Infinix Note 40 5G Review: A Noteworthy Budget Phone

Infinix isn’t the first brand you would think of when buying a budget or mid-range smartphone online. However, the company has a good offline presence and makes a number of phones that cater to the budget and mid-range segment. The new Infinix Note 40 5G, launched in India late last month, is a budget phone that offers features like wireless charging, which is a first for this price segment. While it may not have the brand value, it offers a lot for the price.

After using the phone for about a week, here’s why I think the Infinix Note 40 is something you should consider adding to your shopping list. The phone has a lot to offer, but it does have a few drawbacks. It’s available in a single variant in India with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, priced at Rs 19,999.

Infinix Note 40 5G Design: Rectangular plate

• Active Halo Lighting
• Weighs 185 grams
• Colors – Titan Gold and Obsidian Black

The Infinix Note 40 has an all-plastic build, with a matte back panel with a glossy finish, and a slightly glossy bezel that’s prone to fingerprints. A rectangular plate protrudes from the top right corner of the back panel, housing the camera sensors and Active Halo Lighting. Since this plate covers most of the top of the back, it prevents the phone from wobbling when it’s lying on its back.

The plastic, glossy frame attracts a lot of fingerprints

Up front, you’ll find a large display with thin bezels and tapered sides. On the right, you’ll find the volume and power buttons, on the left, the SIM tray, microphone, and IR blaster at the top, and at the bottom, another microphone, speaker, and USB Type-C port. There’s also a flash on the front in the top right corner for nighttime selfies.

The phone weighs 185 grams, is 7.91 mm thick, and has an IP53 rating. Overall, the Infinix Note 40 has a great design for a budget phone. However, I didn’t like how the glossy plastic frame felt in my hand.

Infinix Note 40 5G Display: Big enough and bright

• 6.78-inch LTPS AMOLED panel
• Refresh rate 120Hz
• Screen-to-body ratio of 93.8 percent

You’ll love the 6.78-inch screen of the Infinix Note 40 if you like big displays with thin bezels. The company has managed to achieve thin and symmetrical bezels on the top and sides, and the phone boasts of a 93.8 percent screen-to-body ratio. While you don’t get Gorilla Glass protection on the panel, you do get tempered glass in the box.

The panel offers a refresh rate of 120 Hz and has thin frames all around

The phone has an LTPS AMOLED panel that supports a 120Hz refresh rate, Full HD+ resolution, 1300 nits of brightness, and 240Hz touch response. It also covers 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut and is TUV Rheinland Eye Care certified.

The display is very bright indoors and works well even in direct sunlight. The colors on the panel are vibrant, and the viewing angles are pretty good. You have two color modes, Original and Bright, with the latter offering slightly more vibrant colors. There’s also a High brightness mode and an Ultra Touch feature that’s supposed to improve touch sensitivity. This is a good display for watching content and gaming.

The fingerprint reader on the Infinix Note 40 5G works fine most of the time

You also get an in-display fingerprint scanner placed at the very bottom, which can be a bit awkward to access. During my time with the phone, the fingerprint sensor worked well most of the time. However, there were also times when it took a few tries to unlock the phone.

Infinix Note 40 5G Software: Mostly Clean

• XOS based on Android 14
• 2 years of Android OS updates
• Less unnecessary software

The Infinix Note 40 runs Android 14-based XOS out of the box and doesn’t have much bloatware. The phone comes with a few pre-installed apps, but no ads. You can also uninstall all the pre-installed apps. The Infinix XOS also has features like Dynamic Bar, which displays notifications around the notch on the display. It also has Floating Windows, MemFusion for RAM expansion, Game Mode with an app called XArena, XClone to let you use two apps, and Kids Mode.

You get Android 14 right out of the box

There is also the Folax voice assistant, which is like Google Assistant and lets you set reminder alarms, answer queries, launch apps, and more. There is also an AI Gallery app, but I didn’t find any AI features.

Infinix has promised 2 years of Android updates and 3 years of security patches, which is a decent result for a phone in this segment.

The user interface is smooth most of the time, but I did experience some lag and stutters while browsing web pages in Chrome or scrolling through the Settings app.

