Tecno’s most popular model just got a sequel in the form of the Spark 9 series. And it’s got a few changes notably in the design, cameras, and display.
Camera
Selfies have been upgraded to 32MP which should be the same one that did good work on the Camon 18 Premier. It will be using pixel binning at a 4 to 1 ratio meaning the actual image resolution will remain 8MP however with the promise of up to 4 times the detail in the image.
The rear camera also got a slight bump from 48MP in the Spark 8 Pro to 50MP in the Spark 9 Pro. The last time Tecno used a 50MP rear camera was in the Phantom X and that was an absolutely competent camera. It’s definitely not the exact same sensor however it also will be employing 4 to 1 pixel binning tech to extract as much image quality as possible from the sensor.
Tecno also promises improved night mode capture with what they are calling Super Night Mode 3.0 with a lot of heavy lifting being placed on AI. It’s primarily going to be helping to enhance image quality in low light with some noise reduction algorithms to turn down graining and boost brightness in low light shots. We shall definitely test these out in our in-depth review.
Design
The design from the press images looks a lot more refined and mature. On the back, there are 2 dominant circles housing the rear cameras. Something we saw on the Huawei P50 series of smartphones. There is also a single LED flash that will be assisting the sensors in low-light conditions.
The back is a 2-tone texture with the top quarter having a glossy finish and the bottom 3 quarters having either an uninterrupted glitter finish or a glitter finish with SPARK mosaic on it. Edges also look sharper than on previous Spark smartphones and all the buttons are on the right edge. There does not seem to be any mention of a fingerprint scanner though.
Display
The Spark 9 Pro will come with a 6.6-inch 1080p FHD+ IPS display. It’s slightly smaller than the 6.8 inches on the Spark 8 Pro but this one comes with 90Hz making it the first Spark series to have a high refresh rate panel. This just means graphics look smoother and more fluid when using the smartphone and also make it feel more responsive.
The selfie camera is a notch in the middle of the display. It looks like we have lost the selfie flash on this model but it is something we will confirm in the review.
Performance
The chipset in the Spark 9 Pro is the same one in the Spark 8 Pro. A Mediatek Helio G85 CPU paired with a Mali-G52 GPU. For this class of smartphones, it is a pretty capable chipset and has proven itself to deliver some very generous performance.
Power will be handled by a 5000mAh battery which in previous Tecno smartphones was good for about 2 full days of average usage before you needed a charge. Charging the Spark 9 Pro is done at 18W which feels a bit slow for this size of the battery. It’s also worth noting that the Spark 8 Pro from last year could charge at an impressive 33W. Not too sure why they dropped that on this year’s model.
The software situation is Android 12 with a HiOS 8.6 skin on top. As per usual it will be loaded with a lot of features. Some very useful ones and some that might need to be immediately disabled.
Pricing & Availability
The Spark 9 series should retail from around US$140 for the lower tier versions and around US$200 for the top Spark 9 Pro model. You can expect to find them in Zimbabwe sometime in July of 2022.
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