Infinix GT 30 Pro: A Capable Mid-Range Gaming Device?

The Infinix GT 30 Pro is the successor to last year's GT 20 Pro. While last year's design was a bit of a hit or a miss, this year's design surely appears mature and polished. Given its ‘GT' branding, the phone, just like the last one, has been designed for mobile gamers. Infinix does not go all out with hardware, but you do get gaming essentials like capacitive shoulder triggers and the ability to snap on a cooling fan (part of the optional GT Gaming Kit). Unfortunately, Infinix did not send this vital component across for review, and so we were left to test the phone's gaming performance using only the internal vapour chamber cooling system.

Infinix GT 30 Pro Looks Like a Phone Designed for Gamers

As mentioned above, the Infinix GT 30 Pro's design sure looks the part for a modern gaming device. Given that the previous GT 20 Pro resembled an affordable knock-off of a Nothing smartphone, with its G-shaped LED light strips, this one appears quite mature in comparison. Our Blade White review unit only has a white glow (which honestly does feel more polished), but you can go for the Dark Flare model, which has RGB lighting to complete the typical “gamer” appearance.

The rear panel's design has a “cybernetic” (or “Cyber Mecha” according to Infinix) theme going on, but it's purely cosmetic and has nothing to do with the hardware components underneath.

A design decision I really wish Nothing should have taken makes its way here. There is a dual-tone finish, with the majority of the back covered in an off-white colour and a smaller translucent quarter at the bottom corner. This gives the rear panel a layered appearance and some depth, making it look unique. The soft and smooth finish of the rear panel is also good at masking smudges and fingerprints, which is essential for a gaming device that's going to be gripped with sweaty gamer hands.

Unlike the front screen, which is made of Corning's Gorilla Glass 7i to protect the AMOLED display underneath, the rear panel is made of plastic. Also made of plastic is the frame, which has flat sides but feels somewhat cheap or plasticky when held. However, the plastic frame works well for the shoulder triggers (GT Triggers), which are sensitive given their primary purpose, but can also be assigned non-gaming functions.

The ‘GT Triggers', as they are called, control various functions like turning on the phone's Do Not Disturb (DND) mode, switching to the silent ringer profile, launching the camera app, turning on the flashlight, or even the screen or sound recorder. A GT Trigger (individually) somewhat functions like the Action button on an iPhone, along with haptic feedback (although not as polished).

What I liked about this feature is that Infinix has ensured that you won't end up pressing it accidentally. It does this by only enabling the button above the volume rocker during normal usage. Both triggers are only active when playing games or using the camera app. You also have to press or tap the particular trigger twice to enable the function. And while it sounds ingenious, it is extremely hard to find, given that the trigger is buried in the plastic frame with no tactile indicator or bump to reveal its location by muscle memory.

The copper orange colour accents, apart from the power button and the rear panel, also make it to the raised camera module, which has a 108-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera and a dual LED flash module.

The Infinix GT 30 Pro's display gets skinny bezels all around and a hole-punch camera at the top. It does a good job of resisting fingerprints, which is a necessity for gamers. I also like that it's perfectly flat with no curved-edge or quad-curved treatment (available on several mid-range devices), making it distraction-free with no unnecessary screen reflections.

Infinix GT 30 Pro Delivers Mid-Level Performance With Gamer-Friendly Features

The gaming features and per-game hardware optimisations can be accessed via the XArena app. It has a console-like layout, making it easy to check how much storage each game takes up, along with the ability to glance through the gaming features that have been enabled for a particular title.

Coming to performance, the Infinix GT 30 Pro performs as expected for a MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Ultimate-powered device. However, as you can tell from the table above, the MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultra processor is a bit better in overall raw performance, edging out the former in every test.

Given that this is a gaming smartphone, I tried out quite a few games. Overall, I am happy to report that the phone performs as one would expect from a mid-range device.

I tried out Genshin Impact, which is a very demanding game for a smartphone at this price point. The phone could not handle 60 fps gameplay at both High and Highest graphics settings. Frame rates were more stable and smooth at Medium, but with 30 fps, as 60 fps also tends to overload, heat up, throttle and eventually slow things down. For most of the bigger titles I tried out, this limit was reached 30 minutes in.

I also tried out Call of Duty: Mobile, which performed well at the default Very High graphics and Maximum frame rate settings (with most effects turned off). The gaming experience wasn't flawless, as about 30 minutes into the game (by which time the phone had warmed up), I noticed some dropped frames, but the phone chugged along just fine as the game was perfectly playable. The touch sampling rate also needs to be cranked up manually in the slide-out games console, as the default setting seemed a bit too slow.

Thanks to its built-in VC cooling system, the phone does not get abnormally hot when used under a ceiling fan. But you can feel the heat on the left half of the display glass.

Contrary to my real-world gaming experience, the phone behaves well in the various stress tests, as can be seen in screenshots above, showing minimal throttling. However, these are indeed short and synthetic bursts, which somewhat explains why I experienced throttling only during extended gaming sessions. Of course, there is also the missing cooling fan, which would have definitely helped raise the performance ceiling.

Like its predecessor, the GT 30 Pro's display gets the job done. The 6.78-inch, 1.5K 144Hz AMOLED panel is sufficiently bright both indoors and outdoors. Colours appear natural as well. During the test period, I observed that the screen's refresh rate never exceeded 120Hz, regardless of whether I was gaming or using it for non-gaming purposes. Even deep in the Display Settings, all apps and games could only be forced into running at 60/90/120Hz. So, the 144Hz display claim is surely a gimmick.

The Infinix GT 30 Pro boots to a revamped XOS, which is based on Android 15. However, software support appears a bit shaky given that Android 16 is already out and the phone will only receive 2 years of OS and 3 years of SMR updates.

I am happy to report that the audio is loud and very good. The stereo speakers vibrate the rear panel as well, adding some rumble, but they lack bass. I also noticed that most of it gets pushed out of the bottom speaker, and so the balance always seems a bit off, or to the right when held horizontally.

For a gaming device, I did expect a bigger battery. The 5,500mAh battery capacity seems sufficient for a regular day of use and will last just about a day when pushed to the max for gaming. Casual usage will allow it to last a whole day without any problems, but no more. The phone supports 45W wired charging (with pass-through functionality while gaming) and also offers 30W wireless charging speeds, allowing you to use various magnetic wireless charging accessories available in India, whether with or without a magnetic case.

Infinix GT 30 Pro: Is It a Capable Gaming Device?

The Infinix GT 30 Pro is a worthy successor to the GT 20 Pro we reviewed last year. The GT Triggers, along with the new and compact design, do make it a very appealing and accessible gaming device for the masses. Its performance isn't top-notch, but it's worthy for a smartphone at this affordable price point. That said, you can possibly get better hardware under Rs. 30,000 in India's competitive smartphone market, but you will definitely not get one that's purpose-built for gaming.