Infinix Note 40 5G Performance: Decent

• MediaTek Dimensity 7020 processor
• 8GB RAM + 256GB UFS 2.2 storage
• Virtual RAM expansion

Infinix has equipped the Note 40 5G with the MediaTek Dimensity 7020 SoC, which is not very powerful. The chipset is paired with 8GB of RAM, which can practically be expanded by another 8GB using the MemFusion feature. Multitasking on the phone is also possible, but you will notice a lag when opening multiple apps quickly.

I ran our standard set of benchmarks, and below are the results compared to those of some competing products.

For the price, the phone performed decently. It didn’t get too hot during benchmarks, although I couldn’t run our usual set of 3DMark tests because the phone didn’t support them.

Moving on to games, I ran Call of Duty Mobile, BGMI, and Asphalt 9 on the phone to test its performance. In Asphalt 9, I ran the game at high graphics settings and it worked fine. However, this was not the case with BGMI and COD Mobile. Both games did not support full graphics settings and the phone heated up.

Running games at full graphics may cause some lag

The phone has hybrid dual speakers that are supposedly tuned by JBL. They are loud but lack bass. The sound quality through the microphone was good in both voice and video calls.

Infinix Note 40 5G Cameras: Useful

• 108-megapixel main rear camera
• 32-megapixel selfie camera
• 3x lossless zoom

While it looks like the Infinix Note 40 5G has a triple rear camera, there’s only one usable sensor. The other sensors aren’t available in the camera app and are mainly used to provide depth information for portrait shots. The camera app is easy to use and has all the modes right in front of you.

You get two useless cameras in your phone

The primary rear camera takes good photos in daylight conditions, offering saturated colours with decent detail. HDR and white balance are also quite decent here. Infinix claims that the primary camera can take photos with 3x lossless zoom, and while I found the 3x zoom photos pleasing to the eye, they were not colour accurate and lacked detail.

Daytime photos taken with the 108-megapixel main rear camera (tap to enlarge)

The main camera struggled to take good photos in low-light conditions when the automatic night mode kicked in. The photos had a lot of noise and blur because the sensor only supports electronic image stabilization. However, the Super Night mode gives better results and I would recommend using it in low-light conditions. Again, the 3x zoom mode doesn’t give great results when the sun is shining on the bag.

From top to bottom: two photos with 3x zoom, two photos in low light (first with auto night mode, second with Super Night mode) (Tap to enlarge)

The Infinix Note 40 5G selfie camera takes decent photos in daylight conditions. There’s good detail, and the colors are less saturated than the photos from the rear camera. You also get a slit-type LED flash at the front, so you can take good selfies at night.

When it comes to video quality, the phone offers video recording at up to 2K resolution at 30 fps. However, the Ultrasteady stabilization mode is only available at 1080p 30 fps. The rear camera records decent quality videos with enough details in daylight conditions. Still, the stabilization is not that great and if you move around a lot, you will notice some jerks and stutters. Low-light videos are not good; there is a lot of noise visible even at 2K resolution. The dynamic range is not bad, but the HDR and color need improvement.

Infinix Note 40 5G Battery: Say Hello to Wireless Charging

• 15W wireless charging
• Cheetah X1 Power Management System
• 5000mAh battery

The phone offers decent battery life. In our HD video test, the Note 40 5G lasted for around 18 hours. You can charge the phone from 0 to 100 percent in around 1 hour and 15 minutes using the bundled 33W fast charger. The in-house developed Cheetah X power management chip offers features like bypass charging, reverse wireless charging, and dynamic charging modes. The chip seems to help as the phone never heats up when using a wired charger.

The MagCharge puck magnetically attaches to the included case

Then there’s the 15W wireless charging, which takes about 3 hours to fully charge the device and leaves the phone warm. The phone supports Infinix’s MagCharge accessory and comes with a supported case in the box. The phone would last for about a day and a half with web browsing, YouTube streaming, camera usage, and about 45 minutes of gaming.

Infinix Note 40 5G Verdict

The Infinix Note 40 5G competes with phones like the Realme P1 5G ( Review ), the Poco X6 Neo 5G ( Review ), and the recently launched OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite ( Review ). None of these phones offer wireless charging, but you get a better design and slightly better camera performance from the Realme and OnePlus. The Poco X6 Neo 5G is also a good choice, and it costs less.

If you’re looking for a phone with wireless charging under Rs 20,000 that also offers a good display, a decent main rear camera, and decent battery life, then the Infinix Note 40 5G is a great choice. You also get Active Halo lighting on the back, which is something special. If wireless charging isn’t your thing, then the Realme P1 is a better option.