TECNO recently unveiled their entry-level Spark 10 series, including the regular Spark 10, Spark 10 Pro, Spark 10C and Spark 10 5G. The Spark series has been a favourite among the youth – from the first Spark launched in 2017 to now in its 10th generation.
We have the TECNO Spark 10 which shares most features with its Pro sibling.
Right out of the box, you get the phone, the case, the sim ejector tool, earphones, 18W power brick and a type-c charging cable. In a market where manufacturers are ditching including the accessories in the box, it is welcome that TECNO ships them with the phone.
DESIGN
Unlike its Pro sibling which has a glass back, the regular Spark 10 has a plastic back but the matte finish makes it feel premium. TECNO opted to use the same boxy design it uses with the camera-centric Camon series.
The Spark 10 comes in beautiful colours such as Meta Black and Meta Blue as seen below. You can also get it in Meta White and Meta Green.
Speaking of cameras, the Spark series has dual main cameras with an additional LED flash.
We have the side-mounted fingerprint reader which is the power button and volume rockers to the right. We have the speaker grille, the type-c charging port, the headphone jack and the microphone. At the left side is the dual sim slot which also includes a slot for expanding the storage with an external microSD card.
We have an earpiece and a notch for the selfie camera a the top bezel.
The Spark 10 has a smaller 6.6″ screen sporting a 90Hz refresh rate and HD resolution.
The display is really good with beautiful and bright colours which means you’ll enjoy watching your favourite shows. The high refresh rate comes in handy not only when gaming but also interacting with the user interface as well.
PERFORMANCE
TECNO now ships the Spark 10 series with 16GB of RAM which is 8GB onboard and 8GB virtual. You also get storage options starting at 128GB all the way to 256GB for the Pro version. The entire lineup runs on Android 13 and HiOS 12.6.
The Spark 10 has the Helio G37 chipset powering the phone. It’s a decent processor as it will handle most easy to medium tasks but when you start heavily taxing it. The lagging can be so annoying as it’s the phone’s biggest Achilles heel.
The Pro sibling gets an upgraded Helio G88 from the G85 of its predecessor. I’d have wished for a relatively faster processor to level up the Saprk 10 with its rivals in the same price range.
Stay tuned for an upcoming comparison review.
CAMERAS
The Spark 10 boast of a 50MP main camera and an additional VGA camera while the notch houses the is an 8MP front-facing camera. Video recording is capped at 1080p resolution.
The Spark 10 takes really good photos both with the main and selfie camera. Photos come out well-detailed, with decent saturation, dynamic range, and background separation even in low light.
The Spark 10 doesn’t have a dedicated night mode but the shots came out clear and bright worth sharing on social media.
Here are some of them:
Selfies and Portraits
Regular Shots
Night Shots
I’m glad the Spark 10 series can now go toe to toe with the midrange Camon series when it comes to photography.
BATTERY LIFE
The Spark 10 comes with a 5000mAh battery which supports 18W fast charging and will get the phone from empty to full in a little under 2 hours. The phone has long battery life and can go up to two days on light use and moderate use can push it to a day and a half.
When it comes to battery life, the Spark 10 is one trustworthy device.
VERDICT
I have liked the improvements TECNO has made across the Spark 10 series especially when it comes to photography.
The Spark 10 ticks off most checkboxes but one feature it falls short on is performance. Even with up to 16GB of RAM, the phone still couldn’t keep up with my demanding tasks. A relatively faster chipset would have made the Spark 10 the perfect budget smartphone.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
The TECNO Camon 19 series smartphones are available at any of TECNO’s official retail stores countrywide.
Here’s a full list of TECNO’s official retail stores in the country.
- TECNO Spark 10C: Ksh 15,600(4GB/128GB)
- TECNO Spark 10C: Ksh 17,600(8/128)
- TECNO Spark 10: Ksh 19,300(8/128)
