Infinix GT 20 Pro Review – The Gaming Phone With A Price To Beat

In May 2024, Infinix Malaysia launched the Infinix GT 20 Pro smartphone. This model is targeted at the gaming community and is priced lower than most gaming phones in the market. In our review, we find out how well the Infinix GT 20 Pro stands its ground in the high demands of mobile gaming.

The Packaging

The Infinix GT 20 Pro comes in fancy packaging, showing off the gaming phone pedigree. The outer shell is a folded cardboard sheet that unfolds to reveal the box containing the smartphone. The containing box itself opens three ways, towards both sides and the top, not the usual sliding the top off the bottom type. Both the shell and the box are black with some blue and grey text, and decorative elements that mirror the Infinix GT 20 Pro rear design.

Inside the box are the usual contents; the Infinix GT 20 Pro smartphone, a black hard protective case with cutouts for the camera and the Mecha Loop Lighting (we will get to this feature later), a 45W charging brick, a charging data cable with a 90-degree USB-C port, a sim tool and documents.

The Phone itself

The Infinix GT 20 Pro boldly showcases its gaming phone ambitions through its distinctive rear plate design. The Cyber Mecha Design features a mixture of shapes, screws, and surface finishes, along with the Infinix GT branding, the back of the phone looks quite striking under the right lighting. Although it creates a 3D-like effect, it’s actually flat and is covered with a plastic surface. The plastic sides are finished in a glossy light blue shade.

The camera housing on the top half of the rear is not as thick and bulky as it seems. I would prefer if the camera housing were symmetrically placed, as it is currently slightly skewed towards the right. The front of the phone features a flat black glossy OLED screen with small bezels, maintaining the classic look of most smartphones.

Specifications at a glance:

Display and Battery

Infinix GT 20 Pro sports a 6.78-inch AMOLED panel with 1080 x 2436 pixels. The panel has a higher 144hz refresh rate, and movement looks and feels very smooth. The screen itself also feels very smooth and is pretty resistant to fingerprint smudges. The smoothness helps with the movement of fingers and thumbs gliding over the screen in a flurry of button presses to pull off combos during intense gaming battles. This is a feeling that I have not experienced even with the more expensive flagship phones from other brands.

Boasting 1,300 nits of peak brightness, but the panels do not have any HDR certifications. Infinix addresses this by including an HDR Graphics setting in their game boost engine, X-Boost, which boosts the brightness of the screen when you are playing games. In real-life viewing, while this mode does add some brightness to the overall screen, it’s not as bright as native HDR-10 displays.

Infinix GT 20 Pro is equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery, topped up with a 45W wired charger which is included in the box. Using the GT 20 Pro for an hour of gaming Genshin Impact consumes 25% battery charge, which is good. Charging time is as good, topping up from 0% to 60% takes 30 minutes while going all the way to 100% takes slightly over an hour and five minutes.

Another notable gaming phone feature that the Infinix GT 20 Pro has is bypass charging.

When bypass charging is turned on, the current from the power adapter will not charge the battery and powers the board and chipset directly. This allows for very long gaming sessions, like in a gaming tournament, while keeping the phone and battery cool to help with performance during such sessions.

Bypass charging also preserves the battery lifespan as the battery is not subjected to constant heat and charge cycles, good for the gamer who wants to play longer sessions without worrying about battery charge remaining. To facilitate bypass charging while gaming, Infinix even provided a 90-degree angled USB-C port to ensure that the cable is not obstructing the hands holding on the phone on the sides.

Gaming on the Infinix GT 20 Pro

Infinix GT 20 Pro is the official gaming phone for the recently concluded 2024 Honor of Kings Invitational Season 2 tournament, which was won by Malaysia’s LCD Gaming MY, as well as being the official gaming phone for the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Academy League Malaysia (MAL MY), a Division Two professional league of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Malaysia (MPL MY).

With such high credentials, it is then of no surprise that Infinix GT 20 Pro excels in gaming. Mated with 12GB of fast LPDDR 55X RAM, Mediatek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate 4nm chip, and a 144hz refresh rate screen, playing games on the Infinix GT 20 Pro is outstanding. This is enhanced further with the use of a dedicated gaming chip.

The dedicated Gaming Display Chip uses MEMC (Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation) and Gaming Visual Enhancement Technology to generate and insert additional frames between the original frames rendered by the game. Named the Ultra Frame Rate mode, it makes animations and movements appear smoother, particularly with Infinix GT 20 Pro’s higher refresh rate screen.

Ultra Frame Rate mode can be enabled in the phone’s X-Boost game engine for supported games such as Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Mobile Legends Bang Bang. Enabling it ensures a consistent and predictable display time for each frame, and reduces the perceptible jitter or stutter, leading to smoother perceived motion.

Playing Genshin Impact on the Infinix GT 20 Pro with the Ultra is indeed very smooth with the Ultra Frame Rate mode enabled. In this mode, the phone reduces its refresh rate to 120Hz and locks the in-game frame rates to 40FPS, then uses MEMC to generate additional frames. Without going too technical, 40FPS allows for one frame generated for each 3 refreshes to nicely match the 120Hz refresh cycle.

