Infinix GT 30 Pro review: Top choice for gamers under Rs 25,000?

India Today

a day ago

Infinix is taking a swing at India's burgeoning affordable gaming smartphone market with the GT 30 Pro. Its new phone goes head-to-head against heavyweights like Poco's X7 Pro and iQOO Neo 10R. You might have heard about these phones if you're into mobile gaming. They're both just very good smartphones. But this piece is not about them. It is about whether the GT 30 Pro could be another great option for people. Choice is nice. The more the better. The GT 30 Pro's impressively stacked spec-sheet makes it seem like Infinix has already won half the battle, leaving the rest for us reviewers to test and tell you. Spoiler alert: it's mostly good news.advertisementThe GT 30 Pro follows hot on the heels of the GT 20 Pro. We reviewed that phone, too, and we quite liked it. But there was room for improvement, which there always is. There is no such thing as a perfect phone or gadget. What matters is if Infinix has learnt anything from it and chosen to fix some of its shortcomings this year with its successor. It has, mostly. There are upgrades across the board from design to display, performance and battery life, you name it. More importantly, despite the long list of upgrades, Infinix has not increased the price. The GT 30 Pro costs almost the same as the GT 20 Pro. The base variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage is priced at Rs 24,999 while the top-end 12GB/256GB model will set you back by Rs 26,999.Infinix GT 30 Pro design: Gaming phone from the get-goadvertisementYou look at the GT 30 Pro, and you know instantly that it is a gaming phone. There is no confusion. Infinix doesn't want you to confuse it with something else either. It is what it is. The back panel features angular patterns with reflective accents that are quite striking. There are some fancy RGB theatrics too that you can customise from the settings to turn up every time you receive a phone call or a message. Party peeps can also make it match their vibe and ambience by staying on all the time. It is all cool but remember, the more you use it, the faster you'll drain the phone's battery.
Anyhow, the camera module doesn't take up too much space on the back, which is a far cry from almost everything in the market today. It means that it wobbles comparatively less on a flat surface. The red accent around it is a nice touch accentuating the gamer aesthetic in fun and whimsical ways. We like that Infinix chose to put minimal branding. Even its brand logo is tastefully executed.
The IR Blaster on Infinix GT 30 Pro
Adding to the phone's gaming credentials are a pair of capacitive shoulder triggers that lie on its left edge and mimic the L1-R1 triggers found on traditional gaming controllers. They are appropriately named GT triggers and let you assign certain in-game actions like locking on a target and shooting in titles like BGMI. You can also map other functions to these triggers. For instance, I assigned the mute switch to them. Infinix could have let each trigger have individual mappable functions but given the low price, it is okay. A thing to note is that it has done some clever tuning so when in portrait mode, only the top trigger is responsive. Because they are capacitive rather than physical, tactile buttons, it may take a few days to get used to their placement. But when you're gaming in landscape, the positioning feels right – your fingers naturally rest on them.What is also worth mentioning is that the Infinix GT 30 Pro comes with an IR blaster which means that you can use it as a remote control for TVs, ACs, and other appliances.advertisementErgonomically, the phone offers even weight distribution and flat edges, making it easy to hold and use with one hand despite its large 6.7-inch display. But there are some quality control (QC) issues we experienced, particularly with the SIM tray.
We used the Infinix GT 30 Pro's SIM Tray a total of two times
Infinix GT 30 Pro display and UI are standout featuresThe GT 30 Pro sports a 6.78-inch display with a 1.5K resolution and an ultra-smooth 144Hz refresh rate, and supports a 160Hz touch sampling rate, 2,304Hz PWM dimming for reduced eye strain, and can reach up to 4,500 nits of brightness. It has a bright and beautiful display, which is great for both gaming and watching a movie or a show on it. It supports up to a 144Hz refresh rate, but the implementation could be better. We know that not every app and game supports it yet, but even in the ones that do, we found the phone often lowered the refresh rate to 120 and 90Hz, even when it was set to run at full 144Hz. In BGMI, the highest display refresh rate you can select is 120Hz.advertisementA screen's refresh rate refers to how many times per second it updates the image – the higher the rate, the smoother the experience. In practice, 120Hz is already very fluid and more than enough for most people. While 144Hz is great on paper, most users won't notice much of a difference in daily use, especially since not many apps and games support it yet. The only evident difference you would notice is that keeping the phone on 144Hz – with the phone constantly switching between different refresh rates – only drains your battery faster.
