The Tecno Spark 3 Pro was launched in Kenya a couple of weeks back as the successor to the successful Spark 2 series from last year. The phone is available in the country from Ksh 12,500, a sweet spot for a smartphone targeting the masses.
The Tecno Spark 3 Pro is the first smartphone from the company to be launched in Kenya this year and I am curious to see what it has to offer. With the success of the Tecno Spark 2 from last year, I want to see if the company is able to match that with this new one available in the market.
As the name suggests, this is the Pro version that comes with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage space. There is the standard Spark 3 comes with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage space. I have the Pro version and it seems to be the one available for the Kenyan market at the moment.
If you are interested in the other specifications of the Tecno Spark 3 Pro, you can find them using the link below.
Read: Tecno Spark 3 Pro specifications.
What is in the box
Before we get to the phone, let us find out what we are getting inside the box.
- Phone
- User guide, warranty card and manual
- USB Cable
- Wall adapter for charging
- Transparent back case
- SIM ejector tool
First Impressions
Now that we know what we are getting inside the box. Let us get to the phone and see what it has to offer.
The first thing I noticed about this phone is that it is very light and I like it. Who wants to carry a heavy phone around anyway? The design the company decided to go with is quite different from the one we saw on the Tecno Spark 2 last year. The design reminds me of the Infinix Zero 3 from a few years back, it is boxy with a flat back. It feels a bit premium compared to most other smartphones we have seen from Tecno.
I got the Champagne gold version which I have to say is not a new colour. We have seen this colour from the company for years so there is nothing exciting about it.
The back cover is not removable and is made of plastic. Even with this, it still looks good as it has a sparkly finish that looks cool. The little details really matter and Tecno did a good job here. Still on the back is where we get the two cameras, LED flash and the fingerprint scanner. Tecno has copied the a few things from Huawei and you will see that from the way it has placed its logo and the ‘AI Camera’ branding at the back.
For the back cameras, we are getting a 13MP and 2MP combination. The 2MP one acts as a depth sensor for the perfect portrait shots.
Flipping the phone at the front we get the 6.2-inch display with a resolution of 1500 x 720 pixels and the huge cut-out notch. This notch makes it feel like a 2018 smartphone but I guess we have to live with it since it houses the front facing camera (8MP), earpiece, sensors and the front facing LED flash, we need somewhere to accommodate these and the notch is the right place. This display is standard for its price and I will have to use it for a while to determine if it is any good.
Even with its huge display, I have no problems using this phone with just one hand. I have gotten used to smartphones with big displays and this might be the reason. If you are not used to big smartphones, it will take some getting used to but you will get there very fast. The good thing is that the edges of this phone are slightly curved and not sharp so carrying and using the phone will be a pleasant experience.
Tecno placed the headphone jack at the bottom next to the microphone, Micro USB port and the speaker grille. It is not a USB Type C port but we are not going to complain for a smartphone within this price range. The volume and power buttons are on the right and the SIM and MicroSD card slots on the left.
Now to what is inside. We get a 2GHz Helio A22 processor that is paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage space. 2GB of RAM is good but in 2019 we should be looking at 3GB of RAM for smartphones above Ksh 12,000. The experience has been good so far but this is still a new smartphone so I am not expecting anything less. I will be testing its performance and share my experience in the full review that will be up later this week.
The Android version we are getting on the Tecno Spark 3 Pro is Android 9.0 Pie. This is a plus and gives the Spark 3 Pro an edge over its sister company, Infinix, that launched the Hot 7 recently with Android Oreo. The experience with Android Pie has been good so far, we still get HiOS but the overall experience is just better.
For those who love Faiba 4G, the good news is that the Spark 3 Pro does support the network and you will be able to use it on this phone. The phone supports 4G LTE for those who want to use any other network.
Tecno decided to use a 3500 mAh battery which sounds good enough considering the fact that this phone isn’t demanding in terms of performance and the display is not a high resolution one and thus will not be a battery hog. I am confident I can get this battery to last at least a day with medium to heavy usage. I will have my full results in the review so come back for that. You can follow our Telegram channel to get the notification when the review is published.
Conclusion
So far, my experience with the Tecno Spark 3 Pro has been good. It feels like a complete upgrade to the Spark 2 from last year. From the design, build and the internals, Tecno has really upgraded this series and I am curious to see what it has to offer.
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