Smartphone maker Infinix has announced the Zero 40 4G and 5G, the first phones to launch with a 'Works with GoPro' badge. Now, you might be asking: don't all smartphones work with GoPro action cameras? Yes, they do. Download the GoPro Quik app, pair your action cam with your smartphone, and you're good to go. With the Zero 40 series, however, you can access your GoPro directly through the phone's camera app, and GoPro Quik is pre-installed on the phone. While we were initially skeptical, after a week with the Zero 40 5G and a GoPro Hero12 Black, the native integration is seamless, which isn't always the case when connecting an action camera.
Works with GoPro explained
We've been using GoPros for years, and the Quik app is available for both Android and iOS. With all the variation in smartphones – specifically in the Android camp – we've experienced very mixed results when controlling our GoPros through Quik. With the Zero 40 5G, however, we opened the camera app, swiped through to the GoPro mode, and the phone connected with our Hero12 Black in moments.
Smoother than any pairing we've experienced before, Infinix has clearly optimized its latest smartphone specifically, which results in a solid boost to user experience. It also lets you bypass the heavy GoPro Quik app when you just want to shoot.
Going further than simply controlling your camera and getting a live preview on-screen, with the Infinix Zero 40 series, you can easily switch between the phone's primary camera and your GoPro without having to reconnect. It's a relatively seamless experience. You can, therefore, easily splice smartphone footage and photos with GoPro footage together as you'll be shooting with minimal interruption.
The partnership is niche – especially considering Infinix phones aren't widely available in the West. It's also frustrating that you have to pair your GoPro with both the phone's camera app, and the GoPro Quik app separately. Once done, though, you can pick and choose which to use, and we wouldn't be against other brands adopting this Works with GoPro integration based on our experience with the Zero 40 5G we tested.
Infinix Zero 40 explained
Infinix phones are typically available in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and while we've had mixed experiences with them in the past, the Zero 40 5G makes an excellent first impression. The phone looks great with curved front and back glass and a 7.9mm profile. In the box, it ships with a tempered glass screen protector, has a Gorilla Glass 5 cover screen, and is IP54 dust and water-resistant.
The Zero 40 5G's 6.78-inch screen is an AMOLED panel with a silky 144Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1300 nits. In the flesh, it showcases punchy colors, dark spots are deep, and there's an in-display fingerprint scanner for added premium-factor.
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Where Infinix has dropped the ball in the past is performance, but the Zero 40 5G's MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate is a midrange powerhouse, great for gaming and it can handle 4K video edits without too much hanging about. This performance is helped by 12GB of nippy LPDDR5X RAM, and there's either 256GB or 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
The Zero 40 5G's cameras pack plenty of pixels, with the primary sensor clocking in at 108MP, matched with an f/1.7 lens with OIS. The ultra-wide camera has a 50MP sensor matched with an autofocusing f/2.0 lens.
Flip the phone around, and the 50MP selfie camera has an f/2.45 aperture, and all three cameras capture video at 4K resolution at either 30fps or 60fps, which is seldom seen outside flagships.
Also impressive is the fact the Zero 40 5G packs wireless charging and ships with an impressively premium Qi2 (MagSafe-style) case in the box, so you can magnetically charge it up and mount it using MagSafe accessories.
With a 5000mAh battery, 45W wired charging, and 20W wireless charging, there are very few areas where the Zero 40 5G drops the ball on paper.
Other than its limited availability in the West, Infinix's update policy falls behind the best from Google, OnePlus and Samsung, with the Zero 40 series due to get two years of OS updates and three years of security updates.
So, while we've been impressed both by the Infinix Zero 40 5G and the smoothness of its GoPro integration in our time with the phone, the big question is, will this feature be dropping on other smartphones that are more widely available in the US, UK, and Europe? We put the question to GoPro and this was their response:
Developers and companies integrate GoPro with their products and ecosystems through GoPro’s Open GoPro program. Open GoPro provides an easy-to-use API for interacting with GoPro cameras and is developed and managed directly by GoPro.
With GoPro Hero 13 leaks flooding the internet, if you're thinking about picking up an action cam, check out the latest GoPro rumors and scope out the competition in our guide to the best action cameras of 2024.
Updated with comment from GoPro on 03 September 2024
