If you are on a tight budget, should you spend more than Rs 25,000 on a gaming phone?

Smartphone manufacturers usually offer one or two models aimed at gamers at different price points. These smartphones are usually performance-focused, with powerful chipsets and displays that support higher frame rates. The recently launched Infinix GT 20 Pro, powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate SoC and a gaming-specific Pixelworks chip, is one of the gaming smartphones in the mid-range segment. We tested the smartphone for a few days to see if it lives up to the company’s performance and battery life claims.

Infinix GT 20 Pro Price in India

The Infinix GT 20 Pro price in India starts at Rs 24,999 for the base model with 8GB RAM and 256GB inbuilt storage. The phone also comes in a variant with 12GB memory and 256GB storage, priced at Rs 26,999. The company is selling the phone in Mecha Blue, Mecha Orange and Mecha Silver colour options.

The company sent me the Mecha Blue edition of the GT 20 Pro, with a charger and cable included in the box. The device also came with a GT Pro Gaming Kit, which includes a GT Mecha case, a GT cooling fan, and a GT finger sleeve. There’s a catch, though: Infinix says these accessories will ship with the phone at no extra cost, but for a limited time (to be determined).

Infinix’s latest GT series smartphones build on the cyber-mecha design introduced with the GT 10 Pro model back in August 2023. Both of these phones feature the company’s Mecha Loop Lighting, inspired by Nothing’s monochrome glyph interface for smartphones.

The back features a transparent panel over what appears to be a mostly metal finish, with the camera module having a similar shape and layout to its predecessor. The RGB LED lighting module on the back panel is shaped like a “G,” with a curved section that lights up for calls, notifications, charging, and music. There’s also a Party Mode that can be enabled to keep the lights on continuously, at the expense of battery life.

The Infinix GT 20 Pro has metal-like edges and gets scratched easily.

Infinix has equipped the GT 20 Pro with metal-look plastic sides that feel smooth to the touch and won’t slip out of your hand when you grip the phone. The power button and volume rocker are on the right side, while the SIM tray and USB Type-C port are at the bottom along with the speaker grille. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack.

The top edge of the Infinix GT 20 Pro features an infrared (IR) blaster that lets you control various devices and home appliances using quick settings shortcuts. There’s a second speaker grille and the text “Sound by JBL” in small letters.

The 6.78-inch screen feels vertical and is a bit difficult to use with one hand, but the phone’s slim design makes it easy to hold. My thumb could easily reach the power button. It’s also very comfortable to hold in landscape mode, which is good news for gamers.

The Infinix GT 20 Pro is equipped with MediaTek’s Dimensity 8200 Ultimate chip, a Pixelworks X5 Turbo chip for improved gaming performance, and up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM. The 4nm mobile processor is equipped with one Arm Cortex-A78 core clocked at 3.1GHz, three Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 3.0GHz, and four Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2.0GHz.

The company’s latest GT series smartphone runs on Android 14 out of the box with XOS 14 for GT skin running on top of it. According to Infinix, the GT 20 Pro will receive two major Android version upgrades and a third year of security updates. It has an in-display fingerprint sensor which is extremely reliable and can unlock in less than a second .

The Infinix GT 20 Pro runs on XOS 14 based on Android 14.

The Infinix GT 20 Pro supports 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, and a USB Type-C port. It also has a range of sensors, including an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, electronic compass, gyroscope, and proximity sensor. The device is equipped with a 5,000mAh battery that charges at 45W using the included charging brick. The phone also has an IR blaster that can control home appliances and works well with several Sony entertainment devices.

Infinix GT 20 Pro Review: Performance

The company claims that the Infinix GT 20 Pro can deliver up to 90fps in games that support higher frame rates, and I tested it with Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and Call of Duty: Mobile. The phone easily handles titles like Genshin Impact on “medium” settings, and there were no stutters or glitches, unlike other phones in the same price range.

I didn’t notice any slowdown in the phone after gaming for over an hour, and I barely used the included GT cooling fan while playing with the phone. It’s worth keeping in mind that the gaming test was conducted in the summer, when temperatures were well above 40 degrees. The cooling fan attaches magnetically to the case, and keeps the back of the phone pretty cool, if you don’t mind extra wires getting in the way while you play.

There’s also an X-Boost mode that offers battery saving, standard power consumption, and performance modes. Other optimizations are available, including an HDR mode that subtly improves the visuals (mainly color) in games like Asphalt 9 and Genshin Impact. There’s also an eSports mode that optimizes notifications, performance, and other settings for a more immersive gaming experience.

The Infinix GT 20 Pro can handle games like Genshin Impact at the “Medium” setting.

The phone runs an optimized version of XOS 14 for GT, with very few pre-installed apps, which is surprising for a phone in this price range. There are no ads either. Browsing the web and social media apps is smooth, and other apps work fine too, although there were a couple of rare instances where some apps would reload when switching after loading another app.

