Tecno Spark 7 Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

Tecno Spark 7 - in search of the optimal solution

Budget smartphones are gaining popularity around the world. This process is largely associated with technological progress, because today even a relatively inexpensive mobile assistant is ready to boast of wide functionality and embodies many modern technologies in one compact body. However, capturing a sophisticated audience is not so easy, so Tecno had to work hard to create a Spark 7. Can the phone stand out from the crowd of opponents and win the love of hundreds of thousands of Android users? Let's figure it out.

Getting to know the device, of course, begins with unpacking it. The bright orange box tells us in detail about the technical characteristics of the smartphone and conceals not only the hero of today's review, but also many accessories. If we managed to get used to such things as a USB cable, a charger and a needle for opening a SIM tray, then a high-quality plastic case and even a protective film for the display are much less common. As a result, the user will not have to buy anything in the first months of the gadget's operation. The cover fits snugly on the body of the smartphone and may well protect the device from not the most serious falls.

It is difficult not to praise the work of the designers of the Tecno company. The phone looks very nice in a mint color, the plastic is of high quality, not easily soiled, quite scratch-resistant. The double photomodule is stylized as a triple one thanks to the “plug” with the inscription AI, which denotes the use of artificial intelligence when creating photographs. A fingerprint scanner is present and located on the back. At the front, a 6.5-inch display with an 8-megapixel front camera, made in a “drop” form factor, has found its place. The bezels of the screen can hardly be called wide, but the IPS-panel is far from bezel-less. Especially striking is the “chin” characteristic of budget Android smartphones. However, in general, the appearance of the novelty was a success and looks worthy against the background of opponents.

The installed screen with a diagonal of 6.5 inches is created using IPS technology without an air gap. The resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels can hardly be called high, but it is very difficult to see individual pixels in everyday life. The margin of display brightness is not bad for a phone in the middle price segment, in bright sunlight it is quite possible to see the image, although its visibility is noticeably lost. But in the pitch darkness, the picture hits the eyes slightly, although this moment is very subjective. There are no special complaints about the white balance, there is a slight skew in warmth for greater vision comfort during prolonged use of the mobile assistant. There are no dead pixels, the image is practically not distorted at tilt angles, only noticeably losing brightness. However, for IPS panels, this behavior is normal. The touch-panel in the display is for five touches, there are no complaints in terms of responsiveness, false touches or “dead” zones are not observed. As a result, the display evokes positive emotions, it has no obvious drawbacks. There is a one-color missed event indicator in the upper left corner of the screen, which will be a plus for many buyers.

Let's move on from the screen to the technical specifications. The processor of the device is Mediatek Helio A25. It is an energy efficient octa-core CPU based on Cortex-A53 cores. In addition to the chipset, the developer installed 4GB of RAM and a PowerVR GE8320 video accelerator. The bundle is aimed at ensuring stable and responsive operation of Android 11, as well as not particularly resource-intensive applications, however, even the most sophisticated gamer will have something to do. So, for example, World Of Tanks Blitz functions perfectly at low graphics settings, providing a stable 60 frames per second. The project is playable with medium graphic presets, however, with scenes saturated with action, drawdowns of up to 30-35 frames per second are possible. At the same time, they are not found on all maps. Let's move on to more resource-intensive projects. Asphalt 9 arcade racing runs on the device, however acceptable FPS is only possible with “Standard” graphics presets. In this case, the game does not look very attractive, low-resolution textures and pixelation are visible, there are also friezes due to loading objects or massive accidents, but the project as a whole is playable and produces about 20-25 frames per second. On the negative side, we would like to point out long downloads. For Fortnite and Genshin Impact, smartphones from a different price segment are strongly recommended. In the Geekbench 5 benchmark, the phablet gives 130 points in single-core and 756 points in multi-core tests. There is practically no heating of the case after long gaming sessions. 64GB of internal storage is allocated, which is a decent amount of memory for an inexpensive Android smartphone. If they are not enough for storing music, videos and applications, then you can always use MicroSD cards, for which there is a separate slot.

World Of Tanks, low graphics settings

World Of Tanks Blitz, medium graphics settings

Asphalt 9, default graphics settings

In everyday life, the Helio A25 behaves very well with a large amount of RAM. Applications do not crash to the desktop, “heavy” pages in the browser and long lists of the Google Play Market can sometimes upset not the smoothest scrolling, but there are no critical lags. As a result, how satisfied you will be with the technical characteristics of Spark 7 directly depends on the scenario of using the gadget.