The Infinix GT 30 Pro supports up to 144Hz refresh rate
One issue we noticed with the GT 30 Pro was its adaptive brightness felt wonky at times. The display is generally bright enough to comfortably read text even in direct sunlight. However, we observed that when waking the phone from standby, the display takes a few seconds to adjust its brightness.advertisementOf course, a good display is only part of the experience. What truly ties it all together is the phone's user interface. And for a phone in the sub- Rs 25,000 segment, it's impressive that Infinix offers an ad-free and largely bloatware-free experience. The Infinix GT 30 Pro runs XOS 15, which is based on Android 15. It is clean, intuitive, and offers a range of customisations. The phone also comes with a suite of AI features to help generate text, proofread and summarise it, as well as to edit photos on the fly.
Similar to the Dynamic Island on an iPhone, the GT 30 Pro features something called the Dynamic Bar. It displays key information in a compact strip. You can customise what appears here – for instance, Face Unlock animations, call details, charging status, SMS verification codes, countdowns, hotspot info, screen recorder animations, and more.
Infinix GT 30 Pro camera: Good for the priceFor photography, the device packs a 108-megapixel primary camera alongside an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens. Selfies are handled by a 13-megapixel camera.Infinix isn't positioning the GT 30 Pro as a camera-first phone. That said, its camera performance is quite impressive for the price. We tested the camera in various lighting conditions, and it generally delivered good results. The phone makes smart use of AI to enhance images – sharpening details, balancing contrast well, and producing colours that are close to natural.It does struggle a bit with focus in low light, but with a steady hand and a little patience, night mode kicks in and captures fairly sharp images. In good lighting, the selfie camera performs well too. Low-light selfies can be slightly grainy, but the automatic AI edits add dynamic range, making the images more vibrant. Overall, for someone spending around Rs 25,000, we're confident the camera won't disappoint.Tap on the gallery below to view image samples.
Infinix GT 30 Pro performance and batteryThe Infinix GT 30 Pro runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Ultimate processor. The performance – especially for gaming, and general use – is one of the highlights of the smartphone. We used the GT 30 Pro as our daily driver for a week. This involved running multiple work apps, scrolling through social media, using the camera frequently, and of course, gaming. We also ran benchmark tests on the device, and it performed quite well. On Geekbench 6, the device scored 1186 in the single-core test and 3786 in the multi-core test – better than the scores we recorded on the Nothing Phone (3a) and the OnePlus Nord CE 4. In the GPU test, it achieved an OpenCL score of 7881.
Benchmark scores aren't everything, but in the case of the Infinix GT 30 Pro, they are reflected in real-world performance as well. We played BGMI on the phone using the highest graphics settings, and it handled the load impressively well. Gameplay was smooth, and we barely noticed any lag. The haptic feedback is also quite good.Fuelling the phone is a 5,500mAh battery, which supports 45W wired fast charging and 30W wireless charging. Even with multiple apps running, the display set to 144Hz, and the always-on display turned off, the phone easily lasted a full day. With more efficient settings, it may last even longer. However, during extended gaming sessions, we did notice the battery draining faster.Charging the phone is a relatively quick process. In about 30 minutes, it charges up to 50 per cent. A full charge from 0 to 100 per cent takes just over an hour – around 80 minutes. Wireless charging is an extra perk.
The GT Trigger on Infinix GT 30 Pro
Infinix GT 30 Pro is worth consideringThe Infinix GT 30 Pro has genuinely impressed us. It's not a perfect phone, but it's clear that Infinix has all the right ingredients. For under Rs 25,000, the GT 30 Pro is a solid smartphone, especially for gamers. It offers customisable GT Triggers, a neat and bloat-free UI, a bright display, an attractive design, and a good camera setup. On most days, a single charge is enough to get through the day. All in all, the Infinix GT 30 Pro is a budget gaming phone worth considering.