Infinix Note 40 5G Review: Noteworthy Budget Phone​

Infinix is not the first brand you’d think of when purchasing a budget or mid-range smartphone online. However, the company has a good offline presence and makes many phones that cater to the budget and mid-range segment. The new Infinix Note 40 5G, launched late last month in India, is a budget phone offering features such as wireless charging, which is a first in this price segment. While it may not have the brand value, it does offer a lot for the price.

After using the phone for about a week, here’s why I think the Infinix Note 40 is something you should consider adding to your shopping list. The phone has much to offer but gets some things wrong. It is available in India in a single variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, priced at Rs. 19,999.

Infinix Note 40 5G Design: A rectangular slab

Active Halo Lighting
Weighs 185 grams
Colours – Titan Gold and Obsidian Black

The Infinix Note 40 has an all-plastic construction, a matte finish rear panel with a shine to it, and a somewhat glossy frame prone to fingerprints. You’ll find a rectangular slab protruding from the top right corner of the rear panel housing the camera sensors and the Active Halo Lighting. Since this slab covers most of the top area on the back, it doesn’t allow the phone to wobble when laid on its back.

The plastic, glossy frame attracts a lot of fingerprints

You get a large display on the front with thin bezels and tapered sides. You’ll find the volume and power buttons on the right, a SIM card tray on the left, a mic and an IR blaster at the top, and another mic, speaker, and USB Type-C port at the bottom. The front also houses a flash at the top right corner for those night-time selfies.

The phone weighs 185 grams, is 7.91mm thin, and offers an IP53 rating. Overall, the Infinix Note 40 has an excellent design for a budget phone. However, I didn’t like how the glossy plastic frame felt in my hand.

Infinix Note 40 5G Display: Big and bright enough

6.78-inch LTPS AMOLED panel
120Hz refresh rate
93.8 percent screen-to-body ratio

You’ll love the Infinix Note 40’s 6.78-inch screen if you like big displays with slim bezels. The company has managed to thin and symmetrical bezels on the top and sides, with the phone boasting a screen-to-body ratio of 93.8 percent. While you don’t get Gorilla Glass protection on the panel, you get tempered glass in the box.

The panel offers a 120Hz refresh rate and has thin bezels all around

The phone has an LTPS AMOLED panel that supports a 120Hz refresh rate, full-HD+ resolution, 1,300 nits brightness, and 240Hz touch response. It also covers a 100 percent DCI-P3 colour gamut and has a TUV Rheinland Eye Care certification.

The display is plenty bright indoors and works well even under direct sunlight. The colours on the panel are vivid, and the viewing angles are pretty good. You get two colour modes, Original and Bright, with the latter offering slightly more punchy colours. There’s also a High brightness mode and an Ultra Touch feature that is said to improve touch sensitivity. It’s a good display for watching content and gaming.

The Infinix Note 40 5G’s fingerprint scanner works well most of the time

You also get an in-display fingerprint scanner placed all the way at the bottom, which can be a little uncomfortable to reach. During my time with the phone, the fingerprint sensor worked fine most of the time. However, there were also times when it took a couple of tries to unlock the phone.

Infinix Note 40 5G Software: Mostly clean

Android 14-based XOS
2 years of Android OS updates
Less bloatware

The Infinix Note 40 runs Android 14-based XOS out-of-the-box and doesn’t get a lot of bloatware. There are a couple of pre-installed apps on the phone, but no ads. You can also uninstall all the pre-installed apps. Infinix’s XOS also comes with features such as the Dynamic Bar that shows notifications around the hole-punch cutout on the display. It also gets Floating Windows, MemFusion for RAM expansion, a Game Mode with an app called XArena, XClone to allow dual apps and a Kids mode.

You get Android 14 out-of-the-box

There’s also the Folax voice assistant, which is like the Google Assistant and lets you set reminder alarms, answer queries, launch apps, and more. There’s also an AI Gallery app, but I found no AI features.

Infinix has promised to deliver 2 years of Android OS updates and 3 years of security patches, which is decent for a phone in this segment.

The UI runs smoothly most of the time, but I did face some lag and stutter when browsing web pages on Chrome or scrolling through the Settings app.

Infinix Note 40 5G Performance: Decent

MediaTek Dimensity 7020 SoC
8GB RAM + 256GB UFS 2.2 storage
Virtual RAM expansion

Infinix has equipped the Note 40 5G with a MediaTek Dimensity 7020 SoC, which is not exactly a performer. The chipset is paired with 8GB of RAM, which is virtually expandable by another 8GB thanks to the MemFusion feature. Multitasking on the phone is also possible, but you will notice lag when opening multiple apps quickly.

