TECNO Spark 7p Unboxing & Review

The TECNO Spark 7p occupies a unique spot in the Spark series. Being a 7th generation spark device, it’s also higher than the Spark 7 with regards to the spec bump in the processor. A MediaTek Helio G70 CPU compared to the Helio A25 that the regular 7 has. The 7p is their newest addition to the Nigerian market boasting of a 90Hz display, that all new chipset and a big battery. What’s behind the hood with this device? It’s less than $150 dollars, less than 70 thousand Naira and we’ll be seeing what’s special and what’s not so special about it, basically the pros and cons of this device, after my extensive usage with it.

Without further ado, let’s unbox and uncover what the spark 7 has to offer. [ Unboxing ] Taking that nylon wrap off of the box brings us closer to how it looks now, in terms of packaging, TECNO did a better job with their Spark series adding some subtle patterns onto the box, Ginantic Spark Text and of course, specifications at the back of the phone. We’re going to tackle every single one of them soon so stay tuned. Inside the box is where we get a smaller thinner box with labels on to that look like the documentation and the case, on the back of it is where we get the SIM ejector tool and when we open up, we do get. The 12+1 Months warranty and the rubber case that comes with the Spark 7p. Next up is the topic of discussion, the Spark 7p itself , TECNO highlights these features. The 90Hz Refresh Rate, the Helio G70, 16MP AI Camera. Super Night Mode, Smile Snapshot and the large 5,000 mah battery. We’ll come to the device later but let’s check what else is in the box, the regular charger, regular USB Cable not USB C, and headphones that aren’t the in-ear kind.

[ Build Quality Overview ] After the wraps are off, the back of the Spark 7p is seen here in this blue color, it’s one of the four colors you get on the 7p, called Alps Blue. The other colors are the Summer Mojito, Spruce Green, and Magnet black. The Design of the Spark 7p also borrows from the Realme X7 Pro’s design which has Dare to Leap on the back, here we have the name of the device as the inscription. It took just over a minute to set up the Spark 7p and we enter the device with HiOS 7.6.0, this is Android 11 as well. At the top of then Spark 7p there’s nothing there, on the right side is where we get the power button and volume rockers, the bottom section has the headphone jack, microphone beside it, the USB port, and speaker grille. The left side has the dual 4g nano sim and micro SD card slot. I like how the polycarbonate meshes with the camera bump section which, make no mistake is also polycarbonate. TECNO really tried with the design of this entry level device, the Spark 7p. Plastic is of course very durable and this phone would definitely stay functional even when it falls. The rubber case also fits it well, so the design on the back is still intact as well as the cut outs that you get. The phone also comes with a screen protector pre-installed for extra safety against scratches but it can get in the way. [ Display Quality Overview ] The first thing I did when I set up the Spark 7p was enter the settings and check out the settings for the new 90Hz display. The three options are 90Hz for smoother animations, 60Hz for longer battery life and auto-switch refresh rate for different app use. Now, the Spark 7p is a 720p display, a bummer if we’re being honest but since it’s a Spark device. Not necessarily a Camon series device, not a lot is usually expected in this line.

It’s entry level and priced that way. It’s an IPS LCD Display, 6.82 inch HD display and resolution is 720 x 1640. Now when you take a look at this display in the context of watching videos, it’s not the highest quality, BUT, I did notice that since YouTube doesn’t compress videos anymore with respect to people’s phone displays, I was able to watch videos on the Spark 7p in up to 2k or Quad HD having the maximum streaming resolution set at 1440p which wasn’t bad throughout my usage. One thing is for sure, in the Mediatek documentation page, the maximum resolution for this processor is 2520 x 1080p, this would have been super dope for this device but hey, we get a 720p display and this was definitely a choice either based on cost or just an inability to make it suit this. At least we get 2K in playback and recording which we’ll talk about in a bit. I’d say day to day usage with text and images were not bad at all, scrolling was great, image quality was also good but I didn’t like the haptic feedback at all. They never have been great on the spark series in comparison the higher end smartphones or even midrange devices but they work. [ Storage, Processor and Features ] Another capability of MediaTek’s G70 is that RAM can go as high as 8GB. TECNO chose to be conservative here and offer us 2 options with the Spark 7p, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of Storage as one option. The second option is 4GB of RAM and 128GB of Storage. That’s the highest option and the one we have here. I’ve not not had apps shut down on me and have been able to use the device fairly for the most part without lag.

