A while back Tecno launched its new flagship device in India, the Phantom 9 which came with the triple rear camera setup. However, now Tecno has launched two new devices which land in the budget segment, a segment which Tecno has been catering to since long. The two new devices include the Tecno Spark Go and the Tecno Spark 4 Air. Out of these two devices, we had the Tecno Spark Go in our hands for the review which retails in the market for Rs 5,499. The phone comes with a MediaTek processor, a budget segment price tag and boots the custom OS from Tecno, the HiOS. Here is the full review of the Tecno Spark Go.
Design and Display
When it comes to design, the Tecno Spark Go features a plastic back. The thing to note about the Tecno Spark Go is that unlike most of the devices in the market right now, this phone comes with a removable battery. So, you will find that the back panel can come right off so that you can place the 3,000mAh battery inside, the SIM cards and an optional microSD card. The plastic back panel of the Spark Go does come in a decent dark blue to black gradient, hence the name Nebula Black for this variant. Being a budget segment phone, the quality of the panel is not that premium but surely look aesthetic enough. On the rear side, we also find the single-camera sensor paired with a dual-LED flash which is vertically oriented. The rear side of the phone is also prone to smudges and fingerprints so that is something that you should be careful about.
As for the display, the Spark Go features a 6.1-inch display with a waterdrop notch on the top which renders the HD+ resolution. The aspect ratio of the screen is 19.5:9, and it lends it a screen to body ratio of 85%. On actually turning on the phone we found that the graphics had ample sharpness, although the colours felt a little washed up. This was especially prominent; we turned the brightness low. Overall, the display felt good enough for day to day usage, and even watching few videos was a pleasant experience on the phone.
Performance
Talking about the hardware that the Tecno Spark Go sports, the phone comes with 2.0GHz Helio A22 quad-core SoC which is paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. However, as we mentioned above, the users do get a dedicated microSD card slot using which they can expand the memory up to 256GB. On firing up the device, we felt that it worked smoothly with day to day multitasking, and it handled all our social media applications well. The app start-up times did get a little delayed after some continuous usage.
As you can imagine with the given processor and 2GB RAM, maybe the users will be able to play some normal games but more serious games which are resource-demanding won’t be conducive for the Tecno Spark Go. But understandably, as a budget segment device, the phone provides enough buffer for the users to install applications, and use them smoothly. The battery life is something that could concern the users. Like a lot of budget segment phones in the market come with special focus on lengthened battery lives, but that is not the case with the Spark Go as it sports a 3,000mAh battery which you might need to plug in twice in a day sometimes.
On the software front, the Tecno Spark Go boots Android 9 Pie with the HiOS on top. This means that you are going to find a lot of pre-installed apps, something that not all the people would be pleased to find. But even then, the users will find the latest features like Digital Wellbeing and others on the phone. The HiOS also comes with some minimal interface giving it a modern feel, and for the most part, it was a largely positive experience.
Camera
The Tecno Spark Go comes with an 8MP rear camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture. On the front, the phone sports a 5MP sensor. There are ample of features which the phone offers like Portrait Mode, HDR, Night Mode and professional camera settings. On the front, the selfie camera supports features like AI Beauty Mode, Portrait Mode, AR Stickers and Wide Selfie Mode. On opening up the camera we found that the images clicked from the rear camera came out nice, the colour reproduction was appreciable and natural. Although we did feel that the sharpness was amped up a little more than required on the images and it is also possible that the users might feel the focus drifting a little while capturing images. The portrait mode on the phone was something that could have been better, as it failed to detect the edges many times, and the bokeh did not stand out very well.
The AR selfie mode is something that the users might find amusing, but then it is not something that they would hold on to for long. On the selfie camera, we found that the colours were a little undersaturated and the sharpness was again turned up a notch. Even then, given the price tag of the device, the camera quality on the device seemed justified enough for Instagram and Snapchat uploads.
Verdict
The Tecno Spark Go is a budget segment device which seeks to gain the attention of the buyers who need to get a phone under the Rs 7,000 price tag. The device surely packs a decent camera, if not great for its price tag, and it also offers enough punch for day to day performance. The battery is one drawback that the users should look out for in this phone.
