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Infinix Note 40 Pro Review – Best Budget Phone of 2024?

The Infinix Note 40 Pro and Note 40 are the newest additions to the Note Series. From the pricing of both phones, they seem to offer a lot of value for money around N396,900 to N327,900 respectively. I’ve had both phones for almost a week now and it looks like you wont be missing out on a lot if you go for the Note 40 except for some design changes that make the Note 40 Pro feel more premium. They share similar features and specs except in few areas where the Note 40 Pro is ahead. 

Also, these are the only budget phones with wireless charging so far this year. Well, let’s review the Note 40 Pro because it’s the star of the show and also highlights the Note 40 in some aspects.

Infinix Note 40 Pro Unboxing

First, your eyes are drawn to the star of the show: the Infinix Note 40 Pro itself. With its large vibrant display and slim profile, it’s an instant attention-grabber.

Next, nestled snugly beside the phone, is a luxurious Leather Case, designed not only to protect your device but also to support Magcharge, ensuring seamless compatibility with magnetic accessories.

Peeling back the layers, you uncover a Screen Protector, a crucial shield against scratches and smudges, ensuring your display stays pristine.

But the surprises don’t end there. Beneath the phone lies a Wireless Charging Pad, promising the convenience of cable-free power-ups for your Note 40 Pro. Digging deeper into the box, you unveil a 70-watt fast charger, a powerhouse capable of juicing up your device in record time, ensuring you’re always ready to go.

And what’s a cutting-edge device without premium audio? Infinix has you covered with a set of Earpieces, delivering crisp sound quality for your listening pleasure.

Last but not least, a USB-C Cable completes the ensemble, offering versatile connectivity options for all your charging and data transfer needs.

While brands are cutting down on what they give in the box when you buy a new phone, Infinix is going all out giving you more accessories. I have never seen so many accessories in the box of a phone, you don’t need to spend extra on accessories.

Design

The Note 40 Pro has a curve at the back, and that makes it more comfortable in the hand. Because of its form factor, it is also one of the lightest phones out there. The Infinix Note 40 on the other hand has a flat back with a boxy design and some people love that form factor. You are getting the same camera cut-out at the back of both phones, but the Note 40 Pro has a halo light around the flashlight area. It glows up when there are notifications, calls, and music playing on the phone.

It can be customized in the settings, and it is not available on the Note 40. The colour of the Note 40 Pro I have is called tian gold, it has a glass finish but when you feel it closely,  it feels like a ceramic back. You also get an IR blaster on the top of the Note 40 Pro and you can use it to control electronics. You don’t get the IR Blaster on the Note 40. The stereo speakers sound good, and they were tuned in collaboration with JBL. They both have a dual 4G SIM card slot, but there is no slot for memory expansion. As far as design and build quality are concerned, they are unique in their way. Both phones also have an IP54 water splash and dust resistance rating. There isn’t any creaking or moving parts in both phones.

Display Aspect

The Infinix Note 40 Pro has a 6.78-inch Curved AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. We have the same display type on the Note 40, but it is a flat display. You get an optical under-display fingerprint scanner on both phones and they are relatively fast. You can stream YouTube videos at up to 2K resolution and colors pop while watching content. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both phones. I handed the phone to people around me and they appreciated how bright and colourful it gets. 

It maxes out at 1300 nits outdoors making it very visible, but you have to turn on auto brightness to get that level of visibility. The refresh rate makes scrolling smooth and it also makes gaming more enjoyable. Both displays have over 1500Hz touch sampling rate which means the moment you tap on the screen it registers touches instantly. The bezels around the display are minimal at almost 90% screen-to-body ratio. In terms of display, they are both bright and responsive to touch. The only difference is that one is flat and the other is curved.

Software & Performance Aspect

The Infinix Note 40 Pro is running on Android 14 with XOS 14 on top as the user interface. The exciting news is that Infinix has promised two years of software updates on the Note 40 series. You will get up to Android 16 on both phones. I have used the phones for a while now but I haven’t seen any ads which is impressive. You still get some preinstalled apps but most of them can be removed. 

There are a lot of features in the settings and you can customize the phone to your taste. Both phones can do floating windows and split screen using apps that support the feature. You can clone apps or even hide them in the phone. The phone supports gesture navigation or three buttons, and on the home screen you can swipe and hold from the right for a quick menu where you can select some important apps and save them. The RAM can be increased from 8GB to 16GB using some storage space on the phone. There are some refined things in the settings like the status bar. You can decide to hide the battery percentage on the phone and a lot of other things.

The Phone is powered by the MediaTek Helio G99 Ultimate which is a refined version of the Helio G99. Performance has been great so far and I even loaded the new Call of duty mobile: warzone on the Note 40 and it played the game. Apps open up swiftly and you can also multitask with ease. I opened up multiple apps and they still kept running in the background. Performance is close when you compare both phones.

Camera Test & Review

Both phones have the same set of cameras a 108MP primary camera, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. The primary 108MP lens produces some decent images with a lot of details and sharpness. 

You can also zoom up to 10x using the 108MP option in the camera app. The macro lens is quite good but it needs a lot of lighting. To get good macro shots you can also zoom in with the 108MP lens and get close up for more details. 

Portrait mode is impressive and you can see the background blur. You can also play with the f-stop to get more blur in the background. 

The 32MP selfie is impressive and you get details in areas with good light. The noise is evident when in an area with low light, but if you use night mode it will be better. Night mode also works with the rear camera and it improves images at night. You can shoot 2K videos with the front and back cameras. Overall the camera is impressive and it can stand up to most of the phones it is competing with.

Battery Life & Charging Speed

The Battery on both phones is 5000mAh and battery life is impressive on both devices. You can get a whole day’s battery life on the phones and even two days depending on how you use them. The Infinix Note 40 Pro supports 70 watt fast charging speed and it takes around 40 minutes to charge from zero to a hundred. The Note 40 supports 40 watts fast charging and it takes around an hour to charge from zero to a hundred. Infinix built a custom chipset which is the Cheetah X1 chipset and it acts as the brain of the phone while charging. It keeps the temperature of the phone in balance while charging to avoid overcharging. The chip also uses some AI features for intelligent charging depending on the time you are charging it. Both phones support wireless charging and they can also charge other phones using reverse wireless charging or a USB C cable.

Rounding Up

The Infinix Note 40 Pro is the only phone within its price category with wireless charging. It also has a good camera and design to back it up. The Note 40 isn’t far apart in case your budget isn’t up to N396,900. It is only missing out on some features reserved for the pro phone. in case you have any questions feel free to ask in the comment section and see you in my next review article.

Damilare
Damilare
CEO Marvnic Media-owner of Phonecorridor and other media platforms in Nigeria. I am a digital marketing professional with over 6 years of experience. I love gadgets, cars, and smartphones. My current smartphone is the Google Pixel 6 Pro. I hope to buy Tesla Car soon