My major pet peeve or annoyance with TECNO’s spark 7p and something I highlighted in the Infinix Hot 10 Play. The bloatware serves a little too much notifications and ads. You can uninstall all of the apps that would bother you in this process but keep in mind that you’ll have to uninstall them again once you update the software. Speaking of software, we’ve got the Android 11 OS right here, pretty nice to see. It’s been updated to be based on HiOS 7.6 and there are two features that stand out or are sort of specialty features for TECNO moving forward and that’s Peek Proof which lets you leave only a portion of your screen to be bright while every where else gets a dark filter so let’s say you’re in a bus, you can only leave the keyboard and make sure others don’t see your sensitive chats. The other specialty feature is the antitheft one. Here, you can make sure your phone goes off and requests your pattern or password if you phone is unplugged either with the headphones or the charger. It also makes a loud ringing sound until you enter the correct pattern, fingerprint or password. The whole phone closes everything and defaults to the lock screen. So that’s some extra sort of security level if your phone might be in a bad situation of being stolen. These are actually cool features and in my opinion lean more towards useful than comical or gimmicky or impractical. You’ve also got in addition to the multiple other features, App twin which lets you sign in to two accounts on the same all that you might have not gotten the chance to do anyway. What do you think of the features? With regards to processing power, we have the MediaTek Helio G70. Which is the best thing they could have done with the Spark 7p in my opinion. It’s a 12nm octacore processor clocked at 2.0 Ghz. Graphics processing is the Mali G52 as well. [ Gaming + Battery ] This processor is designed for Gamers in mind as seen on the MediaTek website and indeed it did render gaming better than the predecessors ever did.

I played Mortal Kombat and Call of Duty for over 30 minutes and from 23% it went down to 19% in the first 15 mins of gaming and from 19 it went down to 15.% in the next 15 minutes so you can say that you lose 8% for 30 minutes of gaming or 4% for 15 minutes of gaming. As an estimate, and according to my stats, you can get up tp 6 hours of gaming out of this guy. Also something I noticed with regards to the speaker is that sound not only comes out from the bottom but also the earpiece section. That’s cool indeed an improvement from the previous generation. Something commendable. With regards to the battery as well, compared to the regular Spark 7’s 6,000 mAh, we’ve got a lower 5,000 mAh on the Spark 7p. This wasn’t bad for my own usage however as I mostly found the device dependable considering our region with little electricity. Also with the regular charger, you would need about 2 hours to charge this device. Which is not the most amazing but that 5,000 mah means you don’t have to always charge it. You also get a charging Indicator. [ Fingerprint & Face Unlock ] The phone is taller. 6.8 inches compared to 6.5 inches on the regular Spark 7 and because of what I believe is design alignment, the fingerprint reader is positioned a little but too tall to reach so you’ll have to actually scoot your hand up a bit to get to the top of the phone and tap. The fingerprint reader was fast nonetheless and even more secure than the face unlock which doesn’t necessarily have any sensors other than the front facing camera. It’s also fast as well but I’d lean more on the fingerprint for security. [ Camera ] TECNO markets the Spark 7p as 16MP Ai Triple camera with Quad Flash which doesn’t leave anything else in information and alot of people would have to guess what the other two are. One thing is for sure, I covered one of the lenses, the lowest lens and it shows that that is the one assisting with portrait mode and that’s usually a 2MP lens. The second lens in the middle is what I believe is a macro lens or a lens that aids with night mode or black and white photography and that’s also speculatively 2MP as well.

