TECNO recently announced the TECNO Spark 4 and the TECNO Spark 4 Air in Kenya which are the company’s latest additions to their Spark series. The TECNO Spark 4 follows the suit of the TECNO Spark 3 that launched earlier this year. We’ll be taking the TECNO Spark 4 through its paces to see if it carries on the impressive strides its sibling had. Right from their spec sheets, the TECNO Spark 4 brings more additional features it’s sibling lacked but not that much. You get a bigger screen, a bigger battery and a triple camera setup – all at a cheaper price. Specs aside, how does it perform. *insert MKBHD’s voice* I’ve been using the TECNO Spark 4 for a couple of days and here are my initial thoughts.
Before we dig in, here’s what you get in the box:
TECNO Spark 4 comes with a 6.52″ display with 720p resolution. There’s a teardrop notch that houses the 8MP selfie camera.
On the same top bezel, you’ll find a LED flash and other sensors. The TECNO Spark 4 spots a colour-gradient back – ours came in Vacation Blue but you can get Royal Purple, Misty Grey or Energetic Orange. Face Unlock 2.0 makes unlocking your phone pretty quick but unlike the TECNO Phantom 9, you can’t unlock it with your eyes closed.
Three AI-powered cameras, an LED flash and the fingerprint sensor are also on the back. The volume rockers and power button are placed well near the reach of your thumb for easy one-handed usage. At the bottom, you get a headphone jack, a mono-speaker grill and a micro-USB charging port. On the left side, you get the dual sim slot and expandable storage slot.
Inside the TECNO Spark 4, you get 32GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM. The phone runs on an MTK Helio A22 processor, HiOS on top Android 9 Pie and is powered by a 4000mAh battery.
So far performance has been smooth. Playing games like Ninja Arashi or Asphalt Nitro(it comes pre-installed) and switching between apps has been a breeze and I can’t wait for this honeymoon to end. Also, get ready to be served ads – I’ve already gotten lock screen ads that appear from time to time.
My review of the phone’s performance will remain inconclusive at the moment as I’ll be using it as my daily driver in the coming weeks – so stay tuned for the full review.
The TECNO Spark 4 comes with 4G LTE and can support Faiba’s 4G network too.
In terms of optics, you get a triple rear setup that includes a 13MP primary camera, a 2MP camera and a VGA camera while for selfies, you get an 8MP camera.
There’s beauty mode, portrait, AR shot, wide selfie mode and bokeh. Here are some samples.
The photos lack details but are decent enough for social media sharing. In my opinion, TECNO Spark 3 takes better photos. It’s up to you to decide.
We’ll share more samples in our full review.
So far, things are looking well for the TECNO Spark 4 – it ticks off the basic stuff but camera-wise, you’ll have to look elsewhere, at leaSt for now. The phone is available online and at TECNO retail stores for Ksh 11,999.
