Infinix Note 5 Stylus Unboxing and First Impressions

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Unboxing
Breaking the myth that a budget smartphone can’t offer a good stylus – Note 5 Stylus is here with XPen 2.0 built-in

Infinix Mobility was recently active with teasing about an upgrade or sibling to its Note 5 smartphone that features a Stylus. Dubbed as “Note 5 Stylus”, the phone was previously reported to launch on October 12th. Now according to sources, it’s been delayed for a week and may launch on October 19th.

Even though the new Infinix Note 5 Stylus follows the Note 5 launched earlier this year, it’s a direct successor to Note 4 Pro of last year that also featured company’s XPen as a stylus. However it wasn’t the body part of the phone itself. Instead, the company shipped a flip cover in the box that worked as the holder of the pen.

Read: Infinix Note 5 Stylus Full Review – A budget smartphone with impressive stylus

This year, the new Note 5 Stylus seems to be better guy from the company as it carries the new XPen 2.0 in its body. The new Stylus model of Note 5 also keeps the “Android One” status and ships with the pure Android 8.1 Oreo. That means it’s bound to receive updates quicker than other smartphones.

Infinix has announced the availability of Note 5 Stylus in Pakistan for PKR 32,999/- With this price tag, you can consider this phone to be at lower mid-range level. The MediaTek platform also suggests the same thing with MT6763 – commercially known as Helio P23.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Overview

A quick look on the box reveals only the key information about the phone that includes the device name and a major device components.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Retail Box

Infinix Note 5 Stylus – The bottom of the retail box, listing major device components

This is the bottom of the box where a full flat sticker is pasted listing major components of the phone which are – XPen, 18:9 6-inch display, 16MP rear and front camera, 4000 mAh battery with XCharge fast charging, and last but not least the full metal body.

The Note 5 Stylus comes in three colors including Gold, Red and Charcoal Blue. The last one actually looks more like a dark gray color but you may feel some blue shade if you are so sensitive to colors, I did not. Let me know if you see some blue in the pictures you see during this session.

Unboxing

The phone comes just in a standard white box. Pop out the top cover to unveil the Infinix Note 5 Stylus smartphone lying on top. Again, that I don’t like, a colored sticker with white back is pasted on the screen labeling the same components that we read below the box.

Underneath the phone, there comes a card-box container with some user guide stuff and SIM eject tool. You get a screen protector and silicon back cover additionally in the retail box.

You get fast charging support with bundled 10W/18W charger that supports switching between standard 5V-2A charging and variable 9V-2A / 12V-1.5A charging at different stages.

Included is the standard stereo in-ear earphones. As the Note 5 Stylus is just a mid-ranger, it features a micro USB port and come with that cable and it’s USB 2.0 for sure.

If you look at the overall package here is all what you get with the purchase of Infinix Note 5 Stylus.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Unboxing Review Pakistan

Box Content

  • Device: Infinix Note 5 Stylus
  • Charger: Fast charger with 9V/2A – 12V/1.5A
  • Micro USB cable: USB 2.0 connectivity
  • Stereo Earphones
  • SIM eject tool
  • User guides: device and XPen
  • Add-on Protective film
  • Add-on Silicon back cover

Infinix Note 5 Stylus – Hands-On First Impressions

Perhaps missed above, the box also states the two major things about the phone – the color and RAM/storage as they are the most important things to distinct models – This piece features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Well that’s the only variant you will get here in Pakistan because that’s the only variant the company has yet.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Unboxing

That’s the Charcoal blue model as I said above that looks simply a gray color. Let me know in the comments below if you can see “blue” through it.

In the wild of little pricey mid-range models from OPPO and Vivo featuring plastic build material, Infinix somewhat is good to impress with its fully-metal built Note 5 Stylus. However the physical size of the phone is little bigger with just a 6-inch screen when we have seen a crowd of bezel-less phones with notch, water-drop or halo on display-top. In fact Infinix has recently launched the Hot S3x with the similar display design.

Though I am not a big fan of those cut-outs on top of the display, I’d even prefer the slimmer top bezels with a thinner chin which is already available in wide array of smartphones with 18:9 or similar display aspect ratios. I am not sure what took Infinix to keep slim bezels from this new Note 5 Stylus.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Unboxing Review Pakistan

The display resolution is full HD+ 2160×1080 pixels that makes up a pixel density of 402 ppi which is good. If you are wondering about the screen-to-body ratio, it is 78%.

