Infinix Zero 5 was launched in December of 2017, a flagship device with high end specifications expected to take on other flagship counterparts from various OEMs. One of the impressive feature is the 6GB RAM which was met with surprises from fans and customers of Infinix, one thing that came to mind then was the fact that we may just say bye bye to the frequent hanging exhibited by devices when the RAM space is almost exhausted.
The Camera was also touted as one of the best in the market, especially for portrait photos delivered by the 12MP and 13MP dual cameras behind the device. In the first impression article posted a day after the launch, I mentioned that we are trying out the camera to know if it truly performs as touted by Infinix, moreover many devices with 2GB RAM are plagued with slowing down, hanging, few months into use, hence the reason for coming up with a “One month after” article to let you know how the device is performing.
Camera
Picture lovers and those who live for the ‘gram’ will find the camera very useful as it may just be their best feature, I also share that sentiment going by my experience and over a month of experimenting with the camera. Five camera modes are present on the camera, they include Beauty, Panorama, Night, Portrait, Time Lapse mode and professional mode… Yeah you read that correctly, you can do a time lapse video on the Infinix Zero 5.
Try out the portrait mode and you will probably almost adopt it for all your pictures, photo comes out like it was taken with a DSLR camera. Photo come out bright, sharp and look natural depending on how bright the lighting condition, however low light affects the dual camera function.
See below a picture taken with the portrait mode on the dual camera of the Infinix Zero 5 pro:
Images in portrait mode have blurred out background with focus on the subject. A Refocus feature can be applied on the picture where adjustment can be made to sharpen the blurred background. You can also focus on any part of the picture you want.
The pictures taken with the front camera were over exposed; apparently this was fixed after a software OTA update.
The Bokeh mode on the front camera also does same thing as the portrait mode on the back camera but images taken with the Bookeh mode still have poor finishing as a part of the subject in the picture gets blurred out. This is yet to be fixed even in the most recent software update.
There is a professional mode where you can adjust ISO, White Balance and tweak other camera settings just like you have on a professional camera.
Battery power still intact
The 4,350mAh is capable of providing power all day long even if you are a slightly heavy user. Battery is sufficient enough to handle battery draining task such as playing games, watching videos and continuous chats via social media platform.
It is important to mention that a continuous game play on the device will reduce battery quality over time. After I played Brutal Fighter game during continuously for the week, I observed the rate at which the battery drains under normal usage afterwards increased but not in a bad way. I still get a full day on normal use.
The phone is also fitted with a fast charging feature which allows the phone charge up quickly within a short period of time, compared with other phones with regular charge time so juicing up the battery quickly isn’t a worry.
Great performance but ridden with software glitches
With every OTA update, there is always an optimization and improvement in software, UI and performance. The most recent update improved the speed of the device feel of the XOS making it look slimmer and giving it a nice smooth feel. Launching and switching between apps still remains fast without lag. There were only two recorded incidence of phone hanging which was resolved by a simple hard reset.
The 6GB RAM is impressive alongside an effective RAM management. Over time, I have only maxed out 3.6GB RAM on usage and at the point where I opened many apps and games, I began to noticed slight delay in launching apps. Things began to slow down but upon installing most recent update (Fourth OTA update), RAM management improved, speed increased and everything became normal.
The Zero 5 also handles and renders HD games such as Brutal Fighter: Gods of War among other games smoothly, game play is excellent without drag, colours and graphic display were great. If there is an interruption during game play and you go back, you continue without having to restart.
One major software problem on the Zero 5 is that saved contacts overlap and everything gets confusing and pretty messed up. If a call comes in from a saved number, it sometimes pulls up the name of another person or it combines two different names. Simply do quick search for a contact from the search field, the result will include the real contact, contact name linked with another number and/or a combination of two or three contact names.
The software glitch is explained thus: Let’s say I saved a number 12345 as Prince, save 56789 as Jane and then save 98765 as Mark, a search for the name Prince will sometime pull up Prince with number 12345, another Prince with number 56789 and/or a combination of “Prince Mark” with another phone number. Huh!! I guess you are just left confused as I am. Arrgghhhh!!!!!!
So it is fair to say that the overall performance after a month has been impressive, battery is great, impressive display, solid hardware except for the software glitch which I see as major and expected to be fixed after series of updates but still persist. Did I mention that there is still no lock screen notification even after more than three updates?
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Software Issues?? Again???
So……..a “don’t buy” then?
Thanks & appreciate the review. The decision to buy/not buy has been driving me really crazy for weeks – currently using the Infinix Note 3 & based on my experience with it (freezing, LAGS, occasional reboots, ignores simple tasks & executions, heats up, crash, etc) less than a year after purchase (as well as experience with 9 other Infinix phones before the Note 3) I’d decided it would be my last.
But then the 64GB RAM/ 128GB ROM on the Infinix Zero 5 PRO intrigued me & gave me hope that my bad run with Infinix devices was about to end – till this review.
I’m out. No more.
Please – recommendations within this price range & specs of phones/phablets/tablets available in-country now that will enable me make a better informed decision?
Cheers.