Just one look at the Infinix GT 50 Pro will tell you this is a smartphone that is focused on gaming first. From its aggressive gamer centric marketing and styling, to its nifty shoulder capacitive/pressure-sensitive shoulder buttons and nifty little visible vapor chamber – this is a phone with not just style but gamers in mind. Oh, and of course they had to throw in some RGB too.
But just because a phone is good at gaming does that mean it can’t be just as a good in other areas? Let’s take a look at the GT 50 Pro and discover what else it has to offer.

In the box

Included in the package is a 45W charger and cable (surprisingly USB-A to C?) and a protective case and the usual SIM injection tool. 
The case is the usual soft silicone/TPU-style kind and includes a magsafe – I’m sorry -magcharge mounting point. 
We also got a “Magcharge” wireless charging/cooler device for review; more on that later.

Specs and design

Let’s start with the specs. The GT 50 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultimate and is paired with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM. The display is a blazingly fast 144Hz AMOLED screen with  a peak brightness of 4500 nits.

• 144Hz AMOLED with 4500 Nits Brightness at 1208x2644 resolution and 440 PPi
• Dimensity 8400 Ultimate & 12GB RAM
• Customizable RGB & Gaming Triggers
• 6500mAh Battery with Bypass Charging
• 50MP OIS Camera & 4K/60fps Video

First hands-on impressions are great, this phone looks and feels premium even with its mostly plastic construction with good weight distribution and a huge display with super slim bezels and high default refresh rate. 

For me personally, given the 6.78" screen size, the phone is a little too big for my tastes as I prefer smaller phones, but for most this won’t be an issue.

Unlike some rounded phones that I never got on with; the edges of the phone are straight with subtle curved edges, and the display is nice and flat which I prefer; I find it more comfortable and secure in the hand.

Port-wise you’re getting a single USB type C port on the bottom of the phone and that’s it – no micro SD card slot or headphone jack in sight. 

As for the back of the phone; the gaming DNA is obvious, with the rear RGB lighting and that distinctive gamer (…not quite Razer) design, and the dedicated shoulder buttons - touch-sensitive zones (not mechanical buttons), that should make gaming feel more natural and offer an advantage in play.

The phone is IP64 rated for splash and dust resistance.

First impressions

The phones performance feels snappy the second you boot it up, everything is fast and fluid perhaps in part due to the 144hz screen refresh rate. 

Built on top of Android 16, the phone runs a customized skin called XOS which makes Android feel more familiar to iOS users than stock Android. I think they went a bit too far in trying to mimic iOS that it feels a bit cheap. That said, the skin isn’t distracting and some users may prefer it, but if you’re used to stock Android then it may take a while to get accustomed to it.

What is less forgiving however is the poor English that can be found in certain places throughout the skin. I think it devalues your product if you can’t hire an English proofreader and ship with grammar mistakes.

There are also a few preinstalled apps on the phone but nothing too obnoxious; Hola browser and the usual Meta apps, a few games (all of which can simply be uninstalled), and a handful of Infinix/XOS apps for customization and gaming.

The good news (for most) is that the Google Play Services come preinstalled and the phone supports the Play Store for adding the usual apps.

The phone offers a slew of customization features for users looking to fine tune their experience, from the RGB lighting offering different effects, durations and triggers, to the general display and gaming features. A dedicated gaming hub provides performance controls and profiles, trigger mapping, notification management and a bunch of other tools designed to improve the experience during longer sessions.

Gaming and benchmarks

While the GT 50 Pro won’t come top in any benchmarks against flagship phones, it does offer a very comparable experience; especially in regard to maintaining high performance over longer sessions thanks to the vapour cooling and 12GB LPDDR5X RAM.

In our GeekBench tests we observed the following:

On charge:

• Single core: 1301
• Multi core: 5559
• GPU:  11,864

On battery:

• Single core: 1230
• Multi core: 5400
• GPU: 11,619

While these results sit below flagship phones with better chips, the performance isn’t that far off but in terms of price-to-performance ratio and especially over longer sessions the results are quite good. 

Actual game frame rates of course depend on the individual games themselves, but in supported titles, the GT 50 Pro can take advantage of high refresh modes.

In Genshin Impact I saw an average frame rate of around 60fps while in higher FPS titles such as Call of Duty and PUBG Mobile; frame rates consistently hit the 90-120fps mark.

GT Triggers

One of the GT 50 Pro’s standout features is its integrated “GT Triggers”. These capacitive touch pads provide a much more natural control scheme for supported games and can be mapped to on-screen controls through the gaming hub where they effectively become shoulder traditional shoulder buttons.

