The Tecno Spark 3 Pro is here. The company launched the device in March and its available across the country for Ksh. 12,499. At that price, the Spark 3 Pro positions itself as a good device for the budget market. The specs are good, the design is attractive and compared to its predecessor, the Spark 2, Tecno really did some great improvements to this device.
At that price range and its offering, the Spark 3 Pro is competing directly with phones like the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 and having used both the devices, Tecno definitely wins here.
Remember the Spark 3 comes in two variants, Spark 3 Pro and Spark 3. Both devices feature the same RAM with the difference just being the storage. The Spark 3 Pro comes with 32GB ROM while the Spark 3 comes with 16GB ROM. We had the Pro variant as our review unit.
Tecno Mobile first introduced the SPARK series in August 2017 targeted for the mid-range smartphone market. The series, according to the company was meant for price-conscious consumers who would want to spend more than Ksh.10,000 on a smartphone. The Spark 3 seeks to build on the achievements of its earlier siblings, which included the Spark K7 and the Spark Plus K9 which were the most sold devices from Tecno in the country in 2017 and the Spark 2. The Spark 2 was a good device although one of the major disappointments was that it lacked 4G LTE support. But as I said, the Spark 3 has some really good improvements.
We already did the unboxing for you which you can read about here.
Design and Display
The Tecno Spark 3 Pro borrows the same design like what we saw on the Camon 11 and we are also getting a Notch which houses the selfie camera, speaker grills and a brace of other sensors. If you’re not a fan of the notch Tecno has given you an option of concealing it with from the display settings.
The design is good and its actually hard choosing between the device and the available option which is the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019. We are also getting a 6.2 inch IPS screen with a 19:9 aspect ratio. You also enjoy a 720×1520 pixels resolution. The overall performance from watching your favourite videos to playing games is pretty good even when outdoor.
Specs, performance and battery life
As I had earlier mentioned in this article we are getting two variants of the Tecno Spark 3. There’s the Spark 3 Pro and Spark 3 both featuring the same RAM with the difference just being the storage. The Spark 3 Pro comes with 32GB ROM while the Spark 3 comes with 16GB ROM. The review unit we got from Tecno’s local office is the Pro version.
The device is powered by a Quad-core MediaTek MT6761 processor which handles everything perfectly well. No lags, no anything even when loading heavy applications and the processor also offers amazing battery life. There are so many things that I look out on a phone before deciding to spend money on it. Performance is one of them and the Spark 3 offers me just that unlike the Spark 2.
The Spark 2 did perform well although during my entire interaction with it I had a problem when adding heavy applications. At some point, it kept crashing and automatically closing the apps. This was probably due to Tecno’s HiOS which is heavy skin for Android GO edition. Tecno, however, tonned down with HiOS on the Spark 3 Pro which is a good thing although we are still getting the usual annoying ads, theme notifications and a bunch of other stuff we are used to seeing on HiOs.
The Spark 2 was an Android Go smartphone but the Spark 3 ships with Android Pie. I need to also mention that Tecno dropped their SMS and we now have the Android Messages app. The gallery app was also dropped and we now have Google Photos which is a good thing if you ask me.
The battery life is one of my other best features on the Tecno Spark 3 Pro. The 3500mAh battery does some serious magic and I will give Tecno a plus for that.
Below is a summary of the specs:
| Display Size | 6.2 inches IPS LCD |
| Resolution | 1500-720pixels |
| OS | Android 9.0 Pie with HiOS Skin |
| Chipset | MediaTek Helio A22 |
| GPU | PowerVR GEB300 |
| CPU | Quad-core 2GHz |
| Internal Storage | 32GB |
| RAM | 2GB |
| Rear Camera | Dual 13MP + 2MP with AI and Quad Flash |
| Selfie Camera | 8MP |
| Battery | 3500Mah |
| Connectivity | 2G, 3G, 4G LTE |
| Sensors | G-Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Fingerprint Sensor |
| Colours | Champagne Gold and Midnight Black |
Cameras
Tecno never disappoints when it comes to cameras on their midrange devices. Just like the Spark 2, the Spark 3 pro delivers some good quality images. The phone has two cameras at the back – 13MP + 2MP with video, AI Cam, bokeh and beauty modes. The portraits are good and the images produced are quite detailed.
The selfie camera, on the other hand, is 8MP and works really well.
See a gallery of sample images below:
More sample images are available on our Instagram page.
Would I buy or recommend the Spark 3 Pro?
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the Tecno Spark 3 is a good device apart from the HiOS – the annoying ads and theme notifications. The performance is good, the design is good and the battery life is also incredible. I would definitely recommend the device to anyone especially those looking to upgrade to a different budget phone.
Tecno is selling it at Ksh.12,499 and you can grab one from Jumia here.
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