Slim and simple, many mid-range smartphones seem like high-end ones and are built for subtlety. The Tecno Pova 8 5G, in comparison, is a great performer. This phone has an amazing 8,000mAh battery and a dramatic, cyberpunk-inspired look that makes it seem more like a sci-fi tank than a smartphone. Designed for power users and those tired of constant battery drain, it prioritises battery life above all else, even if that means some design sacrifices. We have been using this phone for more than a week now, and here’s what it’s like to live with this gadget.
In This Article
Design and Display
The very first thing you notice about the Pova 8 5G is its sheer bulk. The Pova 8 5G smartphone is built with a huge battery, which adds much to its size and weight. At 8.8mm thick and 225 grams, this gadget is much heavier than many of the lightweight options. The added weight may be noticeable to those coming from lighter phones, but the rugged build is especially handy for gamers and travellers who prioritise extended battery life over a more streamlined form factor. But the extra weight might be tiring if you’re holding the phone in one hand for a long time.
For the review, we have the white colour option called 16-Bit White, which has a futuristic, industrial style that is both distinctive and visually impressive. It’s crafted with a semi-transparent body and crisp geometric patterns that give it a contemporary vibe. Most notably, it has bright orange accents, especially the flashing orange power button, that help set it apart from more traditional designs. It’s loud, it’s different, and it surely stands out from a sea of dull slabs.
The gadget includes a customisable LED matrix embedded near the smartphone’s camera module, with a design that mimics a science fiction interface. This particular feature is intended to improve the phone’s overall personality and user experience. The item is made with a plastic frame and back, giving it a sturdy structure. It offers the phone a noticeable personality boost, even if the novelty wears off after a few days.
The thing is created from a plastic frame and back, giving it a strong structure. It’s rated IP64, which means it’s protected against accidental splashes but not complete water immersion.
The rear is plastic and has a smooth finish that tends to pick up skin oils, especially if you use the gadget with sweaty hands. The colour and visual texture of the phone are a boon, since grime is well concealed; it takes tilting it under bright light to expose the dirt. If you’re the kind to slide your phone across tables or throw it into a pocket with coins, the surface can scuff with time; thus, a rear cover is suggested.
Once you turn it over to look at the front, the device has a noticeably chunkier bottom bezel. It also has an IPS LCD screen instead of the higher-end AMOLED that you’d usually see at this price.
The Power Button and the Volume Rockers are on the right side of the edge. Here, the power button doubles as a side-mounted fingerprint sensor with an orange accent. The scanner is speedy and dependable, honestly a little more practical than a basic in-display sensor since you receive physical, tactile feedback.
The volume rockers are above the power button. They’re clicky enough; however, the phone is fairly tall and thick, which can make it hard for those with small hands to reach the volume-up button.
The left edge is neat and smooth. No gaps, no seams, simply one solid piece of plastic frame.
At the bottom you’ll find a USB-C connector, a 3.5mm headphone jack, the main speaker grille, and the primary microphone. The assembly also has a hybrid SIM slot (Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM or Nano-SIM + microSD).
Thankfully, Tecno didn’t sacrifice the headphone jack for more space. The SIM slot at the bottom is certainly becoming the trend for these huge battery phones, but you always have to be a bit cautious not to poke the microphone hole with the ejector pin when you are switching cards.
Let’s be perfectly honest: at this pricing point, an IPS LCD panel over an AMOLED screen is a bitter pill to swallow. Most rivals are pushing hard toward stunning, deep black OLEDs.
The Pova 8 has a 6.76-inch FHD+ LCD with a 1,080 x 2,344 resolution and a pixel density of 381 ppi. If you want deep contrast and true blacks for viewing films in the dark, you will immediately notice that this display makes some quality trade-offs. AMOLED panels provide a bold, bright pop that is not seen in LCDs. LCD panels nonetheless have colours that are more natural but less vivid and lively.
The Tecno device supports a maximum brightness of 950 nits, which is good enough for most lighting conditions. Indoors, a light intensity of 30%-40% often feels acceptable. The display is really good outdoors, even in full sunshine. It is not as bright as more expensive flagship phones, but bright enough to view notifications and maps without any problem.
The display also has a 144Hz refresh rate, which makes the UI (user interface) feel very smooth when navigating and scrolling between apps, and system animations look quite nice. Please keep in mind that not all apps natively support this refresh rate, so the device automatically sets the refresh rate to 120Hz or 60Hz for optimisation, depending on the specific app’s requirements.
The display also has an incredible 1,500Hz instantaneous touch sampling rate, a huge advantage for competitive gaming, especially in fast-paced shooter games. This feature almost completely eliminates the time lag between a touch and the action on screen, helping improve gaming accuracy. It also registers even the slightest movement and rapid taps accurately, so nothing is missed.
The large screen offers a full viewing experience without the light reflection and accidental touches common to curved panels. However, in dark settings, the LCD fails to produce deep blacks because of backlight limitations compared with AMOLED panels. The colour accuracy is maintained under normal lighting conditions, resulting in crisp and natural colours. The LCD also offers consistent viewing angles with little colour change. On the streaming front, it’s Widevine L1-certified, so you get Full HD (1080p) streaming on Netflix and Hotstar and HDR content on YouTube, although highlights aren’t as punchy as on flagship OLED screens, making for a more subtle upgrade in quality.
It has Dolby Atmos, which greatly increases the whole audio experience. The gadget boasts a dual speaker arrangement with the primary speaker on the bottom and a second speaker on top that delivers loud sound without distortion and strong audio separation when held horizontally. Dialogue clarity is quite good, and the bass is sufficient for action sequences. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can easily plug in wired earphones without the need for dongles or audio sync latency, which is great for noisy environments.
