After some extensive use of the Infinix S5, here’s a review of one of the most anticipated Infinix device in 2019. The Infinix S4, was obviously one of the most successful devices from Infinix in 2019, no doubt, but is the S5 a worthy upgrade?
If you’d rather watch a video review, above is a review of the Infinix S5 from our Youtube channel, otherwise, continue reading below.
Unboxing
This time, the Infinix S5 comes in a green box just like we had in the latest Hot 8 devices. On opening the box, we get the device with a sticker that clearly shows a quicks specs at the front and also that in-display camera notch opening.
Must Read: Infinix Hot 8 Review – Specs, Features, and Price
Setting this device aside reveals the customer service card, and a layer deep, we get this envelope as usual housing the sim ejector tool, a TPU case, warranty card, xClub card, user guide, and a screen protector film. Furthermore, are the MicroUSB2.0 data transfer cable, 3.5mm jacked earpiece and the 10W charger
Setup
The Setup here took me a little over 2 mins and I had everything up and running while welcomed with XOS cheetah, which is Infinix’s skinned version of the Android 9 Pie OS.
Design
For the past 2 weeks prior to getting the S5, I’d been on the Redmi Note 8 and switching to this device, the first thing I noticed was how much lighter yet longer this smartphone felt. I have the violet color and the device feels plasticky as with most other smartphones in this price range.
Must Read: Infinix Hot 8 Lite Review – Specs, Features, and Price
You should also expect a device with rounded edges as seen on the Hot and Camon devices. One other thing I noticed is the fact that it feels like these devices, especially the Camon 12.
To the left is a dual nano-sim tray with a dedicated micro SD card slot expandable to 256GB while the right side features the power button and the volume rocker keys.
The top is quite bland and the bottom side from left to right features the speaker grills, micro USB 2.0 port, a mouthpiece opening, and the 3.5mm jack port.
Must Read: Infinix Note 6 Review – Specs, Features, and Price
Now, flipping this device to the back reveals a quad-camera setup which we’ll talk about in a bit, an LED flash, the fingerprint biometric sensor, the Infinix branding below and that should be it.
The front side has a 6.6inch Infinity O display, and this is just a fancy way of Infinix saying you get an in-display camera cutout notch.
Display
So, This display, though it still remains an LCD, you get this immersive experience while consuming media or gaming as the camera cut out isn’t obtrusive as the regular notched smartphones.
6.6 inches is quite large for media consumption and the resolution here is 720x 1600, that’s an HD+ panel, 20 by 9 aspect ratio, making this a long device, about 81.9% screen to body ratio and approximately 270 ppi density on this display.
Streaming videos are capped at 720p all thanks to the HD+ display here. Two things I’d have loved for the display would be at least a Full HD and AMOLED panel, but, we probably would see those in the successor to this s5.
The Infinity O display makes it possible to use some amazing wallpapers like the one you see here, that’s basically one of the best features you get from the panel on the S5 and I’d say it’s nothing really special asides the fact that it is the first from the brand that offers a little better and immersive experience.
Camera
So, back to the cameras, and as earlier mentioned, we have a quad setup with 16MP main shooter, 5MP ultra-wide, 2MP and a QVGA for depth sensing and most likely the macro mode I guess.
I took a couple of photos and they came out pretty much usable in daylight, ready for your socials and here are samples. From the front-facing camera which sits in that screen cut out with a 32MP sensor, you get nice looking photos with great details and decent portrait mode photos with good lighting being the key here. That also transcends to the videos coming from the front-facing lens.
Video on the rear is capped at 1080p just like you get from the front and you lack any form of stabilization in the footage
If you’d want to see a camera comparison between the S5 and Note 6, do let me know in the comments.
Performance
Performance is pretty much OK as you should have a basic idea of the Helio P22 MediaTek processor. I mean, nothing has changed here when compared to the Infinix S4 from a few months back.
Specification wise, there are 2 variants for the S5 with 4Gigs of RAM 64gig storage and 6gigs of RAM 128Gigs of storage. More so, you can expand your storage to about 256GB via the micro SD card slot.
The operating system on this smartphone is XOS Cheetah 5.5.2 (which I’m clearly not a fan of, I’ll usually skin my infinix devices with nova launcher) and the XOS skin here is based on Android 9 Pie. There are a couple of bloatware apps and thank goodness most are removable.
I played PUBG extensively and this wasn’t the smoothest experience, with the game being capped at Balanced Graphics and medium frame rate.
One thing for sure here is, while you’d be able to play titles like PUBG, you are not clear from the lags and stutter as expected with the PowerVR GE8320 paired with Helio P22 processor.
The benchmark scores for the Infinix S5 can be seen on the screen.
Battery
As with most other devices right now, the S5 boasts of 4000mAH in it’s battery capacity and it can easily last you a day’s use. Charging this battery up takes roughly 3 hours to get it from 0 to a hundred percent with the 10W charger included in the box.
Price
As I’d normally say, price is a crucial deciding factor when it comes to getting a smartphone and the Infinix S5 isn’t an exception. I got my 4GB/64GB unit for N53,000 and that converts to about $145 or about 7000 pesos. For this price, it is worth your money.
Verdict
So what are my thoughts on the Infinix S5? It is basically, the S4 with some minor incremental upgrades. The major things you’d notice include the display style from a water drop to infinity O, the available memory variants and the camera setup.
Do I think something could have been better, I sure do. I’d have loved an AMOLED Full HD display, USB Type C, Dark mode on this OS and a slightly better portrait mode from the camera.
So far, so good, the S5 is a no doubt a better option when compared to the predecessor and a lot of devices at that price range. But on personal opinion, I had expected a lot more, especially, when we know that the S4 was a super device amongst its peers. Hopefully, we get to see a major upgrade in the next iteration just like the S4.