Infinix InBook X1 Slim review: Will perform in everyday use

Shortly after reviewing Infinix’s first laptop in India, we came to the company’s upcoming InBook X1 model, which was called the InBook X1 Slim. It can be called a product released as a more affordable laptop, but it is similar to the company’s smartphones. Meaning, there are some design elements and features on the laptop that might catch your eye. Infinix is ​​trying to carve out a foothold in the Indian laptop market, and it makes sense for the brand to focus on the value segment, just 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 deals are also available with select banks. There are five variants of the laptop. In these, according to CPU, RAM and storage, you can choose the best for you. At the base price, you get a 10th-gen Core i3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. By spending Rs 3000 more, you can also install 512 GB SSD in it. The build I have for review has a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Its price in India is 39,990 rupees. If you double the RAM and grab the 16GB variant, the price rises to 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 launched in 4 colors – Neutral Starfall Grey, Noble Red, Cosmic Blue, and Aurora Green.

Infinix InBook X1 design

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

The dark interior was provided in my blue colored unit, which was not at all distracting while working. The bottom half is plastic and so is the frame around the screen. But nothing looks or feels cheap. The hinge feels very reliable, and the screen doesn’t dent even when the lid is intentionally bent. The keyboard flex is simple, but the trackpad feels plastic and the mechanism is stiff and noisy. You can’t quite compare it to laptops like the modern look and slim bezels, but you won’t be disappointed in terms of build quality at this price.

The device’s 14.8mm thickness and weight do justice to its InBook X1 Slim name. It is very portable for daily use by 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 the dual star LED flashlight. These are the two LEDs above the webcam on the screen. You can toggle these by pressing Win+Space. How these work on webcams, we’ll find out more in the review. But keep in mind that depending on the angle at which the screen is placed, its light can also shine directly into your eyes.

The power button appears to have a fingerprint scanner, but it doesn’t. You get a traditional keyboard with no extras. The arrow group is very compact, but dedicated paging keys are also provided on the right hand side. I didn’t expect backlit keys at this price, but it’s a nice feature and you can choose between two levels of brightness. The trackpad is large but it’s located in the center of the laptop’s body instead of the standard typing position. I also noticed that the palm ejection doesn’t do much as I’m used to with other laptops.

On the left, you get an HDMI 1.4 video out, a USB 3.0 Type-A port, and a USB Type-C port that supports charging and video out. The security lock slot has been placed on the right side, a second USB Type-A port, a 3.5mm audio jack, a data-only Type-C port, and a microSD card slot.

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Infinix InBook X1 Slim Specifications

Being a budget laptop, some compromises have to be made. What is interesting is that the company has installed 10th Gen Intel Ice Lake CPUs in all variants. These are three years old but still in good working order. After a few years, you may feel powerless in your case.

My review unit packs a Core i5-1035G1 CPU that has four cores and a nominal TDP rating of 15 W. It runs between 1 GHz and 3.6 GHz. But the G1 designation suggests that the Intel UHD graphics capabilities are weak.

Its 14-inch screen has a FullHD resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and offers a non-reflective surface, which is great for working on. The company has said that it will have a maximum brightness of 300 nits and sRGB color gamut coverage of 100 percent. The device includes LPDDR4X RAM, which means it is soldered and cannot be upgraded. The company says that PCIe 3.0 SSDs have been used in the line.

The laptop is backed by a 50 Wh battery, which the company claims can last a whole day. In this, 11 hours of web browsing, 9 hours of video playback can be seen. 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 third-party software preloaded. The good thing is that it can be launched without linking to a Microsoft account. On the start menu, I saw a pop-up ad from Microsoft and shortcuts to download the Microsoft Store.

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Infinix InBook X1 Slim Performance

Its processors may have aged with the times, but the InBook X1 Slim performs well for everyday work. It is responsive in regular use, even when multiple tabs are open at the same time, which is very common in normal use these days. You can communicate, work with productivity apps, stream videos, and even play some light games. Typing on the keyboard is acceptable for long periods of time, but the trackpad sometimes gets in the way, preferring to tap rather than click.

Its 14-inch screen isn’t very bright or vibrant, but you’ll only feel it while watching videos. It’s okay to do the writing work. The company has given it a quad speaker system with support from DTS Audio. However, the sound quality seemed rather weak to me. The music was thin and hollow, but the voices were easily understood.

Extensive testing will reveal that you can’t expect too much from it for serious content creation or modern gaming. It scored 3,621 and 2,847 in the standard and extended runs of PCMark 10. While in Cinebench R20 its singlecore and multicore scores were 393 and 1,171 respectively. These are decent scores for a laptop at this price point. Here, comparing it to the more expensive Mi Notebook 14 that came out in 2020, these scores are on par.

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One thing that is particularly weak on the InBook X1 Slim is its SSD. File transfer was very slow, averaging 32 MBps. CrystalDiskMark reported sequential reads and writes at 2,377.1 MBps and 1,953 MBps, respectively. While the random reads and writes were 799.7 MBps and 950.4 MBps respectively. The company says it has a PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD but the model is not detected in diagnostics. It took Handbrake 1 minute and 51 seconds to transcode the 1.3 GB AVI file to H.265. Compressing a 3.24 GB folder took 4 minutes and 25 seconds with 7zip.

Graphics performance isn’t too bad, if you don’t expect too much. You can’t even play old games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider on this laptop, which managed only 14 fps at 1280×720 with the quality set to the lowest graphics quality. The 3DMark scores for the Time Spy and Night Raid scenes were 547 and 7186, respectively. However, casual games worked fine with it. Bloons TD 6 is a simple but interesting defense game that worked very well.

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

You might be wondering if the LED flash is just a gimmick. So let me tell you, the webcam is not that great. The images emerge boring. Yes, but it definitely helped when my face was in shadows, but there was no improvement in quality. If you want to look professional on video calls, you need not only a proper ring light, but also a proper USB webcam.

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When the laptop is charged, you will also hear the sound of its cooling fan and many times I was able to hear it even while doing simple tasks. The left side of the keyboard also got a bit warm while gaming.

our verdict

It is very difficult to avoid inflation these days and every rupee saved becomes important. The company has given it all the basic features that a student, home or professional user needs. It’s quite affordable, and the user experience hasn’t been compromised by build quality, missing features, or poor performance. It goes neither below nor above the basics. It may not work for a long time, but the price is also very important for users.

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

I didn’t like the LED on its webcam, but its backlit keyboard, fast charging and two USB Type-C ports, non-reflective screen make it special. If you want something even cheaper than this, the company has also introduced the 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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