Infinix Note Edge review

XOS 16 on top of Android 16

The Infinix Note Edge runs the company's highly customized and customizable XOS skin on top of Android 16. Our particular review unit shipped with XOS 16.1 on board.

The phone comes with the promise of three major OS upgrades and five years of security patches, which is far from industry-leading but still quite ambitious for Infinix.

As you will see, XOS and HiOS, which is Tecno's custom skin, are very similar and basically the same skin with different names. The Android OS, even with the Infinix skin, is pretty straightforward.

XOS 16

The phone offers an always-on display, though the name is a bit generous since the panel only stays lit for about 15 seconds at a time. On the plus side, it does support a landscape orientation while charging, letting it double as a bedside clock.

The not-so-AOD

You get a pair of handy shortcuts on the lockscreen - one for quickly launching the camera and another for toggling the flashlight.

On the productivity side, the phone supports the usual split-screen multitasking and pop-up window view for compatible apps, which is pretty standard fare these days.

Out of the box, the software package is relatively tidy, but not entirely free of extras. There are a few pre-installed apps that many users would likely label as bloat, including Aha Games and Palm Store - two separate third-party app stores - alongside XClub, Visha Player, XTheme, and the Hola Browser.

Out of the box, the Infinix Note Edge relies on Gemini as its default AI assistant. It's the familiar text-based experience, but it lacks any meaningful awareness of or interaction with what's currently on your screen, which feels like a missed opportunity.

Gemini AI assistant

Luckily, you can switch to Infinix's own Folax voice assistant, which is based on the DeepSeek R1 model.

Folax AI assistant

Pressing and holding the Quick button can be set to launch Infinix's Folax voice assistant, though it opens the camera by default. Folax is quite feature-rich, with support for voice wake-up and spoken responses, and it can even recognize and interact with content currently displayed on the screen. Most of its AI-powered features rely on an active internet connection, but basic phone controls and system-related commands can still function offline.

Infinix AI menus

Infinix bundles a fairly wide set of AI-powered tools, including real-time translation, writing and document assistance, turning sketches into images within Notes, AI wallpaper generation, and photo editing features like object removal and image expansion, among others. The company has also done a nicer job organizing and presenting these features this time around, which makes them easier to find and use.

Image AI

Google's Circle to Search is also included out of the box.

Benchmarks and performance

The Infinix Note Edge marks the official debut of the MediaTek Dimensity 7100 chipset. The chip in question was just released a few weeks ago, and it actually seems to be a new offering rather than a re-branded design.

It is the successor to the Dimensity 7050. It is made on a modern 6nm node and supports an ARMv8.2-A instruction set. The 7100 comes with an octa-core CPU with four Arm Cortex-A78 cores clocked at up to 2.4GHz, and four Cortex-A55 cores clocked at up to 2GHz. The CPU is paired with the Mali-G610MC2 GPU.

As mentioned, the Dimensity 7100 offers modern 5G dual-SIM connectivity as well as Wi-Fi 6 (1x1) and Bluetooth 5.4. The onboard ISP supports up to 200MP cameras, but unfortunately, it only allows for 2K@30fps video capture, which is a bit unfortunate.

The Infinix Note Edge comes with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of non-expandable UFS 2.2 storage. Our test unit is the higher tier.

Looking at some actual benchmark numbers, while the Infinix Note Edge surely won't be winning any drag races in absolute terms, when keeping things into perspective and the right budget context, the phone actually offers about as much as one can realistically expect at its price point. In the CPU department, it trades blows with the Exynos 1380 inside the Samsung Galaxy A26 and only lags behind it slightly in the GPU department. Still, AnTuTu and its compound set of tests have the Note Edge basically leading the budget crowd. Unfortunately, we had to stick to AnTuTu 10 since our unit refused to run v11. Regardless, the results are there.

In more practical terms, while it can feel a bit slow at times, the Note Edge never actually stuttered while navigating the UI or doing pretty much any common task. That even includes gaming. Don't expect an excellent experience, but definitely count on a perfectly adequate one.

Thermal-throttling

The MediaTek Dimensity 7100 might not be a particularly powerful chip, but on the plus side, it doesn't seem to put out too much heat either. The Infinix Note Edge has it perfectly under control and practically doesn't allow it to thermal-throttle at all or close to that. Even with prolonged torture testing, we lost basically no performance.

Thermal-throttling

The phone's surface never got more than lukewarm either, remaining perfectly comfortable to both touch and hold.