Tecno Spark 8 Review – The Well-Made Budget Handset

Tecno promotes itself as being a budget smartphone manufacturer; in fact, it does not manufacture any flagship smartphones. Only a few months after the Tecno Spark 7 was released, the Tecno Spark 8 is now available for purchase. The smartphone boasts a new appearance and some upgraded features, despite the lack of expected bells and whistles. So, let’s see what it has to offer for the consumers.

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The Tecno Spark 8 is priced at Rs. 7,999 in India for the only 2GB RAM + 64GB storage option. The phone will be available in three colours: Atlantic Blue, Iris Purple, and Turquoise Cyan, and will be sold in both online and offline retail outlets.

Apart from the Tecno Spark 8, users will get the following inside the box:

• Transparent phone case
• SIM ejector tool
• 10W charging brick
• Micro-USB cable
• Earpiece

Before we talk in detail about the Tecno Spark 8, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.5-inch IPS LCD screen
• Chipset: MediaTek Helio P22
• RAM & ROM: 2GB RAM + 64GB storage, 3GB RAM + 32GB storage
• Software: Android 11 Go Edition
• Rear camera: 16MP + QVGA AI rear cameras
• Selfie camera: 8MP
• Battery: 5,000mAh
• Weight: 200 g
• Dimensions: 164.8 x 76.1 x 9.2 mm

Considering the smartphone’s price range, the Tecno Spark 8 appears to be a well-made handset all-around. The smartphone has the standard plastic frame and waterdrop notch, which are evocative of the 2018 smartphone trend but are now common in budget smartphones. The backside of the phone comes with a dual camera setup along with a Quad flashlight and a fingerprint sensor. When it comes to trends, the Spark 8 follows the track with the large camera module trend; however, the camera occupies only a minor portion of the smartphone.

In addition, the fingerprint sensor on the Tecno Spark 8 is oddly placed on the overly large camera module, which matches the colour of the rest of the rear panel. The fingerprint scanner works well and is pretty snappy; if you are someone with large fingers, then you might have some difficulty in unlocking the smartphone. Other than that, the fingerprint scanner is ok. The back has a glossy finish, and the fresh “Stop at nothing” slogan along with the Techno Spark branding is printed somewhat clearly on the side, which I find redundant.

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On the right side of the device, you get the volume rocker and power button. On the left side, you get a SIM tray with the support of two Nano SIM cards and a dedicated micro sd slot. On the bottom of the phone, you get a 3.5 mm audio jack and micro USB charging port with the microphone. The top of the smartphone is empty, giving it a sleek look.

The display is pretty large at 6.5 inches and has a modest HD+ quality, which is standard for a low-cost smartphone. The display has a resolution of 720×1600 pixels with a peak brightness of 480 nits. The display has a refresh rate of 60Hz and a touch sampling rate of 120Hz. The front camera is housed in a regular-sized waterdrop notch, as previously mentioned. Furthermore, the display’s side borders have quite noticeable bezels, with a small portion at the bottom.

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There is no information on the sort of glass used, but we will hopefully learn more about it later. At this price point, the display is just ok for watching YouTube videos and other social media consumption. The sad part is that the sunlight suitability isn’t that great. By the way, this is the same display format used on the Tecno Spark 7, so not much has changed there. 

The MediaTek Helio P22 chipset is paired with a PowerVR GE 8320 GPU in the Tecno Spark 8. The smartphone is equipped with an Octa-core processor with a maximum speed of 1.8GHz. In comparison to the Spark 7, you have a more powerful Helio P22 processor. However, unlike the predecessor, which had a 3GB RAM option, the Tecno Spark 8 now only has a 2GB RAM model with 64GB of storage capacity. This handles all the basic day to day tasks like a champ. You won’t find any issues in your day to day activities, be it watching YouTube videos or scrolling through your social media platform.  This is not the smartphone you should be looking for if you want to clip heavy graphic games like PUBG for COD mobile. To be honest, it can only handle light games like Candy Crush or Subway Surfers and other games which fall into the same class. The performance will definitely suffer if too many background apps are running, and some will automatically close due to the limited amount of RAM, but most of the time, it is responsive for web browsing and other basic tasks. 

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The Spark 8 also lacks a standard Android OS due to the lack of a 3GB RAM option. Instead, you are loaded with the Android 11 Go Edition OS on your phone.

The phone runs on the Android 11 HIOS 7.6 operating system. As expected, the smartphone comes with a lot of bloatware but don’t worry; you can remove these from the settings. You get a lot of features in the quick settings like do not disturb, one hand mode, WhatsApp mode, Peak proof, game mode and theft alert. The smart panel of this phone really does smart. It will show up if you swipe from any of the sides of the phone. It is activated by default. You can turn it off from the settings. Talking about security, you get the face unlock and fingerprint unlock. The overall software experience is not that good considering the bloatware, unwanted notifications and ads you get.

Tecno Spark 8 has a dual camera with a 16MP main sensor with a QVGA AI housed in the back camera system, down from the triple cameras on the Spark 7. The secondary camera is mostly for low light detection. The Tecno Spark 8 does a pretty decent job with photos, but it’s not mind blowing and it won’t please most people. But for the price, the images are very ok. It is sharp with good details and in some cases, the high dynamic range is good and colour reproduction is decent too. Edge detection in portrait mode is also good, but it is not something you should rely on.

For selfies and video calls, there’s an 8-megapixel sensor on the front. The front camera is decent. It also features a dual flashlight for night selfies. Selfies come out to be pretty decent with good details and colours. Both front and back cameras can record videos at 1080p resolution with 30 frames per second. The Tecno Spark 8 comes with a camera app that includes features such as 1080p time-lapse photography, smile capture, panorama, portrait mode, 120fps slow motion, and more.

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Because the camera app is identical to that of the Spark 7, you can expect a lot of the same features and functionalities here. According to that, the smartphone would take decent photos in good lighting environments but not so well in low light. This is one of the best camera setups you can get on a smartphone at this price level in the budget category.

The battery capacity has been reduced from 6,000mAh on the Spark 7, yet it is comparable to the Spark 7P. The Tecno Spark 8 comes with a 5,000mAh battery which is more than enough to get you through the day. Battery performance is really great and it should add to the reason you should consider this device. Instead of a USB-C port, you’ll find a Micro USB port that can only support 10W of charging. There is no fast charge in the box which is pretty obvious and at this price point, you will barely see a device that comes with a fast charger. It takes more than two hours to fully charge the device from 0 to 100 per cent. To put it another way, the Tecno Spark 8 lacks both fast and wireless charging capabilities.

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Tecno Spark 8 comes with a single firing speaker, which is located at the top part of the display. It is not very loud and doesn’t offer a great sound experience. However, it is still ok for an average person, but it’s certainly not great. I would really like it if there was another speaker at the bottom of the phone. The sensors available in the device include Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, and proximity. Other notable features on Tecno Spark 8 include dual 4G VoLTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.5mm jack.

Pros

• A large battery for prolonged usage
• Decent camera setup 
• Large display 
• Excellent design 
• DTS sound effect

Cons

• RAM downgraded from 3GB to 2GB 
• No fast charging capacity 
• Micro USB charging port 
• No 5G connectivity