Designed with elegance and efficiency in mind, the Infinix NOTE Edge is the world’s first phone to leverage the new MediaTech Dimensity 7100 5G platform. Designed as a sleek and lightweight smartphone, the NOTE Edge offers an impressive lineup of features in its compact form factor. At a price point of $ 200, Infinix aims to provide a smartphone solution that is both efficient and cost-effective. Can it achieve both?
Examining the design, the NOTE Edge shares some similarities with the HOT 60 Pro+ I reviewed last year. Though not quite as thin as the HOT 60Pro+’s 5.95mm, the NOTE Edge measure an impressive 7.22mm, placing it clearly in the range of thin smartphones. At only 181g, the NOTE Edge is impressively light, making it ideal for travel and commuting.
It also has a similar 3D-curved display to that of the HOT 60 Pro+, something I’ve come to really enjoy about the NOTE Edge. The 1.5K resolution with 120Hz refresh rate looks incredibly sharp on the 6.78” display as well and provides great colour depth and richness to the images displayed. Thanks to its 4500 nit brightness, the NOTE Edge also supports HDR content that looks great when streaming supported content. With Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection and IP65 dust and water resistance its a sturdy and solid offering.
On the note of the display, I’ve found the touch sensor to be quite responsive, especially for a budget-friendly smartphone. In everyday work tasks as well as gaming, the NOTE Edge has had no issues with responsiveness. It’s smooth, fluid and quick thanks to its 2800Hz instant touch sampling rate. Gaming was likewise snappy and precise, offering some solid touch performance.
Examining the rest of the phone, Infinix has included the standard fair or volume and power buttons along with a programmable quick access button. By default, a long press opens the camera app, but it can be reassigned to a variety of functions through the NOTE Edge’s software.
Flipping the NOTE Edge over reveals a fairly discrete camera bump that houses the phone’s two rear cameras. The primary lens houses a 50MP sensor and delivers some seriously impressive captures. Live Photo Mode is available for the first time on the Infinix Note Edge, a feature typically reserved for higher-end models. Leveraging AI’s processing, the camera captures 1.5 seconds before and after the shutter is engaged and combines the best elements of the capture to create a picture-perfect photo.
While this tech has been refined by other manufacturers, this is the first time I’ve seen the feature on a budget-friendly model. In testing, it performs exceptionally well, another pleasant surprise considering the NOTE Edge price point. The main camera can simulate a 24, 35, and 50mm lens capture, with the results speaking for themselves.
While I would have expected the NOTE Edge to offer some basic point-and-shoot settings, I’ve actually been impressed at how much control the camera software gives the user. While in Pro mode, users have full access to manually adjust everything from focus to ISO. HDR mode leverages the full potential of the 50MP sensor and results in some impressively detailed image captures.
Video capture, on the otherhand is functional but a bit lacklustre. Resolution support goes up to 2K30 but lacks any stabilization. For people like me who lack any type of steady hands while filming, it’s practically unusable without a gimbal. Shooting at 1080p30 is the sweet spot if stabilization is required, and the results are fine. Auto colour correction and white balancing perform well while filming with no notable delay when exposing the lens to sudden peaks or dips in light.
Finally located beside the camera system is the Infinix Active Halo Light. Designed as essentially a glorified indicator LED, the Halo Light offers some impressive lighting options to give visual cues to the user without the need to check the phone’s display. Its a nice little quality of life element that some users will find useful.
The overall look and build quality of the NOTE Edge is solid. The finish on the Lunar Titanium model (available in Shadow Black, Stellar Blue and Silk Green as well) is quite nice. It catches the light quite nicely and doesn’t hold smudge marks either, meaning the phone’s shell always looks pristine. From a design perspective, I’m quite impressed with the look and feel of the NOTE Edge.
