Infinix Smart 2 First Impressions: Dual 4G VoLTE, and selfie flash in budget price point

After launching the Hot 6 Pro budget smartphone in July this year, Infinix an online brand from Transsion Holdings has now launched another affordable smartphone in the country for masses. The company has unveiled Infinix Smart 2 in two variants- 2GB RAM with 16GB internal storage and 3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage priced at Rs. 5,999 and Rs. 6,999 respectively.

Both variants will be available exclusively on Flipkart starting from August 10 midnight in Bordeaux Red, City Blue, Sandstone Black, and Serene Gold color options. The highlight of the smartphone is Dual VoLTE connectivity in budget price-point.

The company claims that the new Infinix Smart 2 delivers up to 21 hours of 4G talk time, 81 hours of music playback time or 21 days of standby time on a single charge Other notable features include- 18:9 Full View display and an 8MP Low Light selfie with Dual LED Flash.

We were present at the launch event and tested the handset for a brief period of time to find out what Infinix is offering this time. Here's what we think of the new device.

Design and Display: Matte Textured back panel and a 5.45-inch HD+ display

Infinix Smart 2 comes with a matte textured back panel that houses a 13MP rear camera with dual LED flash on the top and Infinix logo at the center.

On the right side of the smartphone, you will find the volume rockers and power button, while the 3.5mm headphone jack is placed at the bottom, along with a micro USB port. The smartphone also features a traditional removable back panel, which is very rare to find these days.

The handset is compact enough to snuggly fit in your palm. We did not come across any issues in using this handset with one hand.

The new smartphone sports a 5.45-inches Full HD+ screen with an aspect ratio of 18:9. The screen is touch responsive and offers decent brightness levels. The colors reproduction also seemed good for the price-point. And while the display offers the latest aspect ratio, it is surrounded by broad bezels on top and bottom that makes the overall look and feel rather dated and boring. At first, the handset comes across as a 16:9 aspect ratio device.

Camera: 13MP rear camera and 8MP selfie along with Dual Flash

On the imaging front, the Infinix Smart 2 has a 13MP rear camera plus an 8MP front camera for selfie lovers along with Dual LED flashlight to help you capture images in low light conditions.

The rear camera has various modes such as HDR, Beauty Night, Panorama while the front camera has Bokeh, Beauty, and Wide selfie mode for group selfies.

We tested both the cameras for a brief period and found that the shots showed decent detailing and natural color tones on the 5.45-inch screen. We will evaluate this entry-level handset's imaging abilities in the coming week during our detailed camera review of Smart 2 on GIZBOT.

Processor and RAM :Mediatek processor and 3GB RAM

The smartphone is powered by 1.5GHz quad-core MediaTek 6739 processor paired with 3GB of RAM, now this can be a dealbreaker as competitors such as Infocus Turbo 5 and Lenovo A5 offers 3GB RAM at slightly lower price-point. While the difference is very marginal, it can be a deciding factor in sub Rs. 7,000 price-point for price-conscious consumers.

The smartphones come with 32 GB of storage space which can be further expanded by up to 128GB through a microSD card.

During our short span with the smartphone, we did not face any delay while opening applications and navigating through the user interface.

Battery, Software, and Connectivity

The new smartphone sports a 3,050 mAh non- removable battery which the company claims delivers up to 21 hours of 4G talk time, 81 hours of music playback time, or 21 days of standby time on a single charge.

We will evaluate such claims while reviewing the handset.

On the software front, Infinix Smart 2 comes with the latest Android 8.1 Oreo operating system. It also has an integrated face unlock feature and some inbuilt apps like XClub, XHide, Phone Master, PHX Browser.

The device performed quite well when used for basic tasks like surfing the internet. In our brief interaction with the smartphone, we found that the face unlock feature is quite fast and we didn't find any lag as such.

On the connectivity front it features options like dual-SIM4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, micro USB and GPS + GLONASS.

Verdict

Infinix Smart 2 seems like a decent budget smartphone for users who wants to use two 4G VoLTE SIM cards simultaneously. The front selfie flash and a decent screen can also work in favor of the smartphone. We didn't face any major issue with the smartphone in our brief usage. However, the smartphone is going to face tough competition from other budget handsets from Xiaomi, Honor, Infocus, and Motorola.