Infinix Zero Ultra Review: Is this 200MP phone worth the price tag

Infinix Zero Ultra Review: The Infinix Zero Ultra is the first Infinix smartphone to feature a 180W wired fast charging and a 200MP primary camera sensor. It’s also the first Infinix smartphone to be priced at about $520. While the 200MP camera and 180W fast charging are good upgrades but are the overall value you get from the phone worth the price tag? The truth is, holding the Infinix Zero Ultra in your hand looks and feels premium. But then not all the glitters are actually GOLD.

So, in this Infinix Zero Ultra Review, I’m going to share with you all the cons and pros of the different components of the Infinix Zero Ultra. I’ll explain to you why it’s not worth the price tag and I’ll also share with you better alternative smartphones you can buy. But first, let’s take a good look at all the good things that come with the Infinix Zero Ultra.

Infinix Zero Ultra Review

Infinix Zero Ultra Review: Display, Design, and Durability

The Infinix Zero Ultra has a very nice display and beautiful design. It has a big 6.8-inches AMOLED display that supports a 120Hz refresh rate. The screen can auto-refresh between 60Hz and 120Hz and it’s also curved on the edges. This is why it has very slim bezels and the front screen looks really beautiful and neat.

The back panel is also slightly curved and this makes it feels very comfortable to hold. On the rear, the camera module does not protrude much and it’s located in the upper left corner. The back panel does take a few fingerprints but the design looks really pretty and whichever color of the phone you go for, you’ll really like the design. Infinix Zero Ultra is made of a Glass front, plastic back, and plastic frame. These are not the most expensive materials but the phone looks and feels strong.

A single bend won’t cause damage to the phone and a fall from table height won’t scatter the front screen. The phone has a USB type-C port, microphone, SIM card slot, and a speaker grill on the bottom frame. While the volume rocker and power button are located on the right-hand side of the frame. Sadly there is no 3.5mm headphone jack port but the box of the phone comes with a USB C earpiece and a USB C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter.

The display of the Infinix Zero Ultra produces good colors, the curved screen feels really premium, and the display is very smooth thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate. But, the phone is not very durable as it’s made of cheap materials. The display is not certified to be protected by Gorilla Glass, it’s not water and dustproof even without the 3.5mm headphone jack port. Other $400 phones without a headphone jack port are currently water and dustproof and have displays that are protected by Gorilla Glass.

Infinix Zero Ultra Review: Chipset and Performance

The chipset inside the Infinix Zero Ultra is the new MediaTek Dimensity 920 5G chipset. This 5G chipset is built on a 6nm process technology. It has an Octa-core CPU (8-core processor) that is paired with the ARM Mali-G68 MC4 GPU. The chipset has two performance cores and six efficiency cores. And the performance of the chipset is just decent, not mind-blowing.

First of all, the chipset is power efficient and this is true under heavy use as the phone does not get excessively hot. But, during testing, I noticed that you can play games using high graphics settings with this phone. If you do, the phone drops framerates almost immediately and starts to lag. However, if you set the graphic settings to low or medium, you’ll be able to enjoy playing games like Genshin Impact and Call of Duty without issues.

The performance of the chipset is however smooth when switching between apps. Infinix Mobile tried the Animation and user interaction of the phone and the blend between the XOS 12 and Android 12 software is just very good. For the average daily user, the chipset is more than enough to get all the job done but when you start stressing the chipset when playing graphics-intensive games, then it starts to sweat.

Infinix Zero Ultra Review: Camera

One of the highlight and selling points of the Infinix Zero Ultra is its 200MP primary camera. The 200MP primary camera has an f/2.0 aperture, 0.64µm Dual Pixel PDAF, and OIS stabilization. The primary camera takes very sharp and well-detailed photos but you’ll have to manually activate it as it’s turned off by default. Photos and videos from the 200MP camera are really sharp and retain details.

There is also a 13MP ultra-wide lens, a 2MP macro lens, and a 32MP front camera supporting the primary camera. The 13MP ultra-wide lens has an AutoFocus feature but the quality is not great, especially in low-light conditions. The 32MP front camera is really good, especially in good light conditions. To get good photos from the Infinix Zero Ultra, you need to use the 200MP primary camera most of the time.

The Infinix Zero Ultra can record videos in 4K resolution at 4K@30fps. Some of the available camera features are OIS, Dual-LED flash, HDR, panorama, etc. To get a better shot with the front and back camera, turning off the HDR will help. Maybe Infinix will roll out a software update to address the HDR issue on the cameras. As of the time of writing this review, the HDR on the Infinix Zero Ultra does not improve the photo quality.

Infinix Zero Ultra Review: RAM, Storage, and Software

Infinix Zero Ultra comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The 8GB of RAM is supported by 5GB of virtual RAM making it a total of 13GB of RAM. It has space for storage expansion via a dedicated microSD card slot. The RAM works very well in keeping background apps while the internal storage is big enough to store your files but you can always expand using a microSD card.

Infinix Zero Ultra boots XOS 12 based on Android 12 out of the box and there is no word from Infinix Mobile on how many years of software or security patch the phone will get. So, the phone might be stuck in Android 12 forever or if users are lucky might get one year of a software update. You can download and install apps from the Google Play Store. There are lots of preinstalled software that you might not really need.

The XOS 12 software is bringing some new changes and user interaction. There is a dedicated gaming menu that allocates more CPU cores to games in gaming mode. The user interaction is smooth now and the animation is improved. You can watch this XOS 12 video to know about the software.

Infinix Zero Ultra Review: Battery, Charging, and Features

Another highlight of the Infinix Zero Ultra is its fast charging. The Infinix Zero Ultra is powered by a 4,500mAh battery that supports 180W wired fast charging. Now, the 180W fast charging is no gimmick and a charging test confirmed that the Infinix Zero Ultra can charge from 0 to 100% in 12 minutes and 10 seconds. There is however no wireless charging or reverse wireless charging.

Other features available in the Infinix Zero Ultra are a Fingerprint (under-display, optical), NFC, Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by), FM Radio, microSDXC (dedicated slot), stereo speakers, A-GPS, Google Assistant, etc.

Infinix Zero Ultra Review: Price

The price of the Infinix Zero Ultra 8GB + 256GB is $520. But the price could go as high as $615 in some regions/countries. Note that the price will vary depending on your local retailer and current exchange rate. But is the Infinix Zero Ultra worth the price tag?

Buy Infinix Zero Ultra

Infinix Zero Ultra	Price
Buy on Jumia	₦355,000

Infinix Zero Ultra Review: Conclusion

The Infinix Zero Ultra is not a bad phone. There are so many things to like about this smartphone. It has a colorful, bright, and smooth display, 5G connectivity, a 200MP camera, 180W fast charging, and decent performance. But, it is not water and dustproof, it has no 3.5mm headphone jack, no software update plan, no wireless charging, the screen is not protected by Gorilla Glass, and is quite expensive.

The Infinix Zero Ultra is not worth its price tag because there are cheaper smartphones in the industry that are water and dustproof, have wireless charging support, and have better performance. The Infinix Zero Ultra is good for those who want to quickly charge their smartphone in no time and this will be especially helpful in areas where there is no steady supply of electricity. Aside from that, there are other better and cheaper smartphones in the industry that offer more value for money than the Infinix Zero Ultra.

Infinix Zero Ultra Alternative

The smartphones listed below as alternatives to the Infinix Zero Ultra have wireless charging, are water and dustproof (some have both), are cheaper, and have better performance: