The Tecno Spark 30C is a budget-friendly 5G smartphone that aims to deliver a range of impressive features for its price. This review will cover all the key aspects of the phone, including design, performance, camera, battery, and pricing, to help you decide if it’s worth buying.
Unboxing Experience
The Tecno Spark 30C comes in a colorful, vibrant box. Inside, you’ll find the phone along with a full-sized sticker that allows you to customize the back design of the phone. Unfortunately, there is no charger included in the box, which might be a downside for some users, especially if you don’t already own a compatible charger.
Design and Build Quality
The phone has a polycarbonate back and frame with a matte finish, which prevents fingerprint smudges. It’s a sleek device with a thickness of 7.82mm and weighs around 189 grams, making it quite portable and easy to hold. It features a hybrid SIM slot and comes equipped with dual stereo speakers that deliver decent loudness and bass quality. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner offers a fast and convenient way to unlock the device. Another useful feature is the inclusion of an IR blaster, which can be used to control smart devices in your home.
Display
The Tecno Spark 30C sports a 120Hz refresh rate display, ensuring smooth scrolling and transitions. While the peak brightness of 480 nits is good for indoor use, outdoor visibility is somewhat limited. Despite being an LCD panel, the phone includes an “Always-On Display” feature, which is usually only found on AMOLED screens. However, this feature works for only 10 seconds at a time, making it a bit less functional compared to standard Always-On Displays.
Performance
Under the hood, the Tecno Spark 30C is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6300 chipset, a 6nm 5G processor, making it a solid performer in its price range. It achieves a benchmark score of around 400,000, which is impressive for a budget device. The CPU throttling is minimal, maintaining 89% performance even during intense tasks. The phone comes with LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.1 storage, ensuring faster data access and app load times compared to phones using eMMC storage.
When it comes to gaming, the phone can handle medium to high settings without overheating. Day-to-day tasks like browsing and streaming are smooth, and the phone promises “four years of fluency” according to the brand’s claims, although only time will tell if that holds true.
Software
The Tecno Spark 30C runs on Android 14.5, with the promise of two years of security patches. However, there is no confirmation of yearly Android updates. The user interface is intuitive, and there are a variety of customization options, including support for multiple languages and a translation tool for images.
Camera
The phone is equipped with a 48MP primary camera featuring a Sony sensor, which supports up to 10x zoom. You can also shoot videos in up to 2K resolution at 30fps. The front-facing camera is 8MP and also supports 2K video recording at 30fps. For slow-motion enthusiasts, there’s a 120fps option.
The camera performance in good lighting conditions is impressive for the price range. Portrait shots, dynamic range, and sharpness are all good, with no major complaints. However, selfie photos sometimes struggle with dynamic range, although the sharpness is decent. While the rear camera video stabilization isn’t great, the front camera video stabilization is better.
Battery Life
The Tecno Spark 30C packs a 5000mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging, though you’ll need to purchase the charger separately. Charging from 0 to 100% takes around 1.5 hours. In terms of usage, the battery lasts comfortably for a full day with mixed usage, meaning you’ll likely only need to charge it once a day.
Connectivity
The phone supports 10 5G bands, ensuring robust network compatibility. Additional connectivity options include Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.4, and NFC, which is a pleasant surprise for a phone in this price segment. Other features include Camera2 API support for third-party camera apps, FM radio, and all the necessary sensors for a smooth experience.
Pricing and Conclusion
The Tecno Spark 30C is available in two variants:
- 4GB RAM + 64GB storage: Priced at ₹9000
- 4GB RAM + 128GB storage: Priced at ₹9500
These prices include available bank offers, and while the lack of a charger might be inconvenient, the overall value proposition remains strong. With its solid chipset, 120Hz display, 5G support, and decent camera performance, the Tecno Spark 30C offers good performance for the price.
If you’re in the market for a budget-friendly 5G phone with decent specifications and can overlook the absence of a charger, the Tecno Spark 30C is definitely worth considering. It balances performance, features, and affordability, making it a good option for budget-conscious buyers.