It is not every day that you take hold of a lower end mid-range smartphone and feel excited about it, but that’s exactly how I felt last Friday when I picked our review device from Tecno in town. The device, the Tecno Spark 9 that was introduced in the Kenyan market alongside Tecno Camon 19 early last month, feels solid and premium. It is one of those few mid-range smartphones that you are not going to shy away from carrying in your hand with pride.
Tecno Spark 9 is packed in an average box inside of which there is the phone, a transparent back protector, earpiece, a charger with its Type -C cable, and a pin for removing the SIM card tray. The immediate thing you notice once you get the device from its box packaging are the sharp edges of the phone that give it a metallic solid feel. The unit for our review is a burano blue although there are also spruce green, magnet black and holy white variants.
Measuring 164.2mm by 75.6mm by 8.4mm, the device for a 6.6 inches display at 83.4% screen to body ratio, the device is big enough to allow for immersive viewing but still comfortable enough for one hand use, thanks largely to its light weight of only 192g. Of course being tall as it is at 164.2mm, one cannot easily press the top of the phone without sliding it down the palm.
At purchase the phone will definitely require several minutes to set up but once the phone s set (disabling or uninstalling a number of preinstalled apps is highly recommended), the device functions smoothly throughout, given its Mediatek Helio G37 CPU that boasts of eight cores featuring 4 – 2.3 GHz Cortex-A53 and 4 – 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 that feeds on 4GB of RAM. In addition, the phone has the ability to utilise 1GB of ROM as virtual RAM enabling the phone to have a total of 5GB of RAM when needs be.
Once you have powered your Tecno Spark 9, you should head up to settings and press on My Phone. From there you will be able to quickly check the core specs that include the name of the phone, the model of the device (Tecno KH6), the OS (Android 12), CPU (Helio G37), Front Camera (32MP), Rear Camera (13MP Triple Camera), RAM (4GB + 1GB), ROM – shouldn’t be ROM though given that one can actually write on the memory – should be SDD instead (64 GB – there are 128 GB versions for the Tecno Spark 9 Pro) HiOS (vs 8.6) and Build Number.
A few things that I tested immediately after setting up the phone include the speakers which I found to be normal (no extra base – no stereo – no surround sound), the rear camera that allows one to shoot in HDR, Portrait, or AR (probably for Snapchat). The pictures were crisp and of good quality. I will provide a detailed review of these in a few days.
The first impression one gets from unboxing Tecno Spark 9, holding it, and getting to use it for the first time speaks for a premium phone. The phone feels like a long lasting device, a device that can survive a few drops from the pocket height, and a device.
SPARK 9 Series
The SPARK 9 Series will be dedicated for the Gen Z. Equipped with 32 MP super clear selfie shooter and trendy right-angles edge 8.42mm lightweight and slim body, TECNO SPARK 9 Pro brings the users more premium experience to express self-concept and stylish design to let them be on the cutting edge of fashion. SPARK 9 Series will bring the fully upgraded front camera to break the boundary for your self-expression via selfie technology.
Pricing & Availability
The SPARK 9 series will come in SPARK 9C – KES 15,599, SPARK 9T KES 19,799 & SPARK 9Pro KES 20,899. While the CAMON 19 series will come in three variants CAMON 19, CAMON 19 Pro and CAMON 19 Pro 5G. The 5G model will be out a month after launch. The prices will be KES 23,499 for CAMON 19, KES 33,799 for CAMON 19 Pro, KES 41,599 for CAMON 19 Pro 5G. Visit any TECNO branded shop, Safaricom to get to experience the new device. Order online through MASOKO, JUMIA & KILIMALL.
With the spirit of “Stop At Nothing”, TECNO aims to encourage users to explore unlimited possibilities. TECNO is today’s new generation of smartphone brand with elegant artistic design and contemporary cutting-edge camera technology.
