TECNO Spark 7P Unboxing, Review and Price

TECNO Spark 7P Unboxing, Review and Price

What’s Inside the Box

When you open the box, the first thing you’ll see is an envelope containing the SIM ejection tool, a warranty card, and a transparent TPU case. We’ll put that aside for now. The smartphone itself is wrapped in plastic, and the colour I have here is Alps Blue. I’m not sure about other available color variants, but this one looks quite sleek.

Next, we try on the included case—pretty basic, no fancy features like raised edges for extra protection, but it does the job.

Digging deeper, we find a 10-watt charger, a micro USB cable, and a pair of headphones. These are the same budget headphones TECNO included with the Pova model, and some users have reported issues with them—like not being able to pick up calls or them breaking down after a few weeks.

By the way, the phone comes with a screen protector already applied, but it seems to be made for a different model, so you might want to replace it with a glass one.

Display & Design

On the front, the Spark 7P has a 6.8-inch HD+ IPS LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate. The display includes a dot notch housing an 8MP front camera with dual flash. At the back, we’ve got a 16MP triple-camera setup with quad flash and a fingerprint sensor. TECNO’s bold branding is also present.

The overall design of the Spark 7P seems to take inspiration from the Oppo Reno 5, and the camera bump is barely noticeable. The back and frame are made of plastic, but surprisingly, they don’t attract fingerprints.

Unfortunately, TECNO has gone back to the thick bezels reminiscent of the Spark 4 on the front, which is a bit of a letdown. Outdoor visibility is also an issue with this display, and even at max brightness, it struggles under direct sunlight. However, in shaded areas, the colors appear well-saturated for a 720P display.

Performance & Storage

It Comes with 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, with 113GB available out of the box. The Spark 7P runs on Android 11 with TECNO’s HiOS version 7.6 on top, offering features like App Twin, which allows you to use two accounts on apps like Facebook and WhatsApp.

However, TECNO’s HiOS still comes with a lot of bloatware and ads. Some apps even install themselves and send notifications out of the blue. Even after removing some, they reappear with security updates. This makes the user experience quite cluttered.

Under the hood, the Spark 7P is powered by the Mediatek Helio G70 Octa-Core CPU, clocked at 2.0GHz, which is a significant upgrade from the Helio A25 chip on the Spark 7. The G70 is a solid mid-range chip for gaming and everyday tasks, and I didn’t experience any major slowdowns, even with split-screen multitasking.

Fingerprint Sensor & Face Unlock

While the fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate, its placement is too high on the back, making it a bit uncomfortable to reach. Face unlock is less secure but works in various lighting conditions, even in complete darkness, so use it with caution.

Gaming & Battery Life

When it comes to gaming, I tried PUBG on HD graphics and high frame rates, and it ran smoothly. However, the 90Hz refresh rate doesn’t come with a high touch sampling rate, so the gameplay felt a bit underwhelming.

The Spark 7P packs a 5000mAh battery, which easily lasts more than a full day, even with the 90Hz refresh rate. However, it takes over three hours to charge fully, as it doesn’t support fast charging.

Camera Performance

The Spark 7P features a 16MP primary camera, and while it delivers decent contrast and saturation, the selfie camera struggles with processing and produces washed-out colors. Portrait mode on the primary camera tends to over-saturate, making subjects appear unnaturally “grilled,” but overall, it’s a noticeable improvement over the Spark 5 Pro.

The phone also records video in 2K with both the front and rear cameras, but the overall camera experience could use some fine-tuning, especially in low-light conditions and with selfies.

Final Thoughts

TECNO is clearly trying to evolve the Spark series by introducing a 90Hz display and a better gaming chip. However, some of the usual drawbacks remain—like the micro USB port, budget earphones, and 720P display. These upgrades also come with a price increase, so if your budget is around 70,000 Naira (~$145 USD), I’d recommend looking at alternatives like the Redmi 9, which offers a Helio G80 chip and a full HD display at a similar price.