Gaming phones first raided the market a few years ago, and everyone expected them to ravage the competition. But the category never really prospered because of high prices and bulky phones with designs that screamed for attention while attempting to masquerade as “normal” phones. Further, the more recent onslaught of handheld gaming PCs means you do not need to buy an almost $1,000 Android device for gaming when you can get something much better.
In comes this inexpensive phone from a sparsely known company, Infinix (which is surprisingly part of the world’s fourth-largest phone manufacturer). Infinix brings the $300 GT 20 Pro, which you can comfortably splurge on if you are looking for a spare phone to game on without the heavy guilt of overindulging in a device you’ll probably only use once in a while.
Follow me as I take you through the reasons why the Infinix GT 20 Pro is a great bargain for a gaming phone.
Exquisite design and lights for the win
It’s tough to argue that radical design elements are central to almost anything with the prefix “gaming.” The Infinix GT 20 Pro does not buck that trend. In fact, the company clothes it in outrageously jazzy colors — but in good taste — that scream gaming from a long distance.
On the back, there is an electrifying mix of dark gray, silver, and blue, with a host of different textures under a flattened transparent panel that combines in a very industrial harmony. The interplay of light with these textures results in them being lit up with different colors of the rainbow at different angles. Trust me, you can spend several minutes just curiously investigating the various niches of this design and not get bored.
Besides the blue variant that I got for review, Infinix also makes two more variants. A combination of black and orange represents intensity, while a silver edition with similar textures but muted colors makes the phone a bit soothing to look at, especially for those who aren’t fans of the game-y looks.
Amidst the cohort of straight lines that populate the back of the phone, there’s a partial circle disguised as yet another textured bit. Obscured under this textured more-than-a-semicircle lie strips of RGB lighting. This ring, officially called the “Mecha Loop,” lights up when the phone receives a notification or call, is used to play music, or is being charged. You can also enable the lights to automatically turn on to alert others when you are deeply immersed in a game or even keep it on forever, flaunting it at a concert or a party.
These lighting effects may not entice hardcore gamers since they don’t allow choosing specific colors and do not offer any zone lighting abilities. But they do have some redeeming quality in the form of customizable patterns and a set of color gradients you can pick from.
Most importantly, this is a $300 phone in question, and the closest price-wise competitor to achieve something remotely as distinctive and appealing is the Nothing Phone 2a. That all said, the Infinix’s looks aren’t what really make it compelling as a gaming phone, but instead it’s the combination of its display and hardware, both of which are a class above for its pricing.
A dazzling AMOLED display
AMOLED screens are slowly creeping over the segments of sub-premium and affordable phones. The Infinix GT 20 Pro, too, features a large and vibrant AMOLED display. It measures 6.78 inches and sports a Full HD+ resolution. But that’s not truly the exciting part.
Instead, what makes the AMOLED on the Infinix so impressive is its 144Hz refresh rate, which makes scrolling through the interface feel extremely snappy. Besides smooth scrolling through the system as well as third-party apps, the screen can also be utilized to run a variety of games at high frame rates, making the experience much more engaging than some flagship Android devices incapable of doing so, even with physically better displays. Two games I truly cherish playing on this screen are Real Racing 3 and Squad Busters since the fluid movement across the display makes the gameplay truly fun and engaging.
This is apparently possible through a special chip from Pixelworks (a more advanced version of which can be found on the OnePlus 12) to improve picture quality and frame rate while running games and reduce power consumption. The chip can also enhance SDR content to HDR in apps such as YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, and TikTok.
In addition to its fluidity, the display has an exceptional screen-to-body ratio of over 94%, which translates to minuscule bezels that don’t hinder your view or distract you from the otherwise zestful design of the Infinix GT 20 Pro. Subtle curves along the edges of the display enhance the experience of swiping inward on the screen for navigation gestures or to pull out the gaming dashboard from the side.
While the design gears you up for an exciting time, and the display keeps up with the pace of full-throttle gaming, it’s what is inside that ensures your games run uninterrupted and without hiccups.
Cooler than it looks
Infinix chose the MediaTek Dimensity 8200U to power the GT 20 Pro’s performance. It’s an upper midrange chip, where the U stands for Ultimate and denotes special customizations for Infinix. The chip comprises older A78 and A55 cores packed with a newer 4nm process. This is paired with up to 12GB of RAM to let you leave games at different progress levels and switch to others.
