Review Summary
Expert Rating
The Tecno Pop 8 is a budget smartphone, which shares more than a few similarities with its cousin, the Infinix Smart 8HD. While the Tecno smartphone boasts a slightly different finish and a 12MP primary camera, as opposed to the 13MP camera on the Infinix phone, the remaining features are very similar. This begs the question of whether the smartphone, with its reduced camera sensor and distinctive design, is a better buy than the Infinix Smart 8 HD (review) and other competitors. Read on this Tecno Pop 8 review to find out.
Table of Contents
Verdict
The Tecno Pop 8 offers satisfactory performance for its price. Additionally, it comes with several notable features such as a matte finish, stereo speakers, up to 8GB RAM, and a 6.6-inch display with decent outdoor visibility. The 5,000mAh battery ensures a lasting performance, but the 10W charger takes around two hours for a full charge.
Design and display
The Tecno Pop 8 boasts an interesting design, which, for its price, I believe many will appreciate. The phone has been crafted out of plastic, featuring flat edges and a back panel. The edges are nicely curved, ensuring a comfortable grip without digging into the palm. Moving on to the back panel, three individual camera rings are arranged in the top-left corner. The absence of a camera module results in a clean look. Assisting this is a matte finish, preventing fingerprints and smudges. Additionally, adding to the overall appeal, the handset features symmetrical lines on the back panel with a glossy finish.
The Tecno Pop 8 sports a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, conveniently placed on the power button on the right spine. The scanner is accurate but takes a fraction of a second longer than expected to unlock the device. As for I/O, the phone features a USB Type-C port, sandwiched in between a 3.5mm headphone jack and speaker grill, for charging and data transfer on the bottom edge. Surprisingly, the phone’s top edge is equipped with a secondary speaker, which even some of the more expensive smartphones lack. These speakers are enhanced by DTS to deliver a stereo experience and a notably louder volume compared to devices with a single speaker.
Coming to the display, the Tecno Pop 8 ships with a 6.6-inch IPS LCD with a punch-hole setup, 90Hz refresh rate, and HD+ resolution. It is an entry-level display with chunky bezels on all sides, but gets the job done. It is comfortable to look outdoors even under direct sunlight, at least while reading texts. The punch-hole supports the Dynamic Port feature to provide quick notifications for charging, battery low, and more in Apple’s Dynamic Island style. Moreover, the display comes with a Panda Glass protection.
Cameras
When it comes to cameras, the Tecno Pop 8 boasts a 12MP+AI lens at the back. For selfies and video calling, it relies on an 8MP shooter. The images produced are good enough for the price. While there isn’t an abundance of details or sharpness, the colours, at least in daylight, look good. The cameras exhibit prompt focus in areas with ample lighting conditions. In low light or indoors, you will have to deal with a lot of noise in the shots. Regarding portraits, they need improvement with edge detection.
Performance and software
At the core of the Tecno Pop 8 lies Unisoc T606 SoC. It is a chipset that works well for basic needs such as messaging, streaming, and scrolling social media apps. The handset will stutter handling anything more than that, including gaming and multitasking. The handset is said to be the first smartphone with 8GB RAM in the segment; however, it is important to note that 4GB is virtual which is deducted from its 64GB onboard storage. The latter is further expandable using a microSD card in the dedicated slot.
On the software front, the Tecno Pop 8 runs Android 13 Go-based HiOS 13 out of the box. Several apps come pre-installed on the device, but the good thing is that they are not third-party apps; instead, they are either official or Google’s. Besides this, the phone offers customisation options and features such as call recording.
Battery and charging speeds
The Tecno Pop 8 boasts a 5,000mAh battery capacity, which, given the device’s usage, should last for more than a day and then some between charges. The phone scored 15 hours and 2 minutes on the PC Mark battery test. It comes with a 10W charger in the box, taking roughly two hours to charge a dead battery to 100 percent.
Final verdict
The Tecno Pop 8 has been priced in India at Rs 6,499. The only other smartphone that comes close to Tecno in this price bracket is the Infinix Smart 8HD. The latter is also selling in India for under Rs 6,500. However, the Tecno Pop 8 outshines Infinix and most other smartphones with dual speakers instead of mono. If you enjoy streaming music or songs, this handset could be an excellent choice considering its price. The handset also provides good everyday performance for basic tasks, reliable battery life, and acceptable cameras.
Editor’s rating: 7 / 10
Reasons to buy
- The handset provides good everyday performance for most basic tasks.
- The stereo speakers are notably louder than the mono speakers.
- The 5,000mAh battery ensures a lasting performance.
Reasons not to buy
- The details and sharpness are generally a miss with the cameras.
- The handset takes a while to charge with its 10W adaptor.
 | Rs. 6,799.00 | Go To Store |
