Absolutely iPhone-y
Just after a month since we reviewed the realme note50, we purchased another review unit! We got tired of so many Oppo phones being reviewed that we decided to shake things up with a unit from Transsion. What could be a better way to start than with the most basic? We purchased the Tecno Spark Go 2024 after seeing its beautiful design and very low price! What can you do with a sub-60-dollar (or in this case, sub-PHP3K) phone, anyway? Well… surprisingly a lot! Still not as much as our OnePlus Nord3 or the Oppo A58 but we quite enjoyed the device as a secondary, and this review will tell you why.
The Tecno Spark Go is not the newest phone in Tecno’s lineup. In fact, we were about three months late and we got this one over a sale. However, knowing that Transsion’s newer phones are not going to be any different, or at least significantly different, and that people don’t always go for the newest release, we’d say we give this one a go. What we really want to know here is how much you can do with a cheap phone and see if it’s worth your while, even for casual usage.
One of the first things we noticed is the dual speaker with DTS Audio! Yes, real dual speakers, not some “Extra Volume Mode” that’s just plain gimmicky. That’s quite a rarie. Also, we chose Gold this time, and for the Tecno Spark Go 2024, they call it, “Alpenglow Gold”. Blacks and greys are getting too monotonous for us and honestly, pretty boring. So please phone brands, bring us review units that are not black or grey.
Let’s get to the spec sheet!
SPECS:
- 6.6″ HD+ (1280x720px) IPS LCD, 90Hz refresh rate
- UNISOC Tiger T606 (12nm)
- CAMERAS:
- 13MP (Primary), f/2.0
- 2MP (Depth), f/2.4
- FRONT: 8MP, f/2.4
- HiOS 13 based on Android 13 Go Edition
- 5000mAh, 10W charging
- USB-C, Stereo Speakers, DTS Audio, 3.5mm jack, MicroSD Card Slot (up to 1TB)
- 4G LTE, Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 5
- Alpenglow Gold, Mystery White, Magic Skin Green, Gravity Black
- PRICE:
- 4/64: PHP 4,699
- 4/128: PHP 4,999
DISPLAY:
The Spark Go’s display is bad and it is the worst part of the phone. It is not the ideal phone to use when you’re an Uber or Grab driver, and certainly not ideal for Angkas and FoodPanda riders either. The phone’s display is barely visible under the sunlight even at maximum brightness. We had trouble taking accurate photos because of this. Are we being too harsh here? It’s a sub-5K phone after all. Meh, we’re not. We don’t think so.
It has a resolution of 720p and it shows. It is a pretty strange feeling jumping from 1.5K (from the Vivo V30 Pro) to FullHD+ (from the OnePlus Nord 3), then down to HD+. Each pixel feels too crunchy, and some games have visible pixelation. On the bright side, Tecno is kind enough to include 90Hz as its highest refresh rate but this does not support every game. On casual usage, it uses the regular 60Hz to save battery life. Not a bad thing to do in all honesty.
SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE:
This is HiOS 13, but the watered down version because the Spark Go runs Android 13 Go. The name sounds like iOS but it clearly isn’t. The reason why we went for a Transsion device is mostly because of the UI. ColorOS and its variants are getting a bit repetitive for us so to shake things up a bit, we went for something different.
Remember back in our Honor 90 review when we said it takes a bit of a learning curve for you to familiarize with MagicOS? Well, it’s even higher here and note this is just the “lite” version of the OS, imagine the full-sized version! The notification panel slides down when you pull at the middle part of the display, but the control panel will only be visible if you slide down from the battery icon, like how you would with iOS. But what makes this so complex is that this is Android and many other Android skins function similarly where the control panel and notification area are shown together. When you pull down the notification area, swipe right to see the control panel, and vice versa. To this day, we’re still not used to it. Skill issue? Probably, but this is what we think of it.
Also, just like with other Android skins, the Spark Go’s UI is littered with ads and bloatware. Some of them can be removed while others are embedded and cannot be removed without superuser/root permissions. This limits further the storage to what’s available from the 128GB it has. The phone also has only 4GB RAM, the bare minimum to run Android Go these days. There is virtual RAM which we disabled to keep tests accurate, fair, and precise.
Well, it seems like we’re done for Part 1, pretty quick isn’t it? Our At a Glance basically covered everything else that was meant to be part 1. Now, how does UNISOC T606 sound with 4GB RAM and 128GB ROM? Not a lot but you’ll be surprised! Stay tuned for part two techies!