This method of motion smoothing is so effective that Sony also employs it for most of their first-party games on the PS5, and I was pleasantly surprised that Infinix had employed the same method to ensure smooth gameplay while maintaining cool performance as it just needed to generate 40FPS instead of 60FPS.

For Honkai: Star Rail and MLBB, the phone outputs the game at 60FPS and generates frames to fill to the 120Hz display output, and it too results in smooth gameplay with no perceivable stutters. All these while, Infinix GT 20 Pro is cool, internally and externally. It too feels much cooler as the rear plastic shell perhaps offers better heat insulation compared to glass back phones.

One point of note is that motion interpolation results in smoother gameplay graphics, but it does introduce some input lag. It’s noticeable with multiple screen inputs for combos and when swiping on the screen to change the viewing angle, but thankfully it does not negatively affect gameplay much.

Playing the same games without the Ultra Frame Rate mode offers similar smooth gameplay experiences, albeit with huge dips occasionally given the Mediatek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate chipset. Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail runs relatively smoothly mostly at 50 to 60FPS, with drops to drastically low 20 to 40FPS during intense elemental battles or when loading into a new area.

The same for playing the Wuthering Waves and the latest Hoyoverse game Zenless Zone Zero. Frame rates hover mostly at 30FPS during battles and loading into new areas, while only reaching 60FPS in cities or lesser populated areas.

An easy fix to these frame drops is to lower the graphical setting to HIGH or MEDIUM, or simply play in 30FPS mode that is mostly locked.

Another less stellar experience for a gaming phone is the tiny weak-sounding stereo speakers with almost no trace of bass registers. Despite it being tagged as “Sound by JBL“, the speakers are a weak point when gaming on the Infinix GT 20 Pro.

The Camera

There are three cameras at the back of the Infinix GT 20 Pro but it is only one that will be mostly used, the 108MP main camera. The other two cameras are both the same 2MP cameras which are used as the macro camera and as a depth sensor. Pictures taken by the 108MP main camera in daylight are good, clear and detailed. The main camera having OIS also makes the 3X digital zoom usable in daylight.

Infinix GT 20 Pro occasionally struggles in the Portrait shooting mode. There are times when the phone simply can’t lock its focus on the subject, or when it overexposes the image. There would also be times when the background blur looks too over-processed. Thankfully, these problems don’t happen all the time and most images taken in the Portrait mode turn out well but still warrant a quick check to ensure you don’t end up missing the Portrait shot you wanted.

At night or indoors with low lighting, the image quality drops slightly, resulting in noisier and blurrier images. However, these photos remain usable for social media postings and small-sized prints.

The front shooter is a 32MP selfie camera, that captures good selfies in bright daylight, but with signs of overprocessing and grain. Expectedly selfies are grainier at night, so it’s best to take selfies in brightly lighted areas.

Software

The Infinix GT 20 Pro operates on XOS, which is based on Android 14. Infinix has kept the software clean and lean, without including any bloatware or unnecessary additional software. XOS comes with several cool features;

• Folax Translate: Functions exactly as advertised.
• Smart Panel: Swiping on a tab on the side of the phone reveals a list of app icons for quick switching.
• Mecha Lighting Loop: A semi-circular LED light strip at the back that lights up and pulsates for incoming calls, notifications, and music playback.

• Dynamic Bar: Mimics Apple’s Floating Island, displaying information for face unlock, calls, recording, and charging in a pill-shaped cut-out around the front-facing camera.

These features, among others, do enhance the user experience on the Infinix GT 20 Pro.

One nagging issue I’ve experienced is with the consistency of the in-display fingerprint scanner. There were many instances where the scanner failed to recognize different registered fingers, even after cleaning my fingers and wiping down the sensor surface. I encountered similar problems with the Infinix Note 40 5G Racing Edition as well.

What I Liked About the Infinix Note 40 5G Racing Edition:

• 120Hz gameplay in Ultra Frame Rate mode with MEMC motion interpolation provides very smooth gameplay.
• Bypass charging.
• Cool phone during gaming.
• Handsome looking phone.
• Good OLED display.

What I Wished Was Better:

• The fingerprint scanner is not very functional.
• Better sounding speakers.
• More functioning cameras, like a telephoto camera.
• Better Portrait mode accuracy.

Verdict

Infinix had created a very good gaming phone the Infinix GT 20 Pro. Packed with full features and functions useful for gamers; liquid cooling vapour chamber, 120Hz refresh rate, Ultra Frame Rate mode boosting smooth gameplay, dedicated E-Sports mode, and bypass charging, to list off a few. Equipped with 12GB of RAM that can be boosted to 24GB and a powerful MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate CPU, the phone remains smooth and cool during demanding long gaming sessions or regular usage.

The cherry on top is that Infinix Malaysia has priced the Infinix GT 20 Pro at an affordable RM1,299. This makes the Infinix GT 20 Pro an attractive choice for gamers seeking a capable gaming phone without breaking the bank.