Tecno brought the special edition of the Spark 9 Pro to the market. The Tecno Spark 9 Pro Sports Edition features the same specs as the Spark 9 Pro with the main difference just being the design.
The Spark 9 has a pretty nice solid design which we highlighted in our unboxing video. Tecno has gone a notch higher with the Sport edition and has worked with Designworks, a BMW group company, on the colour, material and finish design of this model.
Both of these devices succeed the Spark 8 series which included the Spark 8P that was launched in the country in December 2021 but how do they compare in terms of specs?
In this article, we will be doing a specs comparison of the Tecno Spark 8P and the Spark 9 Pro Sport Edition. Which of these budget phones should you buy?
While the Spark 8P is selling for around KES 17,000, the Spark 9 Pro Sport Edition is selling at KES 21,500. So other than the design, there’s also a huge difference in pricing.
Design and Display
The design as we mention is the stand-out feature on the two devices. The Spark 8P is quite compact and slim. The lower part of the back cover has a rigid design while the upper part is glossy with fingerprints. A camera and a flashlight are also installed in this shiny part. The phone is available in four colours including Tahiti Gold, Turquoise Cyan, Atlantic Blue and Iris Purple.
The Tecno Spark 9 Pro Sport Edition on the other hand has this nice blue and pure white colour scheme at the back that Tecno says reminds people of the power and drama of the superhero. The vibrant colours are also applied to the edges of the camera lens giving the phone a very unique design.
For the display, the TECNO Spark 8P comes with a Dot Notch 6.6 inches display with 1080p screen. The Spark 9 Pro Sport Edition features the same 6.6-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,460 pixels) display but with a 90Hz refresh rate and a waterdrop notch.
Important to also note is that Tecno went all-in with a Type-C charging port on the Spark 9 Pro Sport Edition over a micro-USB charging port we’re getting on the TECNO Spark 8P.
Performance
The Spark 9 Pro runs on Android 12-based HiOS 8.6 and packs 128GB of internal storage and 4GB of RAM. The Spark 8 P on the other hand comes with Android 11 out of the box but with the same memory configuration as the Spark 9 Pro.
Powering the Spark 9 Pro is the MediaTek Helio G85, a 4G chipset built on 12nm process technology. Tecno also added the Arm Mali-G52 MC2 GPU for gaming and graphic work. The Spark 8P on the other hand is powered by a lesser Helio G35 processor so the Spark 9 Pro takes an easy win here.
As highlighted earlier, both come with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage with the option to expand via an external microSD card. The Spark 9 Pro however gives you the option to extend the RAM to 6GB thanks to the MemFusion feature.
Battery life
Both phones ship with a 5000mAh battery and there is nothing to really complain about here as both phones are able to run you through the day. The 10W charging brick Tecno added to the Spark 8P box is however slow and you need about three and two hours to fully power the device. The Spark 9 Pro Sport Edition however comes with an upgraded brick of 18W fast charge which charges the phone from 0 to 100% in about 120 minutes.
Cameras
When it comes to the cameras, the Spark 8P features an 8MP selfie camera and a 50MP triple camera setup which includes a 2MP depth sensor and VGA camera.
Spark 9 Pro comes with upgraded cameras – a 50MP primary camera, a 2MP depth sensor, an AI lens, and a 32MP front camera for selfies. The selfie camera is actually one of the best on this phone supported by a dual-LED flash.
Both phones come with a number of camera modes you can play around with. The Spark 8P however missed the Night Mode.
Conclusion
The Spark series from Tecno is quite an interesting series from the company. Tecno has managed to capture a section of the market with these budget devices.
The Spark 8P was an interesting addition and Tecno has gone a step higher with the Spark 9 Pro Sport edition. In our review of the Spark 9 Pro, we described it as a budget champ. The SoC is energy efficient and the phone just gets everything right for any phone at that price point- not different from the Sport Edition. TECNO both phones are targeted at Gen Z and I think that’s indeed the right target audience for these devices.
You can watch our Tecno Spark 9 Pro Sport Edition unboxing video below.
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