Infinix NOTE 10 Pro Review - Powerhouse on a budget?

We share our experience with the new Infinix NOTE 10 Pro after a week of use as our daily driver.

Infinix Note 10 Pro

Announced in early August, the new Infinix NOTE 10 series have finally arrived in the Philippines with a slightly different processor.

To recap, the Infinix NOTE 10 Pro features a 6.95 inch IPS display with a 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, and 2460 x 1080 resolution. Inside is the 12nm MediaTek Helio G90T octa-core processor instead of the global version's Helio G95. It has 8GB RAM, 128GB UFS 2.2, and a 5,000mAh battery with 33W X-Charge.

In the Philippines, it is priced at just PHP 9,990.

Let's dive in!

Unboxing and Accessories

Box inclusions

It comes in the Infinix signature box with different shades of green, Infinix branding, key features, specs, and regulatory information.

Box inclusions

Inside the box is the NOTE 10 Pro, Silicone bumper case, 33W X-Charge wall adapter, USB Type-A to Type-C cable, and documentation.

We applaud Infinix for including a wall charger and silicone case inside the box. It would have been even better if the box included earphones as well but at its price and specs, we can't complain.

Build Quality/Design

Rear panel design

The NOTE 10 Pro is made of a front glass panel, polycarbonate frame, and glasstic back. There is no mention of Gorilla Glass protection. It doesn't have an IP rating, but the phone has a red gasket on the SIM tray that suggests it has some sort of water resistance.

SIM tray with gasket

The SIM tray can carry up to two nano-SIM cards and one microSD card.

Display panel

What stands out from the NOTE 10 Pro is the dual-tone design at the back that is made of a combination of a shiny glossy surface and a shiny glossy surface but with white lines that are split in the middle.

Neat dual-tone design!

In front of the phone is the display with a curved glass panel. Around the panel are the slim top and side bezels. The chin bezel is slightly thicker. That's understandable for the price.

On the top bezel is the slim slit for the earpiece and below it is the punch hole for the selfie camera.

Top and bottom

On top of the phone is a smooth glossy surface while at the bottom is the speaker grille, USB-C port, microphone port, and 3.5mm headphone jack.

Audio jacks are increasingly becoming rare and it is a great sight to see that Infinix choosing to go against the trend.

Left and right

On the right side of the phone is the SIM tray while on the left side of the phone are the volume rocker and the power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

The phone measures 172.76 x 78.32 x 7.8 mm and is easier to hold because of the curved polycarbonate frame and curved back glass panel.

Multimedia Experience

Display panel with punch hole

As mentioned above, the phone features a MASSIVE 6.95-inch curved IPS display with a 90Hz refresh rate, a 180Hz touch sampling rate, and 2460 x 1080 resolution. Images produced have good color and good detail. 1080p at 90Hz is super rare at this price point.h

The panel isn't as bright as we would like but given its size and specs at its price, this is okay.

1080p 90Hz screen under PHP 10K!

It supports 10-points of multitouch that are responsive, accurate, and quick. We did not notice a delay, misread taps, or gestures.

The single bottom-firing speakers produce sound with decent maximum volume. At 80 percent, the sound is full, clear, and pleasing to the ear. At maximum volume, the audio becomes tingy and somewhat distorted.

The microphone recording of the Infinix NOTE 10 Pro is decent up to a meter away from the phone. The noise cancellation is decent enough that our callers never complained about voice quality.

Cameras

Rear camera

At the back of the NOTE 10 Pro is the rear camera setup made up of a 64MP, 8MP ultra-wide-angle, 2MP monochrome camera, 2MP portrait camera with Quad Flash Light.

The stock camera app comes with the following modes: AI Cam, Beauty, Video, Short Video, Portrait, Super Night, AR shot, Slow Motion, Pro, Panorama, Documents, Super Macro and Time-Lapse.

The PRO mode allows for control of ISO (100-6400), Shutter Speed (1/1000 to 30 secs), White Balance, exposure compensation (+-2 stops), metering (hybrid, single, average), and focus. PRO mode is only available for the main camera.

Rear Camera Samples

Rear camera daylight 1x

Rear camera daylight 2x

Rear camera daylight ultra-wide

In daylight, the images from the ultra-wide, 1x, and 2x cameras produced sharped and detailed images with washed-out color. It is also worth noting that the phone wasn't able to control the exposure of the sky and was blown out.

Rear camera indoors 1x

Rear camera indoors 2x

Rear camera indoors ultra-wide

Indoors, the ultra-wide, 1x, and 2x managed to produce sharp and detailed images with decent color. 

Rear camera low light 1x

Rear camera low light 2x

Rear camera low light ultra-wide

In low light, the 1x, and 2x images are impressive. Images from the 1x and 2x are sharp and vibrant while the ultra-wide images are soft and blurry.

Night Mode

Night mode is available only for the main cameras. The resulting image is brighter, more vibrant, and more detailed. In fact, a lot of shadows and highlights were recovered. Impressive Night mode. 

Front-facing camera

On the punch hole is a 16MP selfie camera. The stock camera app can use AI Cam, Video, Short Video, Super Night, and Portrait.

Selfie Camera Samples

Selfie daylight

Selfie indoors

Selfie low light

Selfie Night mode

The front-facing camera is able to produce sharp and vibrant selfies in daylight, and indoors. It struggled with noise and in color reproduction in low light. The Night mode selfie was able to fix the concerns with the low light selfie in Auto. The resulting Night mode selfie is brighter, more detailed, and more vibrant.

The rear can capture up to 4K at 30fps and 1080p 60fps without stabilization or up to 1080p 30fps with stabilization. Users can switch between the ultra-wide, 1x, and 2x cameras in both photo and video modes. While the front-facing camera can capture up to 4K at 30fps without stabilization and at 1080p at 30fps with stabilization. 