The top bezel house the receiver/earpiece along with other hidden sensors. Plus there is a 16-megapixel camera to the left and a soft LED flash to the right. The chin is completely clean from anything as the phone uses on-screen navigation.

If you haven’t pointed out already, the display has rounded corners which you can take as a feature as well, or let us know if you don’t care about that.

Build Quality and Features

The build quality, no doubt, is a good deal for the price. The fully metal body has thicker plastic antennas for interruption free reception. The back side is slightly curved on the sides while it joins straight to the top and bottom. The whole body has a chamfered edges around the thin plastic frame before it meets the glass display.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Review Infinix Note 5 Stylus Review

The Note 5 Stylus still keeps its single camera on the back where it shares the vertical dark area with a fingerprint sensor. Outside that dark module, there is a dual LED flash. If you look closely, you would see the “Android One” label below the “NOTE” branding.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Review

Basic Components

Coming towards the sides, the Note 5 Stylus has nothing on the top, while the left side hosts a hybrid dual-SIM slot that you can use with two SIM cards simultaneously or one SIM card at a time with a micro SD card.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Review Infinix Note 5 Stylus Review

The volume rocker and power button is on the right side while the bottom side hosts everything. 3.5mm audio jack, the primary microphone, the micro USB port and a loudspeaker. To the far right on the bottom you can see the major factor of this phone – the stylus, or XPen certainly.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Review Infinix Note 5 Stylus Review

The XPen has a an upgraded version 2.0 with Note 5 Stylus, that is improved, more reliable and more secure than the one we saw with Note 4 Pro last year.

XPen 2.0 – Note 5 Stylus

Push-in to let it free from the phone and get ready with the pen stuff. I do hope you won’t consider it to be something like Samsung’s latest S-Pen in Note 9. No, it doesn’t have Bluetooth connectivity with the phone but only the near-display detection. With the price, I believe you get more than than needed.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus XPen Review

The phone has its user interface for using XPen specifically that allows you to – create note, write memo, view existing notes/files, take screenshots and then painting, for some drawing/painting lovers. This specific interface is triggered only when the phone is unlocked. However the lock-screen comes with its own simply dark interface that instantly appears if you eject the XPen while the screen is locked.

The new XPen is charged when it stays within the phone with the two terminals near the pointer-end. For quick interaction with phone’s user interface, the XPen has a multi-function button as well. The button on the XPen works differently with respect to the interface you are using it in.

Android 8.1 Oreo – Pure

The built-in stylus is of course a good upgrade from the last one but it’s not the only key we have here. Being under the Android One umbrella, the phone is mostly free of memory and storage troubles. The phone has the 4GB RAM with 64GB internal storage and on top if your phone does not have any bloatware and just pure Android, it’s the best thing for you to do whatever you want with it.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Review

Specially when there are chances of proprietary user interfaces getting off-track in pursuit of making distinctions from other variations. It’s better to give user the pure software with only minor but useful feature enhancements.

16MP Rear + 16MP Front Camera

Infinix Note 5 Stylus has single primary camera on the back and the single one on the front. Both feature 16-megapixel sensors inside, however both have some differences. The rear camera has f/1.8 large aperture lens. While on the front, another 16MP camera has f/2.0 aperture lens.

Feature wise they do support Bokeh or Portrait like stuff in addition Professional and Night modes. There is Time-lapse and panorama too. Video recording is supported up to 1080p resolution for both front and rear cameras. The front camera has additional option to take Wide Selfie. Not to mention that Google Lens is built-in.

Infinix Note 5 Stylus Review Camera

Infinix calls it AI camera just like every other smartphone maker recently calls its cameras some kind power house of of artificial intelligence. Most of them only have it for the sake of advertising while some do have a bit impressive things to do with AI. I haven’t tested Note 5 Stylus camera yet and will see how does it go by its words.

Pre-Final Thoughts

The price tag of the phone seems to justify with its build quality and the built-in XPen that comes with quite a nice set of features. However, the Helio P23 is little less impressive for this price. We’ll see how does it actually perform in day to day usage.

We haven’t used the phone for its performance yet, so just hold tight as the detailed review would come out sooner. Sure that will include everything from software, performance, battery life and camera image/video quality from Note 5 Stylus. If you have any questions, just throw them below and we’ll bring a perfect answer for you.

Update: Full review has been published