It’s big, ambitious and has a lot of mAh under the hood

Chinese brand Infinix may not be as well known as its other rivals here in the Philippines, but this small upstart mobile company has managed to release several interesting smartphones in the past. Their latest big battery, low price phablet, the Note 4 Pro, managed to impress us with its decent camera performance as well as its long-lasting battery, despite having less than ideal chipset powering it under the hood. With its included cover and pen accessory, the Infinix Note 4 Pro wants to be a noteworthy addition to the budget phablet segment. Does it succeed?

Infinix Note 4 Pro Specs

• 1.3GHz Mediatek octa-core processor
• 3GB of RAM
• 5.7-inch Full HD Sharp display; 1920×1080 resolution
• 32GB of expandable storage
• 13-megapixel rear camera, autofocus, LED flash
• 8-megapixel front camera
• 4G, LTE
• Dual SIM
• WiFi, Bluetooth
• GPS, A-GPS
• Fingerprint Sensor
• 4500mAh Battery with Xcharge 4.0
• Android 7.0 Nougat, XOS 2.3 UI

Premium metal body feels, well, premium

Being the more expensive of Infinix’s Note 4 products, the Note 4 Pro is quite different from the lower-priced Note 4. The most glaring difference? The Note 4 Pro uses a full metal unibody construction, which is quite a step up from the Note 4’s mostly plastic body.

The Note 4 Pro feels weighty and certainly has quite a bit of heft to it, which adds to the premium feel of the device. While it’s not brick-like in its weight (tipping the scales at 208g) you’ll certainly feel it in your pocket as you walk around with it all day.

The overall design of the Note 4 Pro is typical for a device of its size – it has curved edges and rounded corners, which Infinix hopes gives their 5.7-inch device some semblance of ergonomics when used one-handed. The 13-megapixel rear camera has a dual-tone LED flash, though the camera module juts out a few mm from the rear.

On the right side sits the volume and power buttons, along with a dedicated microSD expansion slot. On the left side sits the SIM card tray that supports dual SIMs. Up top is the 3.5mm jack, while on the bottom sits the USB plug and speaker grille.

 

You’ll also see a 3-pin connector on the left side of the phone. This allows the Note 4 Pro to connect to the smart case that came with the review device that Infinix sent to us, which in turn also houses their X-Pen, their own take on the stylus.

The X-Pen is interesting because it allows you to several things with the Note 4 Pro, like write on the screen, take screenshots and doodle, among others, kind of like Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.

And if the name of the stylus wasn’t already a dead giveaway, Infinix is obviously trying to capture the special sauce that Samsung uses with their Note series of devices by allowing users to open additional functions of the X-Pen via “Air Command“, accessible using the buttons on the side of the pen.

There are certain caveats to the X-Pen, as it were. It only works (in our experience) when the smart cover for the Note 4 Pro is attached. It also has its own power supply, which is charged when the pen is placed back in the dock after use. The X-Pen is also not as responsive or as pressure sensitive as Samsung’s offering, which is to be expected.

The Note 4 Pro uses a 5.7-inch full HD IPS display, which is a little bigger than the displays of phones you see in its price range. The display is good enough for what it is and has excellent sunlight legibility all around.

MediaTek MT6753 is good enough for most tasks, but isn’t a screamer

Much like the plastic-clad Note 4, the Note 4 Pro is armed with a MediaTek MT6753 octa-core processor inside. That’s paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage, pretty much what you’d expect from a device like it. It’s not the fastest processor around, but it’s good enough for the Note 4 Pro.

As an aside, the Note 4 Pro runs on Infinix’s own UI overlay dubbed XOS. It adds a few unique features to the fore, and re-skins Android Nougat on the Note 4 Pro. It’s not entirely our cup of tea but it’s functional and easy to use so it’s not all bad.

The Pro in the Note 4 Pro may stand for “Professional”, but you’re fairly limited to the apps you want to run on the phone. Most Android apps will run on the device without any issues, but more demanding games and apps may chug along at less than satisfactory speeds.

Camera is surprisingly good for what it is

When it comes to budget devices and image quality, we usually don’t expect a lot from budget devices. That’s why we were pleasantly surprised with the photos taken with the Note 4 Pro – images came out sharp, well-defined with lots of detail.

The only thing we take issue with is the apparent loss of fidelity when shooting in low-light situations, though that’s not as big of a problem on the Note 4 Pro compared to other devices in the same price bracket.

Pretty great battery

The Note 4 Pro has a rather massive battery in it – 4500mAh – which gives it phenomenal endurance. Coupled with a power-efficient processor, the Note 4 Pro has the legs to go far on a single charge. We recorded around two days of useful battery life on a single charge, and that’s with a lot of use in Shenzen and Beijing with LTE on.

And unlike other phones with a big battery, the Note 4 Pro has fast charging tech built-in. Dubbed XCharge 4.0, the Note 4 Pro gets filled up in around an hour once it’s plugged in the socket.

Verdict: A solid big battery phablet that has a surprisingly great battery

At Php 11,990, the Infinix Note 4 Pro might be a little too expensive for people looking for a budget phablet. But we’ve been pleasantly surprised with the value that the Note 4 Pro gave us, specifically in the camera and battery department.

We’re still not convinced with the stylus accessory (ask any Galaxy Note owner if they regularly use theirs), but it at least gives people a useful accessory if they invest the time to learn its ins and outs.

If you’re looking for a budget big-screen phone that looks and feels premium, then the Infinix Note 4 Pro may just be in the cards.