Infinix HOT 12 Play vs TECNO Spark 8P: The Infinix HOT 12 series and the TECNO Spark are one of the hottest selling smartphones from Transsion in Kenya. These budget phones have some good specs at their price giving competition for their money.
This year, we’ve seen Transsion release two devices in this series – The HOT 12 Play which we’ve already reviewed here and the TECNO Spark 8P. In this article though, we will be doing a comparison of the two.
Which one should you buy if you’re looking for a budget phone with the two options at hand?
Design and Display
The Infinix HOT 12 Play is a huge phone featuring a 6.82″ IPS LCD display that is slightly interrupted by the punch-hole selfie camera. The TECNO Spark 8P on the other hand comes with a Dot Notch 6.6 inches display.
When it comes to the design, the Infinix HOT 12 Play comes with a polycarbonate back. This back sports the 13MP dual-camera setup and a fingerprint sensor. For the Spark 8P, we’re getting a textured finish with a massive squircle camera at the back. Unlike on the HOT 12 Play where the fingerprint sensor TECNO decided to have a side-mounted fingerprint sensor on the Spark 8P.
Important to also note is that Infinix went all-in with a Type-C charging port on the HOT 12 Play over a micro-USB charging port we’re getting on the TECNO Spark 8P.
I also need to mention that the 90HZ refresh rate Infinix added to the HOT 12 Play is a plus despite the 720p screen. Spark 8P has a 1080p screen.
Performance
Both phones come with Android 11 out of the box. Powering the Infinix Hot 12 Play is a Helio G85 Processor coupled with Mali G52 GPU. The Spark 8P on the other hand is powered by a lesser Helio G35 processor so the Infinix takes an easy win here.
Both come with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage with the option to expand via an external microSD card. Infinix however gives you an option to extend the RAM to 7GB thanks to the MemFusion feature.
Performance-wise, both phones handle everything just fine but the HOT 12 Play does a better job of course thanks to the Helio G85 Processor. One area of concern is that Bloatware is present in both phones but you can disable or uninstall some of them. The bloatware and frequent notifications can be annoying though.
Battery life
The Infinix HOT 12 Play ships with a massive 6000mAh battery while the TECNO Spark 8P is getting a 5000mAh battery. Nothing to really complain about here as both phones are able to run you through the day.
The downside is the 10W charging bricks that the two brands added in the box. They are both slow and you need about three and two hours respectively to fully power the two phones.
Cameras
When it comes to the cameras, TECNO did not come to play. The Spark 8P features an 8MP selfie camera and a 50MP triple camera setup which includes a 2MP depth sensor and VGA camera.
The Infinix HOT 12 Play on the other hand features a dual-camera setup that houses a 13MP primary lens that has an aperture of f/1.8 and a depth sensor. On the front, there’s an 8MP selfie camera.
Both phones come with a number of camera modes you can play around with except the Night Mode which is missing on both.
Conclusion
That said, which of the two are we buying? Infinix is selling the HOT 12 Play for Ksh 16,499 while the TECNO Spark 8P is selling at Ksh 17,000. That’s a difference of around Ksh.500.
Both phones are good performers but the Infinix HOT 12 Play is a good contender. The phone features a 90hz screen, a huge 6000mAh battery, 7GB of RAM, Helio G85 processor and a decent camera setup although not the best.
The Spark 8P gets a less powerful chip although you’re also getting some minor upgrades including 1080p screen compared to the 720p we have on the Infinix HOT 12 Play and the 50MP camera setup.
In this case, the Infinix HOT 12 Play takes the prize. Which of the two would you buy? Tell us in the comments section.
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