New low-budget R3000 smartphone won’t let you down
The phone's best feature, in fact, is that it stays on, and on, and on.
The Tecno Spark 5. Picture: Supplied.
The Tecno Spark 5 is the latest addition to the competitive South African smartphone market. Coming in at R3000, the China-based mobile manufacturer’s phone is very competitively priced but as such, don’t expect it to run quite as smoothly as your iPhone or your top-of-the-range Samsung.
Here are five things you should know about the phone before you buy:
The camera
The Tecno Spark 5 boasts five cameras, which does beg the obvious question – why do I need five cameras on my phone? The answer is that you do not, and there are lots of high-tech words around what the cameras do that I am not going to bore you with here. What I will say is that it takes excellent pictures, that compete well with those on other smartphones.
The battery
Tired of your iPhone dying in a day? Bored with your Samsung battery flattening out all too quickly? Well, the Tecno Spark 5 wins the battery race all day long. Probably the phone’s best feature, in fact, is that it stays on, and on, and on.
The Tecno Spark 5. Picture: Supplied
The processing speed
It’s not great, to be frank. If, like me, you like to have a lot of apps open at the same time, then the Tecno Spark 5 is probably not for you. It starts to glitch and the screen freezes, with a yawn-inducing wait before it corrects itself. If you buy this phone, in other words, go easy, one app at a time.
The look
It comes with a snazzy blue cover, and a pair of wireless bluetooth earphones, which are lovely. It looks excellent, as good as any other Android smartphone, especially for the price.
The price
This is another of the phone’s main drawcards. If you are looking for a smartphone on a budget, it has plenty going for it, from the camera to the battery to the look. You could do a lot worse for your R3000.
The verdict
This is a perfectly good, cheap smartphone, and should be highly competitive at the bottom end of the market. Don’t expect lightning processing speeds or the sleek style of an iPhone but the battery life and camera alone make it worth a punt.
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