I ran our usual set of benchmarks, and the results compared to those of some of its competitors are below.

For its price, the phone performed decently well. It did not heat up much while running the benchmarks, although I couldn’t run our usual set of 3DMark tests as the phone didn’t support them.

Moving on to gaming, I ran Call of Duty Mobile, BGMI, and Asphalt 9 on the phone to test its performance. In Asphalt 9, I ran the game in a high-quality graphics setting, and it performed well. However, the same wasn’t the case with BGMI and COD Mobile. Both games didn’t support full graphics settings, and the phone heated up.

Running games at full graphics can cause some lag

The phone gets hybrid dual speakers claimed to be tuned by JBL. They get loud but don’t pack in any bass. The audio quality through the microphone was good in both voice and video calls.

Infinix Note 40 5G Cameras: Usable

108-megapixel primary rear camera
32-megapixel selfie unit
3X lossless zoom

Although it looks like the Infinix Note 40 5G sports a triple rear camera setup, there’s only one usable sensor there. The other sensors aren’t accessible in the camera app and are mainly used to provide depth information for portrait photos. The Camera app is easy to use and has all modes right before you.

You get two non-usable cameras on the phone

The primary rear camera takes good photos in daylight conditions, offering saturated colours with decent details. HDR and white balance are also pretty decent here. Infinix claims that the primary camera can shoot 3x lossless zoom photos, and while I did find the 3x shots to be nice to look at, they weren’t colour-accurate and lacked details.

Daylight shots from the primary 108-megapixel rear camera [Tap to expand]

The primary camera struggled to produce good photos in low light conditions, with the auto night mode kicking in. The images had a lot of noise and blur because the sensor only supports electronic image stabilisation. However, the Super Night mode produces better results and I’d recommend using this in lowlight conditions. Once again, the 3x zoom mode doesn’t produce great results when the sun hits the sack.

Top to bottom: Two 3x zoom shots, two lowlight photos (1st with auto night mode, 2nd with Super Night mode) [Tap to expand]

The Infinix Note 40 5G selfie camera produces decent shots in daylight conditions. There are good details, and the colours are less saturated than the photos from the rear camera. You also get an LED slit flash on the front so that you can get some good selfies at night.

Coming to video quality, the phone offers up to 2K resolution video recording at 30fps. However, the Ultrasteady stability mode is only available at 1080p 30fps. The rear camera shoots decent-quality videos with enough details in daylight conditions. Still, the stabilisation is not that great, and you’ll notice jarring and stuttering if you’re moving a lot. Lowlight videos are not good; you can see plenty of noise even at 2K resolution. The dynamic range isn’t too bad, but HDR and colour need improvement.

Infinix Note 40 5G Battery: Say hello to wireless charging

15W wireless charging
Cheetah X1 power management chip
5,000mAh battery

The phone offers decent battery performance. In our HD video test, the Note 40 5G lasted around 18 hours. You can charge up the phone from 0 to 100 percent in about 1 hour and 15 mins thanks to the included 33W fast charger. The self-developed Cheetah X power management chip offers features such as bypass charging, wireless reverse charging, and dynamic charge modes. The chip appears to help, as the phone never heats when using the wired charger.

The MagCharge puck magnetically attaches to the provided case

Then there’s also the 15W wireless charging, which takes about 3 hours to charge the device fully and leaves the phone warm. The phone supports the MagCharge accessory from Infinix and comes with a supported case in the box. The phone would last me about a day and a half with some web browsing, YouTube streaming, camera usage, and about 45 minutes of gaming.

Infinix Note 40 5G Verdict

The Infinix Note 40 5G competes with phones such as the Realme P1 5G (Review), the Poco X6 Neo 5G (Review), and the recently launched OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite (Review). None of these phones offer wireless charging, but you get better design and slightly better camera performance from the Realme and the OnePlus. The Poco X6 Neo 5G is also a good choice and costs less.

If you’re looking for a phone with wireless charging under Rs. 20,000 that also offers a good display, decent primary rear camera, and decent battery life, then the Infinix Note 40 5G is an excellent choice. You also get the Active Halo lighting at the back, which is something unique. If wireless charging is not to your interest, then the Realme P1 would be a better option.