The Infinix GT 20 Pro performed well in common benchmark tests, scoring 895,790 points in the AnTuTu v10 test, 1,000 points and 3,413 points in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core tests respectively. In PCMark’s Work 3.0 performance benchmark, the GT 20 Pro scored 18,328 points.

Infinix GT 20 Pro benchmarks

The phone also performed well in graphics benchmark tests, scoring 6,514 and 6,441 points in the Wild Life and Wild Life Unlimited tests respectively. It scored 3,865 points in the Sling Shot test and achieved “Best” in the Sling Shot Extreme test. Similarly, the phone scored 54 fps in GFXBench’s Car Chase test, 101 fps and 144 fps in the Manhattan 3.1 and T-Rex tests respectively.

Infinix has equipped the GT 20 Pro with a 6.78-inch Full HD+ (1,080 x 2,436 pixels) AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of up to 144Hz and a peak brightness of up to 1,300 nits. The display is very responsive when using everyday apps and games, works well outdoors, and has good visibility, although it’s not as bright as other smartphones that boast the same peak brightness level.

According to the Digital Wellbeing app, the most frequently used apps and games on the Infinix GT 20 Pro were Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Genshin Impact, WhatsApp, and YouTube Music. With the device’s 5,000mAh battery, the screen-off on time was around 6 hours and 22 minutes (average).

The Infinix GT 20 Pro has a Bright Display

The Infinix GT 20 Pro lasted for 17 hours and 32 minutes in our HD battery video loop test, and it took about 63 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 percent using the included charging cable. After 30 minutes, about 48 percent of the battery was still charged. It also supports in-game bypass charging, which seems to help keep battery levels consistent during gaming sessions while preventing overheating without the need for a cooling fan.

Infinix GT 20 Pro Review: Camera

Powered by the Samsung HM6 sensor, it has a 108-megapixel main rear camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS) support, a 2-megapixel macro camera, a 2-megapixel sensor for capturing depth information, and a 32-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video chats.

Two of the Infinix GT 20 Pro’s rear cameras can be used to capture images using the default camera app. The 108-megapixel camera captures images with a fair level of detail, especially when there is enough natural light and you are close enough to the subject. The built-in camera app also has a Pro mode that lets you adjust various parameters such as white balance and ISO levels, but I got much better results using the default mode called “AI Cam.”

When taking photos with the main camera, you need to make sure there is enough light.

When taking photos of distant subjects in less than ideal lighting conditions, the Infinix GT 20 Pro’s main camera may capture images with slightly inaccurate colors – images with brown areas may appear dark or have a slight reddish tint.

The main camera can also capture images with 3x zoom using in-sensor crop, which works well when the subject is not too far away and there is enough light. If you take photos in low light or at night, the captured image will lose a lot of detail as the camera produces a smooth image to reduce noise.

Images taken in low light environments are very smooth.

The Infinix GT 20 Pro’s macro camera is very mediocre, even when taken in daylight. Edges of objects are blurred, colors are not as vibrant as those of the main camera, and images lack sufficient detail. Low-light images taken with the macro camera have even less detail and are noisy.

The default camera on the Infinix GT 20 Pro supports OIS up to 4K/30fps and can record videos up to 4K/60fps. To use OIS, you need to enable Ultra Steady mode in the camera app. We highly recommend using this feature if you plan on walking around while taking videos.

The Infinix GT 20 Pro’s macro camera struggles to capture detailed, sharp images.

On the other hand, the selfie camera on this phone is pretty good, but to get full resolution images you need to enable the 32MP mode from the camera interface. It’s good that I didn’t notice any “beautify” feature while clicking pictures. Images are very sharp in normal lighting conditions and average in low light scenarios too.

The Infinix GT 20 Pro also comes with a dual video mode in the default camera app, which lets you capture videos using both the main (rear) camera and the selfie camera simultaneously. There is no lag while capturing dual videos and you can also adjust the size of the videos captured using both the cameras.

Infinix GT 20 Pro Review: Verdict

Is the Infinix GT 20 Pro the best performance-oriented phone you can buy under Rs 25,000 right now? If you’re looking for a powerful phone that can handle most games and other intensive tasks, the answer is yes. No other phone offers the same level of CPU and display performance while gaming. The phone also comes with a neat operating system, which is becoming increasingly rare in this price range. The phone also gets two OS upgrades that make it an improvement over its predecessor.

Other smartphones available in the same price range include the Samsung Galaxy F55 (first impressions), Motorola Edge 50 Fusion, Nothing Phone 2a (review), Poco X6 Pro (review) and OnePlus Nord CE 4 (review). Of these, only the Poco X6 Pro beats the Infinix GT 20 Pro in benchmark tests. Meanwhile, the other smartphones offer a better overall experience, including better camera performance. This is worth keeping in mind if top-notch gaming performance isn’t the only consideration when buying a smartphone.

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