TECNO POVA 5 Pro Review: Delivers The Goods At An Affordable Price
Currently, the sub-€15,000 price range is one of the most competitive segments for smartphone brands in India, and the race to offer good value for money is heating up. Tecno, which has been a busy brand with the Spark, Phantom V Fold and Camon 20 series this year, now brings the POVA 5 Pro into the mix and the new phone competes directly with the recently launched phones. POCO M6 Pro 5G, Realme 11x and more. Does the POVA 5 Pro have what it takes to stand out from the crowd? Read my detailed review to find out!
Judge
TECNO POVA 5 Pro catches your eye with its LED strip design but the most impressive feature of the phone is its 68W fast charging, 120Hz display and reliable performance. This phone delivers on many fronts, but low-light photography is an area that needs improvement. Overall, POVA 5 Pro is an easy recommendation for most people.
Design and display
While we usually start our reviews by talking about the phone's design, it makes more sense than ever with the POVA 5 Pro. TECNO POVA 5 Pro is designed to grab your attention thanks to its LED strip design and rear camera module. First, let's talk about the back panel, which the brand calls "Arc Interface". The phone offers different background effect options like soft, racing, dreamy, breath and party. These effects can be applied to incoming calls and logins. For notifications, you can apply other variations of this background effect like Sunrise, Starburst, Halo, Pure and Lightning. Does Arc UI improve the visual appearance of the phone? In short, yes. However, I want to make it clear that the benefits of this design element are limited to aesthetics. Unlike any phone, there are no customization options with the LED strip.
The rear camera module is trapezoid-shaped and has two large circular cutouts for the dual camera lenses. With its huge 6.78-inch IPS LCD screen, the size of the phone is quite large, but even with its weight distribution, the phone does not feel heavy in the hand. However, if you have small hands, you may find it a bit difficult. That said, you have to hold down the power button with your thumb, which acts as the fingerprint sensor.
As for the display panel, the 120Hz refresh rate and FHD+ screen resolution ensure a great viewing experience whether you're browsing the UI or watching YouTube videos. The phone's viewing angles are good, but outdoor visibility in sunlight isn't particularly good because it's not a panel that offers a high level of brightness.
The camera
Let's see first. The POVA 5 Pro has a 50MP wide-angle main sensor with PDAF support and a 0.08MP depth sensor. In my testing, I found that the rear-facing shooters featured edge detection, which is not usually the case on phones in this price range. The main sensor captures a lot of detail, even in well-lit areas. I would also say that the cameras did a good job in terms of color accuracy. However, the POVA 5 Pro's Achilles heel, like most phones in this price range, was low-light conditions. There was a noticeable drop in quality without proper lighting, but thankfully using the 'Super Night' mode improved the image quality slightly.
By default, your phone's camera app gives you several options to click photos of your choice. While you can keep things simple and use an "AI CAM" that takes decent photos with decent dynamic range if you click it, young people will probably be more interested in using a beauty filter that ensures all your photos are social media. These options include skin smoothing, facelift, eye augmentation, skin tone correction, nose reduction and even head reduction. You can adjust the level of these filters so you always have full control over how they look on your photos
The front shooter of TECNO POVA 5 Pro can take some detailed photos with good color accuracy in bright light, but if you are partying at night, expect photos to be grainy, which is unusual. In this price range.
Performance and software
TECNO POVA 5 Pro has a 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 6080 5G chipset with two 2.4GHz Cortex-A76 cores and six 2.0GHz Cortex-A55 cores. Processor is supported by Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. While switching between apps is very smooth, in normal use, I had no problems with the phone and animations. I tried playing games on the phone and even after playing for over an hour the phone didn't heat up which should give confidence to anyone buying this phone for handheld gaming. One of the things I've noticed over the last few days of using this phone is that I've never felt like I'm underperforming in any app or playing a game. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the best performing phone in this price range, but it will definitely handle any task you throw at it with ease.
In terms of software, the POVA 5 Pro comes with HIOS 13 based on Android 13. The phone has a lot of pre-installed apps, which I didn't really get to use during the review. Some of the useful features that come with this interface are: Game Space (optimizes games for better performance), MemFusion (allows expansion of RAM up to 5 GB with internal memory) and Video Assistant (prevents you from being disturbed by notifications while re-watching videos (sometimes in applications). There is also a micro-intelligence section in the settings menu that allows you to control certain quality-of-life features such as wake-up light, mute and more.
In the AnTuTu benchmark, the phone scored 413805, which is in line with other top-performing phones in this price range. In the Geekbench test, the phone scored 747 in the single-core test and 2047 in the multi-core test, on par with other phones like the Realme 11x and POCO M6 Pro.
Check out the 5G speed test on your phone below. This exam was conducted in Gurugram, Haryana:
Battery life and charging speed
The phone has a 5,000 mAh battery and with normal usage it can easily last more than a day on a single charge. If you like games, expect to charge your phone by the end of the day. In our battery test with PCMark, the phone lasted 12 hours and 12 minutes, which is good for everyday use.
One of the standout features of the phone is its 68W fast charging support, and in my tests, the phone charged from 1% to 100% in less than 50 minutes, which is pretty impressive. As most of the phones in this price range do not offer fast charging support above 45W, TECNO POVA 5 Pro is ahead of the competition in this price range.
Final judgment
TECNO POVA 5 Pro is affordable for the brand and at Rs 14,999 the phone scores well in all categories. Its unique design, 120Hz display and class-leading 68W fast charging support also make it a tough case for your phone. However, the lack of an ultra-wide rear camera sensor and large form factor may pose a problem for some users. Overall, if you want your new daily driver under Rs 15,000, the phone definitely offers a good package, especially if you are constantly on the move or hate slow charging.
Editor's Rating: 8/10
Reason to buy
- Unique design enhances the beauty of the phone
- Good performance
- 120Hz screen
- 68W fast charging speed
Reasons not to buy
- Absence of ultra wide angle camera sensor
- The large size factor can be a problem for some
Competitors of Tecno Pova 5 Pro
