TECNO i7

What is it?

Another Hong Kong based Chinese mobile phone manufacturer that started off in 2006 & belonging to the Transsion holdings. For those who doesn't know Transsion Holdings, they also own the Itel and Infinix brands latter of which we've reviewed previously. They started their journey formally in Bangladesh last month with the brand Tecno although Itel was operating before that. Transsion Holdings brand Tecno has been initially focusing exclusively on Africa and only recently made a foray into the Indian market with a barrage of new devices.

First impressions

Good looking device following along the preferred design cues of 2017. Solidly constructed, metal back mostly, with top and bottom parts plastic. Front is a full 2.5D glass with the home button acting as an 'anti-oil fingerprint sensor'. Or so they say. We love taking Instagram shots of our oil dipped chicken curry.

Display

5.5 FHD is very sharp, bright with punchy colours. Love the display. Not so much the slow to react auto brightness feature. Sunlight legibility though is very good with brightness going all the way up.

Power and OS

1.5GHz OctaCore processor, Mali T860GPU with 4GB RAM and 32GB on-board storage. They have their own OS called HiOS based on the Android 7.0 Nougat. It has a few visual tweaks over the vanilla version but does come with its own set of bloatware. Interestingly, we saw several interesting features of market leading smartphones being available in the HiOS; but not necessarily  everyone will be needing them.

Decent hardware for a phone of this range. Pro is that it can handle graphics heavy games like Real Racing 3 or Dead Trigger 2. Although start-up takes a short while. Con being the user experience isn't as smooth as expected. There is the occasional 'stickiness' associated with scrolling or tapping functions.

Score: 44213 on Antutu with gaming performance coming in at mid-level.

Camera

Combo is a little unusual. 13MP rear camera and a 16MP front camera. Everything is geared towards selfies. Not surprisingly the front unit does take better, clearer, sharper images. The front camera is supplemented by an LED flash for absolute dark conditions as well as a screen flash for muted, softer lighting. The rear unit has auto focus but you need to hold it extra steady to get decent, sharp photos. There is a bit of over sharpening going on leaving certain details a little jagged on the edges. Good for Facebook shots if you hold steady.

The front unit, despite lacking auto focus, takes surprisingly decent selfies.

Battery

The best part, the 4000mAh battery lasts a really long time and supports quick charging. It has survived easily over a day and a half on moderate usage..

SCORE

Display: 8.0

Camera: 7.0

Performance:6.5

Build: 7.0

Battery: 8.0

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Total: 7.25

SPECS

Display: 5.5", 1080X1920 Pixels

CPU: 1.5GHz Octa-core

RAM: 4 GB

ROM: 32 GB

Back Camera: 13-megapixel

Selfie Camera: 16-megapixel

Battery: 4000 mAh 

OS: Android 7.0 based HiOS

WLAN: Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct 

Bluetooth: v4.2

USB: microUSB v2.0

GPS: A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS

2G: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHZ

3G: HSDPA 2100 MHZ

4G: VoLTE

Price: Tk 19,990/-

VERDICT

Well-built good looking phone with an excellent display and superb battery life. It has a decent set of hardware considering the price range it is competing in. We would have preferred a much more toned down version of the OS to keep it light and smooth.