Despite its naming, which suggests components aimed at the upper midrange, the chipset only classifies as mediocre. More importantly, it uses outdated cores; an updated version is already found on a few others for a similar price, including the POCO X6 Pro, which outperforms phones with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip.
But to my surprise, the internals hold up well while impressively gaming. While playing Genshin Impact at the highest graphics settings, the Infinix GT 20 Pro doesn’t fail to render the game at 60 frames per second (fps). This is an incredible feat for a phone at this price and this hardware.
I ran the game over the course of 30 minutes to see how it holds up while recording the performance with Gamebench, which is a professional benchmarking tool for games and gaming hardware. (Gamebench provided me with a free journalists’ license, but it had no input in this review.)
Within the first five minutes of playing Genshin Impact at the highest graphics setting, the frame rate began to fluctuate, and the phone started heating up. There was still significant variability in the frame rate, with frequent choppiness during battles. Despite breaking a sweat several times, the Infinix GT 20 Pro did not show signs of unease and endeavored to push back to the 60 fps mark as often as it could. Of course, that’s less desirable than it not wavering from the 60 fps mark, but the performance is still impressive for the hardware it packs and, more importantly, its price.
While the phone continued to perform well, it heated up to a significant degree, making it arduous to hold toward the end of those 30 minutes. The screen also got considerably hot, with both the front and the back reaching almost 45 degrees Celsius (about 113 degrees Fahrenheit). So, despite the fact that the phone continued to function well, the heat made it problematic to use. These temperatures were measured with a USB-C powered thermal camera at an ambient temperature of 25 degrees Celsius (about 77 degrees Fahrenheit).
Usually you would take that as a sign to lower the settings on a game or stick to less demanding ones. But Infinix has something else in mind. To prevent internal heat from hampering the phone’s performance, the phone comes with an optional accessory bundle, including a special case and a thermoelectric heater that attaches magnetically to the case.
The cooler has two parts: a flat metallic cooling pad that sticks to the phone and another end that ejects heat to the atmosphere using a fully functional fan. Harmonizing with the light on the phone’s back, the fan’s blade had RGB lighting. The colors change on their own, and you don’t have any control to change the speed or intensity of the lighting effects, it still feels like a good addition to fuel the gamer’s spirit. The fan is powered by a USB-C port, and while it can run off the phone’s port, I refrained from taking that route to avoid excessive battery drain, especially in the midst of a demanding game.
The base of the fan gets as cold as about 15 degrees Celsius, or roughly 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and pulls out heat from the phone. It gets cold enough to precipitate the moisture from the atmosphere, and with monsoons peaking and humidity reaching close to 90% in my city, I could see water drops settle on the back of the cooler. To determine how effective it is at work, I ran the same 30 minutes of Genshin Impact again, this time with the cooler.
With the cooler in place, heating was controlled to quite an extent — beating skepticism of cooling through the case. Unlike the previous run, where the outer body’s temperature spiked past 110 degrees, the phone stayed relatively cooler at about 108 degrees. That’s not a significant drop, but the cooler managed to pull the heat away from the back and allowed the screen to remain much cooler — at about 100 degrees.
In addition to its physical benefits, the cooler also lowered the battery consumption from roughly 25% earlier to less than 20% while maintaining the same level of performance. On the downside, the cooler made the phone feel a bit clunky, while the exhaust from the cooler circulated warm air around my fingers, although it didn’t feel as scorching as the back itself without the cooler.
Why bother with $1,000 gaming phones?
From introducing a super-fast 260W charging technology to being one of the first brands to bring native ChatGPT integration to phones, Infinix has proven time and again that standout features need not always come with a premium. Understandably, the GT 20 Pro does not offer any standout features, but you only find them on devices that cost several times more than the GT 20 Pro.
More importantly, Infinix’s efforts are validated by the quality and performance of the components. And despite its processor being fated for mediocrity, the optional — and more importantly inexpensive — accessories make the experience much more enjoyable.
As always with several other groundbreaking phones I have tried in the past, the Infinix GT 20 Pro does not come to the U.S. — at least not officially. Since Infinix has sellers in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, you may be able to import one or find an unofficial seller — like this one which lists the . But beware that it may have incompatibility with your carrier, limiting it only to Wi-Fi. Even then, if you want a spare phone for some casual gaming and swanking some pizzaz, this $385 might be spent well.
Yes, it’s nowhere near a flagship gaming phone, but that’s what I am trying to establish. Most people probably don’t need one, and a cheaper alternative that does almost 60% of the job for a less expensive price is still a more attractive option.
