The Tecno Spark 3 is the smaller brother to the Spark 3 Pro that I reviewed last month. I loved this phone especially the build quality and the battery. For Ksh 12,000, the Spark 3 Pro outshined some of its key competitors and that is why I gave the phone my stamp of approval.
When Tecno reached out telling me they have the Spark 3 for me to review, I was curious to see what this new device has to offer. The Spark 3 is available from Ksh 10,999 on Jumia and most other retail stores in Kenya. The Tecno Spark 3 and Spark 3 Pro have a lot of similarities with very few differences. They have the same design and build with the RAM and storage capacity being the key differences.
So, let’s get to the unboxing.
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 and warranty card
- USB Cable
- Earphones
- Wall adapter for charging
- Back cover
- Screen protector
First Impressions
Taking out the phone from the box for the first time, I couldn’t help but notice it looks a lot like the Tecno Spark 3 Pro. I loved the design and build quality of the Spark 3 Pro and I love this one too. It feels different from what we have seen from Tecno of late.
I got the Champagne Gold variant that is not necessarily my favourite colour but looks good either way. It does have the sparkly effect on the back cover and this gives the Spark 3 a unique look compared to the other phones within its price range. The sparkles are very visible under direct sunlight and they do look really good.
The build quality is also solid. The back is made of plastic and is removable to give access to the battery, two SIM card slots and a dedicated MicroSD slot. The battery is a 3500 mAh one and is non-removable. None of the two SIM slots support 4G LTE and you can only get 3G on this phone.
Still on the back sits the fingerprint scanner that is easy to setup and use, the speaker is on the bottom right section. There is also the dual camera setup that takes some good shots. We get a 13MP and a 2MP sensor here and for most shots I have managed to capture, the results are quite good. The colours are not that vibrant and some of them appear washed out but most of them are pretty good.
We do get an AI camera here are this just helps to identify the subject you are pointing the camera at and adjust the settings according for the best shot. I have been using this phone for just a few hours so I cannot share more about the AI feature. Besides the AI mode, we also have beauty mode, portrait mode and AR stickers. There is no Pro mode here but I do not think that will be a deal breaker for most people.
For selfies, there is the 8MP sensor that does a pretty good job mostly outdoors. It does struggle a lot when indoors and when the lighting is not so good. It does have portrait mode that does a pretty good job considering the fact that it is a software based one.
Tecno used a 6.2-inch display with a 720p resolution on the Spark 3. It gets bright enough for comfortable use outdoors and colours pop so well. This size is perfect for media consumption and I cannot wait to give this phone a spin and see how it compared to its competitors. There is a huge notch at the very top and this is one of the things I do not like about this phone to be honest. It makes the phone feel dated compared to the other options customers have. You can disable the notch if you want to but I would have preferred a smaller one to begin with.
Powering the Tecno Spark 3 is the MediaTek Helio A22 processor paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage space. I expect good performance from this combination. This is a good combination for its price and so far I have not been disappointed. The phone also comes with Android 9 Pie out of the box with HiOS 5.0 on top.
The 3500 mAh battery is decent enough for this phone. It is not a high performing device and the display is not high resolution so I am confident it will last me an entire workday or at least 6 hours of screen on time. There is an AI smart power saving mode that I will be testing out to see how it works. Essentially, it is supposed to restrict the power consumption f rarely used apps for a long-lasting battery.
Conclusion
The Tecno Spark 3 is the smaller brother to the Spark 3 Pro and it is clear from the very first time I saw it. It does have a modern design and its build quality is solid. The cameras do a pretty good job for a phone within this price and performance has been good so far.
I will be comparing this phone with the others it is competing with very soon so follow our Telegram Channel to be updated when that happens.
Now Read: The Infinix S4 Review