After featuring the GT 10 Pro during Season 13 of MPL Philippines, Infinix has finally brought the GT Series to the Philippines! With the Dimensity 8200 Ultimate, a Pixelworks X5 Dedicated Gaming Display chip, and a 144Hz AMOLED display, the Infinix GT 20 Pro brings much-needed upgrades compared to its predecessor. You see the title of my review and think it’s a bold claim. While there are specific
Disclaimer: Infinix Philippines sent me the Infinix GT 20 Pro review unit in Mecha Blue during their media & fans gathering last June 7, 2024. I unboxed it on June 8 and used it as my main Android phone for around two weeks.
Unboxing Experience
I expected the usual unboxing experience like other Infinix phones, but I was sorely mistaken! The initial sleeve turned out to be a cover to the actual box. This experience will differ depending on the country you bought the GT 20 Pro from. (The Philippines packaging shows the “Official Gaming Phone of MPL” messaging.)
Two unique things in the box are the right-angle USB-C connector on the USB-A to USB-C cable and this nice patterned hard case. Finding a great cable good for long gaming sessions is rare, and we get one with the GT 20 Pro.
Design and Build
Like most Infinix phones, the GT 20 Pro has a plastic build. While the phone didn’t come close to feeling cheap, it’s also not the most premium-feeling Infinix phone. (That would go to the NOTE 40 Series.) Infinix does have a distinct design for its GT Series phones and the GT 20 Pro continues that trend. The phone’s Cyber Mecha Design brings that gamer vibe we normally don’t see in the midrange phone segment. While I’m not a fan of the shiny frame that’s a fingerprint magnet, I like how it feels in the hand.
Despite the GT 20 Pro being a gaming-oriented phone, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack here. It also doesn’t have a microSD card slot for expandable storage. The lack of expandable storage is a smaller deal at this price point.
The Cyber Mecha Design of this phone brought with it one neat trick: a Mecha Loop LED Interface. It’s a customizable RGB mini-LED with 8 color combinations and 4 lighting effects. You can use the Mecha Loop LED interface for notifications. While playing music or charging the phone, this mini-LED adds to the gamer aesthetic of the phone.
Display and Speakers
The Infinix GT 20 Pro has a 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED with a 144Hz refresh rate, 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and 1300 nits peak brightness. This phone has a flat display ideal for gaming since glare is out of the question. This phone has a great display for the price, considering its very high refresh rate and display quality. It would only be on upper-midrange phones just a few years ago. While those with smaller hands would struggle with the size, I think they would deal with it because of how good the display looks.
Since audio helps make a game more immersive, the GT 20 Pro has Dual Speakers with Sound by JBL. While that seems nice on paper, the speakers are nothing to write home about. They are loud enough for the most part, but the quality isn’t on par with other phones at its price point.
Performance
The Infinix GT 20 Pro’s standout feature is its performance. This phone uses a MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate processor with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. I would have loved to see UFS 4.0 storage on a gaming-oriented phone, but having the Pixelworks X5 Dedicated Gaming Display Chip more than makes up for it.
For some reason, I had a brain fart and forgot to save the screenshots of all the benchmarks! In a way, it is kind of a testament to how great its performance is. It scored around 900,000+ in the AnTuTu benchmark, and playing games on this phone is just fun.
Infinix has been touting the 120 FPS support for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in the marketing for this phone. (If being the official tournament phone of the MPL isn’t an indication, then I don’t know what is.) Based on my personal experience and backed up by other reviews, that support is legitimate. You can set both the Frame Rate and Graphics to Ultra and MLBB looked very good and felt very smooth.
Software
My constant complaint when reviewing Infinix phones is XOS. While it’s not the worst Android skin I’ve used, it somehow feels heavy and clunky whenever I use it. What also makes it worse is the amount of bloatware you can’t even uninstall.
