Infinix Note 50s 5G Review: Most balanced phone under ₹20,000

Infinix got off to a slow start in the new year, with the first phone launch not taking place until March. However, the Chinese smartphone maker has made huge strides in the smartphone market with its latest offering, the Note 50s. The new Infinix phone not only resolves some issues with the previous model, but also offers a range of new features, including a curved AMOLED display, sleek design, and an in-display fingerprint sensor, all for a starting price of just ₹15,999.

I have been using the Note 50s for the last few weeks and here's my two bits on how the device performed in the real world.

Unboxing and design:

Inside the classic green coloured box of the Infinix Note 50s, you get the device itself wrapped inside a plastic sheet, a type A to type C cable, a 45W charging brick, SIM ejector tool, a colour matched cover and some paperwork that you would never get to reading.

The Note 50s comes in three colourways, the review unit that I received came in Titanium Grey colour with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Although, I did get a brief hands on experience with the Marine Drift (Blue) colour that comes with vegan leather back and that version is definitely the more premium looking of the three variants.

This version of the Note 50s doesn't feature Infinix’s scent tech, so I couldn’t test that innovation, but let’s take a look at the rest of the design.

The Note 50s looks and feels much like the Note 50x ,which I reviewed last month. It comes with the same ‘Gem Cut’ design for the camera module and subtle Infinix branding at the bottom and even the included case looks identical.

The Note 50s feels and looks a lot like the Note 50x, which I reviewed earlier this month. It features the same ‘Gem Cut’ design for the camera module and subtle Infinix branding at the bottom. Even the included case looks identical—and still ranks among my favourite bundled cases.

What's changed then? Infinix has made this phone thinner and lighter, measuring in at a thickness of just 7.6mm and a weight of just 180 grams. Paired with the curved edges on the back panel and the frame, this phone goes easy on the hands and is very comfortable to carry around in the jeans pocket as well.

The phone continues to come with MIL-STD-810H certification and IP64 rating for water and dust resistance. Kudos to Infinix for not only carrying over the good elements from their last phone but also going that extra bit by adding a slimmer profile to this one.

Display:

The Note 50s features a 6.78-inch Full HD+ 3D curved AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate. It offers a peak brightness of 1300 nits and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

The display looks absolutely stunning for the price. It delivers punchy colours, deep blacks, and a solid dynamic range, resulting in an immersive viewing experience and marks a major upgrade from the 720p panel on the Note 50x. The slim bezels around the screen help achieve an impressive 89.8 percent screen-to-body ratio.

Another notable upgrade is the addition of stereo speakers with JBL branding. Unlike the Note 50x, the speaker quality here is actually quite good. I genuinely enjoyed listening to music and watching videos using the built-in speakers.
Camera:

Infinix Note 50s comes with a 64MP Sony IMX682 primary shooter, a 2MP secondary shooter and a 13MP front-facing shooter. While there's a lot to like about this camera setup, the first and foremost thing is that both the front and back camera are capable of recording 4k videos at 30fps.

Second, the 64MP main sensor is actually a very capable shooter for the price. In daylight, the images captured with the Note 50s look sharp and the colours look very close to natural tone, but for human subjects, the colour tone could be on the softer side.

Even in low light or artificial lighting conditions, the primary shooter can hold its own, especialy condidering the price point. Just like other Infinix smartphones I have reviewed in the past, the Note 50s also struggles with colourful objects in low light scenario say a billboard or a night lamp but there is still some improvements compared to its predecessors.

The output from the selfie camera is slightly better than I expected, it can capture close to natural skin tone and ample details in good lighting conditions but the sensor can struggle a little under low lighting conditions.

Overall, I woud say Note 50s is pobably one of the most improved camera phones from Infinix and while it may not be winning awards for its photography skills, the phone is still going to give tough competition to many other devices in this segment.

Software and battery:

The Note 50s is powered by XOS15 based on Android 15, and Infinix has promised two years of OS updates and three years of security patches with this device.

I’ve already shared my detailed thoughts on XOS 15 during the Note 50x review, but just to reiterate things briefly: XOS 15 is ad-free, contains no bloatware, and has a limited number of first-party apps. The UI includes a lot of AI features like Circle to Search, AIGC portrait mode, AI-generated wallpapers, and the Folax voice assistant, but most of these currently lack nuance and aren’t something most users would find themselves using every day.

The truly useful features that XOS comes with are Dynamic Bar (works just like Dynamic Island on iPhones), Smart Panel (similar to OnePlus and Oppo), and Social Assistant (Infinix’s original feature that comes in handy during WhatsApp calls). Another thing I really like about XOS 15 is the ability to customise the colours not just on the home screen, but also on the notification panel and lock screen.

Moving on to the battery, the Note 50s packs a 5,500mAh setup with support for 45W fast charging (adapter included in the box). It took about an hour and 20 minutes to take the phone from 0 to 100, and the battery easily lasted more than a day with light to moderate usage of clicking some pictures, around an hour of gaming, and streaming a few videos.

Performance:

The Note 50s is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultimate processor and as I said in my Note 50x review there is nothing ‘Ultimate’ about this processor it is the same as the Dimensity 7300 seen on the likes of CMF Phone 1 (Review), iQOO Z10x (Review), Oppo F29 Pro and Lava Agni 3 (Review). And this author remains enraged at MediaTek for repeatedly trying to pass off the same chipset under flashy suffixes like Ultimate, Pro or Energy, hoping users won’t catch on.

In case you have been living under a rock, this a very stable chipset with no history of heating issues or lagging and offering very fluid performance with even the ability of light gaming but it isn't strictly designed for gamers as the benchmarks clearly indicate.

Talking about the benchmarks, let's quickly take a look at all the numbers:

• AnTuTu: 6,47,390 (higher than the Note 50x, slightly lower than F29 Pro and Agni 3)
• Geekbench 6: 1046 (single-core), 3045 (multi-core) [Both scores are higher than Note 50x and F29 Pro but lower than Agni 3]
• 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test: Best loop score – 872; Lowest – 868; Stability – 99.5%

Verdict:

The sub- ₹20,000 price bracket is packed with good options at the moment. Some excel in performance, others in battery capacity, cameras, and so on. So where does the Infinix Note 50s fit in? Well, I believe the Note 50s is currently the best all-rounder phone you can buy in this segment. It brings a great design, a slim and premium-looking body, a tried-and-tested processor, a clean, ad-free software experience, decent cameras, a bright AMOLED display, fast LPDDR5x RAM, and reliable battery life.

Considering the fact that this phone effectively sells for under ₹15,000, I honestly don’t think there’s a better alternative right now.