Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G First Impressions: Quirky Design on a Budget

Tecno has launched its latest smartphones in the Pova series, called the Pova 5 Pro 5G and Pova 5 5G and we got to check out the Pro model. The Pova 5 Pro 5G comes in a glass sandwich design with cyberpunk-style patterns on the back which are visible through the glass. The smartphone comes in two colour options, Dark Illusion, which is what we have, and Silver Fantasy. Prices start at Rs. 14,999 and the phone will go on sale from August 22. 

Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G in the Dark Illusion colour

The glass back and chrome side rails pick up a lot of fingerprints, which can make the phone look messy really quickly. We have a side-mounted fingerprint sensor in the power key, and the volume buttons are on the right and the SIM slot is on the left. The USB Type-C charging port, microphone, speaker grille and headphone jack are on the bottom. On the top, we have a second speaker grille.

The Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G sports a 6.78-inch 120Hz full-HD+ LCD display. In my short time with the phone, the display gets bright enough for indoor use but it isn't easily legible when used outdoors in the day. It does deliver good colours and is quite sharp. The 120Hz refresh rate also aids in a smoother user experience.

The Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G supports up to 2K resolution video playback on YouTube

The phone is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 6080 5G SoC which handles most tasks with ease and games tend to run just fine at their respective optimal settings. The Pova 5 Pro 5G is available in two configurations, with 128GB or 256GB of storage, both having the same 8GB of RAM.

The smartphone comes equipped with a 50-megapixel main rear camera that seems to snap pretty good images in broad daylight, as well as in not-so-ideal lighting situations. It can record videos up to 2K 30fps and 1080p 60fps, which is not bad for a smartphone in this segment. There's also a secondary AI camera here, but no ultra-wide.

The Pova 5 Pro 5G comes equipped with a two rear cameras

The 16-megapixel front camera too captures good images in daylight as well as in indoor lighting situations. The post-processing is also not very aggressive. The colours are good and the images look quite sharp.

The Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G comes equipped with a 5,000mAh battery which should be enough to get you through one day on a single charge. In my experience, I was easily able to use it for social media browsing, clicking pictures, light gaming and attending calls, and the phone easily lasted one whole day. It does come with a 68W fast charger in the box, which is definitely a plus.

The main highlight of the Pova 5 Pro 5G is what Tecno calls the Arc Interface, which are the glowing LEDs located under the back panel. They light up in different colours when you charge the device, boot it up, receive notifications or even when you listen to music. The LED lights are visible in a well-lit room, but outdoors under bright sunlight, it's barely visible. You can customise the rate at which the light flashes through the dedicated menu but the options are very limited.

The Arc Interface lights up in numerous situations

Last but not least, the smartphone runs HiOS 13.1 which is based on Android 13. Do let us know what you think about the Tecno Pova 5 Pro 5G in the comments.