Infinix Mobility recently unveiled the latest addition to its mainstream smartphone series, the Infinix ZERO 30 5G, during the 80th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy — an event headlined by celebrities and top content creators around the world, including the Philippines’ own Rhian Ramos.

(Update, October 18: Our Infinix ZERO 30 5G review is up!)

Fitting for a stylish midranger that is being marketed as “the ultimate vlogging phone,” is actually already being sold online on Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop in the Philippines.

Naturally, we felt it important to take the device outside to see what it can do firsthand and likewise share some tips on how to take full advantage of its camera hardware for content creation. After all, one of the biggest challenges for content creators today is figuring out how to produce quality and engaging videos and publish them in a timely manner, or as the need arises.

The Infinix ZERO 30 5G aims to address some of those pain points while further empowering creators and giving them the tools to be more creative in telling their “own story.” Here’s how it is doing so.

Strong selfie game

Infinix’s tagline for the ZERO 30 5G is “capture your own story,” and this will likely resonate with its intended audience: students and content creators who are in the market for a vlog-ready smartphone that won’t blow a hole in their pocket. That said, it’s no surprise that one of the biggest highlights here is the selfie camera, which is easily among the best we’ve used in this segment.

The front-facing camera sits in a punch-hole cutout and has been fitted with a 50-megapixel Samsung Isocell JN1 image sensor behind a 5P lens with an aperture of f/2.4. If you’re not familiar, the JN1 is among the smallest camera sensors out there — small enough to be used for a front-facing shooter. It also boasts higher light sensitivity than the previous generation, with the ability to capture roughly 16% more light when taking a picture.

Long story short, this means the Infinix ZERO 30 5G should be able to produce brighter and sharper selfies at night and in low light, such as in a bar or restaurant with mood lighting. True enough, the phone delivers as advertised. The front camera does capture plenty of detail especially during the daytime, even showing our pores more clearly than ever, much to our disappointment, heh. Color rendering is decent and skin tones look pleasingly natural in most conditions. It likewise lets you capture selfies with a 2x crop.

Sample selfies, from day to night

Selfie portraits are good, and the separation between the subject and background is nicely handled in bright environments. The selfie camera comes with real-time autofocus featuring eye tracking, too, and is pretty fast and responsive no matter the lighting. This, along with the built-in front-facing flash, will help keep your selfies and vlogs sharp and in focus, particularly while walking and shooting a video.

The Infinix ZERO 30 5G is many things, but above all, it is a device built for selfie lovers and vloggers.

Vlog all you want

Which brings us to our next talking point: The Infinix ZERO 30 5G can record 4K vlogs up to an impressive 60 frames per second without any software features enabled, making it ideal for action shots and sports. If you’re a fitness or wellness vlogger, shooting at 60 fps can do wonders for your content, as it will basically allow you to create slo-mo footage, which is impossible at 30 fps or less. Naturally, it brings more fluid movements, too, but we don’t recommend using it indoors or in a dim setting due to the higher shutter speed capturing less light.

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Screen recording of the camera user interface for when you want to use the front sensor

If you don’t mind dropping to 1080p at 30 fps, the Infinix ZERO 30 5G will let you enable the software-driven Ultra Steady stabilization feature to help you record more stable footage while moving. On top of that, shooting at a lower resolution gives you the ability to add filters, effects, and LUT-like color-grading options to your footage, if you want to go outside the box and express your creative side.

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Captured in Short Video mode

But if you really want to go all out, we recommend switching to Short Video mode to help you create content that can wow your followers on TikTok and other social platforms. It even lets you slow down or speed up your video up to 2x. Film mode is supported on the front camera as well, and this essentially allows you to use vlog-style templates to churn out quality content faster than you would if you edit videos on your own.

While most smartphones in this segment would rather focus on gaming performance and benchmark scores, the Infinix ZERO 30 5G has opted to double-down on the camera side of things — with success, might we add.

Pixel-packed camera for all lighting scenarios

At the back, the Infinix ZERO 30 5G packs a 108-megapixel main camera with 9-to-1 pixel binning by default and saves 12-megapixel pictures that look nice, especially when shooting outdoors under the sun. There’s plenty of detail to see; colors look true to life for the most part; and the dynamic range is wide enough to maintain a balance between highlights and shadows.

Shockingly, the night shots are much better than we anticipated. The low-light performance is great, with little noise visible, even when you use the 3x hybrid zoom. And like the camera on the front, it also handles portraits pretty well, offering generally accurate edge detection, as well as the ability to apply filters, beauty effects, and background blur to your photo.

Sample shots taken with the rear camera setup, with and without filters

You get a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera on the rear for shooting cityscapes and landscapes, if you’re up to the task. To help make up for the lack of a dedicated telephoto camera on the Infinix ZERO 30 5G, there’s a 3x zoom toggle in the phone’s default camera interface. The digital zoom can go up to 10x, but we don’t recommend using it even in daylight.

For video, the same camera settings and shooting options for the selfie shooter can be used for the 108-megapixel camera. So if you want to record stable B-roll footage to include in your vlogs, you’ll need to drop the resolution and frame rate to 1080p and 30 fps, respectively. The video resolution likewise goes as high as 4K, but it might be too grainy when it’s not very bright.

Here are a few other tips you might find helpful when taking a photo or recording a video with the Infinix ZERO 30 5G:

• If you need to take selfies indoors, do it in a room with plenty of natural light, like near a window, for the most flattering results. Avoid artificial and overhead lighting; it can cast unflattering shadows and tends to mess with your skin tone.
• Move closer to your subject before taking a portrait. Not only does it lead to a stronger bokeh effect or background blur, it will also fix the fish-eye effect most smartphones have when shooting with a wide lens, like the one on the Infinix ZERO 30 5G.
• Switch to Night mode and focus on someone standing still while people are moving around him or her for added drama.
• Shoot videos at 60 fps by default. Not only can you slow them down in post-production, but doing so also makes for a more stable footage.

So, there you have it, all the best camera features on the newly launched Infinix ZERO 30 5G and how you can use them to your advantage to step up your content creator game.

There’s definitely plenty to rave about here. The device is equipped with a 6.78-inch curved AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5, an impressive 144Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling and graphics, and 2,160Hz PWM dimming to help protect your eyes. It’s powered by an efficient 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 8020 5G chipset that delivers solid and efficient performance. You also get a 5,000mAh battery that will let you shoot vlogs and take selfies all day, plus 68-watt fast wired charging that charges the phone from zero to full in under an hour, so you can go back to creating content on the handset immediately.

All this in a premium design featuring curved front and rear panels, which makes the device easier to grip and operate while shooting a vlog one-handed in either portrait or landscape orientation. The excellent ergonomics reduces the depth of the Infinix ZERO 30 5G when you hold it, making it far easier to reach elements of the camera UI, launch apps, and type using the onscreen keyboard, or reach certain parts of the panel without occasionally busting out some finger gymnastics.

Let’s not forget about the suggested retail price. The SRP is pretty much a steal for a feature-rich smartphone such as this one. In the Philippines, the Infinix ZERO 30 5G costs P14,999 (roughly $264) for the 12GB/256GB variant and comes in three colors, namely Golden Hour, Rome Green, and Fantasy Purple.

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