Infinix HOT 11S Hands-on Review

Infinix officially launched its latest budget gaming smartphone, the Infinix HOT 11S, in the Philippines. It comes equipped with a huge display, a gaming processor, a triple camera, and a high battery capacity, all at an affordable price.

Infinix Mobile Philippines sent us a review sample, so here's our hands-on experience of the brand's latest budget gaming smartphone.

Infinix Hot 11S Specs:

Android 11, XOS 7.5
6.78-inch Full HD+ IPS display, 1080 x 2480 pixel resolution at 399 PPI
2.0GHz MediaTek Helio G88 Octa-core Processor
Mali-G52 MC2
4GB RAM
64GB Internal storage
Expandable up to 256GB microSD (dedicated)
50MP, f/1.6, wide, PDAF + 2MP depth + AI Lens rear cameras, LED Flash
8MP selfie camera
Dual SIM, Dual Standby
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, A-GPS
Fingerprint scanner
FM radio
USB Type-C
5,000mAh battery, 18W charging
Colors: Purple, Green, Black
205 g

Design
The HOT 11S has a plastic curved body with a unique design pattern that gives it a gradient appearance when viewed from different angles. The color review unit is Polar Black, but it's also available in Green Wave and 7-degree Purple colorways.

Despite its attractive appearance, the glossy back panel is susceptible to smudge and fingerprints. It's a good thing it comes with a free case to solve this minor issue, and it also serves to protect the camera lens as well.

There's a triple camera system on the rear with the main sensor appearing to be very enormous. However, this impression is merely created by the casing. It also has a fingerprint scanner and the Infinix branding at the back.

The volume rocker and power button, both of which have a satisfying click when pressed, are located on the right side of the device. The SIM card slot is located on the left side of the device and supports two nano-SIM cards and one microSD card that supports up to 256GB capacity.

The phrase "The future is now" is printed on the top, however it's difficult to see because the lettering is so small and nearly the same color as the background. Even though it's a huge smartphone, using the HOT 11S one-handed is easy and comfortable thanks to its curved design.

Display
The HOT 11S features a large 6.78-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD display with relatively slim bezels and a punch-hole notch in the upper middle where the selfie camera is placed, directly beneath the earpiece. It comes equipped with a NEG Dinorex T2X-1 glass protector and a pre-installed screen protector.

The screen has a 90Hz refresh rate, and a 180Hz touch sample rate. Both are beneficial for smoother screen refresh and a faster response in touch, which is great when playing games.

The screen boasts a 90Hz refresh rate on the screen and a 180Hz touch sample rate for smoother screen refresh and faster touch response, both of which are beneficial while using the device. watching videos and playing games.

The display boasts excellent viewing angles, vibrant colors, and smooth scrolling and switching between programs thanks to the 90Hz refresh rate.

Performance
The HOT 11S is powered by a MediaTek Helio G88 Chipset with Mali-G52 MC2 graphics and comes equipped with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a large 5,000mAh battery, which is a downgrade compared to the HOT 10S's 6,000mAh battery. It comes pre-installed with Android 11 and XOS 7.6 out of the box.

The following table shows how the Infinix HOT 11S performs on Benchmark Apps:

AnTuTu – 175515
Geekbench – 221 (Single-core); 1,112 (Multi-core); 988 (OpenCL)
3D Mark – 713 (Wild Life - Vulcan); 183 (Wild Life Extreme -- Vulcan)
PC Mark – 8478(Work 2.0)

Given its technical specs, this smartphone performs well, delivering fast and fluid performance when performing daily tasks such as reading a large number of emails, browsing the web, updating social media accounts, and playing games.

Gaming performance is good, playing Pokémon Unite, one of our current favorite games is smooth on medium settings, and the huge screen allows us to appreciate it even more. To test the screen's 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate, we played Call of Duty on high settings; while the gameplay is excellent, there is some noticeable lag when playing multiplayer mode.

The sound output from the speakers isn't great, but thankfully it includes a headphone jack for enhanced music quality when using wired earphones.

Android 11 and XOS 7.6
XOS7.6 is Infnix's own custom IU for Android 11. It features a lot of customization on the underlying OS and comes with its own apps such as Xnote for taking notes, Doc Correction, which is similar to Office Lens, Phone Cloner so that you can easily transfer your data from an old phone, Game Zone, a booster for gaming, Video Assist, Xvocal, and Kids mode.

We've also noticed that it comes pre-loaded with a lot of bloatware that you don't really need, and because it only has a limited amount of storage, it's best to uninstall any apps that you aren't planning on using anyway.

Cameras
In the camera department, it features a triple camera setup at the back that is composed of a 50-megapixel main, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and an AI lens. There's an 8-megapixel camera on the front for snapping selfies with dedicated flash.

Take a look at some of the sample images we took using the main camera:

The camera app offers plenty of functions; its default AI CAM mode captures images at 12.5 megapixels with a 4:3 aspect ratio, while the 20.5:9 aspect ratio only captures images at 7 megapixel. The 50-megapixel sensor can be activated, and it also features a zoom capability of up to ten times.

Additionally, it supports the other shooting modes such as Short video, Video (720p/100p/2K videos), Beauty, Portrait, SuperNight, and Google Lens; it also includes a QR code scanner.

The quality of photos taken in daylight is fairly good; the image details are excellent and sharp, while photos taken at night or in low light using the SuperNight mode are also quite nice, with better image detail and sharpness compared to using the normal mode.

Battery Performance
The HOT11S is packed with a 5000mAh battery, which is good for a whole day of use. It also features Power Marathon Technology, which provides up to two additional hours of talk time with only 5% power. This can be activated using the Ultra Power Saving Mode via Power Marathon.

While the Power Boost can extend the battery life, this mode will activate the dark theme, enable adaptive brightness, disable action and gesture and it switches screen refresh rate to 60Hz.

Charging the battery with the included 18W charger is quick, but not lightning fast. It takes approximately three hours to fully charge the battery from 11% to 100% capacity.

Pros
Bright large screen
Smooth performance
Selfie camera with flash
Good battery life
Affordable pricing

Cons
Plastic built
It comes with a lot of bloatware.
Only 4GB RAM
The default camera sensor is only 12.5MP.

Final Thoughts
The Infinix Hot 11S raises the bar for affordable budget gaming smartphones with features such as a large display with a 90Hz refresh rate and a 180Hz touch sampling rate, a very capable gaming Chipset, good camera performance, long battery life, and an overall excellent user experience. But if you want a more powerful processor with larger storage, and support wireless charging you might want to check the new Cherry AQUA S10 Pro.

The Infinix HOT 11S with 4GB RAM+64GB ROM is priced at ₱6,990 and it's now available in all Infinix retail and online stores.

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