Shifting to hardware, this is where I am, perhaps, most surprised. In partnership with MediaTek, Infinix is the first brand to leverage the new 7100 5G processor. The Dimensity 7100 5G sports an octa-core CPU (eight ARM Cortex-A78/A55 cores) and a Mali-G610 MC2 GPU. While it is clearly in the mid-range for mobile processors, it is incredibly efficient and performs quite well, even when handling heavy tasks.
This is supported by 8GB of RAM, up to 8GB of virtual RAM, and up to 256GB of storage. When combined, the results are solid. While it performed as expected on Geekbench 6, with single-core and multi-core scores of 974 and 2792, it’s the everyday performance that is impressive. When using the Infinix NOTE Edge in real-world situations, it feels like it’s swinging above its weight class.
“In productivity testing, the NOTE Edge handled multitasking easily, even when quickly switching between apps, with no noticeable delay or lag.”
In productivity testing, the NOTE Edge handled multitasking easily, even when quickly switching between apps, with no noticeable delay or lag. Opening and closing apps is smooth and instantaneous, and movement between screens is fluid. This is complemented by the new XOS 16, Infinix OS.
Running on top of Android 16, XOS 16 offers some great visual and quality-of-life features. Powered by Infinix AI, the new OS gives users access to features like Folax Smart Touch, which feels like a streamlined, more powerful version of Google Lens, with quick gesture control. It works great and makes pulling up info on any given screen element quick and painless.
The Social translator is also quick and impressive, and supports both call summaries and bi-directional translation for audio and video calls. While there is a very slight delay when used, it does provide translated subtitles during the call in real time after selecting both your and the other user’s language. As someone who is frequently communicating with friends from other countries, this has been a unique and truly fun feature to test and use.
Other AI features, such as document summarization, built-in AI writing (Grammarly without a subscription), and recording summaries, help round out XOS 16’s feature list and work incredibly well on this budget-friendly smartphone. The performance of the NOTE Edge carries over into gaming as well. While it can’t compete with flagship-level mobile gaming, I was still impressed during testing.
Running Diablo Immortal, I easily maintained 60 FPS at medium settings, and it looked quite sharp on the 1.5K display. The phone also stays quite cool even during long play sessions, which I was quite impressed with, considering that I was redlining the game’s settings. In the realm of performance, the Infinix Note Edge is one of the best budget smartphones I’ve tested without a doubt.
Pairing well with this performance is the NOTE Edge’s battery life. Sporting a 6500mAh or 6150mAh battery (depending on the region – testing was performed on the latter), the NOTE Edge has no issue performing all day. In video stream testing, I managed just over 21 hours of continuous playback before it finally shut off. Thanks to its 24W fast charging, bringing the NOTE Edge from 0-100% takes just over an hour on average, and the good folks at Infinix do include both a cable and charging brick with the phone.
“The Infinix NOTE Edge is a budget-conscious smartphone with some premium-level features performing on a midrange set of hardware.”
Sadly, there is no wireless charging, but the NOTE Edge does support both reverse tethered charging and adaptive bypass charging. The former works as you would expect, allowing for quick charging of a second device on the fly. Adaptive bypass charging essentially allows the phone to bypass the battery once significantly charged and power the phone directly when in use. This reduces heat buildup and can prolong the battery’s overall life. For those serious long streaming or gaming sessions, this is a brilliant feature.
The final feature of note is Infinix’s UPS 3.0 AI Super Signal Technology. Designed to provide better signal strength, even in remote areas. While I haven’t done extensive testing, I did note that it captures the signal better in the rural areas around our city than my wife’s newer iPhone does. What is most impressive is that this feature is available on a $200 dollar entry level phone. All of this is a testament to Infinix’s desire to create a consumer-friendly smartphone for the masses. At this, they have succeeded.
The Infinix NOTE Edge is a budget-conscious smartphone with some premium-level features performing on a midrange set of hardware. The fact that such a statement exists and is true is a testament to the smart engineering that has gone into the making of the NOTE Edge. While it won’t crush flagship-level smartphones, it will absolutely perform for daily productivity and most gaming with ease, all while providing some excellent quality of life feature sets for you to leverage in real-world situations.
