GTeL Infinity 13 review. Looks posh but is that enough to sell?

Alright, Another one. Gosh, it’s been a while since I reviewed a GTeL and this one on looks does not disappoint. They are calling this color black but to me, it looks more like a Dark copper-green color. They put a matte texture to it and I have to say it looks quite posh. You want to just set it down on a polished dark wood desk next to a leather wallet and leather diary.

It looks good and still has a headphone jack

Alright, so what does US$190 get us on the Infinity 13? Looks are sorted, we have an SD card slot and dual sim support, we still have a headphone jack and this is now the first GTeL smartphone supporting a high refresh rate display for smoother animations.

Now there is a bit of a trend going on with GTeL. They are keeping their smartphones relatively bare bones in terms of software features. You get all the features that come standard with Android and there is not much customization going on. 

As a result. The mature aesthetic we saw in the design is put into the software as well. If there is a feature that uses a Google app then that is what you will get on this phone, it’s practically bloatware-free. 

GTeL Infinity 13, it's got the looks and a decent camera but will it fly off the shelves at $190

It’s running Android 13 out of the box and benefits from it in some ways as well. There is support for live captions for example which put subtitles on anything you watch or listen to on the phone. And my personal favorite is this big digital clock on the lock screen. Gives me Google Pixel vibes.

There is one unique feature though that makes GTeL devices desirable and it’s a pretty effective tracking software that comes built in. It’s the same software GTeL uses for its credit scheme where if you ghost them on payments they can remotely disable the phone. They can do the same if the phone is reported by the owner as stolen. Hopefully, they can sell this service to anyone who needs it on smartphones other than GTeL one day.

Right, now let’s talk about performance

Gtel went for Mediatek for its CPU and to keep it company they paired it with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage that you can expand by another 256GB with a memory card. This time around we get a 6.5-inch LCD display with a resolution that’s a bit on the low size at 720p but to sweeten the deal the panel supports a 90Hz refresh rate.

The battery is a 5000mAh unit that performs very well. In our endurance test, it managed to drop 30% after an hour of gaming, video recording, and video streaming. It’s comfortably a 2-day battery phone and if you are good at rationing power you might pull off 3 days without needing a charge.

In terms of horsepower, it’s not a phone that will be comfortable with heavy apps like video editing or AAA title gaming. Normal day-to-day stuff is a piece of cake for it. Your social media, music, videos, and calls, it does those smoothly. So no performance issues for the day-to-day stuff and it’s so far all in line with what this chipset can deliver.

Right, cameras.

The official story is it’s a quad camera setup but we know in this price range that equates to one pretty decent camera and 3 forgettable ones. So the main camera is a 50MP unit and the selfie is 8MP

The main camera takes some really decent shots in well-lit conditions. Since the Infinity 10, I have always liked how GTeL handles photos. They have their AI scene recognition which looks at elements of the scene you are taking a photo of and adjusts the image to make it look more vibrant.

You can see this in the blues of the sky, the greens in the foliage, or the reds and oranges in flowers. It’s certainly not over the top and that’s the same case here. The dynamic range is fine, fitting for the price point. The GTeL is also not Pixel binning. Most Smartphones with high-resolution cameras will combine information from multiple pixels into one to get more performance out of the imaging sensor.

So instead of producing 12.5MP images like other phones with 50MP cameras, GTeL gives you the full fat 50MP. And is perfect lighting, and the sharpness is better than what you get from the binned shots but without sacrificing quality.

In the low light, it does begin to suffer a bit with some graining as it tries to over-sharpen the image. It’s not terrible but it can be noticeable in very challenging situations. The only real setback in the GTeLs camera experience is the selfie camera. It does not like bright backgrounds so it tends to optimize exposure for the bright background instead of the face. So as a result, in cases where the background is bright, faces will be very underexposed.

My thoughts

Gtel made a very fine-looking smartphone, honestly the back, the flat edges, and the matte back glass, all make it one very handsome-looking smartphone. The software experience is very clean with virtually no bloatware or any sort of heavy skin on it. It’s really close to stock Android.

Battery life is uncompromising and pretty much near the top of our battery champs. The Infinity 13 feels like it went for the less-is-more approach. So for US$190 where does it stack up on the value-for-money scale?

Such pricing is close to the highest you can go before making it hard for a buyer to choose a brand they are familiar with. The likes of Samsung or Huawei. But it is also in the midst of the likes of Itel and Tecno with Itel slightly undercutting GTeL and Tecno slightly higher up.

Which means they have to have something special to make them stand out. The tracking feature is definitely a crowd-puller right now plus the credit scheme they offer to civil servants. But the likes of Pindula are also now offering credit for Itel and Tecno smartphones so GTeL will be kept on their toes. Higher storage options and maybe an upgrade to AMOLED screens are avenues GTeL might want to explore.

That said, the GTeL Infinity 13 is a well-rounded phone for the money. Competition is hectic but they are still in the fight.

Also Read:

• Tecno Camon 20. It’s a sin to hide its beauty in a pouch.
• Itel S23+ review. Probably the cheapest smartphone with an OLED display at US$164. A good one too!