Infinix has further expanded its mid-range portfolio with the launch of Infinix S4 smartphone in India. Priced at Rs 8,999, the phone is available for purchase on Flipkart. Additionally, the company has also unveiled the Infinix X Band 3 fitness tracker. For a price of Rs. 1,599, the band brings in colour LED display, heart rate tracking, BP, steps, smart reminders and more.
Notably, the Infinix S4 carries triple rear cameras, a 32MP AI selfie camera and a massive 4,000mAh battery as its significant highlights. That said, is it worthy enough to the best mid-range smartphone in India? Let’s check that out in our detailed review.
Design & Display
Infinix S4 comes with a sleek design profile and doesn’t look cheap by any means. Notably, the polycarbonate back comes with a glossy finish, offering a premium appeal in the segment.
The phone flaunts a vertically stacked pair of triple cameras at the rear, accompanied by an LED flash module. The camera placement itself adds to the design of the handset. Furthermore, there’s a squircle-shaped fingerprint scanner at the centre, followed by Infinix branding.
Coming to the front, the Infinix S4 gets a water-drop notched display, similar to other phones in this bracket. You’ll find the volume rockers and power button at the right whereas the left houses a dual-SIM and microSD card slot. The micro USB port, a speaker grille, and a 3.5mm audio jack are present at the bottom of the frame. The phone is comfortable to hold and is suitable for one hand usage. Lastly, it measures 156 x 75 x 7.9 and is quite lightweight at 153 grams.
While talking about the display, Infinix S4 flaunts a 6.2-inch HD+ display with a resolution of 720 x 1520 pixel and 2.5D curved glass on top. The water drop notch allows for an aspect ratio of 18:9.
The panel’s brightness maxes out at 500nits, making it adequate for day to day use. In our usage, the auto-brightness worked well, and with excellent viewing angles, the panel was apt for media consumption on-the-go.
Performance & Software
As for the internals, the handset is powered by MediaTek Helio P22 processor clocked at 2.0 GHz, along with PowerVR GE8320 GPU. It further incorporates 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. Note that the room can be further expanded up to 256GB via microSD card slot.
The phone ran smoothly for most of the part. We didn’t face any issues while flicking through the UI, switching into apps or playing with the camera. However, it’s too early to comment on how the phone will perform in regular use.
On the software front, the phone runs Android 9.0 Pie with the company’s custom UI XOS Cheetah version 5.0 on top. The customizable UI comes with little quirks here and there to aid user experience. Also, it does have an app drawer with quick shortcuts and gestures.
The UI is equipped with nifty modes including Eye Care, Bike Mode, Game Boost, Read Mode, WhatsApp mode, and more to improve the experience. The phone comes with several third-party bloatware apps which can be uninstalled in the settings. However, you won’t be allowed to remove company-owned apps like XTheme, XClub, and Phone Master.
The Infinix S4 also comes with a face unlock feature in addition to fingerprint scanning. Both the fingerprint and face unlock features are capable enough to unlock the phone in seconds.
Camera
Just like the Infinix Smart 3 Plus, the company has managed to give triple rear cameras on Infinix S4. The module comprises of a 13MP primary sensor with f/1.8 aperture, a 2MP depth sensor and an 8MP wide-angle camera with a 120-degree field of view along with a dual-toned quad LED flash. The camera app boasts of different modes like video, AI cam, beauty, bokeh, and AR shot.
As for the performance, the images turn out to be on par with other mid-range smartphones in our initial testing. The shots were clean and sharp for our liking.
Coming to the front, the phone gets a 32MP AI camera sensor for selfies. The 4-in-1 Ultra pixel technology creates 1.6μm pixels for better performance in low light. As of daylight, the selfie camera produces ready to post pictures with an ample amount of details and colours. This one too gets AI features like AI CAM, AR Shot, and Beauty Mode. That said, we need to test the cameras in different situations and lighting conditions to give a final verdict.
Battery & Connectivity
The 4,000mAH battery on the Infinix S4 will easily get you through a day on medium to heavy usage. On the connectivity front, the handset supports 4G VoLTE, WiFi, GPS/A-GPS, Bluetooth v5.0, FM radio, besides a 3.5 mm audio jack and a micro USB port.
Final Thoughts
With a 32MP selfie camera and a wide-angle rear camera, Infinix S4 turns out to be a compelling option for Rs. 8,999. A massive 4,000mAh battery is like icing on the cake. More importantly, the phone looks premium with its glossy rear panel and water-drop notched display. That said, if you’re not a hard-core gamer and need an overall package, you can surely consider Infinix S4 in the mid-range segment.
