Tecno Spark 7T Review – Great Budget Prospect To Consider With Few Trade-Offs

Tecno Spark 7T is a slightly upgraded version of Tecno Spark 7 released at a Sub-10,000/- INR price mark. The phone arrives with an entry-level gaming chipset and features decent specifications be it for the camera, display, and other aspects of the phone.

Does the question arise if the Tecno Spark 7T is worth spending on? Well, here’s a hands-on review that will help you understand it as I go on explaining various aspects of Tecno Spark 7T in detail be it the pros or cons.

Tecno Spark 7T arrives with two storage variants. The base variant comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage at Rs 9,109/- while the top variant with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage arrives at a price tag of Rs 9,999/-. Get up to Rs 9,250/- off on Exchange Offer on Amazon India. You can avail a tonne of other deals including No Cost EMI, 10% instant discount on SBI up to Rs 1,500/- among others. Choose between Magnet Black and Jewel Blue colour variants

Before we talk in detail about the Tecno Spark 7T let’s see what the on-paper specs look like?

• Display: 6.52 HD+ Dot Notch IPS LCD display
• Processor: Mediatek Helio G35 
• Storage: 4GB/64GB, 4GB/128GB
• Software: HiOS 7.6 based on Android 11
• Rear cameras: 48MP AI Dual
• Front camera: 8MP
• Battery: 6000 mAh
• Weight: ‎165 x 76 x 10 mm
• Dimensions: 205g

If you have used Tecno Spark 7, the Spark 7T is almost similar down to the inch. The front has a giant display with a waterdrop-shaped notch with considerably sized bezels and a thick chin. It goes without saying because Spark 7T is an entry-level smartphone and the bezels are as per the price tag.

Moving on, Tecno Spark 7T uses a plastic frame and a plastic back panel. The frame is curved that allows for better grip while the bottom and top are flat. The back panel houses an oval-shaped fingerprint scanner placed on top of the panel around the point if the panel is divided into three sections horizontally. There’s a dual-camera setup arranged in a rectangular camera bump that has a fake lens with “AI” inscribed on it that would easily give out a presentation of a triple camera setup.

Planning to upgrade? Sell Your Old Phone in 60 Seconds From Home

Moving on, the back has a distinct sheen to it. Unlike the Tecno Spark 7, the Spark 7T has diagonal lines passing through right to left and with its matte-like appearance, you would instantly fall in love with the design. The back panel isn’t glossy and has a matte-like appearance to it which prevents it from excessive fingerprint marks and smudges from sticking on it which is good, to be honest.

Entry-level smartphones from Tecno don’t get a bottom-firing speaker and that is the same with Tecno Spark 7T. Instead, you get a front-firing loudspeaker between the display and the forehead bezel that doubles as an earpiece as well. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro USB port, and a primary mic at the bottom. There’s a power button plus volume rocker on the right and that’s all you get with the device.

Tecno Spark 7T packs a 6.52-inch IPS LCD panel boasting a 720×1600 pixels resolution along with 269 PPI density. There’s a 20:9 aspect ratio and there’s a waterdrop-shaped notch on top.

At a sub-10K INR price tag, I am not assuming that you will get an OLED panel. Talking about the LCD panel mounted on the Tecno Spark 7T, it is sufficiently bright at 480 nits which is easily viewable in broad daylight although not as much as an OLED panel. The display is 720p which means lower pixels and lower clarity than an FHD+ panel. Further, it is tall at 20:9 which is something that enhances multimedia and gaming experience on the go.

Broke Your Old Phone Screen?

– Affordable Display Replacement at Home

The device has a standard 60Hz refresh rate. If you haven’t tried 90Hz or higher, you wouldn’t feel any difference. You don’t get a higher refresh rate on a budget smartphone so let’s chuck it as well. There’s Widevine L3 certification on the phone which means you can view content on OTT platforms at 480p resolution. Anything higher than that is simply downgraded to 480p and that includes photos snapped using the 48MP snapper. Viewing angles on the Tecno Spark 7T is good as well.

Tecno Spark 7T is equipped with a MediaTek Helio G35 SoC with a 12nm node with an octa-core arrangement which includes 4x 2.3GHz Cortex-A53 big cores and 4×1.8GHz Cortex-A53 small cores. The CPU is flanked with a PowerVR GE8320 GPU, 64GB/128GB eMMC 5.1 storage, and 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM.

