At its Kshs 17,000 – 18,000 price, the Tecno Spark 8p operates at the upper echelons of what we’d expect of a device from the Spark series.
As such, there’s so much we are expecting from the device.
From our interaction with it over the last few weeks, it does manage to meet some of those expectations while still falling short in some areas – like our favourite pet peeve: the lack of a USB Type-C port.
In our case, the device stood out in two areas: the design and the camera.
Design
Here, there are two things that impressed me.
The first one is the compactness of the device, which makes it very easy to handle and operate.
There’s also the thoughtfulness that went into ensuring that the Spark series now got some sort of harmony with the other Tecno smartphones series, especially the Camon, by having the fingerprint sensor move from the back of the device to the side, where it is incorporated in the power button.
While I am over the fence regarding the visor-like upper part of the backplate, the lower part is very well done and ensures no scruffs, scratches and smudges are visible. It also has a cool pattern that is just nice to look at.
Camera
The cameras on the Tecno Spark 8p won’t be winning DxOmark awards but they do just enough to make them standout on such a piece of hardware.
As expected, the results are best demonstrated when shots are taken in good lighting as things get grainy in low light and not even cranking the ISO in manual mode helps.
Here’s a sample (or two):
What’s your favourite Spark 8 feature?
