Infinix Note 40 Series Review – Here is what We Feel!

The Infinix Note 40 and 40 Pro are good options if you have a budget of around 250 dollars. I feel whichever one you end up buying you are getting real value for money. Quick one, the Infinix Note 40 comes in around $200, and if you go with it, you won’t be missing out on features. The Pro variants certainly have features that would make you want to spend that $250. In this review, we will review both phones to give you an idea of how they perform.

Infinix Note 40 Pro Unboxing

Since I started writing about phones, I have never seen a box with accessories like that of the Note 40 Pro. You also get the same set of accessories if you go for the Note 40. Early buyers are also getting extra gifts, including a JBL Go 3 and an Infinix earbud with active noise cancellation. Here is the Content in the Box.

Some other brands are giving you only a USB C cable and the phone, but infinix is going all out with even more accessories.

Infinix Note 40 Pro Review

Design

The Infinix Note 40 Pro has a unique design that sets it apart from the Infinix Note 40. It has a curved back, and it is also more comfortable in the hand. The Note 40 has a flat back with rounded edges and there are people who prefer that. The Note 40 Pro has a premium design befitting a PRO phone.

It has a matte glass finish at the back, with a unique case that lets the wireless charger bundled in the box sit comfortably. Without the case, the wireless charger won’t stay at the back of the phone. You can feel the magnets trying to catch onto the phone, but it won’t. The Infinix Note 40 also has the same case but it’s plastic while we have a leather case on the Note 40 Pro.

We have two colorways for the Pro model and they include the vintage green with a vegan leather finish and the tian gold with glass that looks and feels like ceramic. They both have stereo speakers that sound incredible and Infinix worked with JBL to tune the speakers. Both phones support dual 4G SIM cards, but there isn’t a slot for memory expansion. The Infinix Note 40 Pro has a Halo Lightning at the back of the phone, making it unique. It is the first infinix phone to come with the feature.

The Halo light glows when there is a notification or call or when playing music. The light will also glow when you charge the phone or call the AI Assistant Folax. It can also be customized. The square camera cut out at the back of both phones looks similar but the regular Note 40 doesn’t have the Halo lighting feature.

The frame on both phones are made of plastic material, but the frame of the Note 40 Pro has blended with the back making it slim. They both charge through a USB C cable, but the Pro model has an IR blaster at the top and it can be used to control electronics. There is no 3.5mm headphone port on both phones. Both phones also have an IP54 dust and water splash rating. In terms of design, the Pro model is lighter and one of a kind, but the boxy design of the base model will be appreciated by many.

Display Aspect

Both phones have a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The display of the Note 40 Pro is curved but that of the Note 40 is flat. Both displays are very bright even when you are outside you can hardly separate them. You get a great color contrast on both phones and deep blacks as expected on an AMOLED screen. It will give you an enhanced visual experience and a dimming rate of 2160Hz to protect your eye from strain.

The bezels around the displays are the same size same thing as the pixel density. Both displays are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 as well. Scrolling feels smooth and you can even stream YouTube videos at up to 2K resolution. Playing games is also impressive because of the high refresh rate and touch sampling rate.

There isn’t anything you can take away from both displays except that one is flat and one is curved. They both have an under-display fingerprint scanner that is fast, and there is a small cut-out at the top for the 32MP selfie camera. It does get in the way while using the phone to watch content or browse through apps.

Charging Tech and Battery Life

Infinix created a custom chipset which is the Cheetah X1 Chip that acts as the brain of the phones for charging. It will prevent the phones from heating up while charging and also manage multiple charging modes including bypass charging, reverse charging mode, and more.

The Note 40 Pro supports 70 watts of fast charging while the Note 40 supports 45 watts fast charging. You get 50% in 20 minutes with and full charge in around 40 minutes. The Note 40 gives you 50% in 30 minutes and full charge in an hour.

Both phones support 20 watts wireless charging and no phone in the price range supports wireless charging. Infinix is also giving users a complete MagKit to enjoy wireless charging. It includes the MagCase, MagPower, and MagPad. You can also charge other phones at the back of the Note 40 Pro and Note 40, you can also reverse charge other phones using a cable. The charging tech also lets you charge your phone and use it without getting hot.

Software

The Note 40 Series are running on Android 14 and XOS 14 is the user interface. Infinix also confirmed that the phone will receive two software upgrades which are also impressive. There is a unique AI wallpaper generator in the phone and you can use it to generate 6 new wallpapers every day. There are some pre-installed apps on the interface, but most of them can be removed. You can customize the phone to your taste in the settings and change to buttons or gesture navigation.

There are some changes to the notification shade and you can now hide some status bar icons like battery percentage or network speed. Folax has also been improved to be a well-rounded AI assistant not just a voice assistant. It can help with more tasks.

The icons look refined and the phone supports floating windows as well as split screen. You can clone apps as well as hide them in the settings of the phone and you also get to expand the RAM from 8GB to 16GB using some storage space on the phone. There is a special game app called Xarena, if you want the best gaming experience on the phones then its good you open games from the app.

Performance

The MediaTek Helio G99 ultimate is the processor on the Note 40 Pro, and it is a refined version of the popular Helio G99. The chipset handles tasks smoothly and I was impressed by how it handles temperature. Even after long sessions of gaming, the phone wasn’t hot. It handles call of Duty mobile and Asphalt 9 with ease and the refresh rate makes playing more enjoyable. I even played the new Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile and it was playable at low graphics settings. the haptic feedback you get while gaming is also great. Performance wasn’t an issue here and both phones perform as expected for the price.

Camera Review

They both have a 108MP primary camera, you also get an additional 2MP lens for macro photography and another 2MP lens for depth sensing. The main lens has optical image stabilization and you can also zoom up to 10X. The 32MP selfie camera is also impressive and there are different modes for videos and pictures on the phone. The pictures from the main 108MP camera are impressive with enough details and color.

There is night mode and it improves how pictures look when shot in an area with low light or at night. I am impressed with the low latency each time you tap on the shutter button even when using night mode. You can zoom up to 10X with the camera, and you should expect good images at 3X or 5X zoom.

The images I got with 3X zoom were well-detailed as you can see in the Image above, Infinix made photography more enjoyable on this Note 40 Series and I even preferred using it for macro shots. Portrait mode is impressive with good background blur. You can even play with the f-stop in the camera settings for better results depending on your environment. The 32MP selfie camera is impressive as well and you can shoot 2K videos with the front and back cameras.

Rounding Up

Regardless of the phone you go with I feel you are getting value for money. The accessories you get in the box are worth $100 if it were other brands and you have to buy them separately. Performance is okay for the price and I don’t think any device will match them in terms of battery life. That’s it for this one and unto the next one on another Infinix Smartphone.