Just last month, the Tecno Pop X 5G, the newest endurance champion, arrived in India. This gadget is meant to be a top competitor in the budget market under Rs 18k with its eye-catching design, 6,500mAh battery, 45W rapid charging, 120Hz display, 50MP primary camera, and the MediaTek Dimensity 6400 processor with Android 16. We have been using this device for a while now, and here’s our review.
In This Article
Design and Display
The Tecno Pop X 5G in the affordable smartphone segment is a statement with a stand-out design that aims to provide a more premium aesthetic. The flat edges and large camera module create a design language typically seen in premium smartphones, enhancing a modern and elegant look.
We have the Ripple Green colour variant of the product, which highlights its distinctive aesthetic features. The finish is a soft, pale pastel green gradient that flows into a lighter shade for a visually appealing effect. On the rear panel, there is a distinctive wavy, silk-like design with a fine brushed texture that contributes to the tactile feel.
The textured patterns not only add aesthetic appeal but also help hide fingerprint smudges, maintaining the device’s clean and modern appearance.
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Ripple Green’s reflecting nature makes the device pop with a refreshing design. It is worth mentioning that a sturdy case might hide the visual texture and distinctive details of this colourway. The phone’s body is also made of high-quality matte plastic, and it is available in various nature-themed colours.
The camera island is made from aerospace-grade aluminium with a metallic finish, adding a touch of luxury to the design.
The iPhone Air-like camera module has a sleek and stylish metallic design that embodies modern minimalism. For the camera deco, Tecno has opted for high-end materials that provide a luxurious metallic touch. This design is resistant to fingerprints and also comfortable for people to use for extended periods.
Tecno’s smartphone has a thin profile with a thickness of only 8.18mm, which is quite an accomplishment considering its high battery capacity. The smartphone weighs around 210 grams and has excellent weight distribution for comfortable handling. Flipping it over reveals a massive 6.78-inch display. It has a modern punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera, which makes for a much better-looking design.
It’s built to survive, with a drop-tested design and IP64 classification for dust and water splashes. This design feature is for users who want a dependable mobile device that can survive accidental drops and light rain exposure.
The power button is also a fingerprint reader and is conveniently positioned in the middle of the right frame, making it easily accessible for both right- and left-handed users. The recessed shape reduces inadvertent presses while offering a pleasant tactile feel when pressed. The volume rockers are positioned above the power button for easy one-handed control of volume.
However, since the device chassis measures 6.78 inches in total, users with medium to small hands might need to adjust their grip considerably to easily press the Volume Up button. The volume buttons are tactile, offering a firm and responsive feel with no mushiness during use.
The left frame of the gadget is meant to be clean, and there is a SIM card slot somewhere in the top half. The device comes with a triple-slot tray, which lets you insert two Nano-SIM cards for 5G connectivity. In addition, the tray supports a microSD card, providing additional storage expansion options and boosting the device’s adaptability and ease of use.
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For convenience, Tecno has positioned the important features at the bottom of the gadget. The USB Type-C connector is placed in the middle for optimal charging of the large 6,500mAh battery at 45W. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone port in the bottom corner, which is worth mentioning and will satisfy wired-audio listeners at this price point.
The main microphone and speaker grille are placed in standard positions. However, users should be cautious where they rest their fingers when holding the phone horizontally, as blocking the speaker output during video calls can occur.
The gadget has a minimalist appearance on the top edge, with a pinhole microphone designed exclusively for noise cancellation in calls and recordings. It lacks an IR blaster and a separate secondary speaker grille, which are featured on certain competitor models. Furthermore, the earpiece plays an important part in improving call clarity.
The Tecno Pop X 5G has a low-cost display that excels in certain aspects while making major compromises to remain affordable. The 6.78-inch IPS LCD screen has an HD+ resolution (720 x 1,576 pixels), a competitive 120Hz refresh rate, and a touch sampling rate of 240Hz, resulting in a smooth and fast user experience suitable for social media and multitasking. However, the low pixel density of 256 ppi results in a notable loss of sharpness, with text looking soft around the edges.
