Infinix Zero X Pro review

XOS 7.6 on top of Android 11

Infinix has its own XOS Android skin and has been iterating on it for quite a few versions now. The Infinix Note 11 Pro we recently reviewed was running the company's latest XOS 10 and Android 11 combo, which had its fair share of bugs. In contrast, as of writing this review, the older Note 10 Pro is still rocking XOS 7.6. In a somewhat odd twist, the same is also true for the new Zero X Pro. Our review unit also has an XOS 7.6 skin on top of Android 11.

While XOS 10 does offer a few new features and some UI changes here and there, which we will mention as we go along, in essence, XOS 7.6 is quite close to its successors, and you won't be missing too many things.

In fact, if we had to make a quick list in order of significance, some of the XOS 10 features absent in XOS 7.6 include - Ai assistant for smart automation, MOL (a system-wide multi-language translator), no separate notification shade and control center and no big folders on the home screen.

Unfortunately, one bit that is consistent across both of these XOS versions is a large number of pre-loaded apps. Many of the included apps could also be considered bloatware since Infinix has included quite a few of its own first-party apps, as well as third-party ones, oftentimes with overlapping feature sets.

A large number of pre-loaded apps

The important thing to note is that XOS 7.6 works smoothly, with no hiccups or stutters despite the influx of apps. So Infinix has done its job pretty well in the custom UI department. And when we say custom, we mean custom. In no particular order, starting from the lock screen, you get an optional Magazine service. Beyond that, the clock screen is also affected by the powerful Theme support, which includes things like video slide shows, custom fonts, as well as an online Theme repository in the shape of a separate XTheme app.

Lock screen • Magazine service • Extensive themes support

The home screen includes a custom feed as the leftmost desktop pane, as well as folders to organize and categorize your shortcuts by default. These are not the "big folders", like on XOS 10, but rather have a more conventional size.

Home screen and folders

Of course, if this is not to your liking, you can revert back to just having a list of shortcuts on the home screens, sans folders. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to customization. You can tweak things like grid size, gestures, notification badges and even text color. XOS 10 can also have its home screens scroll either vertically or horizontally, which does not appear to be an option in XOS 7.6. Overall, these options are almost on par with the customization we expect from a third-party launcher.

Launcher options and customization

XOS 7.6 still uses one unified, traditional notification shade, mixed with the quick toggles.

In contrast, XOS 10 has a separate control center and then a separate notification shade.

Notifications and quick toggles

We won't be going through every feature and app available in XOS 7.6, but there are some noteworthy highlights. There is actually a dedicated Special function menu that houses many of these. As we said, there are a few features missing from this section as well, compared to XOS 10. Notably, MOL, which is a nifty system-wide translation utility and face-to-face translator and also Smart Scenes and its Ai component for automatically triggering things and monitoring for conditions. Most other features are shared between the two XOS versions, though.

Special functions menu

Lightning Multi-Window has a self-explanatory title. It is a floating window implementation. Far from the best we've seen, but still functional.

Lightning Multi-Window

The same goes for Smart Panel. It's among the more customizable implementations of this feature that we have seen.

Smart Panel

Social Turbo houses a whole slew of powerful features meant to work on top of WhatsApp and enhance its factory experience.

Social Turbo features to enhance WhatsApp

Naturally, you get other things like extensive gestures and app cloning, known as XClone. XOS 10 does add a Peak Proof feature to this menu as well, absent here, but it's quite a gimmick.

Gestures • XClone

You get in-depth control over battery endurance and power-saving too through the Power Marathon app, including some interesting "smart" Ai features.

Power Marathon

Power Marathon does include something called "Smart Scenes", which basically boils down to battery usage optimization while the phone is sleeping or playing back video in particular. Both are nifty, but XOS 10 notably has some significantly more powerful Smart Scenes that are not present on XOS 7.6. It can monitor certain conditions and trigger things accordingly. Perhaps it can be brought over with a future update since it is really powerful.

XOS 7.6 does have a few dedicated gaming features, just like XOS 10. Like we already noted, the Infinix Zero X Pro does an excellent job of utilizing its high refresh rate for high frame rate gaming. Perhaps part of that is down to a set of features called Monster Game Kit. It has to do with game optimization. Infinix has a baked-in Dar-Link 2.0 software, which promises Ai-driven, on the fly, automatic optimization of games, including frame rate stability, decreasing touch latency and managing hardware performance and temperature. There is a system-wide Game Mode toggle, as well as a Game Mode setting menu to tweak most of the behavior.

Game Mode

On the more tangible side of things, you also get the Game Zone app, which is your standard game launcher, complete with various tweaks, like notification suppression. Once you add an app to Game Zone and start it from there, you also get an in-game toolbar with plenty of convenient shortcuts, including floating app support.

Game Zone app and in-game toolbar

This is similar in functionality and even UI to XOS 10 and its XArena app. Far from the most cohesive or feature-complete gaming suite, we have seen. An fps counter, finer performance controls and some capture/streaming options are notable omissions. XOS doesn't address these issues either. Even so, Infinix goes far and beyond most of its Android UI rivals in the gaming department.

