Calling a device ‘the best’ is a job I take very seriously. Judging smartphones is a pretty standard procedure but sometimes I need to go the extra mile. The Infinix GT 20 Pro proved to be a smartphone that compelled me to do so. The phone stood its ground during all the tests, though. Have no doubts about that. I’d even go further and state that it performed better than I expected. With the GT 20 Pro, Infinix has created a product that not only boasts a good spec sheet but also walks the talk when it comes to CPU performance, gaming and battery.
The true mark of a smartphone is ultimately much broader than just the processor speed and the display refresh rate. The Infinix GT20 Pro is a potent and capable device that not only checks the boxes meant for regular smartphones, it also plays its role as a gaming smartphone quite commendably. Here is my experience during my time using the smartphone.
The GT20 Pro retains the foundational design of the series. The cyber mecha design language is not iconic yet but I have to say that it leaves a mark. The LED strips are a nice touch as well. They are designed to light up for notifications while playing music and playing games. The colourways used in this year’s GT device are interesting too. I received the Mecha Blue colourway variant for review and it looks good.
Infinix followed the trend and made the camera island a square. We see a three-camera setup clubbed with a ring LED flashlight. Apart from looking intimidating, the design language also puts huge emphasis on the phone's cyberpunk theme. The display appears big enough to offer users a pleasant gameplay and streaming experience too. The ring light at the back which is essentially a flashlight looks cool and if that aesthetic is something that you are after, the GT 20 Pro might be the one for you.
The phone has an all-plastic body and is extremely light in weight. The edges are a bit pointed but that doesn’t pose an issue as they don’t dig onto your palms. The sheer size of this phone makes a really good first impression. Its huge size coupled with the 6.78-inch 144Hz AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 1300 nits translates into a respectable canvas for gamers to test their skills. You read that right. It is a 144Hz display.
Weighing at just 194 grams, the smartphone is quite easy to move around as well and with IP54-rated protection, it is tough enough to take on a few splashes too. Nothing too wild, though.
The Dimensity 8200 Ultimate SoC is a good match for this device given what is expected of it. The processor is quick, handles tasks with ease and does more than what you’d expect of a mid-range smartphone costing under Rs 25,000. Gaming titles are not an issue for this processor. Games such as BGMI, Free Fire, Call of Duty and Genshin run smoothly and the phone is able to maintain high rates of fps even in high graphics settings. The Mali G610 GPU is well equipped for handling top titles without breaking a sweat.
We judged the GT20 Pro on multiple benchmarking software.
The PC Mark scores especially impressed me. For reference purposes, my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 scored 16,100 on the PC Mark's Work 3.0 test.
There is no doubt that this phone was engineered in a specific way to assist gamers in their pursuit of seamless and unhindered gaming. After more than 30 minutes of playing Genshin Impact at the highest settings, usually, most of the smartphones in this price range either start heating or begin to show signs, i.e., falling framerates. The Indfinix GT 20 Pro, however, impressed me in this regard. There was minimal heating and no fall in frame rates whatsoever. The game ran as smoothly as one can fathom. The X-Boost game booster is a great companion as well. Gamers can fiddle around with phone settings to get the best gaming experience.
This is one area where I feel that the GT 20 Pro could have worked on. The phone is quite stacked as far as hardware is concerned but I feel the XOS 14, Infinix's operating system based on Android 14 could use some work. There's not much to say here. It just didn't click with me.
For instance, when you boot up the phone for the first time, it has a skin on it by default. You can change it in the settings manually and switch it to a skin similar to stock Android but even after that, it feels a bit off.
On the OS front, the company will offer updates for two years while security updates will be provided for three years.
Gaming phones often try and keep installed games in a separate folder to keep them organised and the GT 20 Pro is no different. The X Arena app on the phone keeps a log of all the installed games on the phone and offers some custom features to make gameplay better. Features such as turning off notifications, graphic enhancement and various other enhancement options. The phone also offers a key mapping option which is typical is gaming smartphones.