While the display works well for casual usage, its limitations restrict its ability to handle high-resolution content. The peak brightness of 560 nits makes it ideal for indoor use, but direct sunlight poses a difficulty, needing shade or hand covering to improve visibility when outdoors.
The display has the cooler colour balance typical of budget LCDs, with vivid colours that are excellent for casual usage but no profound contrast and pure black, as on AMOLED screens. The IPS LCD technology offers stable viewing angles with very little colour changing or dimming, which is great for sharing visuals. The centre punch-hole design enhances immersion and is combined with narrow bezels, achieving an 87% screen-to-body ratio, although a visible chin remains.
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The display has a cooler colour balance that is common among inexpensive LCDs, offering brilliant colours that are perfect for casual use but lacking the deep contrast and genuine blacks found in AMOLED displays. The IPS LCD technology provides consistent viewing angles with minimal colour change or darkening, which is beneficial for sharing visuals. The innovative centre punch-hole design offers improved immersion and is matched with narrow bezels that provide an 87% screen-to-body ratio, yet a visible chin persists.
Performance and Cameras
Let’s go directly inside the engine room. The Tecno Pop X 5G has an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 6400 CPU, which includes two fast Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.5GHz and six efficient Cortex-A55 cores running at 2.0GHz. It is coupled with a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU that delivers balanced performance for a range of applications. Built on 6nm technology, the chipset prioritises power efficiency and consistent performance, making it ideal for daily use rather than heavy benchmarking.
The Dimensity 6400 chipset is optimised for basic 5G connectivity and has steady thermal performance, making it a viable option for browsing and streaming. It is available with either 4GB or 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and it also has the unique ability to virtually expand the RAM by an additional 8GB using storage. This design decision boosts multitasking capabilities.
The Tecno Pop X 5G features UFS 2.2 storage, resulting in faster installation and transfer speeds compared to older eMMC-based budget phones. Both RAM options include a large 128GB internal storage, allowing users to multitask efficiently and keep their data organized.
Geekbench 6 Results:
- Single Core Score: 820
- Multi-core score: 2120
The Tecno Pop X 5G is excellent at gaming and handles casual games with ease and heavy titles at medium graphics settings. For a casual gaming experience, the device shines with light games like Subway Surfers and Candy Crush. However, more taxing games need low-to-medium graphics settings to get frame rates of 40-60 fps. GPU performance with the Mali-G57 normally ensures steady frame rates, but expect dips in frame rate during longer gaming sessions.
Built for everyday use, the phone is optimised to do daily tasks with ease, whether it’s chatting on WhatsApp, sending emails, surfing the net, or scrolling through social media. The 120Hz refresh rate makes the user interface animations seem very smooth, and the interactions feel fluid and responsive.
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On the other hand, the processor is also powerful enough to let you multitask casually without any major performance stutters, making for a fluid user experience even when multiple applications are in use.
Tecno is also offering a new feature called “FreeLink Communication” that enables offline short-range calling, messaging, and file sharing. This capability works well with other compatible devices within a radius of up to 1.5 km in an open space. FreeLink Communication is particularly helpful in remote areas or places with poor signal, where regular phone services might not work, making it easier for customers to stay connected in these situations.
The Tecno Pop X 5G comes with a positive software experience. It runs on Android 16 on top of Tecno HiOS 16. One of the best things about this affordable smartphone is that it comes with the latest Android version out of the box, which is a big plus for anyone who wants the latest features.
Its visual design, Nature Design 2.0, adds aesthetic improvements in the form of fluid animations and a smooth 120Hz display. HiOS 16 is powered by Ella AI, which offers smart utilities such as an upgraded virtual assistant and AI productivity tools. The Circle to Search function also lets users launch Google searches by scribbling on the screen.
But trade-offs might include bloatware preinstalled and a restricted update strategy, with one year of major upgrades and two years of security fixes.
