Infinix Hot S3: For a Selfie Buff on a Budget

Tanvi Dhulia tests the Infinix Hot S3, the new selfie phone on the block. How does it fare?

Infinix Hot S3

The latest smartphone by Infinix boasts of having “the hottest combination of features.” Considering its starting price of Rs. 8999, it does pique one’s interest. But while it may have an impressive front camera, the phone lacks finesse in other aspects.

Features
The Infinix Hot S3 sports thin bezzels and has a HD Fullview Display. It is powered by Android 8 Oreo, runs on a 4000mAh battery and has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor.
It is availablle in two storage variants: 3GB RAM with 32GB storage, and 4GB RAM with 64GB. Both of which are expandable to 128GB.

I like that the camera was able to capture textures well. Photography / Tanvi Dhulia

Not a Lasting Impression
The camera has a limited number of features like HDR, filters, Time lapse, Panorama, Night mode, and a Professional mode for still photos. It does not have a similar manual mode for videos. It also has a fingerprint sensor on the rear to make pictures.

The 20MP f/2 front camera has an option to create background blur. Phones in this price bracket (like the InFocus Vision 3) often make a subject look like a cut out against a poorly smudged backdrop. However, the Hot S3 does a fairly good job with it, creating a more natural effect.

Unlike most phones nowadays, the Hot S3 does not provide an option to reduce exposure in the Aut mode. Photography / Tanvi Dhulia

The 13MP f/2 rear camera was less impressive. It did a poor job with metering well lit scenes, blowing out highlights consistently. While this can be taken care of in the manual mode, it’s troublesome when you’re fond of taking quick snapshots of scenes that might change rapidly. Furthermore, it does a poor job managing the white balance in the Auto mode where the slightest shift of your hand can cause the hues of the subject to alter noticeably.

The camera also features a digital zoom in both front and rear cameras for “full view display.” The tool essentially crops the scene to a rather unconventional 3×6 frame. Besides this, one can slide two fingers across the screen to activate 4x digital zoom.

The phone frequently blew out highlights. Here, they were reduced in post processing.

In Conclusion
The Infinix Hot S3 is up against devices like the Comio P1 and the InFocus Vision 3. In terms of design and camera features, it fares better the the former. However, when pit against the Redmi 5 (which is also priced at Rs. 8999 for 3GB+32GB), the Hot S3 faces tough competition, especially since Xiaomi has conistently produced good camera phones at economical rates.