Tecno has joined the trend of LED backlights on phones. We have the Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G this time for the review, which we have been tinkering with for more than two weeks and have essentially used it enough in every situation to know how it performs in actual day-to-day use. Tecno has nearly mastered this one well, especially when you consider the price of less than Rs 20,000. Although it is undoubtedly one of the most cost-effective devices available, nothing is flawless. Here is our review of the Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G, in which we go over every last detail, user experience, and yes, the much-discussed design so you can decide whether or not to purchase it.
Table of Contents
Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G Review: Design and Display
Everyone now claims that this resembles the Nothing Phone; to that, we would both agree and disagree. It is obvious that Nothing Phone (Nothing Phone 1 Review and Nothing Phone 2 Review)has influenced some of it. Despite RGB LED lights being placed all around the camera module, which Pova calls the Arc interface, the transparent back panel is the key design feature. When it is charging or when a call comes through these lights.
In addition to having a stunning design and a 3D textured pattern (a rear panel with a cyber-inspired 3D texture), the back also features completely customizable RGB lights.
The phone’s overall construction quality is excellent, and the front has Panda Glass protection.
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There are two colour options for the Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G – Silver Fantasy and Dark Illusion. For the review, we have the Dark Illusion colour choice, which is absolutely lovely and creates a deep navy blue effect in bright lighting conditions.
Moving to the side, you’ll notice a flat-looking design. On the right side of the frame, above the power button with an embedded fingerprint sensor, is a volume rocker. There is an additional speaker grille at the top. It should be noted that the gadget has stereo speakers with DTS audio and that a SIM card tray on the left supports both a dual nano SIM and a microSD card, indicating that storage can be expanded.
A 3.5mm audio jack, a primary microphone, a Type C port for charging, and a speaker grille are all located on the bottom.
About ten 5G bands are supported by this 5G phone. The power button incorporates the side-mounted fingerprint sensor. The onboard sensor did an excellent job; it is very easily accessible in a very convenient location and unlocks fairly accurately most of the times.
The 6.78-inch full-HD+ display of the Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G supports 240Hz touch sampling rate and 120Hz refresh rate.
For the pricing point, the display appears to be excellent. Particularly on the sides and top, the phone’s bezels are exceptionally tiny. You do have a little chin at the bottom, but considering the price, we consider it to be mostly acceptable.
Although the display becomes bright enough for indoor usage, it is difficult to read when used outside throughout the day under direct sunlight. However, it is pretty sharp and does provide nice colour schemes.
A smoother user experience is also made possible by the 120Hz refresh rate, and many of display adjustments are available in the display settings menu. The refresh rate can be changed from 60 to 90 to 120Hz. Even better, you may choose Auto Mode, which will adjust the refresh rate of the panel based on the sort of content you are viewing. Additionally, the display quality is fairly decent given the budget and is not inferior to other cheap panels.
Thanks to the screen’s 1080p resolution, there is a respectable amount of detail produced. Whatever kind of content you are viewing, everything appears clear and concise, especially texts. Additionally, we have watched a few web shows and have been really pleased with the picture quality. The overall brightness may reach 580 nits, and the colour reproduction is also excellent.
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This phone has a stereo system with the primary speaker at the bottom and the secondary on top of the frame. The voices are clean and have good audio quality. Because it includes DTS and high-res audio capabilities, the sound quality is exceptionally well-balanced overall. These speakers are also fairly loud, and there isn’t any distortion at all.
You may actually use the EQ and DTS audio optimisations in the sound setting to its best.
Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G Review: Performance and Cameras
The MediaTek Dimensity 6080 5G SoC and Mali-G57 MC2 GPU power the Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G. There are two storage options for the Pova 5 Pro 5G: 128GB or 256GB, both come with the same 8GB of RAM. With the help of internal storage, the phone’s MemFusion feature enables RAM extension by up to 5GB. Additionally, a MicroSD card can be used to increase the internal storage.
We did not experience any lags or stutters while using it on a daily basis; most of the time, it ran well. This phone was capable of doing daily tasks like accessing the home screen and opening and closing apps seemed fluid. While the 120Hz refresh rate undoubtedly improved that performance as a whole.
The chipset easily handles the majority of work, and games typically run smoothly at their recommended settings. Most of your favourite titles, including BGMI, COD, and Asphalt 9, are playable. With HD graphics, we played BGMI, and the entire gameplay was enjoyable. The phone already has the Panther engine 3.0, and you can access it and change many settings by swiping from the edge of the device. During intense gaming, the phone becomes a little warm, but that is not at all problematic.
The smartphone comes pre-installed with HiOS 13.1, an Android 13-based operating system. We scarcely used any of the bloatware that was pre-installed on the gadget.
In addition to this, this phone has some helpful features that tweak games for faster performance, like Game Space and a section in the settings menu called Micro Intelligence that lets you manage features like Lift to Wake and Flip Mute.
The phone’s best feature is its customisable LED backlight, which is accessible through the settings themselves. The settings let you choose the kind of lighting effect you want to see when a call or notification comes in. Even the party music effects are adjustable.
The performance of the camera is next. We did take a few test shots for the pictures. The smartphone has a 50-megapixel main rear camera that looks to take decent pictures in both ideal and less-than-ideal lighting conditions. But in really dim light, a lot of noise is visible. An additional AI camera is present as well, but it lacks an ultra-wide lens.
The 16-megapixel front camera takes decent pictures in both natural and artificial lighting conditions. The colours are vibrant, and the pictures appear to be pretty sharp.
There are many different photo modes in the camera app, including portrait mode and a Smart AI mode. The phone can also record videos at high to 2K (30 frames per second) and 1080p (60 frames per second).
The Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G has a 5,000mAh battery, which lasted us under intensive use for almost a day. However, the battery life can be readily extended to a day or more with typical use.
The 68W charger charges the phone completely in 49 minutes, which is a respectable amount of time for a handset priced below the 15k range. Notably, the LED backlighting also changes from red to green when the phone is running low on battery and shines red when the phone is completely charged.
Verdict
Under Rs 15,000, the Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G is a pretty nice phone that performed admirably across the board. The best thing is that for this price you get a display with a 120Hz refresh rate that is highly responsive. LED backlights and 68W fast-charging capabilities are an excellent addition to the phone. The lack of an ultra-wide back camera sensor makes the camera section weak. If you’re searching for a low-cost phone, you should absolutely consider buying this one because it offers fantastic value overall.
Pros
The phone looks beautiful
120Hz display
Fast charging
LED backlight
Cons
Large form factor
No ultra-wide camera
Low light camera performance is not great
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