HiOS 16 comes with a little bit of junk pre-installed, but it also includes some useful AI features built in. Other cool tools, like the AI Eraser for images, the AI Writing Assistant, and the AI Noise Cancellation for phone calls, work really well and increase the overall usefulness. The innovative design of the UI and the smart inclusion of AI technologies that make the gadget more appealing also make it a wonderful option within its price range. If you don’t mind spending 10 minutes clearing away bloatware on the first boot, the performance is fast, intuitive, and modern.
The Tecno Pop X 5G features a simple camera setup designed for affordability. Its rear panel has a cluttered appearance that suggests a dual-camera system, but it actually houses a single sensor with basic lenses. The additional cutouts are just for the LED flash and the basic auxiliary AI matrix sensors that help with edge detection.
In everyday use, you’ll find the 50MP main sensor (f/1.85) truly stands out, offering a noticeable boost in performance compared to other options in its class. It employs 4-in-1 pixel binning technology, which helps create crisp 12.5MP images, making your daylight shots clearer and more detailed. This gives you far clearer photos, better readability of distant text, and finer texture details, like foliage or fabric, compared to ordinary budget sensors.
This camera is perfect for capturing stunning wide landscapes in excellent lighting, thanks to its dedicated 50MP high-resolution mode that lets you crop photos beautifully without losing any detail or clarity. The f/1.85 aperture really shines in low-light conditions, letting more light in to improve night shots. Plus, the Super Night feature uses smart multi-frame exposure techniques to enhance contrast and reduce digital noise, ensuring your nighttime photos come out clear and vibrant even in challenging lighting.
The front camera of the gadget is equipped with an 8MP sensor and an aperture of f/2.0, which makes it decent for selfies and video calls on popular platforms like Google Meet and WhatsApp. It is intended to provide a clear and dependable performance in various applications. However, Tecno has included default tuning that applies a smoothing and skin-brightening filter, which may occasionally produce an unnatural look that affects true-to-life skin textures. In low light, the camera uses a soft screen flash to provide extra light, enhancing visibility to see face details for improved picture quality.
The camera can record up to 60 frames per second in Full HD, which is a big improvement over the 30 frames per second offered by less expensive models. This update enhances smoother panning shots and improves overall video recording quality. It also preserves the fun dual-video mode, enabling users to record video simultaneously from both the front and rear cameras, making it especially useful for vlogging.
The Tecno Pop X 5G has a powerful 6,500mAh lithium-polymer battery, setting a new bar in the affordable smartphone category. This is a big battery, and that translates into impressive longevity. You should get up to two days out of it for average use and around a day for heavy use. With this efficiency, users can expect to have 35% to 40% battery power left at the end of a busy day.
Furthermore, the Tecno Pop X 5G comes with a 45W fast charger. The smartphone can get to a 50% charge in just about 35–40 minutes and can be fully charged in slightly over 1 hour and 20 minutes. Keep in mind that the charging speed slows down once it reaches 85%. This helpful feature is designed to protect the battery’s health and keep the device cool during charging.
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Verdict
Priced at Rs 15,999, the base edition of the Tecno Pop X 5G includes a host of key features like a 50MP camera and a Dimensity 6400 processor. This improvement turns the phone from a basic battery workhorse to a solid everyday driver. You get decent daylight photography performance and the smoothness of 120Hz scrolling. This gadget is ideal for anyone who prefers longer battery life and durability to a high-quality display.
Buy or Skip?
If you have serious battery anxiety and are looking for a big-screen, dependable 5G gadget that can take a beating, then this model is the device to buy. It is particularly recommended for delivery service providers, frequent travellers, or students who require a long-lasting phone that lasts up to 48 hours without charging. It is a great deal in the sub-Rs 18k market. On the other hand, if you’re a display purist who loves high-res movies, needs a camera-first phone to post lots of Instagram photos, or just wants crisp text and punchy AMOLED colours, you might want to look at some other models, too.
Pros
- Smooth 120Hz refresh rate display
- Massive 6,500mAh battery
- Android 16-based HiOS 16 with handy AI tools
- IP64 splash resistance
Cons
- LCD panel
- 560 nits of brightness
- Software Bloat
