Tecno is a well-liked model in Africa and South Asian markets. In its path to develop globally, the UAE is a candy spot. We now have seen Tecno’s units prior to now and its most up-to-date Tecno Pova additionally slots into the funds class of smartphones. It isn’t the flashiest nor essentially the most premium, nonetheless it comes with just a few shock packages. However must you contemplate it at its Dh769 price ticket in 2021?
Design and construct high quality
There may be nothing notably stand-out concerning the Tecno Pova’s design. It’s above common in dimension and can pose points in day by day utilization for folks with smaller palms. The rear panel has a glowing sample with stripes to it however its in-hand really feel is poor as a result of there isn’t any texture to it. Given the shiny nature, it attracts too many fingerprints and turns into particularly slimy when utilized in heat climate circumstances. The chassis additionally has an odd creaking concern in direction of the underside left body when gripped firmly, which is barely regarding from a sturdiness perspective. Given this, utilizing the case supplied out of the field is definitely not a foul thought.
The bigger footprint of the system additionally means a heavier and thicker cellphone, at 215 g and 9.4 mm. This mix isn’t too uncomfortable in day by day use nonetheless when reaching for the smartphone’s rear fingerprint scanner, it turns into an issue. The scanner is positioned too excessive, requiring lots of motion to achieve together with your index finger. It’s pretty responsive although however can take just a few tries to unlock the system when your finger doesn’t fully cowl the scanner.
We are going to handle the digital camera unit on the rear in a later part however in any other case, you discover a wide variety of ports and management buttons. The amount and energy buttons are discovered on the proper fringe of the system, and we expect all of the buttons being separate is an effective design trait. The buttons really feel strong with the ability button resting naturally under the thumb for ease of entry. On the underside of the smartphone, you discover the three.5 mm headphone jack, the first microphone and a micro-USB enter. Regardless of a charger and cable supplied out of the field, it could have been higher to see the inclusion of a Sort-C USB port as a substitute.
The highest fringe of the Tecno Pova is has the earpiece and an LED mild whereas the left edge homes the SIM tray and a devoted Google Assistant button with a purple accent. Apart from that small splash of color enhancing the look of the smartphone, we by no means used the devoted button throughout our overview interval. The SIM tray on the smartphone is able to housing two 4G nano-SIM playing cards and a microSD card concurrently which is nice. There may be additionally a delicate rubber protecting across the card slot for some unofficial water resistance. It is ready to survive splashes of tremendous water droplets nonetheless we might not suggest dipping the smartphone in a pool.
Show and multimedia
An enormous a part of our smartphone expertise stems from multimedia. For this, the Tecno Pova is supplied with a 6.8-inch IPS LCD panel. Its 720 x 1,640 decision is poor on paper nonetheless you don’t see any pixels except you’re peeing. The 82.9 per-cent screen-to-body ratio is sweet for immersion, with a thicker backside bezel than the highest. After all, the highest is the place you discover a punch-hole selfie digital camera off to the left.
General contact responsiveness and viewing angles from the show are good. There isn’t any visible drawback when navigating except for the shortage of maybe the next refresh price. However the show’s downfall comes with each multimedia consumption and brightness ranges. Watching content material on the IPS show doesn’t give off essentially the most saturated colors nor does it present good ranges of distinction. Add to that the shortage of 1080p help, given the show’s 720p decision and you end up with a lower than pleasurable expertise.
This isn’t a deal breaker though for a smartphone in 2021, it’s barely disappointing. Utilizing the cellphone indoors and outdoor, you’ll need to keep up a excessive brightness. By our utilization, we needed to set the smartphone’s brightness ranges to 70 per-cent indoors. When outdoor although, the 480 nit peak brightness of the Tecno Pova fell brief with us resorting to shaded areas to see the show clearly.
Coupling with multimedia is audio. For most individuals, audio is not going to be an issue on the smartphone due to the three.5 mm jack. You can too fairly simply use a wi-fi pair of Bluetooth headphones right here. But when you end up utilizing the smartphone’s speaker, the expertise is underwhelming. The ear piece discovered on the highest fringe of the cellphone doubles as its major speaker. This lacks any depth and produces muffled sound, which isn’t too best. On the subject of connectivity, the smartphone sports activities strong WiFi protection and hotspot help nonetheless the shortage of NFC for fee and knowledge sharing is an enormous disadvantage contemplating the occasions we stay in.
Efficiency and gaming
The show specs and the internals of the Tecno Pova give it good all-rounded efficiency. Inside, you discover the 12 nm Mediatek Helio G80 octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz. That is first rate to have on the worth vary, scoring 196,084 on AnTuTu. On Geekbench 5, it scores a 378 single-core alongside a 1364 multi-core rating.
Regardless of the low benchmark scores on paper, the smartphone has remained pretty responsive all through day by day use. Jitters or pauses that you could be sometimes affiliate with smartphones at this worth have been few, with the general expertise being pretty pleasurable regardless of the shortage of a excessive refresh price panel. With 6GB of RAM and 128GB of on-board storage, we didn’t really feel too restricted right here. The one cases the place we the noticed cellphone wrestle was when utilizing the digital camera inside social media functions. For example, importing an Instagram story or extra so when utilizing the digital camera inside WhatsApp. Typically, this led to points with the preview of the photograph nonetheless a restart of the appliance appeared to repair this.
