Infinix has taken the wraps off the latest version of its budget Hot smartphone series.
At a youth-focused event held in Nairobi mid this month, which reflected the smartphone’s focus market, the Chinese brand officially unveiled the Infinix Hot 40 series in Kenya.
In the country, the Hot 40 series comprises the standard Infinix Hot 40, the Hot 40i and the Hot 40 Pro.
Announced globally at the start of the month, the Infinix Hot 40 series devices pack several upgrades over their predecessors in the Hot 30 series.
As can be expected, the Hot 40 Pro is the hero of the series packing a 6.78-inch Full HD+ LCD panel with 120Hz refresh rate, a Helio G99 chipset from MediaTek, 8GB RAM and a choice of either 128 or 256 gigabytes (we are getting the latter in Kenya). It has a 108-megapixel main sensor flanked by an “AI cam” and a 2-megapixel macro lens. On the front is a 32-megapixel selfie camera that also has what Infinix is calling a “Magic Ring”, its own iPhone-style Dynamic Island implementation that shows, among other things, when the phone is unlocked, being charged or on a call.
The Infinix Hot 40 keeps the same design language of its superior sibling, the Hot 40 Pro, but with some notable differences. While the display remains the same, the Hot 40’s has a higher touch sampling rate (270Hz over the Pro’s 240Hz) but a lower refresh rate (90Hz compared to the Pro’s 120Hz). It gets a 50-megapixel main sensor at the back while keeping the other two minor lenses. On the front, it maintains the same sensor as the Hot 40 Pro, complete with the aforementioned Magic Ring. While there’s an option of getting the 128 or 256GB onboard storage variant, like with the Hot 40 Pro and the Hot 40i we are shifting our attention to next, we are only getting the higher spec (256GB) variant in Kenya. With 8GB RAM.
Underneath is where some changes are to be witnessed. The Hot 40 makes use of the Helio G88 chipset from Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek.
The Hot 40i, which is the entry-level device of the Hot 40 series, arrives rocking a basic Unisoc T606 chipset and a choice of either 4 or 8GB RAM. On the camera front, Infinix maintains the same lenses that we find on the Hot 40 on the front and the back with only the macro lens being removed from the lineup. The display has been downgraded to a 6.56-inch HD+ LCD panel.
While all the Hot 40 series smartphones in Kenya keep the storage at 256GB, they vary in memory configurations.
They also all pack the same 5,000mAh battery unit but differ when it comes to the fast charging. The Hot 40i makes do with 18W fast charging while the standard Hot 40 and Hot 40 Pro get 33W fast charging.
They all run on Android 13 even though the specific customizations that Infinix introduces to Android with its custom overlay, XOS, will vary by device. For instance, the Hot 40 and Hot 40 Pro run on XOS 13.5 while the Hot 40i arrives running XOS 13.0 out of the box.
Oh, and Infinix has NFC on all these devices. In case you are wondering what that is and of what use it is, here’s a detailed explainer.
Pricing for the trio is as follows:
- Infinix Hot 40i – Kshs 17,299 (4GB RAM) and Kshs 22,499 (8GB RAM)
- Infinix Hot 40 – Kshs 26,999
- Infinix Hot 40 Pro – Kshs 29,399