The one thing that made me say that the GT 20 Pro is a perfect Infinix phone is its software. Infinix went with a Clean & Pure OS 2.0 version of XOS 14. Its predecessor also used Clean & Pure OS, which isn’t new. Using this cleaner XOS makes the GT 20 Pro shine, especially when scrolling and going through the home screen. I think Infinix should use this skin for all of their phones. It also helps that this phone gets 2 years of Android OS upgrades and 3 years of security patches.
Battery Experience
The GT 20 Pro has a 5000 mAh battery with support for 45W fast charging. A nice touch by Infinix that I mentioned earlier is its right-angle USB-C connector that’s great for gaming while charging the phone. Another nice feature taken from the NOTE series is Bypass Charging where the power adapter sends power directly to the main components of the phone.
Like the performance section, I also made a brain fart and forgot to screenshot the battery results! (This will not happen again in the next review I post.) I can however tell you that its battery life is good for a gaming-oriented phone. On a typical day, I get a full day of use with around 5 to 6 hours of screen-on time. (That consists of social media, watching YouTube, and a session or two of Pokémon UNITE.) Charging the GT 20 Pro from 20% to 100% takes around 50 minutes.
Cameras
I don’t expect much from their cameras when reviewing gaming-oriented phones. They tend to be cut down for phone makers to provide the best performance. On paper, the GT 20 Pro has a simpler set of cameras: a 108MP main rear camera and a 32MP front camera. (Let’s not bother with the two other 2MP cameras on the back.) After using this phone for two weeks, I can say that its cameras surprised me.
Click on the photos for full-resolution versions!
The quality I got from its 108MP main camera is surprisingly good. While the photos sometimes show washed-out colors, the results are often good enough in favorable scenarios. The most surprising thing about this main camera is its performance in low-light scenarios.
These low-light photos impressed me. They don’t have too much noise but don’t look like night photos that turned into day.
I also love how this 108MP main camera handles food photos. I was in the middle of a food trip spree and all the photos of the food we ate still looked appetizing. The colors were close to real life, even if they were underexposed at times.
Front Camera
Getting a 32MP front camera in a gaming-oriented phone is honestly unexpected. Unless it is priced like a flagship, the front camera would always get nerfed in a gaming phone. It’s nice to see a good-quality front camera in a gaming phone. Sure, it doesn’t take the best selfies and the colors can get washed out. I appreciate having the ability to take selfies that are good enough for social media.
Should You Buy the Infinix GT 20 Pro?
Let me get this out of the way: there’s no such thing as a perfect phone. I can think of complaints that easily don’t make this phone perfect. Its unwieldy size may be a turn-off for some. Its 256GB storage may be small for hardcore gamers. But for the fans who expect that value-for-money from top to bottom, the Infinix GT 20 Pro is a perfect Infinix phone. Getting a 144Hz AMOLED, a MediaTek Dimensity 8200 processor, and a Pixelworks X5 Dedicated Gaming Display Chip in a phone under P16,000 is almost a miracle.
However, these kinds of miracles are what Infinix has done since the beginning. And that’s exactly why the GT 20 Pro is the perfect Infinix phone.
Pros
- The Cyber Mecha Design embodies that gamer look and feel
- Its 144Hz FHD+ AMOLED is a rare thing to see in a sub-P20,000 phone
- Great performance thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 8200 with the Pixelworks X5 Dedicated Gaming Display chip
- Having 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
- A cleaner XOS 14 experience
- Good charging experience with 45W fast charging and bypass charging
- Surprisingly good 108MP main rear and 32MP front cameras
Cons
- Its plastic back and shiny and slippery frame feel cheap
- The phone’s size might be unwieldy for smaller hands
- No headphone jack and microSD card slot
- Some might find 256GB storage to be lacking, especially for mobile games that get bigger via updates
- Battery life is good enough but would be nice to get a battery bigger than 5000 mAh
- Why even bother with the two other 2MP rear cameras?
The Infinix GT 20 Pro retails for P15,999 with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. It is available in Infinix concept stores nationwide and online (TikTok Shop, Shopee, Lazada).