In fact, there is no denying that Infinix clearly has an ambitious software effort, bordering on a whole dedicated ecosystem of its own. In case you need any proof of that, consider the Folax voice assistant, which appears to be a totally unique Infinix entry into the niche. A fairly-capable one at that, which doesn't even require a network connection to function.

Folax voice assistant

And then there are also apps like InSync and Welife, which are meant to manage IoT ecosystems. The first appears to be a first-party Infinix one, with support for a range of Infinix smart TVs and an Infinix laptop. Impressively ambitious stuff.

IoT apps and ecosystems

Circling back to our original point about XOS 7.6, there is truly a lot to cover here, and we barely scratched the surface. If we had to sum up the experience, we would say it is fluent and pleasant from a performance standpoint and quite feature-rich, but also quite chaotic. XOS is still in desperate need of some debloating and organization. And there is no point in hoping that a potential future XOS 10 update will fix that since the two versions are comparably chaotic. Thankfully, for the most part, you can do that yourself with a bit of time and tweaking, and the end result could be a powerful and versatile Android 11 experience.

Performance and benchmarks

One notable way Infinix continues to keep costs down is by going for more mid-range and less flashy chipsets on its phones. The Infinix Zero X pro is no exception with its MediaTek Helio G95 chipset. Let's go through the basics first - the G95 is a 12nm, octa-core chip with a 2x2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 CPU configuration. For GPU, you get four Mali-G76 cores, which, as we noted in the Infinix Note 11 Pro review, is actually better than the two Bali-G57 cores available on the MediaTek Helio G96.

There are a few things about the chipset setup on the Zero X Pro that don't quite add up, though. For one, the official MediaTek Helio G95 specs sheet claims that the built-in ISP can handle up to a 64MP camera, whereas the Infinix Zero X Pro is rocking a 108MP main unit. Another oddity is that the same specs sheet claims that the chip can only go up to UFS 2.1 storage speeds, whereas Infinix advertises UFS 2.2 on the Zero X Pro, with up to 20% faster speeds.

That's rather odd, to say the least. Still, there are possible explanations for both discrepancies. The binning process on most smartphone Quad-Bayer cameras is typically done on the camera module itself, which does, however, raise some questions regarding how "real" the 108MP full-res camera mode is. And the UFS 2.2 storage bit might be more of a software layer improvement than a hardware one. Still, as we said, weirdness all around.

Moving on to some actual benchmarks, though, we thankfully find perfectly normal and expected behavior out of a Helio G95 chip. Our Zero X Pro review unit has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Infinix is promising Memory Fusion Technology Extended RAM technology in a future software update, which will bring 3GB of extra virtual RAM to the table. But for now, that's not a thing.

Starting with some pure CPU loads and GeekBench, we can see the Zero X Pro and its Helio G95 chip perform as expected and pretty much in line with other results.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme GT Master
  2917
• Poco X3 Pro
  2574
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  1812
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  1800
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Realme 8
  1690
• Realme 8 Pro
  1678
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  1674
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  1673
• Tecno Phantom X
  1670
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  1668
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  1644
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1599
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  1576
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  1400
• Poco M3
  1398
• Xiaomi Redmi 10
  1294
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1277
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1034

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Realme GT Master
  785
• Poco X3 Pro
  735
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  641
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Realme 8 Pro
  566
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  534
• Realme 8
  533
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  520
• Tecno Phantom X
  512
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  511
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  510
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  506
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  505
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  502
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  361
• Xiaomi Redmi 10
  361
• Poco M3
  308
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  307
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  169

In fact, most current market competitors of the Zero X Pro appear to offer comparable levels of performance. The Poco F2 and X3 Pro, with their Snapdragon 870 and 860 chipsets, as well as the Realme GT master, with its Snapdragon 778G are clear outliers in this department and notably superior, though. The Helio G95 does, however offer about as much raw CPU performance as the Dimensity 720 5G and also beats out chips like the popular Snapdragon 662.

AnTuTu is pretty kind to the Infinix Zero X Pro and sees it beat out most of the Helio G95 competition. Perhaps there is something to those UFS 2.2 claims since AnTuTu considers things like memory and storage speeds and has graphics tests.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Poco F3
  631850
• Poco X3 Pro
  453223
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  318672
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  313652
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  310342
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  309107
• Tecno Phantom X
  309055
• Realme 8
  298328
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  295442
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  290797
• Realme 8 Pro
  286666
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  226561
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  218788
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  177917
• Poco M3
  177904
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  174332
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  107189

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Realme GT Master
  529263
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  391770
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  365490
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  363939
• Realme 8
  357488
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  343527
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  330909
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  222125

Speaking of graphics, the Zero X Pro is a high-achiever in this department as well, consistently scoring at or near the top of the Helio G95 pack.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  102
• Realme GT Master
  77
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  54
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  54
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  54
• Tecno Phantom X
  54
• Realme 8
  53
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  46
• Realme 8 Pro
  43
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  37
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  24
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  24
• Poco M3
  19
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  19
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  12

