navigating Realme's lineup is hardly any easier. The Realme 6 stands out as a very close match to the Infinix Zero 8. It also has a 90Hz IPS panel, the MediaTek G90T chipset, a quad-camera setup, including a 64MP main snapper and an 8MP ultrawide, a similarly-sized 4,300 mAh battery, with 30W charging and very solid battery endurance.
That being said, if maximizing battery life is a big priority for you, it might be worth it to live with a few other hardware compromises, but got for the Realme C15 and its massive 6,000 mAh pack. Depending on local availability and how low you want to take your budget, the Realme C12 is also worth a look and so is the C11. All of them are very similar.
Honorable mentions on the competitors list include the Nokia 5.3 and the vivo Y20.
The verdict
Infinix devices are not a common sight around our parst. Neither are they available or popular on an international scale. In practice, the brand has managed to carve-out good market shares and make a name for itself in some particular markets such as Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria and now they are making a push in India as well.
You still get proper Google services but the software experience is quite different with some of it specifically tailored to the needs of local markets. This includes things like system-level WhatsApp integration, various support and service apps for after-sales care, and a slew of alternative app markets and game launchers baked-in. All, likely, reflecting the needs and preferences of local users.
The unfortunate flip side of this 'market tuning' is the unusually high volume of ads and sponsored content, pre-loaded as part of XOS7. A practice that has become mostly unacceptable to Western and global audiences in the last few years, but is still a perfectly valid way of bringing costs down and additionally subsidizing the cost of any handset.
Put all of this together and you end up with an Infinix Zero 8 which clearly brings a lot of value to the table, but does so with a distinctly local-market flavor. Clearly a strategy that is working for Infinix and nothing to scorn or really complain about.
At the end of the day, the way the Zero 8 is created, customized and even marketed appears pretty specific and almost foreign from a global viewpoint. As such, we find it hard to really outright recommend it. Getting it outside of its designated markets won't really be worth the hassle. If, however, it is available in a store near you, with all of its local customization, warranty and after-sales care, there is a lot of value to be had with its current feature set.
Pros
- Sturdy plastic build and unique geometric design on the back.
- Snappy fingerprint reader, 3.5mm jack, two SIM slots and a microSD one.
- Optimal performance is extracted from the MediaTek Helio G90T chipset. The Zero 8 does heat-up quite a bit under load, though.
- Excellent battery life even in 90Hz mode. Impressively fast charging.
- Once cleaned-up, XOS7 becomes pleasant to use and we enjoyed its unique features.
- Autofocus on the ultrawide camera is a nice surprise.
- Night mode and 64MP capture work surprisingly well
- Impressive selfies from the 48MP camera.
Cons
- Sluggish screen pixel response times lead to smearing in 90Hz mode. Low max brightness level and sub-par color accuracy. Dubious HDR10 support.
- The single loudspeaker is unimpressive in both loudness and quality.
- Huge amount of pre-loaded apps generate a lot of notifications and ruin the out-of-the-box user experience.
- Largely unimpressive camera performance.
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