When choosing a new phone, we are truly spoiled for choice as the debate between Android and iOS continues to gain momentum.
The Tecno Spark 7 Pro was released in South Africa on September 16 and set out to settle that debate.
As someone who's had three Apple devices over the last seven years, using an Android device daily felt a bit strange, but I soon got the hang of it. That’s the thing about Android devices - you can rely on the user interface being easy to navigate.
Phone size and display
The phone is 164.9 x 76.2 x 8.8 mm, which is around the standard size for phones these days. It doesn’t feel heavy in your hand, which is great for everyday use. The display is 6.6 inches.
The phone was created with a cinematic look and feel in mind, and it’s one of my favourite features about the display. As millennials, we spend a lot of our time consuming short-form content on our phones. We want what we look at to be aesthetically pleasing, and this phone does that.
The Tecno Spark 7 Pro has a 90Hz refresh rate, the number of times a display fully refreshes every second on a device. A refresh rate of 90Hz is considered above average as it means smoother scrolling, better animations and the ability to display more frames per second.
Camera
The phone comes with a 48 MP triple camera in the back that has an Artificial Intelligence (AI) lens. The AI lens is great for taking pictures at night or in a dark setting, as it automatically brightens it up.
The front camera is 8 MP and comes with a front flash which is great for live-streaming or general recording for social media content.
The video quality records up to a 2K resolution and comes with a bokeh feature that allows you to focus on something in the foreground while blurring out the background. I liked this feature because I often find myself trying to show someone one thing, without having the background distract them.
Storage and performance
The device sports a Helio G80 chipset with an Octa-core processor. Both of these features are set to ensure that the device performs as best as it can. Thus far, I have had no problems.
The phone can use between 4GB and 6GB of memory with onboard storage ranging from 64GB to 128GB. The device I have is 128GB, of which 26GB is used by the system; which leaves you with 102GB onboard storage.
It also has a memory card slot, should you require more storage space.
The device with 128GB storage retails for R3999 and R2999 for 64GB.
I’ve used the phone over the last four weeks, and the speed of all functions ace hasn't changed. There’s been no decrease in functionality, how long it takes to open the app or in-app performance.
Battery performance
A big positive is that the phone comes with a safe charging feature to protect the phone’s battery life. This means that once the phone is charged, it automatically stops charging without you having to remove the charger.
The phone has a 5000mAh battery and when not connected to WiFi 24/7, the battery life lasted three full days. After a month’s use and with WiFi connectivity, I still find myself only charging it every second day.
Added specs
A fingerprint scanner unlocks the phone and pay for purchases with your fingerprint. It’s also built with a face unlock feature. I used this for the first two weeks and it worked well. I deactivated it because it would unlock the phone every time I checked the time, but its functionality is seamless.
The phone comes with a dual SIM slot for two nano SIM cards which works well without any hassle.
Final thoughts
My top three features would have to be its cinematic display, extended battery life and safe charging feature. My daily social media tour has become more fun because of the display.