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  93
• Realme GT Master
  57
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  49
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  48
• Realme 8
  48
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  47
• Tecno Phantom X
  47
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  40
• Realme 8 Pro
  38
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  31
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  21
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  21
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  19
• Poco M3
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  17

In absolute terms, it even manages to pull some respectable FPS figures. And off-screen rendering tests prove its not just an on-screen smore and mirror show. Whatever Dar-Link 2.0 is, it seems to be working.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  75
• Realme GT Master
  56
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  34
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  34
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  33
• Realme 8
  33
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  33
• Tecno Phantom X
  33
• Realme 8 Pro
  28
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  24
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  15
• Poco M3
  13
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  7.7

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  67
• Realme GT Master
  46
• Realme 8 Pro
  31
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  30
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  29
• Realme 8
  29
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  28
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  28
• Tecno Phantom X
  28
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  13
• Poco M3
  11
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  10

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  45
• Realme GT Master
  33
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  20
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  20
• Realme 8
  20
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  20
• Tecno Phantom X
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  19
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  19
• Realme 8 Pro
  18
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  9.3
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  9.3
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  7.5
• Poco M3
  7.2
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  3.3

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  38
• Realme GT Master
  27
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  18
• Realme 8
  18
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  17
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  17
• Tecno Phantom X
  17
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Realme 8 Pro
  16
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  8.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  7.9
• Poco M3
  5.9
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  5

Performance numbers continue to hold strong with Vulkan, which is also great to see. Its GPU drivers are far from new at this point, but there is always room for error, especially when there are custom gaming enhancement efforts in play. Seems like Infinix know what they are going in that department.

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  27
• Realme GT Master
  19
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  13
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  11
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  11
• Realme 8
  11
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  11
• Tecno Phantom X
  11
• Realme 8 Pro
  11
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  7.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  4.4
• Poco M3
  4.1
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  4.1
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  3.8

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  26
• Realme GT Master
  18
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  12
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  12
• Realme 8
  12
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  12
• Tecno Phantom X
  12
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  11
• Realme 8 Pro
  11
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  7.9
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  5
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  4.6
• Poco M3
  2.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  2.7

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  18
• Realme GT Master
  14
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  7.6
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  7.5
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  7.5
• Realme 8
  7.5
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  7.5
• Tecno Phantom X
  7.4
• Realme 8 Pro
  7.2
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  5.1
• Poco M3
  4.2
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  4.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.5
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  2.9
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1.2

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  17
• Realme GT Master
  13
• Tecno Phantom X
  7.8
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  7.7
• Realme 8
  7.7
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  7.7
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  7.6
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  7.5
• Realme 8 Pro
  7
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  5.6
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.7
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  3.3
• Poco M3
  2.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  2.8
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1.5

3D Mark corroborates the excellent GPU performance results as well. In fact, we can clearly see that this is an Infinix trend, rather than a fluke, since the Infinix Note 10 Pro, equipped with the same Helio G95 chipset as the Zero X Pro is consistently up there on the charts, alongside its sibling, beating out other G95-equipped phones.

3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme GT Master
  4988
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  2801
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  2778
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  2748
• Tecno Phantom X
  2733
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  2719
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2638
• Realme 8
  2610
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  2431
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1471
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1323
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  1181
• Poco M3
  1175
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  365

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme GT Master
  4020
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  2860
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  2854
• Realme 8
  2639
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  2617
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  2593
• Tecno Phantom X
  2587
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2509
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  2256
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1372
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1371
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  1107
• Poco M3
  1106
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  612

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  3401
• Realme GT Master
  2481
• Infinix Zero X Pro
  1509
• Infinix Note 10 Pro
  1506
• Tecno Phantom X
  1501
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  1498
• Realme 8
  1486
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  1185
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  1103
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  1100
• Realme 8 Pro
  1051
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  686
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  482
• Poco M3
  368
• Xiaomi Redmi 9T
  365

The Infinix Zero X Pro manages heat surprisingly well too. Its body can get a bit warm with intense loads, but never actually unpleasant, and the chipset doesn't suffer from any severe thermal-throttling, out of the expected either. This is most likely due to the fairly-advanced passive cooling system inside the phone. It is called Heat Pipe Thermal Module 2.0 3-D Cooling Master and includes separate sheets of material, like "Aerospace-grade Hexagonal Boron Nitride" and a "Graphite Sheet with Conductive Fabric". Lofty and lengthy names aside, it definitely gets the job done.

In fact, that's a good way to describe the performance of the Infinix Zero X Pro overall. It gets the job done and surprisingly well at that, by squeezing every extra bit of performance out of seemingly mundane hardware on paper. XOS runs perfectly smoothly with no hiccups. The 120Hz display refresh rate is also utilized splendidly for a snappy and fluid experience in apps and games, where Infinix seems to somehow offer beyond 60fps experiences in more games than some of its more popular brand competitors. Impressive stuff all-around. Definitely not chart-topping or necessarily the best raw performance in its price segment, but impressive non the less, even bordering on unexplainable at times, like supporting that 108MP camera.