Note: We will upload our video samples here. Stay tuned!

Performance

AnTuTu and GeekBench

The 12nm MediaTek Helio G90T managed to score 363,464 in AnTuTu, 506 in GeekBench single-core tests, and 1646 in GeekBench multi-core tests.

The PH variant of the NOTE 10 Pro uses the Helio G90T while its international variant is packed with the speedier Helio G95.

Helio G90T is very fast for an under PHP 10K smartphone!

Temperatures during the run were decently controlled with a 5.3-degree Celsius increase while the battery drain was significant at 4 percent. This could mean that the Infinix NOTE 10 Pro could be decent in temperature control.

3DMark and CDPT

In the 3DMark Wild Life benchmark, the phone managed an impressive 1504 overall score and an average frame rate of 9 fps.

While the internal storage managed to get a result of 300.29 MB/s in sequential write speeds and a score of 339.43 in sequential read speeds. These scores are impressive at this price point. Good job NOTE 10 Pro!

Genshin Impact

The Helio G90T is powerful and was able to get Medium settings as the default in Genshin Impact. We also managed to play on the lowest with 60fps.

Either graphics settings are smooth and playable. Temperature after an hour of play is okay. It got warm but we think the phone may get uncomfortably hot after a couple hours of play.

Call-of-Duty: Mobile

In the latest version of Call of Duty: Mobile, the Helio G90T managed to unlock the Max Frame Rate setting and the Very High graphics setting. This is impressive as we've seen higher-priced phones who can't even unlock the Max Frame rate and Very High Graphics setting.

It has both face unlock and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. Both are prompted to be set up after the initial startup of the phone. Both the Face Unlock and Fingerprint scanning are instantaneous and accurate 9 out of 10 times. Because of the current situation where masks are required, we mostly used the fingerprint scanner more often. In darker environments, the display can brighten up to aid in the face unlock procedure. 

Aside from that, the phone also features OTG that runs as expected. The WiFi, Bluetooth, and LTE connections are stable. While the GPS acquires the current location immediately and accurately.

PCMark Battery benchmark and Battery usage

Inside the phone is a 5,000mAh battery with 33W X-Charge fast charging via USB-C. The charging brick is a thicc-boi. There is no wireless charging support. 

In our usual PCMark battery benchmark, the NOTE 10 Pro managed to endure 8 hours and 24 minutes of the test. This is a surprise given that it has a large 5,000mAh capacity. In theory, this battery should be longer. Is it an optimization issue?

In our real-world use, where we would be doing our routine tasks where we use the phone to call, text, web surf, e-mail, stream music, and video, play games, and navigate with Waze. 

The phone managed to last a day with 10 to 15 percent of battery left after a 12-hour workday. In one of our heavy workdays, we managed to reach over 7 hours of a continuous loop of YouTube with 18 percent left.

It takes a little above 60 minutes to charge the phone from 0 to 100 percent with the included 33W X-Charge fast charger.

XOS 7.6 based on Android 11

For software, it is running on the latest Android 11-based XOS 7.6 on top.  Like recent versions of the XOS from the HOT 10 series, we like the unique look and take on Android. It is quick, snappy, and responsive.

Our biggest gripe is that there is a ton of bloatware pre-installed. You can uninstall or disable them at the initial set-up tho. This adds to the set-up time but once uninstalled, the experience improves even more.

To no one's surprise, the Helio G90T blazes thru the XOS 7.6. Navigating thru the OS and opening or switching between apps is near-instantaneous. Don't expect it to be as fast as a flagship, but it is more than fast enough for most people.

Pros - Premium-looking design with eye-catching back design, lightweight, powerful performance for the price, 33W charging is fast, impressive night mode

Cons - Ton of bloatware, battery optimization can be improved, the ultra-wide camera struggles heavily in low light

Infinix NOTE 10 Pro Specs

Display: 6.95-inch 2.5D curved LCD (IPS) screen w/ 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, FHD+ 2460 x 1080 resolution at 387 ppi

CPU: 2.05GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio G90T octa-core processor

GPU: Mali-G76 3EEMC4 (800MHz)

RAM: 8GB

ROM: 128GB UFS 2.2 expandable via microSD card slot up to 2TB (dedicated)

Back Camera: 64MP + 8MP ultra-wide-angle + 2MP mono + 2MP portrait + Quad Flash Light

Selfie Camera: 16MP

Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 33W X-Charge

OS: Android 11 w/ XOS 7.6

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth, NFC (optional), OTG, FM Radio, GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, face unlock, stereo speakers, DTS audio, USB-C, Colors: 95°Black, Nordic Secret, 7°Purple 

Dimensions: 172.76 x 78.32 x 7.8 mm

Price: PHP 9,990

Verdict

Infinix Note 10 Pro

The Infinix NOTE 10 Pro is a powerful phone with an eye-catching design. It has powerful specs and performance but could with software to make it even better.

In our experience, the camera images are mostly sharp and detailed but there were times where the results were inconsistent in color. Only the rear Ultra-wide camera and the selfie camera struggled in low light. The Night mode is impressive. We also found that the battery drain was immense which could be optimized.

One last nitpick is that the display is good because of its responsiveness and the 90Hz refresh rate but we would like it to be brighter.

All of our concerns can be fixed with a firmware update. Hopefully, Infinix can release support soon.

BUT, at only PHP 9,990, we can forgive those nitpicks as you will find very little competition for its price to performance ratio.

What do you guys think?

Build/Design - 4.25
Multimedia Experience - 4
Cameras - 4
Performance - 4.25
Average - 4/5