Infinix Hot 70 Pro 5G Review: The Price That Held Still

A naming note before anything else. This is the Infinix HOT 70 Pro 5G, model X6896. Infinix also prints "HOT 70 Pro 5G+" on the phone's launch screen and its box art. It is the same phone under both names, and either will find it.

Rs. 24,999 at launch. About the same today.

We have spent most of 2026 writing the same sentence about phones in this band: launched at one price, now asking several thousand more. The realme 15x launched at Rs. 16,999 and now sells in a range that now starts near Rs. 24,500. The POCO M8 launched at Rs. 18,999 and lists at Rs. 21,500 to Rs. 24,000. So it is worth saying plainly when a phone does the opposite. The Hot 70 Pro's base model launched at Rs. 24,999 and its cheapest orderable listing today is a little under that.

That does not make it cheap. It makes it honest, in the narrow sense that the number on launch day is still the number. Everything below is judged at that number.

Slim, sealed and connected, which is a rarer mix than it sounds.

A 6,000mAh cell in a 7.85mm body is a genuine bit of packaging. Most phones that go past 6,000mAh at this price put on width, weight or both; this one stays at about 205 grams. Add IP68, which covers dust and submersion, and you have a phone that survives the monsoon commute without asking you to carry a brick.

The everyday details are good too. NFC is here, which matters for tap-to-pay and is still missing from plenty of rivals at this money. The speakers are stereo. Storage is expandable. And the software promise, 3 Android upgrades and 5 years of security patches, is a real commitment from a brand that has not always made one.

The screen is a 6.76-inch FHD+ LCD at 144Hz. That refresh rate is higher than 90% of the phones we track, and the resolution is properly sharp, not the 720p some rivals ship. The Dimensity 7100 is a mid-range part built for exactly this kind of high-refresh daily use.

Then there is the cube. The Active Matrix Cube is a small dot-matrix panel set into the camera island that shows faces, icons and notification cues. It does nothing a spec sheet can score. It is also the first thing anyone who sees this phone will ask about, and in a band full of identical slabs, that counts for something.

Scored from published specifications against the 210 phones we have verified on sale in India as of 6 October 2026. Overall it is better specified than 44% of them. Brightness is not shown because published figures for this phone disagree.

An LCD and an 8MP selfie camera, at Rs. 25,000.

The compromise is the screen technology. At this price the POCO M8 and the Samsung Galaxy F36 5G both ship AMOLED panels, with deeper blacks and better contrast, and both currently list for less. A 144Hz LCD is smooth, but it is still an LCD, and you will see the difference in a dark room long before you see the extra 24Hz.

The cameras are the other gap. There is a single 50MP Sony IMX882 on the back with no ultrawide, and only 1 source we found claims optical stabilisation, so we are not claiming it. The 8MP front camera is low for a Rs. 25,000 phone; the realme 15x carries a 50MP selfie sensor at a similar price. If video calls and selfies matter to you, this is the wrong phone.

Who should buy what, at this money.

POCO M8, Rs. 21,500 to Rs. 24,000: an AMOLED at 120Hz, a Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, a 20MP front camera, a longer software promise of 4 Android upgrades and 6 years of patches, and 178 grams. It gives up IP68 for IP65 and IP66. For most people it is the better buy, and our POCO M8 review explains why.

realme 15x, Rs. 24,500 to Rs. 28,000: a bigger 7,000mAh cell, faster 60W charging, IP68 and IP69, and that 50MP selfie camera, but a 720p screen and a Dimensity 6300. The Infinix has the far better display. See our realme 15x review.

Samsung Galaxy F36 5G, Rs. 22,500 to Rs. 24,000: an AMOLED and a stabilised main camera with an ultrawide, on a 25W charger and a smaller cell. The pick if photos matter more than battery. Our Galaxy F36 5G review has the detail.