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Nowadays, it’s hard for me to get especially excited about a new phone. I’ve tried so many that I often feel like I’m seeing almost the same thing. The Tecno Pova 8 5G tries to shake things up by borrowing some design cues from other phones while also offering a unique feature that I wish more phones had: an Active Matrix display.
I often say that I miss when phones had built-in LED indicators for notifications, as I find them more useful than the whole screen on when I need my phone to be more subtle when I receive a message. Some OEMs, like Nothing, have started implementing more distinctive lighting fixtures that take that idea and turn it into something more fun to look at. “Google is even expected to implement a rear”Pixel Glow“feature on your next Pixel 11.
It’s good to see Tecno bringing something exclusive to the Pove 8 5G, but surprisingly this affordable phone has even more to offer for its price.
|
Category |
Tecno Pova 8 5G |
|---|---|
|
SW |
HiOS 16 (Android 16) |
|
chipset |
MediaTek 7100 |
|
RAM |
6GB/8GB |
|
Storage |
256GB |
|
Show |
6.76 inches, FHD+ (1080 × 2344), 144 Hz |
|
Rear camera 1 |
50MP wide |
|
front camera |
13MP wide |
|
Battery |
8,000 mAh |
|
Charging |
45W wired |
|
Protection |
IP64, MIL-STD-810H |
|
Dimensions |
165.7×78.5×8.8mm |
|
Weight |
225g |
|
Flag |
Arc white, graphite black, Helios orange, eco green |
flashing lights
The first thing I thought when I saw the Pova 8 5G is that it looks like a Nothing Phone. The rear design is not as exciting as the nothing phone 3; It is more subtle, like the Nothing phone 4athanks to what it calls a “semi-transparent back cover” design. The Arctic White color option is quite stylish, although the rear design is much more noticeable on the other color options.
Adding to the uniqueness of the design is the triangular camera housing, which has three modules, only one of which is a real camera. However, underneath is the Active Matrix display of the Tecno Pova 5G, which is another reason why this phone looks like Nothing’s recent phones, and in the best way.
The screen can let you know when you have a notification and show icons for apps like Instagram and Facebook Messenger. It also shows when you’re charging the device, shows a moving waveform when you play music, and even shows the time when you turn the phone face down.
But beyond that, the screen is quite customizable. You can choose from a selection of pre-designed lighting effects or create your own, and even adjust the brightness and duration for when you want the lighting effects to activate.
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People who have met me using the Tecno Pova 8 5G were completely surprised and intrigued by its Active Matrix display, and the general consensus seems positive, with only one friend calling it “overkill.”
I have to disagree; I think it’s a great way to implement something seemingly old school to spice up the usefulness of a phone, even just a little. It gives the Tecno Pova 8 5G character, more than I’ve seen in most phones I’ve come across in my years reviewing devices.
What about the rest of the phone?
The Tecno Pova 8 5G is as mid-range as possible. It is powered by a MediaTek 7100 chipset, which performs surprisingly well in daily use with just 8GB of RAM. It’s not powerful and games run quite well when not set to the highest settings. Apps can also take a second to open, but overall the software experience is quite smooth, thanks to Tecno’s user interface.
It’s also helped by the 144Hz LCD panel, which isn’t particularly amazing, but still looks decent, thanks to the FHD+ resolution.
As for the user interface, Tecno changed things up on the Pova 8 5G with a unique Vision Art-style theme, giving the phone a more gamer-style look with orange and black accents. At first it seemed like a lot and I usually don’t like themed icons, but I quickly grew to like it. Not all apps can be themed, but most are, including third-party apps like Instagram, and the designs are quite pretty.
You’ll also find a widget on the home screen to easily enable or customize the Active Matrix display.
Tecno also packed as much AI as they could into this phone. One cool feature is YouTube Notes, which will automatically create an AI-generated note every time you copy a YouTube video. It will summarize the video and even highlight timestamps of key points. It’s surprisingly effective and does everything in the background, so even if you don’t think this type of feature will be useful to you, it will still be there for you to refer to if you need it.
There are also many AI image editing features in Gallery that allow you to remove flares, shadows, and reflections to clean up your photos.
She’s the default AI chatbot and you can activate her by double-tapping the navigation bar at the bottom, which I think is a cool gesture that I’d love to see on more Android phones. As with other Tecno phones, you can change the AI model Ella uses, including GeminiMeta AI, Grok and DeepSeek. Of course, you can also set Gemini as its default AI, which can be activated by other means, such as swiping from the bottom corner or holding down the power button.
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Unfortunately, the camera experience leaves a lot to be desired. The Pove 8 5G takes better photos than the Spark 50 5G, and with the right lighting, you can get decent contrast and color reproduction. However, there is a bit of confusion in the images and some details are lost as a result.
And since there’s only one camera, you don’t get much versatility. You can still get a decent image at the 2x lossless zoom, but go any further and things start to fall apart.
There’s no 4K video capture either, but at least you can get 2K at 30fps, something I’d like to see on more budget and mid-range phones. You also get features like Live Photos, Auto Capture, and an interesting Vlog feature that allows you to create stylized video diaries using different templates.
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Of course, I have to mention the battery, because it’s pretty impressive. Tecno “squeezed” an 8000 mAh battery into the Pove 8 5G, providing a battery life of several days. In my usage, I easily get to two days, and I hope you can go further depending on your usage.
I say “squeezed” because the Pove 8 5G is quite thick at 8.8mm. In fact, it reminds me of Pixel 10 In this sense, it’s only 0.2mm thinner, although the Pova 8 5G at least has the battery capacity to prove it.
Charging is capped at 45W, which would normally be pretty fast on a device like a Samsung phone, but with an 8000mAh battery, it ends up being relatively slow. That said, the Pova 8 5G could almost act as a power bank in itself, thanks to 10W reverse wired charging. It’s no speed demon, but having such a large battery comes in handy in a pinch.
Should you buy the Tecno Pova 8 5G?
While I wasn’t a fan of the Spark 50 5G, the Tecno Pova 8 5G is a good step forward. Performance is about what you’d expect from a phone at this price (starting at about $400 in India); The battery life is pretty phenomenal and the Active Matrix rear display is a fun addition. The singular camera performance won’t win any blind camera tests, but the rest of the phone feels like a solid package.
If you’re in a market where the Nothing Phone 4a Pro is available, you might as well take advantage of the battery life and get it. Otherwise, the Pova 8 5G isn’t a bad option if you’re looking for an affordable phone and live in a market where it sells.