Benchmark results:

Let's talk about the sound of the gadget. On the positive side, we note the presence of a separate 3.5mm headphone jack. The sound quality is average, which is not surprising, because there is no separate DAC and amplifiers, the codec of the Mediatek processor is quite simple. However, if you have good in-ear headphones, you can get good sound. The Bluetooth version is 5.0, so the connection stability of the most modern headphones that support Bluetooth 5.2 will be slightly lower, as will the response time in games. The phone has one speaker, it is located in the upper part of the display. The volume is at an average level, it is enough to hear the call when the phone is in the bag. The frequency response is not the most even, which is the norm for an inexpensive phone. The lower frequencies are poorly audible, there is an emphasis on the upper mids. Reproduction of music is unlikely to cause a lot of positive emotions, however, the speaker fulfills its direct responsibilities for notification and transmission of speech. That's right, the manufacturer did not install a separate spoken speaker. The gadget had no problems with communication, the voice of the person is easily recognized, the interlocutors do not complain about distortions and other problems. 4G Internet also works at a decent level, there were no differences in reception compared to Oppo Reno 2 and Realme X2 Pro. But the WiFI connection is somewhat weaker than that of these phones. Through two walls Tecno catches WiFi is no longer very stable. Thus, the quality of cellular reception, WiFi connections and dynamics do not revolutionize the price segment, but do not cause negative emotions either.

The photographic capabilities of the main 16 and 0.08-megapixel cameras are surprisingly very good. Of course, the auxiliary sensor is installed solely for beauty, but the main module does not upset with daytime shooting and even indoor photos. The amount of noise can hardly be called large, the color rendition is close to natural, and even the smallest details can be seen. The only problem is the HDR mode. The frames are too highlighted, which makes them look faded and not always realistic. Capturing the picture did not cause tangible problems, in addition, the colors were very similar to those seen by the human eye. A similar result is not always easy to achieve on more expensive Android smartphones. Evening and night photos are also possible, however, for really high-quality photos with such lighting, you need to turn to a different price segment. The panorama of the city looks satisfactory, the detail closer to the center of the picture is not bad. The phone is capable of recording video in 1080P resolution. There is no electronic stabilization, so the smartphone should be held with confidence. On daytime videos, a lot of small details are preserved, the color rendition is natural, the picture does not disintegrate into individual pixels. Autofocus works almost perfectly for a relatively cheap machine. The 8-megapixel selfie camera is pretty basic, but in good lighting it is quite possible to capture photos for social networks. As a result, Tecno Spark 7 makes a positive impression in terms of photographic abilities.

Examples of daytime photos (standard above, HDR below):

Evening photos:

Close-up photo (standard above, HDR below):

An example of a snapshot from a selfie camera:

Video shooting example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GIAFoqXJQQ

The autonomy of the gadget, which has become its main advantage, also deserves mention. The 5000mAh battery is very difficult to drain thanks to Android 11 optimizations and energy efficient specs. In the PCMark test, the device achieves 18 hours and 8 minutes, which is a brilliant result. One hour of playing World Of Tanks Blitz with WIFI connection, auto brightness, medium volume and the same graphics settings took only 10% of the battery charge. In reality, it is easy to get about two days of work from the battery with 7-8 hours of active screen time. Unfortunately, there were some drawbacks. From a complete 2A 5V power supply, the phone charges from 0 to 100% in about 3.5-4 hours, so it is better to carry out the charging process at night, leaving the gadget at the outlet until morning. But such trifles do not spoil the impression of the autonomous operation of an Android smartphone.

Let's talk about other aspects of the device. NFC is easy to use for contactless payments in stores and hypermarkets thanks to the device's support for Google Pay. Of the uncritical, but still unpleasant little things, we note the MicroUSB port. If you are already used to USB Type-C and have thrown away other cables, but we recommend purchasing new ones. The device operates on the proprietary HiOS shell. It is not overloaded with animations and looks, albeit not in a flagship way, bright and colorful, but it functions quite quickly, rarely upsetting by interface jams. During the operation, bugs and untranslated phrases were not revealed in the software, the application crashed to the desktop only once (Google Chrome), but this is rather an exception. Advertising recommendations are observed only after downloading the application from the Google Play Market, which does not spoil the impression of the applied shell at all.

Thus, Tecno Spark 7 turned out to be a balanced, inexpensive and functional mobile assistant, capable of providing impressive autonomy, photographic capabilities worthy of the value category and the function of contactless NFC payments, which is so important for a modern user. Only not the most productive processor can be criticized, but the modest price allows you to distract from the above minus and recommend the device for purchase.

Pros of the device:

• bright and contrasting IPS display with a responsive touch panel;
• decent case design for the price category;
• good daytime photographic opportunities;
• excellent autonomy in a couple of days of active use of the smartphone;
• NFC contactless payments;
• 4GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM (+ slot for microSD cards);
• Android 11

Cons of the device:

• the screen resolution could be higher;
• average quality speaker sound;
• CPU performance is not enough to run the most demanding games

We would like to express our gratitude to Tecno for the provided smartphone.