Tecno Spark 7T is a smartphone irrespective of its entry-level cadre. The chipset handles day-to-day tasks pretty well as you don’t face any issue when opening apps and toggling between them. In fact, I have found out that the Helio G35 SoC on Spark 7T performs better than smartphones sporting the same chipset thanks to the optimized software.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A22 Full Review

Usual tasks don’t strain the processor, however, it is the games that put a lot of strain on the SoC. When it comes to Spark 7T, the processor handles 2D and casual games without any hitch. You can play high-graphics titles like PUBG Mobile (Now BGMI) and COD Mobile on Spark 7T although in the lowest settings to stay stutter-free. You can tune up the graphics although it will surely introduce lags here and there.

Tecno Spark 7T runs on the latest Android 11-powered HiOS 7.5. Apparently, the software appears to be well-optimized with the Helio G35 SoC as the performance is considerably better when compared to phones with G35 SoC which is pretty common in the Sub-10K INR price bracket. The software is fluid although you get a tonne of bloatware to uninstall or disable based on the authority you have on them. The UI doesn’t stutter unless you have too many apps open at once.

Compare: Samsung Galaxy F22 vs Samsung Galaxy M32 vs Samsung Galaxy A32

Tecno Spark 7T is an entry-level smartphone and it is exactly what the camera setup shows. There’s a 48MP primary AF camera at the back along with a 2MP decorative sensor. On the front, there’s an 8MP selfie shooter with dual-LED flash.

Tecno has changed the primary rear camera to 7T although the selfie shooter remains the same. Talking about selfies first, the photos do come out good for the price you are paying. The background is a bit overexposed, however, it is okayish. You can even capture some pretty convincing portrait shots using the selfie shooter although expect a few hit and miss in edge detection and bokeh application.

Check Out: iQOO 7 Full Camera Review 

Getting a 48MP shooter at the back is amazing. Daylight photos are decent with a good dynamic range. Colours pop out in the shots as well so I didn’t have any issue capturing images using the 48MP camera. In fact, it surprised me a bit after analyzing the shots and comparing them with budget phones with a 48MP snapper. Edge detection and bokeh effect on portrait shots using the primary camera is on-point as well although you still have some hit and misses. The second camera here is an AI depth sensor but I am not a fan of these decorative sensors as they have little to no function at all.

There are abundant features on the camera app including AI Cam, Portrait, Beauty among others that you can use. You can shoot up to 1080p@30fps using the rear and the front camera which is the same as that of Tecno Spark 7.

The battery on-board Tecno Spark 7T is a massive 6,000 mAh pack which means going through the day with a lot of calling, texting, browsing, and all other day-to-day tasks isn’t a thing of concern. In fact, I was able to pull off a day of moderate to heavy use and more than 1½ day when it comes to light to moderate usage. On the other hand, the battery charges at a minimal speed of 10W which is about the same you get with the smartphones like-priced.

Read More: Top 10 Tips To Keep Your Smartphone Battery Healthy

You will still end up spending around three and half hours juicing up the battery to its full extent which is a lot. On the contrary, it is an entry-level phone which means you paid less for it and the battery consumption is less given the fact that you won’t be indulging in too many battery-draining games for that matter.

Apparently, this entry-level G35-powered Spark 7T lacks a bottom-firing loudspeaker. Instead, you have to use the earpiece that doubles as a loudspeaker, i.e. front-firing speaker setup. It is decently loud even with a single speaker setup although don’t expect it to have the elegance of speakers found on midrange or flagship phones as the sound quality is just decent and nothing out-of-the-box.

When it comes to connectivity features, the entry-level smartphone is packed with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11n, GPS, a micro USB 2.0 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Apart from that, the device supports a 4G LTE band with Cat4 150/50 Mbps speeds on two of its SIM cards. You have both VoLTE and VoWiFi which means Tecno Spark 7T is something that gives you all you need at an entry-level price.

Check Out: What is Carrier Aggregation? Why is it so important

Calling and network reception was good as I didn’t have any problems with the connectivity. I do feel a bottom-firing loudspeaker would’ve been better. All about it in the next section.

When it comes to security, Tecno has done something that not all brands do. It has included a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner that aids users in getting access to the device in a jiffy. It isn’t the fastest though but surely reliable and works well too. If you want, you can try Face Unlock as well which is a software-based 2D solution but it is comparatively less reliable.

Pros

• 48MP rear camera setup
• Massive 6000 mAh battery
• 4GB RAM + 64GB internal storage
• Stylish design
• Dual flash on the front

Cons 

• No gorilla glass protection
• No dust and water resistance
• No fast charging