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Tecno Pova Slim Review: Design and Display
Before we dive into the design and form factor of the smartphone, let’s take a look at what you get inside its retail box.- Smartphone
- 45W power adapter
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- Frosted hard plastic cover
- Screen protector and cleaning kit
- Phone seal stickers
- SIM ejector
- Warranty card
- User manual
The back panel has a smooth matte finish, which lends it an amazing in-hand feel. The horizontal camera bar at the top of this panel houses the main camera, a macro lens, an LED flash, and an IR blaster. The two sensors are bordered by LED strips. These circular strips are connected by a sleek LED bar. Tecno calls this setup the ‘Mood Light’.
The curved form factor of the device works really well with its sleek profile. The right edge of the frame houses the volume rocker and the side button. At the bottom lies the SIM tray, primary microphone, USB-C port, and speaker grille. Up top lies the secondary microphone. There is no secondary speaker on this device.
The 6.7-inch curved AMOLED display has a 144Hz refresh rate on paper, but the MediaTek Dimensity 6400 SoC powering the smartphone has a ceiling of 120Hz. The display settings page has an option to push the refresh rate of the Settings, Messages, and Dialer apps to 144Hz, but in actuality, they are limited to 120Hz. False promises aside, this display has a nice touch response and offers a smooth browsing experience. With a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, it is able to maintain legibility under direct sunlight. The optical fingerprint scanner is snappy and accurate. Despite its curved form factor, the display doesn’t register any accidental touches. Up top, there is a Dynamic Island-inspired pill-shaped cutout for the selfie camera.
During the week-long review period, we used the Tecno Pova Slim as our primary media streaming device. The 1,224 x 2,720p AMOLED panel produced brilliant visuals with rich colours and deep blacks. The curved display offered an immersive experience with a wide range of viewing angles. The single, bottom-firing speaker produces a well-rounded audio output, but it isn’t as loud as its stereo counterparts.
Tecno Pova Slim Review: Performance and Cameras
The MediaTek Dimensity 6400 SoC lies at the heart of this smartphone. This chipset is built on a 6nm process. In terms of raw power, it is a tier below the standard chipsets in this price bracket. However, given the novel design of the device, this tradeoff is understandable. The smartphone comes in a single 8GB RAM (LPDDR4X) + 128GB storage (UFS 2.2) variant. We ran a couple of benchmark tests on the smartphone. Here’s how it performed.- Geekbench 6: 767 (single-core) | 1,933 (multi-core)
- AnTuTu 3D: 454,153
As you can tell from the benchmark numbers, the Pova Slim has a sizeable gap in raw power when compared to its peers. This gap isn’t immediately noticeable in everyday use, as the smartphone does a good job of handling basic tasks like calling, instant messaging, social media browsing, media streaming, navigation, and more. Juggling different apps at once does not cause any major issues. However, the apps take slightly longer to load, since the internal storage is limited to a UFS 2.2 configuration. The haptic motor provides decent vibrational feedback.
The gap in benchmark numbers becomes more visible when you run titles like Call of Duty Mobile and BGMI on this device. With the graphics and frame rate set to their medium settings, the gameplay is decent. However, the smartphone warms up after 15-20 minutes of continuous gaming. Pushing the graphics to a higher setting introduces frame drops in the gameplay. This doesn’t bother us too much, since this isn’t a gaming-focused device to begin with.
OS duties on the Pova Slim are handled by Android 15 skinned with HiOS 15. Over the years, Tecno has massively elevated the aesthetic of its custom Android skin. It has a unique flair, which is quite uncommon in this price segment. The custom icon pack breathes new life into the interface. The OS takes some design inspiration from Apple, most notably the pill-shaped cutout on the display that supports animations for charging, low battery status, and other alerts. The bifurcation of the notification shade and Quick Settings Menu also reminds us of iOS.
The sleek profile of the Pova Slim isn’t the most unique thing that the smartphone has got going for it. The ‘Mood Light’ on the rear camera panel lights up when you receive an incoming call or notification. It also comes to life when the battery drops below 20% and when you put the phone to charge. Powering on the phone, flipping it on its face, and triggering the AI assistant also creates cute LED animations on the camera panel.
The rear camera panel houses a 50MP primary shooter and a 2MP macro sensor. The primary shooter takes good pictures in outdoor daylight conditions. The images are well-processed and showcase vibrant colours. The contrast and dynamic range are decent, too. The pictures are more ‘social media ready’ than balanced, but that’s not a bad thing. In limited lighting conditions, the Night Mode does a good job of resolving the noise and illuminating the shot.
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Verdict
If you’re tired of the slab-like form factor on smartphones, the Tecno Pova Slim is a fun way to shake things up. When it comes to design, it hangs with the best of the ‘slim phones’ on the market. Its sleek profile has a very unique in-hand feel, something that no regular slab phone can offer. The affordable price tag of Rs 19,999 comes with its fair share of tradeoffs, though. For starters, the MediaTek Dimensity 6400 SoC powering this device isn’t designed for heavy tasks. If your daily usage doesn’t go beyond tasks like calling, texting, media streaming, web browsing, and navigation, this shouldn’t bother you. However, if you’re a gamer, you may want to look elsewhere. The lack of an ultrawide sensor in the rear camera array is another tradeoff, but the primary shooter puts up a good display in a wide range of lighting conditions. Buy on Amazon for Rs 19,999Pros
- Sleek profile
- Unique design
- Mood light
- AI features
- Affordable
Cons
- Mediocre processor
- Only available in a 128GB storage variant
- Contains a lot of bloatware apps
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