Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9, which straddles the upper end of the smartphone market and hogs all the attention both from the media and the public, is not the only smartphone with the “Note” moniker.
That has been the case for a few years now as other smartphone brands tried to ape Samsung’s unforeseen success with a rather large device.Xiaomi has done it on a global scale while many other regional smartphone brands keep popping up every now and then with their own take of a “Note” device.
Some, like Infinix, have even gone ahead to include “pens”, like the S Pen that the Samsung Galaxy Note lineup is now famous for.
Last year, after the dust had settled on the Infinix Note 4, Infinix brought to the market the Infinix Note 4 Pro which, at the time, I thought was what should’ve been the Infinix Note 4, anyway. It had more RAM, more storage space, a sleek metal finish at the back and a fingerprint sensor on the front as the overall trend at that time was becoming, instead of the back as was the case on the Note 4.
That was then. Today, there is the Infinix Note 5. An out and out accomplished smartphone that is hard not to recommend for everyone looking to buy a smartphone that is priced under Kshs 20,000. It’s fast, it’s light, it takes very good photos, handles as much as you throw at it and it runs stock Android. Within its vicinity its equals struggle to keep up. What more could you ask?
Well, how about the Infinix Note 5 Stylus?
Notice how they’re not going with the “Pro” name this year? Don’t be fooled, though, the Infinix Note 5 Stylus is to the Infinix Note 5 what the Infinix Note 4 Pro was to the Infinix Note 4. However, unlike last year, there are some differences. For instance, last year, the Note 4 Pro had “more” everything. More storage, more storage, more… This year, while there’s still a lot “more” going for the Note 5 Stylus, the more is relative.
The Infinix Note 5 has a 4GB RAM/64GB internal storage variant and that’s exactly what the base model Note 5 Stylus comes with (I am not sure if there’ll be a variant with anything more than that) so, as you can see, nothing new.
The battery is a tad smaller in capacity when compared to what we get on the Infinix Note 5, which has some of the best battery life of any smartphone in its price range that has come out this year. There’s also what makes a Note smartphone a true note: the stylus. Infinix has been calling its take on the stylus X-Pen. We’ll have to wait to see what this year’s stylus does different from last year’s. Oh, it’s still an Android One smartphone. You know what that means.
The Infinix Note 5 Stylus, which starts selling in the country at the end of the month, is expected to go for USD 248.3 which translates to about Kshs 25,000 at current exchange rates. That is an increase of about Kshs 7,000 on the price of the standard Note 5. Is it worth it?
