Thursday, March 28, 2024

Infinix InBook X1 Slim review: Will run in daily use

Shortly after Infinix reviewed the first laptop in India, we have come to the company’s next model InBook X1, which has been named InBook X1 Slim. It can be called a product launched as a more affordable laptop, but it is similar to the company’s smartphones. That is, there are some such design elements and features in the laptop that can grab your attention. Infinix is ​​trying to carve a niche for itself in the Indian laptop market, and it feels right for the brand to focus on the value segment, as it does with smartphones. If you’re looking for a device for school, basic productivity, or simple home use, read on.

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Infinix InBook X1 Slim price in India

Infinix InBook X1 Slim Price in India starts from Rs.29,990. Discounts and credit card offers are also being offered with select banks. There are five variants of the laptop. In these, you can choose the best for yourself according to CPU, RAM and storage. For the base price, you get 10th Gen Core i3 CPU, 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. You can also install 512GB SSD in it by spending Rs 3000 more. The version I have for review has a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Its price in India is Rs 39,990. If you double the RAM and take the 16GB variant, then the price becomes Rs 44,990. Its top variant comes with Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, which costs Rs 49,990.

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The laptop is available on Flipkart and has been launched in 4 colors – Neutral Starfall Grey, Noble Red, Cosmic Blue and Aurora Green.

Design of Infinix InBook X1

Even though it is a basic budget laptop, the company has tried to add some design elements to it. Lid and bottom are made of aluminum. The top third of the InBook X1’s lid has a bright brushed texture while the rest is sandblasted and in a matte finish. A small Infinix logo has been given on the side.

My blue color unit was given a dark interior which was not distracting at all while working. The lower half is made of plastic and so is the frame around the screen. But nothing is cheap to look or feel. The hinge feels quite reliable and the screen is not affected even if the lid is tilted deliberately. The keyboard flexes are simple but the trackpad feels very plastic and the mechanism is quite stiff and noisy. You can’t compare it with laptops like the modern look and thin borders but it won’t disappoint you in terms of build quality at this price point.

The device’s weight and 14.8mm thickness do full justice to its namesake InBook X1 Slim. It is very portable for everyday use for students and office workers. Along with this, you also get a small 65W USB Type-C charger in the box which is quite convenient.

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One unique feature that the company has given in this is Dual Star LED Flash Light. These are the two LEDs that are on the screen above the webcam. You can toggle these by pressing Win+Space. How these work in webcams, we will know further in the review. But keep in mind, depending on which angle the screen is set, their light can also be directly reflected in the eyes.

The power button looks like a fingerprint scanner has been given in it, but it is not. You get a traditional keyboard with nothing extravagant. The arrow cluster is very compact but dedicated paging keys are also given on the right side. I didn’t expect backlit keys at this price, but it’s a great feature and you can choose between two levels of brightness. The trackpad is quite large but is placed in the center of the laptop’s body instead of the standard typing position. I also noticed that the rejection for the palm doesn’t work as well, as I’m used to with other laptops.

On the left, you get HDMI 1.4 video output, a USB 3.0 Type A port and a USB Type C port that supports charging as well as video output. There is a security lock slot on the right side, a second USB Type A port, a 3.5mm audio socket, a data only Type C port and a microSD card slot.

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Specifications of Infinix InBook X1 Slim

Being a budget laptop, there will be some compromises to be made. The interesting thing is that the company has installed Intel 10th Gen Ice Lake CPUs in all the variants. These are three years old but still good in terms of working. After a few years, you may feel helpless in their case.

My review unit gets a Core i5-1035G1 CPU with four cores and a 15W nominal TDP rating. It runs between 1GHz and 3.6GHz. But the G1 designation states that the Intel UHD graphics capability is weak.

Its 14-inch display has a FullHD 1920×1080 pixel resolution and offers a non-reflective surface, which is very good to work with. The company has said to have 300 nits peak brightness and 100 percent sRGB color gamut coverage. The device has LPDDR4X RAM which means it is soldered and cannot be upgraded. The company says that PCIe 3.0 SSD has been used in the lineup.