Although the camera is not one of the selling points of the GT 20 Pro, given the fact that this is being touted as a gaming smartphone, I felt that this should be included. The triple camera setup in the GT 20 Pro is decent for the price. Do not expect flagship photography or videography from the 108MP primary Samsung HM6 sensor at any given point. However, you can expect better-than-average low-light photography and edge detection. The camera has OIS, which is great (and rare at this price). There are two additional sensors (yes, it is a triple camera set-up) for macro and portrait photos. The photographs are heavily enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI) but this is something that we expected. Here are a few samples of the photos that I took with the smartphone.
In terms of videos, the camera can manage a maximum of 4K video at 60 FPS, which is rare in a sub-25,000 smartphone. Say what you will but Infinix is making waves out there. On the front, we have a 32MP camera which supports 2K video, again a rarity in this price segment.
The camera has a pro-mode as well which allows users to customise parameters like ISO, aperture and shutter speed to take photos. I mostly stuck to the default settings as it gave me the best results. The 3x in-sensor zoom is not bad, to be honest.
Few samples:
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With a 5,000mAh battery that supports 45W fast charging, there is hardly anything to complain about. The phone offers an average run time of 12 hours with medium usage and almost 8 during moderate to heavy gaming. The best feature about this gaming-centric phone is hands down the battery by-pass charging feature. We also saw this in the GT 10 and we are glad that Infinix retained it in the GT 20 Pro. I was able to by-pass the battery entirely and charge the chip directly and eventually prevent the battery from overheating during even the most intense gaming sessions (gamers know what an hour-long Genshin session does to the phone) This feature is a boon, especially during the summers. The point to be noted here is that this feature works only till the battery is above 20 per cent.
The gaming pack which came along with the smartphone allows you to prevent heating even further. The VC liquid cooling technology allows you to just play games without fretting about heating issues. The radiator body needs to be connected to the phone which can be done with the help of the special phone case that comes along. There are two plates, one of which is attached to the case. The other one is a magnetic plate that latches onto the first plate. The third element in this setup (I know it sounds tedious but bear with me) is the radiator that attaches to the second plate. The radiator needs to be plugged into a power source, which in this case is the phone itself.
When I say that the gaming experience on the GT 20 Pro was good, I mean every word. The phone handled top-tier mobile games like it was child’s play. The 6.78-inch, 144Hz refresh rate AMOLED display, UFS 3.1 storage, a 5,000 mAh battery and a dedicated graphics chip (Pixelworks) all come together nicely like the Infinity Stones In Thanos’ gauntlet. There is obviously an unavoidable gap that comes due to the phone being a mid-ranger but after using it for some time, those reservations seem to be fading away simply because the device is too powerful. Why would I as a consumer whose sole focus is on gaming go for a more expensive phone when I can accomplish what I want to with the GT 20 Pro that costs less than Rs 25,000?
Infinix’s knack for hyper-competitive pricing is proof that the tech company means business. The GT 20 Pro is a testament to the brand’s commitment to listen to its customers and offer solutions to issues that need attention. The by-pass charging feature, for instance, is a good example that sets the tone for other gaming smartphones in the market.
It would have been great if Inifinix worked harder on the UI. While using the phone for activities other than gaming, I felt that it was missing the finesse in UI that we see in other devices such as OnePlus, Motorola and Samsung. That being said, it is true that this is probably the most clutter-free UI I have seen on an Infinix smartphone.
The price segment that the Inifnix GT 20 Pro is competing in is one of the most hypercompetitive price brackets out there. There are smartphones such as the Phone 2a, the Nord CE 4 and the Poco X6, the last one being the only one with a superior CPU (the Dimensity 8300 Ultra).
Infinix has clearly upped the ante for affordable gaming smartphones and for those who are looking for a device that can handle all kinds of games at a price that won’t lock them in a long-term loan commitment, the GT 20 Pro is a gold mine of a device.
