Infinix Zero 30 5G After 1 Year

November 13, 2024

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My previous phone unexpectedly broke early January this year, so I had to scramble to buy a replacement.

I was a realme fan (my last 3-4 phones were realme), but their prices skyrocketed to 25-33k for the range of phones I preferred, from the previous 15k-20k.

I never considered Infinix as a brand, thinking that it was just a cheap, low quality phone brand, but they just released a new phone for 15k that sounded really good on paper (the specs were on par or better than the 25k phones from other brands). So I decided to give it a try, thinking that it would only be a “stop-gap” phone until I could find a better phone to replace it with.

This was the Infinix Zero 30 5G model.

Infinix Zero 30 5G

For a P15,000 phone, it already had the following specs:

curved AMOLED screen, up to 144Hz!
Dimensity 8020 5G processor
12GB + 9GB RAM (total of 21 GB)
OIS camera, 4K, 60fps
256GB storage
dual-SIM (unfortunately, no more micro SD slot)
fast charging 68W

Those were the specs that mattered to me since I need to take good photos and videos.

Infinix Zero 30 5G Gold, photo taken with an older camera

Infinix Zero 30 5G Performance

It’s been almost a year now (exactly 11 months), and I haven’t replaced it yet!

In fact, I’m impressed I was able to get this much phone for only P15,000, considering that the “it” phones right now go for 60k-100k. This Infinix Zero 30 5G is really value for money, but of course, it’s now without some issues that I found out are easy to resolve.

Screen / Typing / Texting

The screen is beautiful and crystal clear, although at first I thought there was something wrong with it. Whenever I was typing something, sometimes the cursor would just go back to the start of the paragraph and it was annoying! Sometimes it would delete entire sentences. I hated, hated, hated this!!! It drove me crazy! I was so ready to throw the phone out. I was Googling this problem constantly. Until I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me sooner to try changing the stock keyboard. So I downloaded Google Keyboard (GBoard), used that instead, and problem solved! It was now typing normally. The problem was the stock keyboard on the Infinix.

I also noticed that the screen display brightness would sometimes dim just a tiny bit even though I turned off “Auto Brightness Adjustment” but it’s not a big deal. It would adjust the brightness just a smidge.

I also replaced the stock messaging app with Google Messages. I forgot what it was that annoyed me, but there was a reason I switched to Google Messages.

There also used to be an annoying thing when sometimes the screen won’t scroll or swipe on an image when browsing a website, but that seems to have gone away.

Photos / Videos

Photos on the Infinix look darker than I prefer, and I think they still haven’t managed to make the photo software do a good job, unlike realme’s PRO+ phones which take really good photos out of the box. But, the photo itself that was taken is clear and good quality, I just need to edit the photos to look as good as I want them to, color and brightness-wise, to make the subjects pop. I just use the stock Photo software on the Infinix to edit the photo’s exposure, brightness, saturation, etc…

I usually edit photos before posting them online anyway, so this isn’t a big deal to me.

This P15,000 phone can also run the video editing app Capcut with no issues, well, so far I haven’t encountered any issues using it, and I have edited many videos.

The Infinix Zero 30 5G already has video stabilization on the stock photo app!

Here are some photos using the Infinix Zero 30 5G, unedited except for resizing and cropping:

Taichung Second Market – not my favorite place of the trip…

Miyahara Ice Cream Waffle – the pineapple cake is good

MINI.D Coffee and Egg Tart — MINI.D Coffee and Portuguese Egg Tart – really good, very crispy & flaky shell, good coffee. Located just beside Miyahara

Feng Chia Night Market – I would actually make the train trip again just to visit this night market again! Fresh, grilled scallops, clams, abalone… taste like the sea, perfectly cooked, no *lumot* flavor at all

Feng Chia Night Market Grilled Clams – just fresh clams, no seasoning at all. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!

Feng Chia Night Market Pepper Buns (Michelin-approved) – I think these pepper buns taste better than the ones in Raohe Night Market just because the staff making them do it with more care, while in Raohe they were making the buns like *the fast and the furious* 😀

Gaming

I play a lot of MLBB, and the phone stutters… IT USED TO. For example, when getting ganked or during team fights, where a lot is happening, it would freeze for like a second, and then all the delayed skill effects would show up on screen at the same time. Since I didn’t see what was happening, I was suddenly dead or somehow miraculously escaped with a sliver of HP.

The Infinix has a Game Performance mode called X-Boost, and I have since learned to set it to “Performance” mode where it prioritizes gaming. It used to be set to “Equilibrium”.

Infinix Zero 30 5G X Boost (click to enlarge)

Infinix has also done a couple of software updates since I started using this phone. I don’t know which of those fixed it, but gaming is better now. It still stutters/freezes/lags sometimes but it’s not as bad. Actually, I’m not even sure if it’s the phone or the internet that’s the problem, because when I was in Taiwan, my mobile data was quite fast & stable and I don’t recall experiencing any of these lag issues! Maybe Philippines internet (both wifi & data) is just not as stable?

Does the phone get hot when gaming? Only if I play non-stop for an hour or longer, and also when I am playing while the phone is charging (this is not recommended). But this is the same issue for all the other phones I’ve used.

Others

Calling, texting, Bluetooth, WIFI, mobile data, GPS, etc…. all work as expected. I have not encountered any problems with them at all. I even brought this phone outside the country, the Klook physical SIM works, Klook SIM mobile data works. The phone GPS accurately detected where I was when using Google Maps abroad, I was able to follow Google Maps directions very easily and walk where I needed to go.

All the usual apps like Facebook, Viber, Messenger, Tiktok, Instagram, banking apps, etc… all work as expected.

I am currently using this as my one and only main phone and other than the issues I mentioned above (which have mostly been fixed), this phone has kept up and I really haven’t had any reason to think that I want to upgrade because it’s obsolete or anything. I am itching to get a new phone but really cannot find a reason to, LOL.

I want the better camera software of the realme Pro+ models but is it really worth paying P15,000 extra just for the better camera software?

Summary

You get really good phone hardware from the Infinix Zero 30 5G! After almost 1 year of use, I can say that the hardware specs of the phone never failed me. It’s really good value for money to get those better than average phone specs for this price.

Where the Infinix Zero 30 5G needs improvement on is their stock software. But if you are willing to just change the stock software and use other apps from Google Play, or tweak the phone to your preference, this problem is easily fixed!

I now think of this brand as an up-and-coming brand that is starting to provide really nice, bang-for-your-buck phones.

I recommend this phone for those who want bang-for-the-buck specs and are okay with changing the stock apps to something better.

With a little effort and tweaking, you can get a lot out of this phone.