The laptop has a 50Wh battery, for which the company has said that it can last all day. It can watch 11 hours of web browsing, 9 hours of video playback. Infinix has said that the battery can be fully charged in 90 minutes. The laptop comes with Windows 11 Home and does not have any preloaded third party software. The good thing is that it can be started without linking to a Microsoft account. In the start menu, I saw a popup ad from Microsoft and shortcuts for downloads from the Microsoft Store.

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Performance of Infinix InBook X1 Slim

Its processors may have become old according to the times, but the InBook X1 Slim performs well in everyday work. This is responsive in regular use, even if multiple tabs are opened at the same time, which is very common in today’s normal usage. You can communicate, work with productivity apps, stream videos and even play some light games. Long typing can be done on the keyboard but the trackpad sometimes gets interrupted and you prefer to tap rather than click.

Its 14-inch display isn’t too bright or vibrant but you’ll feel it only while watching videos. It’s fine for writing assignments. The company has given a quad speaker system in it, with which there is support for DTS Audio. However, I found the sound quality quite weak. The music sounded thin and hollow but the voice was easy to understand.

Heavy testing will reveal that you can’t expect much from it in serious content creation or modern games. It scored 3,621 and 2,847 on PCMark 10’s Standard and Extended runs. While its singlecore and multicore scores in Cinebench R20 stood at 393 and 1,171 respectively. These scores are decent for a laptop at this price point. More expensive than here in 2020 Mi Notebook 14 If you compare it, then these scores come close to that.

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One thing that seemed particularly weak in the InBook X1 Slim is its SSD. This made it very slow to transfer files which averaged 32MBps. Sequential reads and writes stood at 2,377.1MBps and 1,953MBps, respectively, as reported by CrystalDiskMark. At the same time, random reads and writes stood at 799.7MBps and 950.4MBps, respectively. The company says that it has NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD but the model is not detectable in the diagnostics. Handbrake took 1 minute and 51 seconds to transcode the 1.3GB AVI file to H.265. It took 7zip 4 minutes 25 seconds to compress a folder of 3.24GB.

Graphics performance isn’t too bad, if you don’t expect too much. You can’t even play slightly older games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider on this laptop, with only 14fps at 1280×720 with the quality set to the lowest graphics. 3DMark’s Time Spy and Night Raid scene scores were 547 and 7,186, respectively. However, casual games went well in it. Bloons TD 6 is a simple yet interesting defense game that went quite smoothly.

On a single charge, I was able to use this laptop for 8-9 hours for simple tasks and web surfing. It turned out to be less than the company’s estimate but still fine. The laptop performed well in the heavy Battery Eater Pro test and lasted for 2 hours 54 minutes. With the use of LED webcam flash and heavy graphics, the battery will obviously drain quickly. It charged from 0 to 45 percent in 30 minutes and was charged to 78 percent within an hour. USB Type C charging is convenient but works only with the left port.

You might be wondering if the LED flash is just a gimmick. So let me tell you that the webcam is not that good. Images come out. Yes, but it definitely helped when my face was in some shade, but there is no improvement in the quality. If you want to look professional in video calls, you will need not only a proper ring light but also a proper USB webcam.

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You will also hear the sound of its cooling fan when the laptop is loaded and at times I could hear it even while doing simple tasks. The left side of the keyboard was also getting a little hot while playing the game.

our decision

It is very difficult to avoid inflation nowadays and every rupee saved becomes significant. The company has given all the basic features in it which a student, home user or professional needs. It is quite affordable and doesn’t compromise on build quality, missing features or poor performance for the usage experience. It neither goes down nor above the basics. It may not be of use for a long time but the price also matters a lot to the users.

Its entry level variant comes for Rs 29,990 which is fine for the needs of the average user. RAM is not upgradeable but 8GB should be enough. The middle variant, which is reviewed here, offers good value for money at Rs 39,990. The top variant comes for Rs 49,999, which will only be bought by a certain class of people. If you do not want a more powerful or entertainment device, then you may like this as a balanced device.

I didn’t like the LEDs on its webcam, but its backlit keyboard, fast charging and two USB Type C ports, non-reflective screen make it quite special. If you want something cheaper than this, then the company has also brought a very simple InBook X1 Neo which costs Rs 24,990. It has a slightly lighter Intel Celeron CPU but the features are very similar.

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