Infinix Zero Ultra Review

We’re ushering a new era of smartphones with 200-megapixel cameras and charging speeds breaching the 100W mark. Today, we’ll be reviewing one of the first devices to have these whopping features, the Infinix Zero Ultra.

Just to tease you, this one boasts the aforementioned 200-megapixel main camera, the fastest charging speed at 180W, and a whole lot more. All for the price of only Php21,999.

In our Infinix Zero Ultra review, we’ll not see if it’s worth your money or not (because obviously it already is). Instead, we’ll detail all of its features and see how good they really are and if there’s something that should’ve been done differently. Let’s begin.

Infinix Zero Ultra Specs

Android 12, XOS 12
Dual SIM, Dual standby
6.8-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution, 387ppi
120Hz refresh rate
2.5GHz MediaTek Dimensity 920 octa-core processor
8GB RAM
Mali-G68 MC4 GPU
256GB internal storage, non-expandable
32-megapixel front camera
200-megapixel (dual-pixel PDAF, OIS, f/2.0) + 13-megapixel (ultra-wide) + 2-megapixel rear cameras, dual-tone flash
In-display fingerprint scanner
HSPA+, 4G LTE, 5G
WiFi 6, dual-band
Bluetooth
GPS, A-GPS
FM Radio
USB Type-C
Dimensions: 165.5 x 74.5 x 8.8mm
Weight: 213g
Colors: Coslight Silver, Genesis Noir
4,500mAh non-removable battery, 180W fast charging

Design and Build Quality

You really can’t have it all. Either go with a thin device that lacks some features, or go all out but with a bit of bulk. Infinix chose the latter for the Zero Ultra.

This one is 8.8mm thick and weighs 213g. To give you an idea, most phones average around 8mm and 190g. The Zero Ultra sure feels chunky, but it provides a reassuring feeling that there are tons of hardware working on the inside.

To ensure ergonomics and comfort, the display has a 71-degree curve on the side that’s identical to the curve on the back. This also adds a premium look and feel to the handset.

It comes in two colors. The one we got is the more interesting one, and it’s called Coslight Silver. It uses an embossed 3D textured glass, so you can feel the Kármán line art design that mimics cosmic energy that’s been released abstractly.

This color looks really clean, but if you want to go dark, there’s the Genesis Noir with a cleaner texture design.

Taking a tour, we have the physical buttons on the right side. The volume controls and lock/power switches are really thin, but do provide a really clicky feel and sound when pressed. The left side is clean.

On the top, we have the grills for the second speakers, a secondary microphone for noise isolation on calls, and a “Powered by INFINIX” branding.

Below you can find a tray that can house two nano SIM cards. We also have the primary microphones and speakers and a USB Type-C. No headphone jack, though.

Overall, the Zero Ultra comes with a pretty robust, chunky, but still fairly unique design to make it attractive.

Display and Sound Quality

One of the big features of the Zero Ultra is the display. This one boasts a feature-packed and enormous 6.8-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen with a speedy 120Hz refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling, along with 900-nits peak brightness. It also has low blue light emission to keep your eyes safe.

It goes without saying that the display quality is really great. The large size and vibrant colors make watching content and playing games really immersive.

Plus, the touch sampling rate makes it really responsive in games. Screen brightness is also more than enough to make it usable even in sunny outdoors.

Meanwhile, the 120Hz refresh rate makes the interface and other apps look really smooth, especially when you’re scrolling on social media feeds and whatnot.

Unfortunately, due to its curved display, it’s prone to accidental touches by your palms. It’s kind of annoying when using the device with one hand.

Because of the curved screen, Infinix had to put the SIM tray at the bottom, thus omitting the headphone jack completely. To make up for it, the Zero Ultra did get really impressive stereo speakers.

It provides a full sound, but the mids are a little lacking. Still, the bass is audible, the volume is really loud, and thanks to the large display, stereo separation is really audible.

Hardware and Performance

The Infinix Zero Ultra boasts a 6nm 2.5GHz MediaTek Dimensity 920 octa-core processor, a chipset made for premium midrange smartphones. It is paired with 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a Mali-G68 MC4 GPU. Extended RAM technology is also present, which can add up to 5GB of memory by borrowing from the storage for an extra performance boost when you need it.

Infinix Zero Ultra benchmark scores

Together with the fast display, the Zero Ultra sure feels like a speedy device — almost flagship-like at times. Swiping through the interface and social media feeds are smooth like butter, taking pictures and editing them is seamless, and running multiple apps in a picture-in-picture window is hassle-free.

The gaming experience is also great with Call of Duty Mobile running at High graphics quality and frame rates without any noticeable hitch. The same can also be said for other triple A mobile titles.

One issue we found is that the back panel, near the camera area where the chipset sits, does get hot quite easily after a few minutes of gaming or running apps at the same time. That’s despite the device’s 11-layer super large vapor cooling system that’s listed on its website.

Camera

Now we talk about one of the two key highlights of the Infinix Zero Ultra, the main camera. It is one of the first to boasts a whopping 200-megapixel shooter with a 1/1.22-inch Ultra Vision sensor, 0.64μm pixel size, optical image stabilization, and fast PDAF.

Under normal shooting mode, the Zero Ultra combines individual pixels from the main camera to take lower-resolution but overall better-looking images. It’s at 4,064 x 3,048 resolution with around 4MB size.

You can easily tap the 200MP mode on the camera app to take full advantage of the sensor to shoot images at 12,288 x 16,384 resolution with a whopping size of ~55MB.