However, check my pinned comment if there’s any update, I’ll surely change that. The front camera is an 8MP shooter, nothing too crazy. However, somehow it’s able to shoot 2K video and it also has an eye tracking feature that basically only tracks your eyes and doesn’t translate into actual image quality but only tracks the eye. You also get dual front facing flashes. Very helpful for selfies at night. The front facing camera’s selfies are fair quality, I can’t complain at 8MP, of Course it’s fixed quality. There’s also no additional lens aiding portrait photography so portrait mode on here is by AI or software blur. The image looks much better than that of the regular mode and blur the background but it’s not perfect. The thing is the Max resolution that the MediaTek G70 can support is a Dual 16MP and 48MP., it can also capture 48MP. But none of that is present on here. We only have a single 16MP lens on the back and 2 other lenses we can’t really tell what number. Nonetheless, the images I took from the back camera were sharp, decently sharp and usable. That’s something I always land on at the very lower end. If I can’t use it, it’s probably not worth it. Going closer to subjects also blurs out the background a bit better. Skintones look like it leans a little more on the red or warm side of things. It’s not the sharpest quality but zooming in will definitely net you details. Moving away from close ups and to landscape shots. There’s no wide angle lens on here so we start from 1X. I’d say you do get decent quality with regards to the image, edges and color are visible. You can digitally zoom in to 5X and even up to the maximum of 8X. This is where you start to notice a lot of noise in your image.

Of course, what you’d expect from digitally zooming especially on a somewhat moderate sensor like this. At night is where I think TECNO kind of gave me a head scratch moment. The Super Night mode was so good that it looked like the Normal mode shot taken at night was a joke. The night mode shot looks really really clear in all aspects. However, to achieve the shot, you’ll have to wait for at least 8 seconds holding your hand steady. That’s hard and that’s depending on your subjection moving very fast. If it’s not stable you’ll get bad results. But so far I was impressed by super night mode. When it comes to video, it’s interesting to note that both the front and back cameras can shoot at 2k at the maximum. You’re also able to do slow motion but you would only end up with a 720p video. This option is hidden in the camera’s menu until you swipe up and you can also see other modes. 2K video was hands down better that 1080p, obviously what you’d expect from something that’s 2 times the quality. I also tried it in broader landscape mode and here, I must say 2K quality shows that it’s better all the time. Keep in mind you might not be able to see and appreciate this full quality very well on the screen of the Spark 7p since it’s 720p but you’ll slightly be able to tell. Anyway, one major area you will easily tell the difference is in the zoom. When you zoom in 1080p, it looks like it has just so much noise while 4k seems much much better but hey none of them are stabilized images. Videos at night were very very grainy and not the best coupled with the amount or lack of stabilization. Same thing is seen in the front camera side of things, however, imagery is still visible. I’ll like to conclude with a few things I didn’t like about the Spark 7p and things that I think would definitely make this a choice for people.

Starting with the negatives, I didn’t like that HiOS is still dated with user experience. HiOS has potential and it’s not using it and it makes this 90Hz display look less that amazing. Speaking of things that are less than amazing. The amount of bloatware is actually unacceptable, I think the device would be better off without them. It’s also unfortunate that TECNo didn’t at least add a USB C port on here as well and still gave the same accessories. This is a price decision that will save TECNO alot of money but the users who will end up with this phone may not care as it still at least comes with a charger in the box like some major brands. With regards to the positives, the Helio G70 is a big big step up. A dedicated gaming processor for the spark series is a good move. I also like that you now get a 90Hz display, on a spark device, for what’s meant to be a budget line. As someone who’s into design, I also am a fan of the design at the back of the phone, the Realme inspiration shows and it makes for this Spark device to stand out. You have the tiny things like the stereo speaker set up. Something we’ve not had on Spark devices as well. What are your thoughts about the Spark 7p? The 64GB version is 60,900 or $126 while the 128GB version, this one i have here is 68,800 or $143 approximately. Let me know in the comments below. Also guys, if you think the Spark 7p is something you’d love to purchase, TECNO sent me a special link which I’ve added in the description for pre-order and if you do, you Get a TECNO wrist band worth 7,500 Naira. This is after the pre-order payment is done and also, you stand a chance to win 1 million Naira in a raffle and other items like Washing Machines TVs and Rechargeable Fans via the weekly raffle draw when you participate in the Millionaire Promo. All the best guys and I’ll see you in the next one.