While they obviously do not provide the same tactile feedback as mechanical triggers found on regular controllers they are surprisingly useful once configured properly.

They are also pressure sensitive meaning you can customize the action based on how hard you press them.
I think for gamers looking to get into competitive mobile gaming like Call of Duty and PUBG Mobile they would be a huge benefit over regular touch screen controls. 

Emulation

Older systems such as PSP, Nintendo DS, and many PlayStation 1/2 titles seem to run just fine and look great on the OLED screen, while GameCube and Wii emulation depend heavily on the individual game and setup.

In Dolphin, titles such as Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mario Kart: Double Dash, and F-Zero GX were able to run at a full 60fps. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess averages around 30fps with the Hyrule Field Speed Hack enabled.

The GT 50 Pro is a surprisingly capable handheld-style emulation device and the addition of the shoulder buttons make it even more enjoyable to use.

During intense performance, you can hear a slight faint buzz from the internal cooling system but this is normally imperceptible when sound is playing or especially if you’re using headphones.

Cameras

While not the focus of a gamer centric phone, the Infinix GT 50 Pro boasts pretty decent results for its camera but not really reaching flagship quality.

The rear sensors are a 50MP main with OIS (optical image stabilisation) and a paired 8MP ultrawide. And the front selfie camera is a 13MP sensor.

The main 50MP photo produces good results in strong sunlight but shows some obvious image sharpening and overly saturated colours which some may find off putting. It struggles a bit more in average lighting conditions where details are less clear and show obvious noise. And macro detail is average, lacking the natural depth and bokeh effect when comparing to my Google Pixel 8A.

For an everyday shooter the results are overall pretty good for a non-flagship device.

Magcharge cooler

While the included case supports Infinix’s magcharge accessory ecosystem, the phone itself does not feature the built-in magnets to support this – something I found a little odd on my first time using the cooler attachment. 

This means the magnetic attachment system relies on the supplied case, so switching to a third-party case will likely mean losing magcharge compatibility unless it includes its own magnetic ring.

I can only imagine the lack of a built in magcharge ring in the phone is either due to space or cost constraints but at least the required case is included in the package.

As for the Cooler itself, I’ve never personally been fully convinced by wireless charging. I understand the appeal of the convenience of wireless charging but for me personally the trade-offs in charging speed and efficiency have always made simply plugging in a cable feel like the better option.

The MagCharge Cooler attaches to the case surprisingly securely and features a built-in fan in an effort to help manage temperatures during longer gaming sessions. However, with the phone lacking any dedicated vents and the cooler sitting against the case rather than directly cooling exposed components, how much real-world cooling benefit it provides is debatable. It feels more like a supporting accessory than an actual thermal solution.

Battery life

The GT 50 Pro packs a whopping 6500mah silicon- carbon battery and wireless charging support (with reverse wireless charging capabilities).

Supporting 45w fast charging via the cable and a 65w wall brick I measured:

• 0-40% in 29 minutes
• 100% in 75 minutes

After my brief time with it, the phone easily lasted a full day on a single charge with light gaming and emulation (3~4 hours per day). Of course gaming, RGB lighting and the vapour chamber when used all put additional strain on the battery, my initial results are very promising.

Unlike traditional li-ion batteries; the silicone carbon one should also have a longer and more sustained life cycle ; however these claims are impossible to prove or dispute for now.

A neat feature of the phone is called bypass charging which can be enabled while gaming to improve performance without charging the battery, making for a cooler gaming experience and possibly prolonged battery life.

Sound quality

Unfortunately the stereo speakers are one of the weaker areas of the GT 50 Pro. While they can get pretty loud, the sound profile is quite thin with limited bass and a tinny sound. At maximum volume, there is noticeable clipping and distortion, making the listening experience less enjoyable. They are adequate for gaming and casual listening, but they won’t impress users who frequently listen to their phone through the speakers. 

Value & Pricing

As the GT 50 Pro hasn’t officially rolled out in all major regions, price will vary between model and region. While pricing hasn’t been confirmed we expect it to launch at about $400-450 for the base model which makes it great value for money in the mid-range smartphone market.

At its core, the GT 50 Pro isn’t competing with traditional flagships but more against performance-focused mid-range devices. 
It trades some qualities such as camera quality and speaker quality for a more gaming-focused feature set such as the dedicated triggers, advanced cooling, 144hz AMOLED display and a huge battery and a software feature set designed to appease mobile gamers.
If you can wait for it to launch in your region, you’ll be getting a strong value proposition for the but may be less impressed if you can’t wait and pay heavy imported prices today.