When using the normal mode, the image quality is unsurprisingly great. The details are packed, the colors are vibrant, and the contrast is pretty accurate. The night mode, paired with its OIS, takes a sharp and brighter long exposure shot despite being taken handheld.

Dynamic range is also great to give you the flexibility you need. Also, despite its f/2.0 aperture, the depth of field is really nice to achieve that professional camera-like blurred background.

However, post-processing can be annoying at times. Despite the sharp sensor, the camera app would sometimes handle the image wrong, resulting in smudgy details and unnatural colors. Again, this rarely happens and can be easily fixed by a software update. Also, it would help if there’s a standard “Photo” mode instead of Infinix’s assistance on its “AI Cam.”

Joining the main camera is a 13-megapixel ultra-wide sensor that doubles as a macro lens. The camera app handled the ultra-wide shots similarly. That means it has similar great vibrant colors and contrasts. But due to its lower-resolution sensor, it’s definitely not the sharpest.

Still, since it’s ultra-wide, it lets you take images of tall and large subjects like buildings and infrastructures, or in tight spaces like car interiors.

Like the one on the back, it has a similarly sharp 32-megapixel selfie camera. But also just like the rear cameras, the camera app could do a better job at handling images as it could look over saturated at times and sharpness is not what you’d expect from a pixel-packed sensor.

Moreover, the Infinix Zero Ultra can shoot videos under 4K@30fps, 120fps slow-motion, and a dual-view video mode that can record using the front and rear cameras and combine them on a single frame. Also onboard is a DOL-HDR technology that records videos with richer and more detailed colors.

There’s no denying that the Infinix Zero Ultra has really packed camera hardware, but is sometimes brought down by the camera app. Here’s to hoping Infinix sends a software update to improve that.

Software and User Interface

The Infinix Zero Ultra runs on Android 12-based XOS 12 software. Infinix’s own UI is quite thick and far from what the stock Android looks like, giving a more unique look and feel compared to other brands.

It also brings proprietary features like Folax, which is Infinix’s own voice assistant that also works even without an internet connection. You can set it as a default, but we prefer Google’s own virtual assistant.

There’s also the AI Gallery, which can intelligently detect faces on images so you can easily look for them. Sadly, of all the faces we’ve snapped, it only recognized one character.

Being Android, it has tons of personalization features. It also takes advantage of its AMOLED screen with its different Always-on display themes that are also customizable to the user’s liking.

Infinix has preinstalled a couple of its own XOS apps for you to play with, or have them removed if you don’t want them taking space from your storage.

An app called Phone Master is also onboard that can do antivirus scans, check your RAM status, see if there are junk files taking up space, and easily enable power-saving modes.

To take advantage of the all-screen design, gesture navigations are enabled by default. If you want the traditional three-button navigation, you can enable that in the settings menu.

Out of the box, it uses an Emoji keyboard, which is easy to get used to. If you’re more comfortable with Google’s own keyboard, you can add that in the settings menu.

These are just some of the key software features of the Infinix Zero Ultra. Bottom line is, Infinix pretty much covered the software section really well, but a couple of improvements via software updates along the way wouldn’t hurt.

Related

Battery and Fast Charging

The Infinix Zero Ultra comes with a 4,500mAh battery. The company could’ve gone with something bigger, possibly a standard 5,000mAh capacity, but we respect their decision considering the thinness of the device.

We ran our usual PCMark battery test where it looped synthetic workload until the battery reached 20%, with the brightness and volume set to 50%, and the connectivity features off.

During the test, the Infinix Zero Ultra was able to stay up for 11 hours and 20 minutes. Not the best we got, but not the worse either. In real-world use, charging might be required around late afternoon. But if you’re a light user, you can stretch it up for an entire day.

Charging this device shouldn’t be an issue since it’s actually one of its two highlight features. As you already know, this device boasts a 180W adapter — the fastest you can get on any smartphone today.

To take full advantage of its power, you should first enable the Furious Mode in the settings before charging. Infinix claims that it can provide a full charge in only 12 minutes, which was close to what we got during our test.

However, this greatly increases the temperature of the device, so the mode is made optional. It’s best to only use it in air conditioned rooms or well-ventilated areas. If not, just charge it without the Furious Mode on, which is still relatively fast as it was able to go from 0% to 69% in 18 minutes.

Security and Connectivity

The Infinix Zero Ultra has a fast under-display fingerprint scanner. It’s really reliable during our tests and unlocks the device in an instant. Face unlock is also here if you want something faster.

For connectivity, the device has the latest 5G standard, as well as Bluetooth 5.0, FM radio, and USB Type-C — all of which performed well during our tests.

Verdict

There’s no denying that the Infinix Zero Ultra is one of the most impressive smartphones you can get in the market today. It boasts an ultra-sharp 200-megapixel camera, and super-fast 180W charging — features that are only present in very few devices out there.

More than that, Infinix also nailed tons of other areas on this device. It has a fast and colorful screen, flagship-like performance, long battery life, a great set of speakers, and a whole lot more.

If that’s not enough, there’s also the affordable price tag, making the Infinix Zero Ultra one of the most bang-for-the-buck smartphones in the market today.

Infinix Zero Ultra price and availability in the Philippines

The Infinix Zero Ultra has a price of only Php21,999 and is available on Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop. If you’re looking for options, here’s the full price list of all the other Infinix products available in PH today.

Pros

Ultra-sharp 200-megapixel camera
Fastest charging at 180W
Flagship-like display and performance
Long battery life

Cons

Camera software needs improvement
Gets hot quite easily