Infinix Zero Book Ultra review: Entering the big leagues

The laptop has a subtle “Zero” branding at the back (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)

Looks a lot like a MacBook Pro

Infinix Zero Book Ultra is one good-looking 15-inch laptop that I have tested recently. While we cannot deny the fact that the design of this laptop is heavily inspired by the MacBook Pro, I don’t see an issue with that. The metal unibody design makes this laptop feel premium. However, in terms of weight, the Zero Book Ultra weighs 1.9 kg, which makes it slightly heavy by today’s standards. The hinge should have been a little stiffer.

In terms of connectivity, the laptop has everything one might expect from a 15-inch notebook, including a couple of USB Type-C ports (with support for PD charging), a full-sized HDMI 1.4 port (output up to 4K at 24Hz or 1080p at up to 120Hz), microSD card slot, and a barrel styled charging port.

Due to the dated HDMI standard, you won’t be able to pair a high-resolution and a high-refresh-rate display with this laptop. The laptop also has a fingerprint sensor and it works for the most part. Similarly, the device has a physical switch to toggle between power modes. The only missing feature on this laptop is an RJ45 ethernet jack, which would have made this a self-sustaining laptop without any dongles/adapters.

While there is no HDR playback support, the display can get as bright as 400nits (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)

Display gets plenty bright for indoor usage

Infinix doesn’t seem to have cut any corners even in the display department. The device has a 1920x1080p 60Hz display with a peak brightness of 400nits with 100 per cent sRGB coverage and 72 per cent NTSC coverage, which makes this a pretty colour-accurate screen for normal day-to-day usage and content consumption. Again, the black bezels around the display do remind me of a MacBook Pro. This is a glossy screen, hence, it does reflect a lot of light.

This laptop definitely has one of the good trackpads that I have used on a Windows laptop (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)

Large trackpad and okay keyboard

The Infinix Zero Book Ultra definitely has one of the largest trackpads that I have seen on a Windows laptop in this class. It supports all Windows gestures and works as expected. However, when it comes to the keyboard, the keys did feel a bit mushy and I would have liked a slightly firm key. With two levels of keyboard backlight, the laptop can be used in low-light situations without any issues.

1080p web camera works well for zoom calls

The Infinix Zero Book Ultra has a 2.1MP 1080p web camera, while this might not be the best web camera that I have used on a laptop, it’s definitely above average and can be used for attending online classes and office meetings. The camera app also comes with built-in software with features like face tracking, background blur, and beauty mode, which smoothens the skin.

When I opened this laptop for the very first time, I was really fascinated by looking at the speaker-like grills on either side of the keyboard. While it has quad-array speakers, the sound of this laptop isn’t that impressive, especially considering it costs around Rs 90,000. In fact, my decade-old MacBook Pro has slightly better speakers than the Infinix Zero Book Ultra. While I was able to increase the volume by installing the FxSound app, I would have definitely liked slightly punchier speakers, possibly with Dolby Atmos support for an enhanced multimedia consumption experience.

Powered by a 12th Gen Intel Core H series processor, this laptop has some serious CPU power (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)

Infinix Zero Book Ultra’s day-to-day usage and performance

The Infinix Zero Book Ultra has been my daily driver for the last two weeks. I did not notice any performance issues during my usage as it is powered by the  12th gen Intel Core i9-12900H processor with Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of PCIe Gen4 SSD. Do note that, this processor is mostly featured on gaming laptops that cost over Rs 1,00,000 and those laptops also come with a dedicated graphics unit.

On Geekbench 6 benchmark, the laptop posted 2517 and 12859 points on single-core and multi-core CPU tests. Similarly, on the GPU test, the laptop scored 16730 points on the OpenCL test. Do note that, this laptop does not have a dedicated GPU, while you can game on it, at 720p resolution and low graphics, I definitely recommend you get a device with a dedicated GPU at this price range if gaming is your primary priority.

There is also a red light at the hinge, which can be turned on when the laptop is in overboost mode, where, the CPU will get up to 54W of power for enhanced multi-core performance. And the only time I heard the fans spin on this laptop is when I ran the benchmarks. For the most part, the laptop runs cool despite having a gaming-class 14-core CPU.

While the laptop supports USB-PD charging, it ships with a barrel-style 96W charger (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)

Can it last all day?

I mostly used this laptop for research, browsing the internet, and content production and the laptop would easily last over 6 hours on a single charge. Do note that, I mostly used this laptop in economy mode and it comes with a 70Whr battery. Using this laptop in balanced and over-boost mode will consume more power and deliver a slightly lower battery life. While it does support fast charging via a USB Type-C port, the laptop came with a barrel-style charger, which is a bummer.

As this laptop has a hybrid CPU with the combination of P-cores and E-cores along with thread director technology, the laptop assigns low-powered cores to basic tasks like web browsing and content consumption while the P-cores will be assigned when rendering a photo or a video.

A premium-looking laptop with a high-performance CPU (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)

Should you get one?

For the asking price of Rs 87,267, the Infinix Zero Book Ultra looks like a good package, for those who want a CPU-heavy laptop with premium all-metal build quality, a bright display, and all-day battery life. However, do note that for just Rs 5,000 more you can get the same laptop with 32GB RAM and 1TB of internal storage. If you are going for this laptop, then I definitely suggest you spend Rs 5,000 more and get the higher variant.