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Performance and Cameras
Under the hood, the Pova 8 5G has the MediaTek Dimensity 7100 chipset, which is based on a 6nm technology and coupled with LPDDR5X RAM. It comes in 6GB and 8GB RAM variants.
The phone does a good job at handling basic functions like texting, emailing and surfing, offering good performance. But it does have minor performance issues sometimes, especially when trying to do more demanding things like scrolling through video feeds while downloading updates.
It has LPDDR5X RAM, which is great for keeping apps alive, so you can switch back and forth between apps like Google Maps and Spotify without a bunch of background tasks being killed.
Speaking of storage, the phone is powered by UFS 2.2. This allows for generally fast loading times in applications, although transferring very large files is slightly slower than on devices using UFS 3.1 or UFS 4.0, which offer higher speeds.
Antutu Benchmark Results: 6,84,838
In terms of battery management, the phone’s software includes a battery saver capable of aggressively managing background apps. However, the feature may cause notification delays unless users manually lock applications in the recent apps menu, which may have an impact on overall usability.
The phone delivers good performance for the price, but does hit a wall in terms of intense gaming. Games like BGMI and Call of Duty: Mobile run just as well on settings like ‘Smooth + Extreme’ or ‘HD + Ultra’ and maintain a stable 60 FPS. Rare frame dips here and there, but it is impressive how stable it is generally during intense multiplayer scenarios.
However, Genshin Impact highlights the restriction of the hardware of the device since it is not able to run the game at 60 FPS on “Highest” settings, and one will have to lower it to Low or Medium settings to have a passable experience, with frame rates of approximately 30 or 45 FPS. A key feature is the 1,500Hz instantaneous touch sampling rate that improves responsiveness in games, giving a competitive advantage despite the GPU’s performance limitations.
The Pova 8 5G’s highlight is perhaps its impressive thermal management, thanks to a huge heat dissipation area of 14,689 mm². It is designed to efficiently dissipate heat via its sturdy chassis. The plastic back might feel warm after long use, yet it is comfortable to touch. This excellent heat management technology is key to avoiding major throttling and, as a result, maintaining steady frame rates, especially during heavy gaming sessions.
The phone’s back camera has a 50MP Sony LYT-600 primary sensor, capable of producing 12MP pixel-binned photos. It performs really well during daylight. Images are clean, colours are alive, and contrast is superb.
It’s a camera that is great for street and outdoor photography. But there are certain processing issues for which software may apply aggressive tuning. This may result in issues such as visible purple fringing on bright backgrounds and a flatness of textures, particularly in distant foliage.
The camera also has a 2x in-sensor zoom for close-ups, using a lossless digital crop that works well in favourable lighting conditions. However, the picture quality often worsens in low-light situations. In terms of low-light performance, the lack of Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) leads to soft pictures in night photographs and crushed shadows in regular low-light shots, which hide details.
The gadget also has a Super Night Mode for low-light shooting at night. The mode stacks multiple shots to reveal hidden details. However, for the best results, the camera must be kept steady while processing in this mode.
On the front, we get a 13MP selfie shooter that does a decent job in daytime circumstances. It does an acceptable job of capturing facial features and realistic skin tones in natural daylight and does a pretty good job of edge detection in portrait mode. But you can improve the performance by adjusting the beauty slider, which may result in more natural-looking self-portraits. However, the sensor struggles to gather enough light in low-light conditions, resulting in softer photos with a noticeable level of noise. There’s also a built-in screen flash, which is supposed to improve visibility in low-light situations, but it may occasionally wash out your shots.
To keep costs down, video recording is limited to 2K at 30fps on both the front and rear cameras, with no 4K support. This is sufficient for regular video calls and casual uses like Instagram Stories. However, the camera lacks hardware stabilisation, which leads to juddering frames when moving. Its low-light performance is also lacking, with visible noise and focus-hunting issues in darker conditions.
The battery life of this phone is an absolute tank, thanks to its big 8,000mAh battery. In our tests during use, the phone’s battery performance reveals a well-rounded capacity that adapts to different user demands. The battery life is also satisfactory, with the phone lasting 1.5-2 days for casual to moderate usage. If you’re the kind who checks email, scrolls through social media and makes random calls, you should have roughly 5 to 6 hours of screen usage before you need to plug it in overnight.
The gadget is still competent for heavy users and gamers under demanding settings like intensive gaming and heavy multitasking; however, battery efficiency may vary. In particular, the 8,000mAh battery means that it can easily last a full day of intensive use with some extra battery life, making it a great option for individuals who need constant power throughout the day.
Tecno’s new smartphone comes with a 45W fast charger in the box for quick charging capabilities. Users can expect the gadget to charge from 0% to more than 50% in 25 to 30 minutes. It takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get a full charge from 10% to 100%.
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Verdict
At Rs 29,999, the Tecno Pova 8 5G is targeted at gamers, with an 8,000mAh battery that can last up to two days of heavy use. It offers a 1,500Hz touch rate for responsive gaming and a distinctive 16-Bit White cyberpunk design with a customisable LED display. However, it is bulky at 225 grams and lacks an AMOLED, which affects media consumption. The 50MP camera performs well in daylight but does not include advanced features such as 4K video recording. Overall, the device is durable and dependable, making it a solid mid-range option for niche users, especially gamers.
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Pros
- 8,000mAh battery
- 45W fast charger
- 1,500Hz instantaneous touch sampling rate
- Customisable Alive Matrix Display
- Excellent heat dissipation
Cons
- Bulky
- LCD instead of AMOLED
- Restricted camera capabilities
- Lacks OIS
