The Infinix Hot 3: Will it be a hit or a miss?



Infinix Hot 3

I’ve been closely following the Infinix Hot series right from the Infinix Hot X507 which was launched towards the end of 2014, to the Infinix Hot 2 X510 launched around August 2015 and now the Infinix Hot 3 X5?? available for pre-order in March 2016. Lets take a step back to look at some things that have changed down the Hot series.

SpecsInfinix Hot X507Infinix Hot 2 X510
2G / 3GYesYes
4GNoYes (the LTE variant)
SIMDual miniDual mini
Dimensions142.4 x 73.2 x 10.1 mm71.86 x 145 x 8.8 mm
Screen Size5.0 inches, 480 x 854 pixels5.0 inches, 720 x 1280 pixels
Card slotMicroSD, up to 32GBMicroSD, up to 32GB
Internal16GB16GB
OSAndroid 4.4.2 KitKatAndroid 5.1.1 Lollipop
RAM1GB1 or 2 GB
Processors1.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU, MediaTek MT6582 chipset, Mali-400MP2 GPU1.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU, MediaTek MT6582 chipset, Mali-400MP2 GPU
Wi-Fi & BluetoothYesYes
Camera2MP front; 5MP back2MP front; 8MP back
Battery2000mAh Li-Ion battery2200mAh Li-Ion battery
Launch price~₦12,900 – ₦14,900~ ₦17,500 – ₦21,500
Current priceClick HereClick Here

From the table above, you can see that strategic upgrades like 4G (Only in the Infinix Hot 2 X510 LTE variant), Screen resolution, RAM, Android version, Camera and Battery were made from the Hot X507 to the Hot 2 X510.

Infinix has made quite some improvements down the Hot line (performance-wise ) but it would appear they’ve deliberately left some voids unfilled. The battery life -for one- remains terrible accompanied by serious overheating. If you’ve ever received a more than 4 minutes call with your X507 or X510 to your ear then you would understand what i’m talking about. If the idea of the Infinix Hot series is to keep it hot then I would be first in line for an Infinix Not-So-Hot.

What has Infinix done right with the Hot series?

I must commend Infinix for creating a forum (X’Club) where their users can interact, drop opinions and get solutions. They pretty well appeal to the younger generation who want to get the most out of their devices via Mods and timely upgrades. They’ve also been forthcoming with Over The Air (OTA) Updates and version upgrades for a good number of their devices like the Hot 2 X510, Note 2 X600, Note & Note pro X551, Zero X506, Zero 2 X509, Hot X507 etc compared to the likes of the rival Tecno who seem pretty ‘comfy’ with bug fixes and are yet to roll out a single version upgrade to date. The Infinix Hot series has so far matured a little in terms of performance, especially with the Hot 2 X510 (running on Androidone OS) against the Hot X507. The Hot 2 X510 also has a more resilient screen. My Hot 2 has suffered several hard falls with nothing more than a little chip to remember them. I wouldn’t have been so lucky with the Hot X507 or even the Zero X506.

What has Infinix done wrong with the Hot series?

Quite a lot sadly.

Battery time

: The battery life -for one- hasn’t improved significantly. There’s also the constant overheating which isn’t funny. My Infinix Hot 2 has (on several occasions) auto-shutdown in the middle of important tasks due to overheating; similar experience with the X507.

Picture quality

: The picture quality remains somewhat disappointing. My Gionee M2 knocks out my Infinix Hot 2  flawlessly here!

Updates

: The version upgrades / updates are often so buggy that one might be forced to downgrade to the previous (stable) version. The XUI ROMs seem to be more stable.

Variants

:  You can imagine my shock when I learnt that there was an LTE variant of my Hot 2 X510 (A Moroccan member brought this to our attention). The issue of several variants for the same Infinix phone model is quite unsettling since flashing the wrong variant’s firmware to your phone could either brick it or cause it to go totally dead and require a MotherBoard jumper like for a totally dead Infinix Note 2 X600.

What is different about the Infinix Hot 3?

So far, what we know is that it has:

  • An 84° wide-angle shooting range with a 2MP front camera. I’m much more interested in the picture quality of this 2MP camera than how many people can appear in my Selfies. If I need more people to appear then I’ll just get a Selfie stick.
  • An 8MP back camera which utilizes OV8865 sensor and 5-element lens camera; quite promising, would like to take this for a spin.
  • A 16GB ROM and a 1 or 2GB RAM; not an upgrade from the Hot 2 X510 but lets hope RAM optimization is better.
  • A 5.5 inch screen; who doesn’t love a larger screen?
  • A 3000mAh battery. I’m not a freak of huge battery capacities, I would pick increased battery optimization over increased battery capacity (All things being equal).
  • Noise cancellation: This is a good addition for those who find themselves constantly in noisy areas. I already have a Jabra Wave headset to do this for me but it would still be nice to have this.

Infinix Hot 3 Spec Predictions

I expect the Hot 3 to be powered by a MediaTek MT6582 chipset just like the X507 and X510, with clock speed at or just a little above 1.3. It ought to ship with Android 6 (Marshmallow)  and 4G LTE support. I expect it to go for less than ₦28,500.

We don’t know the launch price yet and will keep you posted.

Would you rock the Infinix Hot 3? We would love to know.

Hovatek….just a button away!



4 thoughts on “The Infinix Hot 3: Will it be a hit or a miss?”

  1. The spec. is not that much diff to hot 2.so i wil miss it.i will like to check another manufacturer like Gionee

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