Cheap phones are getting better. In the past, this was usually more of a warning than an alluring proposition. Well, the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 and the Tecno Spark 3 are here to prove my first sentence right. Budget smartphones are now coming with decent build quality, commendable performance, amazing cameras and ample screen resolutions. In this comparison review, I am going to put the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 against the Tecno Spark 3 and parse which one packs more punch for its price.
Design
Both phones come with interesting designs. The Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 comes in a faux leather plastic panel at the back while the Tecno Spark 3 comes with a black back that has tiny green sparkles that shine under light. You can see it here. The back house the dual 13MP and 2MP rear cameras for the Tecno Spark 3 and a single 13MP primary camera for the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019. You also get rear fingerprint sensor and LED flashlight. On the front, both phones get the 8MP selfie cameras under a minimal dewdrop notch for the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 and a rectangular notch for the Tecno Spark 3.
Both phones win at design and offer a comfortable grip although the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 is much lighter than the Tecno Spark 3.
Display
The Tecno Spark 3 has a 6.2” inch display with 1500 by 720-pixel resolution and the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 has a 6.09-inch screen with a resolution of 1560 by 720 pixels. The 720p screens on both have great viewing angles, especially under sunlight. You enjoy spending your time watching videos, scrolling through social media or just generally browsing the web.
Another thing the Huawei packs is HUAWEI Supersound to give you a relatively higher speaker volume and that’s an added advantage for enjoying multimedia content. Party mode and A 5.1 surround sound system are also included to enhance your entertainment.
You’d never go wrong with either but I preferred the display on the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019.
User Interface
Both phones run Android 9.0 Pie – I know it has been a couple of months since Android Pie has been out and Qi s already in Beta 2 but we can’t complain especially for budget phones. The run the latest versions of their relative user interfaces with EMUI 9.0.1 for the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 and HiOS on the Tecno Spark 3. Each has its own quirks.
On the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019, EMUI 9.0 has a lot of customisation features you can play around more than you can do on the Tecno Spark 3. I’m a huge fan of small fonts and sadly the Tecno Spark 3 doesn’t let you change the font or reduce it to your preference.
One weird thing, the Tecno Spark 3 doesn’t come with Digital Wellbeing feature Android Pie packs. Huawei has its own version of Digital Wellbeing which they call Digital Balance.
Other than that, you get a new multitasking menu where the recent apps are shown in a horizontal card format. You also get to experience gesture navigation on Android Pie – Huawei does it better than Tecno.
Performance
This is where differences start to show up. Both phones run Helio A22 processors with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage with the option of adding external storage.
In terms of performance, the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 slugs when compared to the Tecno Spark 3. Huawei had a hard time maintaining apps in the background. Recent apps had to reload when you went back to them.
If you are a huge multitasker, you’ll have to skip the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019. The Tecno Spark 3 wins it for me performance-wise.
Camera
In the optics department, the Tecno Spark 3 packs dual 13MP and 2MP rear cameras and 8MP selfie shooter while the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 rocks a single 13MP primary camera and an 8MP front-facing camera. Both phones shoot decent photos when given scenarios with enough light. Lowlight shots tend to struggle with phones at this price point.
Both phones have various modes including photo, video, beauty, panorama, HDR and Pro mode. There’s an additional bokeh mode on the Tecno Spark 3 for those blurred pictures facilitated by the 2MP secondary rear camera.
In these photo samples(click to expand), I preferred the ones taken by the Tecno Spark 3.
Battery Life
The Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 comes with a 3020mAh battery while the Tecno Spark 3 rocks a 3500mAh battery. Both have been doing a commendable job in terms of battery life. I was expecting that Huawei’s smaller battery would come second but it caught up with Tecno Spark 3’s battery.
Both phones managed to pull an all-day performance. Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 has power management options to optimise battery usage while the Tecno Spark 3 comes with power consumption management option and AI power saving feature in its Battery lab setting to squeeze more out of the relatively big battery it has and this makes it a winner for me.
Conclusion
The Tecno Spark 3(Our full review coming soon) and the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 are both amazing phones but before you make that purchase, you’ll need to know which device punches above its weight. The Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 wins aesthetic-wise, it’s good looking in design and customizability features but performance-wise, the Tecno Spark 3 walks away with this title – you get relatively better photos, multitasking won’t be a hassle and a longer battery life – also the Faiba 4G support is the icing to this cake.
Pricing
The Tecno Spark 3(First impressions) retails at Ksh 12,499 while the Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 sells at Ksh 13,499. The ball is in your court.
