The Infinix Note 60 Pro is much more than a phone with tamagotchi aesthetics | Review

In the increasingly competitive market of mid-range phones, brands do everything to make their products stand out. So I assumed this would be the case with the Infinix Note 60 Pro, which uses a pixelated rear screen with ‘tamagotchi’-style pets as a differentiating factor from its rivals, but after a few weeks of testing I find that this feature paradoxically hides what is a quite competent phone at a competitive price.

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Here are the device’s features:

Design

The design of the Infinix Note 60 Pro will be quite familiar to those who follow the smartphone sector, being inspired by the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, something that becomes more evident when seeing photos of the device in a distinctive orange color similar to that Apple used to differentiate this generation, although in my case I received a test model in an attractive “deep ocean” blue color.

Inspiration and not copy is an important word in this matter, as the Infinix Note 60 Pro differs from its muse in two distinctive ways. The first, which we will explain later, is in its camera suite, which differs in power, form, and configuration from Apple’s product. The second is a curious screen on the photo module called Active Matrix, a grandiose name for what is essentially a panel of 288 LED lights capable of displaying pixelated images on the back of the device.

Its main function when activated is to show us a menagerie of animals like dogs, cats, and lions in a style that will remind those with some years on them of the famous Tamagotchis, those virtual pets that dominated children’s attention in the mid-90s, but the screen can also serve to display more relevant information such as the time, the phone’s battery status, and even to play some simple games. It’s a charming point, although with limited use, especially considering that the occasions when we see the back of our phone in daily use are few, at least on my side.

It is an apparently simple addition, and perhaps not very used in my time with the device, but I found that from time to time seeing a small lion move across the back of the device adds quite a bit of personality to the phone.

Regarding size, the Infinix Note 60 Pro measures 162.37 x 77.17 x 7.45 millimeters, placing it between the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It is also lightweight, weighing 201.7 grams with a body made of aluminum, and feels notably balanced when held in the hand, something surprisingly not all phones consider when releasing their devices.

Image and sound

The Infinix Note 60 Pro features a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen (2644×1208 pixels) with a 144Hz refresh rate and a 1.5K resolution. The device also reaches 4,500 nits of maximum brightness, allowing it to be clearly seen even in challenging lighting situations such as outdoors on a sunny day.

This is ideal because the phone offers a good image that paradoxically highlights its deep blacks in contrast with its vivid colors, making it suitable not only for browsing the internet or performing the usual functions of these devices but also for enjoying video games or watching series and movies.

This attention to image also seems to extend to sound, with the Infinix Note 60 Pro using JBL speakers to ensure high sound fidelity. Located at the top and bottom of the device, these speakers perform quite decently, without notable distortion when listening to music or watching videos, although showing the same somewhat flat sound characteristic of phones in general, especially when trying to reproduce lower frequencies. Overall, it is a quite decent package comparable to, and sometimes better than, other mid-range phones.

Cameras

The Infinix Note 60 Pro does not break the paradigm with its cameras. On the front, it has a 13MP selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture, while on the back it has a 50MP main camera with f/1.59 accompanied by an 8MP wide-angle with f/2.2, something we have seen countless times.

This does not mean the phone takes bad photos; on the contrary, we found that overall the photo results were more favorable than not, with sharp photos and vibrant colors.

I was pleasantly surprised by its night mode, called Super Night, which allows taking sharp photos in low light conditions, although with a understandable increase in pixelation in some areas.

It is worth noting that besides photos, the Infinix Note 60 Pro also allows recording 4K resolution videos at 30 fps.

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User experience and performance

Not only the exterior of the Infinix Note 60 Pro seems inspired by its competitors, with its XOS operating system it seems to have taken more than one idea from the Apple company, including its “liquid glass” aesthetic, although happily this ultimately favors the user experience by presenting a quite intuitive UI that will be familiar to both Android and iOS users.

Meanwhile, the phone’s performance is also considerable, leaving behind past MediaTek chips for a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (4nm) with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage, allowing smooth operation even when using multiple apps simultaneously.

This power also translates into greater capabilities for playing video games thanks to an Adreno A810 GPU that allows, for example, playing heavy games like “Genshin Impact” smoothly maintaining a high FPS of 60 fps on medium graphics and 40-45 fps on very high graphics.

The emphasis on gaming is seen in the addition of X Boost AI, a specialized gaming mode that activates when one starts one of these apps. It has three modes with different powers ranging from Power Saving -> Balanced -> Performance. The mode also includes well-known options like automatically rejecting calls, hiding notifications, and more to make the experience uninterrupted.

AI Capabilities

But the interesting options are found under the AI Magic Box tab that allows ‘cheats’ such as “Speed up dialogue” in the game, “Auto pick-up” of items, “Lock on run” (essentially an autorun) and “Unfreeze” which ensures help to unfreeze your character, but I did not have the chance to test it.

Additionally, it has a “One-press combo” option that allows recording a series of commands – or gestures on the touchscreen – and playing them back with the press of a single button. The command even warns “please use the one-press combo reasonably to ensure fair play.”

A curiosity of the phone is having a health sensor on one side, which can take measurements such as heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and even stress levels, which are sent to the My Health app to create a report on the user’s condition and AI-driven recommendations. A company representative told us that the measurements have an error margin of about 5%, and although personally we could not verify it with more precise medical instruments, we noticed that the statistics shown by the Infinix Note 60 Pro sensor were similar to those presented by the Huawei Watch 5 smartwatch.

This is not the only artificial intelligence function of the phone, which has incorporated in XOS its AI agent Folax, which offers functions ranging from answering questions, summarizing web pages, and even giving advice about what is happening on your screen. Folax also has one of the most and least restrictive image creators I have seen to date, allowing only the creation of a dozen images per day, but without restricting image creation for copyright reasons, as the images I show below demonstrate.

Other AI functions are related to photo editing, with the option to remove reflections from photos and even objects, as well as ‘expand’ images using generative artificial intelligence. The reality is that in this aspect I found the functions a bit clumsy, with object removal being the most competent, but finding repeated occasions where the system did not recognize reflections in images. Also, I experienced multiple error messages when trying to use the AI image expansion function, something that happened on different days and even connected to my home internet.

Battery

The phone has a 6,000 mAh battery. It is a respectable capacity for phones in its category that can translate, in our experience, to between three and four days of regular use or about 20 hours of continuous video playback.

Conclusion

The Infinix Note 60 Pro is an excellent option for those looking for a smartphone at a more moderate price, featuring a powerful Snapdragon processor, a remarkable screen, and a decent camera, all wrapped in a design that, while not the most original, definitely looks (and feels) pleasant.

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