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It’s hard for me to get particularly excited about a new phone these days. I’ve done so many tests that I often see the same things. The Tecno Pova 8 5G tries to change things up by taking some design cues from other phones while offering a unique feature that I wish more phones had: the Active Matrix display.
I often say that I miss when phones have built-in indicator LEDs for notifications, because I find it more useful when I need my phone to be slimmer than the whole screen lighting up when I get a message. A few OEMs, like Nothing, have begun to implement more distinctive lighting fixtures that take this idea and elevate it to something more fun to look at. Even Google is expected to implement background”Pixel Glow“feature to come Pixel 11.
It’s nice to see Tecno bring something unique to the Pove 8 5G, but for the price of this affordable phone, it surprisingly has more to offer.
|
Category |
Tecno Pova 8 5G |
|---|---|
|
OS |
HiOS 16 (Android 16) |
|
Chipset |
MediaTek 7100 |
|
RAM |
6GB/8GB |
|
Storage |
256 GB |
|
Screen |
6.76 inches, FHD+ (1080 × 2344), 144Hz |
|
Rear camera 1 |
50MP width |
|
Front camera |
13MP wide |
|
Battery |
8000 mAh |
|
Filling up |
45W wired |
|
Protection |
IP64, MIL-STD-810H |
|
Dimensions |
165.7 x 78.5 x 8.8 mm |
|
Weight |
225 g |
|
Colors |
Arc White, Graphite Black, Helios Orange, Echo Green |
Lights out
The first thing I thought when I saw the Pova 8 5G is that it looks like a phone that is nothing. The rear design is not as interesting as before Nothing phone 3; as is more subtle Nothing phone 4athanks to what it calls a “semi-transparent back cover” design. The Arctic White color option is quite bright, although the rear design is more noticeable in the other color options.
In addition to the uniqueness of the design, there is a triangular camera body consisting of three modules, only one of which is the actual camera. However, below is the Tecno Pova 5G’s Active Matrix display, which is another reason why this phone looks like Nothing’s latest phones, and in the best way.
The screen can tell you when you receive a notification and display icons for apps like Instagram and Facebook Messenger. It also shows when you’re charging the device, shows an animated waveform when you play music, and even flashes when you turn the phone face down.
But beyond that, the display is actually quite customizable. You can either choose from pre-made lighting effects or create your own, and you can even adjust the brightness and duration of the lighting effects for when you want them.
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People who have met me using the Tecno Pova 8 5G have been thoroughly surprised and intrigued by its Active Matrix display, and the general consensus seems to be positive, with only one friend calling it “overwhelming”.
I have to disagree; I think it’s a nice way to implement something that looks old school to increase the utility of the phone a little bit. This gives the Tecno Pova 8 5G character, more than I’ve seen in most phones I’ve come across in device reviews over the years.
What about the rest of the phone?
The Tecno Pova 8 5G is as mid-range as it gets. It is powered by a MediaTek 7100 chipset, which performs surprisingly well in daily use with just 8GB of RAM. It’s no powerhouse, and games play decently well when not set to the highest settings. Apps may take a second to open, but overall the software experience is quite smooth thanks to Tecno’s user interface.
This is also helped by the 144Hz LCD panel, which isn’t particularly amazing, but still looks decent thanks to the FHD+ resolution.
As for the UI, Tecno has modified 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 felt like a lot, and I don’t usually care for themed icons, but it quickly got to me. Not every app can be themed, but most, including Instagram, are third-party apps and the designs are pretty cool.
You can also find a widget on the home screen to easily activate or customize the Active Matrix display.
Tecno has also packed as much AI as they can into this phone. One cool feature is YouTube Notes, which will automatically create an AI-generated note when you copy a YouTube video. It will summarize the video for you and even highlight timestamps for key points. It’s surprisingly efficient and does everything in the background, so even if you don’t think this kind of feature is useful to you, it’ll still be there to refer to when you need it.
Gallery also has plenty of AI photo editing features that let you remove flares, shadows, and reflections to clean up your photos.
Ella is the default AI chatbot, and you can launch it by double-tapping the bottom navigation bar, which I think is a pretty cool gesture that I’d like to see on more Android phones. As with other Tecno phones, you can change the AI model it uses, including Ella TwinsMeta AI, Grok and DeepSeek. Of course, you can also specify Twins like standard AI that can be activated by other means like swiping from the bottom corner or long pressing 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, the images have a bit of a blur and as a result some details are lost.
Since there’s only one camera, you don’t get much versatility. You can still get a decent image at 2x lossless zoom, but go any further and things really start to fall apart.
There’s no 4K video recording either, but you can at least get 2K 30fps, which I’d like to see more on mid-range and budget phones. You also get features like Live Photos, Auto Capture, and a cool Vlog feature that lets you create stylized video logs using a variety of templates.
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Of course I have to touch on the battery because it’s pretty impressive. Tecno has “squeezed” an 8000 mAh battery into the Pove 8 5G, which provides multi-day battery life. In my use I easily get it to two days and I expect you can go beyond that depending on your usage.
I say “squeezed” because the Pove 8 5G is actually quite thick at 8.8mm. Actually, it reminds me Pixel 10 In that regard, it’s only .2mm thinner, though the Pova 8 5G at least has the battery capacity to show for it.
Charging is at 45W, which would normally be pretty fast on a device like a Samsung phone, but relatively slow with an 8000mAh battery. However, the Pova 8 5G can almost act as a power bank itself thanks to its 10W reverse wireless charging. It’s not a speed demon, but having such a large battery is useful in a pinch.
Should you buy Tecno Pova 8 5G?
While I’m not a fan of the Spark 50 5G, the Tecno Pova 8 5G is a nice step up. Performance is about what you’d expect from a phone at this price point (starts around $400 in India); battery life is pretty phenomenal, and the rear Active Matrix display is a fun addition. Camera performance alone 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 be better off splurging on the battery life and getting it. Otherwise, if you’re in the market for an affordable phone and you live in a market where it’s sold, the Pova 8 5G isn’t a half-bad choice.