For gaming efficiency, the big display is an enormous benefit. However testing Name of Obligation: Cell, the expertise remained clean. Always, we noticed the smartphone preserve a body price between 55-60 FPS albeit at a capped low decision even through Recreation Area optimisation. If you’re somebody who maybe values clean efficiency over visuals, there’s not a lot to complain about. Furthermore, it was good to see the smartphone preserve its temperatures properly even beneath heavy masses.
Person expertise and software program
As nice because the Tecno Pova is in the case of efficiency, there’s a huge adjustment required so as to adapt to it. HiOS 7.0 on high of Android 10 is on of the heaviest skins we have now seen on a smartphone in latest occasions. Each facet of it’s pretty intrusive proper from while you setup the system. You discover a folder filled with video games and functions pre-installed that we by no means discovered use for.
Whereas this type of bloatware is pardonable, we additionally confronted common ads from the working system and the smartphone auto-installing functions we by no means clicked. The latter was on account of by accident opening a pre-installed app retailer utility similar to AHA Video games. The settings menu on the smartphone can be riddled with numerous enhancements that we couldn’t perceive. For example, Social Turbo and Good assistant are added software program settings that we by no means discovered use for in day by day operation.
After all, with just a few days’ value of utilization, you will get used to this expertise. Nonetheless, we expect there isn’t any worth on this except for maybe display recording and photograph modifying instruments. And fairly frankly, there isn’t any purpose to pack so many options into the working system. Not solely does this confuse the consumer but it surely additionally renders half of these options virtually being untouched throughout utilization.
We’d like to see Tecno undertake a consumer expertise nearer to inventory Android. This may not solely imply much less bloatware but in addition higher efficiency. There may be additionally a robust correlation between a clear consumer expertise and quicker updates. Regardless of us being in February 2021 on the time of this overview, the Tecno Pova nonetheless has December 2020’s safety patch operating on Android 10. In additional best circumstances, it must be rocking the newest February 2021 safety patch and Android 11.
Digital camera efficiency
The underwhelming software program expertise of the Tecno Pova sadly carries over to its digital camera as properly. Our expectations weren’t sky excessive for the imaging system discovered right here. Nonetheless, it could have been good to see a greater digital camera consumer interface. There are a ton of settings in-built which can be arduous to know. Furthermore, AI CAM is the default possibility for the digital camera on the Tecno Pova with no method to flip this off.
So far as the digital camera {hardware} is worried, we discover 4 digital camera lenses right here. There’s a major 13MP digital camera alongside a 2MP macro sensor, a 2MP depth sensor and an AI sensor. In all honesty, photos in various lighting circumstances are poor. The smartphone’s digital camera captures the final essence of a scene however not way more. One factor getting in favour of the Tecno Pova although is its pretty snappy shutter velocity.
Whereas there isn’t any ultra-wide angle lens right here, you do discover a macro digital camera which turns out to be useful for sure use circumstances. However as quickly as ambient mild is lowered, the macro digital camera efficiency degrades. The identical may be mentioned concerning the smartphone’s major digital camera, with blended outcomes when utilizing it in the course of the night time, particularly with no devoted night time mode. You’ll be able to seize 1440p or 1080p video at 30 FPS with the digital camera however with none stabilisation, outcomes are nearly unusable.
In the direction of the entrance of the smartphone, you discover an 8MP selfie sensor. This lets you seize some first rate photos in the course of the day. Nonetheless, very like the first sensor, colors from the selfie digital camera are typically brightened up, pores and skin element is misplaced and dynamic vary is poor. Attempting the portrait mode for selfies right here, edge detection is satisfactory nonetheless flaws are fairly simple to level out. On the general, it’s secure to say that utilizing the digital camera on the Tecno Pova is an underwhelming expertise.
Battery life
Portray a contrasting expertise, the battery life on the Tecno Pova is ridiculous, in a great way. The 9.4 mm chassis of the system accommodates an enormous 6,000mAh battery. With this, you’re coated for 2 days of reasonable to heavy utilization with out having to fret about recharging the smartphone. That is completely phenomenal for a smartphone, setting the benchmark of how battery life must be on a typical modern-day smartphone.
All through our utilization, we relied on a mix of each WiFi and 4G, leading to a ridiculous 1-day of screen-on time. That is by far essentially the most spectacular outcomes we have now seen particularly with such utilization. So in case you are somebody who values battery backup above something, the Tecno Pova immediately turns into a worthy candidate.
One facet of its battery that you’ll want to remember is recharging. With the usual shifting to Sort-C USB, nonetheless having micro-USB is an obstacle for certain. And with the bundled 18W charging equipment, you need to see a full cost of the Tecno Pova in near 1 hour and 50 minutes. Provided that it lasts greater than two days although, there’s not a lot to complain about.
Conclusion
Our expertise utilizing the Tecno Pova has been blended. If you have a look at its {hardware}, the 720p show is underwhelming. However different {hardware} options just like the Helio G80 processor and the 6,000mAh battery make up for that. However the place the smartphone struggles is with software program. Right here, you discover a uncommon case of software program that’s optimised and clean however bottle-necked by the corporate’s bloatware. For somebody anticipating a clear working system on their smartphone, we might not suggest the system. However in case you are adaptable and might be taught to stay with the Tecno’s HiOS, it’s value a look solely due to its battery backup.