Tecno Pop 3
Tecno has for years carved a reputation of releasing multiple budget devices catering to different kinds of audiences at the same time. This rings true to the star of thins write up, the Tecno Pop 3. It is a successor to Pop 2 but it’s hard to discern who exactly is the target of this particular device, other than the fact that it is very basic and everything included is an absolute necessity, not an extra more. It is not the most basic phone from the company but doesn’t offer much either. Let’s tear it down.
Tecno POP 3 price in Kenya and key features
Price | KSh 8,200 |
Display | 5.7 inches |
Storage | 16 GB |
Chipset | MediaTek |
Back Camera | 5 MP |
Front Cameras | 8 MP |
RAM | 1 GB |
Battery | 3500 mAh |
Design and display
The Tecno Pop 3 comes with the display design of yesteryears, with the big bezels and chins, with a 5.7 inch IPS LCD screen. The upper bezel houses the selfie camera while the bottom chin houses the micro-USB connector and the 3.5mm jack. The phone is a plastic build, frame, and back. It has a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner next to a single back camera module. The plastic feels understandably cheap, probably because at this price point, we lose the colorful gradients that every other phone segment gets.
Performance and storage
The Tecno Pop 3 runs the mediate MT6761 Helio A22 chipset, widely considered a reliable entry-level processor, tied up with a quadcore 1.8GHz Cortex A53 CPU and a PowerVR GE8300 GPU. The memory on board is 1GB for RAM and 16GB internal mass storage, with a dedicated MicroSD slot for expandable memory. This particular SoC can only deliver basic computation. Expect multitasking to be very basic, apps to take longer to open, and terrible graphics processing. That means, this is as basic as it gets in smartphones in 2020.
Camera
It is apparent, in design and execution, that the Tecno Pop 3 has no use per se of the cameras. But somehow it still ends up having one. On the back, we have a totally basic 5mp shooter, which largely, is just for optics as it honestly can’t shoot much, optimal lighting conditions notwithstanding. The quality is not usable at all. Even video is pretty much a vestigial feature on this phone. On the front, we have an 8mp camera for selfies, which maybe could take a selfie or two that are usable, but that’s pretty much it. Picture quality can’t be guaranteed at all.
Battery
The Tecno Pop 3 comes with a fairly capable 3500 mAh non-removable battery, which, with the phone features taken into consideration, is more than enough for such a basic device. It easily lasts the whole and no power use can easily drain in. we get standard 10W MicroUSB charging which fills up the unit in about 3 hours, which is not overly terrible for a phone at this price point. You may also want to check out Tecno Pop 2 Plus smartphone.
Software
The Tecno Pop 3 runs the most basic Android version available, the Go edition which based on Android 8 Oreo. As expected from Tecno, there still is bloatware in one form or another so it’s not really well optimized. The graphics are poor and this particular OS does not stand a chance for an update, which is rather unfortunate. It works, however, though glitches, frames drop and screen freezes shouldn’t be too uncommon.
The Tecno Pop 3 is a basic device, for simple communication and pretty much nothing else. The other features are of no particular use but add extra functionality or two nonetheless. After all, is said and done though, it’s great to see OEMs putting their best forward to service the lowest cadres of the smartphone market, a trend we would appreciate if more of them joined in.
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