From Supercars to Smartphones: Infinix Taps Pininfarina in a Bold Premium Play

HONG KONG – December 03, 2025 – In a move that bridges the worlds of high-performance automotive design and mass-market consumer technology, smartphone brand Infinix today announced a landmark strategic partnership with Pininfarina. The 95-year-old Italian design house, famed for sculpting iconic vehicles for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, will now lend its aesthetic philosophy to Infinix's mobile devices, beginning with the forthcoming Infinix NOTE 60 Ultra.

The announcement, made at the prestigious Business of Design Week 2025, signals a pivotal moment for Infinix. The brand, known for its stylish, value-driven devices popular in emerging markets, is making an audacious bid to redefine its identity and compete in the fiercely contested premium segment. By aligning with a name synonymous with luxury, elegance, and performance, Infinix is betting that world-class design is the key to its next phase of growth.

A Calculated Leap Upmarket

This partnership is not a whimsical foray into high fashion; it is a calculated strategic maneuver grounded in significant market momentum. According to the latest IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Infinix has been on a remarkable growth trajectory. In the second quarter of 2025, the company's global shipments grew 11.7% quarter-on-quarter, increasing its worldwide market share to 3.2%. More impressively, it achieved the largest quarter-on-quarter shipment increase in Southeast Asia, with a staggering 27.8% surge that established it as the region's fastest-growing brand.

This rapid expansion provides the foundation for a move upmarket. Infinix has successfully captured a loyal base of young, tech-savvy consumers with devices that offer bold designs and strong specifications at accessible price points. Now, the collaboration with Pininfarina is designed to elevate the brand's perception and attract a more discerning global audience.

"Our work with Pininfarina is an important step in strengthening the design foundation of our future products, beginning with the NOTE 60 Series," said Tony Zhao, CEO of Infinix, in the official announcement. "This partnership reinforces our commitment to deepening investment in high-end design and establishing a new aesthetic benchmark for future flagship products."

While official pricing for the NOTE 60 Ultra remains under wraps, industry whispers suggest it may target the "premium midrange" segment. This strategy could prove disruptive, offering consumers a device with the design pedigree of a luxury product at a price point well below the traditional flagship tier of over $800, potentially carving out a new niche in the market.

Translating Automotive Soul into a Digital Interface

The central question is how Pininfarina's legacy, built on the flowing lines of steel and the roar of a V12 engine, will translate to the pocket-sized, glass-and-metal form of a smartphone. The Italian firm, however, is far from a one-trick pony. For decades, its 'Pininfarina Extra' division has applied its design ethos to high-speed trains, yachts, architecture, and luxury lifestyle products, operating as a "360-degree design house."

This partnership represents Pininfarina's formal entry into smartphone design, a challenge the firm embraces as a natural evolution of its core principles. "For nearly a century, our brand has shaped new ways of living, been synonymous with purity, timeless design, and emotion in form — values that perfectly align with Infinix's vision of innovation," stated Fabio Calorio, Senior Vice President of Brand at Pininfarina. The goal, he noted, is to apply their principles of combining beauty and performance to make a lasting impact on the user experience.

For the Infinix NOTE 60 Ultra, this could manifest in several ways. We might see a departure from the flat-edged designs dominating the market, replaced by more ergonomic, aerodynamically inspired curves. The choice of materials could shift towards more refined metals and textures that evoke an automotive feel, while the camera module—often a point of aesthetic contention—could be integrated with the kind of sculptural elegance seen in a supercar's air intakes. The collaboration promises a device that is not just assembled, but sculpted.

Is Design the Next Infrastructure for Connectivity?

In an era where technical specifications are hitting a point of diminishing returns for the average user, the battle for consumer loyalty is shifting to a new front: user experience. As processors become incrementally faster and camera megapixels lose their marketing magic, the physical design and tactile feel of a device are re-emerging as critical differentiators. In the context of our increasingly connected future, the smartphone is more than a communication tool; it is the primary interface for our digital lives.

This device is our remote control for the smart home, our dashboard for connected mobility services, and our window into the vast network of urban infrastructure. In this ecosystem, superior industrial design is not mere decoration—it is a form of 'soft infrastructure' that makes this complex digital world more intuitive, accessible, and enjoyable to navigate. A thoughtfully designed object enhances the human-to-network connection, making it as vital as the 5G towers and fiber optic cables that form the network's backbone.

Infinix has previously explored automotive-inspired aesthetics, such as its 2024 Racing Edition collaboration with BMW's Designworks. However, that was largely seen as a branding exercise applying familiar stylistic elements. The partnership with Pininfarina promises something far deeper—a foundational rethinking of the product's form and function. The challenge and opportunity lie in achieving an authentic fusion. The market is savvy to superficial, 'logo-slapping' collaborations, and the success of the NOTE 60 Ultra will hinge on whether Pininfarina's influence is felt in the very soul of the device.

As Infinix prepares to unveil the full details of the NOTE 60 Ultra, the tech and design worlds are watching with keen interest. This partnership is more than a story about a new phone; it's a test case for whether a legacy of Italian elegance, born on the racetrack, can be successfully translated to the high-volume, fast-paced world of consumer electronics and, in doing so, set a new standard for how we connect with the digital future.