The POVA 6 Pro5G smartphone is the latest flagship phone from the mobile company TECNO. It features a 6000mAh battery, 12GB RAM (expandable to 24BG via MemFusion), 256GB storage capacity, MediaTek Dimensity 6080 5G Processor and a beautiful 6.78” FHD+ AMOLED display. The TECNO POVA 6 Pro is an impressive-looking smartphone with a unique design and aesthetic. Equipped with some unique features and a powerful 108MP Camera, the POVA 6 Pro aims to be a productivity powerhouse.
The POVA 6 Pro has a distinct look and feel. With two colour profiles to choose from, Comet Green and Meteorite Grey, the 6 Pro stands out compared to other smartphones on the market. The backplane sports a unique pattern design and features a Dynamic-Light MiniLED system that can be programmed to communicate a series of notifications for the user.
The backplane itself sports a gloss finish that helps accent the unique patterns just below the surface. While it does look absolutely beautiful, it is prone to fingerprints. Thankfully, the POVA comes with a custom case that still allows the finish to show through while protecting it from the aforementioned fingerprints.
“The TECNO POVA 6 Pro smartphone has an impressive 12GB of physical RAM with the option to boost up to 24GB, thanks to MemFusion.”
Following the bezel edge, the TECNO POVA 6 Pro features a USB Type-C port for ultra-fast charging, thanks to the 70W charger included in the box. Interestingly, the POVA 6 Pro also supports 10W reverse charging, which works exceptionally well with wireless earbuds and smartwatches. A 3.55mm headphone jack also shares some space with the USB port and also doubles as an FM antenna when the included wired headphones are plugged in. While the FM receiver is functional, the headphones struggle to pick up and maintain a solid signal, resulting in local stations being less than clear, with some not even tuning in properly.
The POVA 6 Pro also features both facial recognition and an on-display fingerprint reader. The former works exceptionally well and provides an almost instant response. The fingerprint reader works almost as well, though there were a few times when a second attempt was needed in testing. If both facial and fingerprint unlock are enabled, the former works so quickly that you’ll never need to use the fingerprint reader.
The AMOLED Display features a 120Hz refresh rate and PWM 2160Hz high-frequency dimming. For those new to PWM (pulse-width modulation), the short version is that PWM quickly turns LED on and off to take advantage of the relatively slow response time of the human eye. This allows for superior LED brightness control on the display but requires higher frequency PWM to reduce the eye’s awareness of the flickering while also reducing the eye strain and fatigue associated with looking at a flickering light.
In the case of the TECNO POVA 6 Pro, the display’s PWM frequency is high enough that it simultaneously reduces fatigue while presenting a superior LED brightness experience. The result is a beautiful display experience for the user. The 6.78” AMOLED display looks stunning when viewing video and while gaming, thanks to only having a 1.3mm bezel. This results in an immersive experience when viewing. The display is exceptionally bright and crisp with impressive colour depth.
“In the case of the TECNO POVA 6 Pro, the display’s PWM frequency is high enough that it simultaneously reduces fatigue while presenting a superior LED brightness experience.”
A set of Dolby Atmos-certified speakers adorn the edges of the POVA 6 Pro. The speakers were surprisingly loud while still maintaining solid clarity and crispness in sound. Streaming content sounded great with excellent voice clarity. Music, likewise, provided a solid mix with instruments and vocals that came in clear and balanced.
The TECNO POVA 6 Pro smartphone has an impressive 12GB of physical RAM with the option to boost up to 24GB, thanks to MemFusion. In essence, the 6 Pro can allocate some of the 256GB of storage and repurpose it for additional processing power. While extended RAM isn’t a new feature, the POVA 6 Pro’s HiOS14 software (more on this later) makes adjusting the allocated RAM usage exceptionally easy.
A MediaTek Dimensity 6080 5G processor powers the POVA 6 Pro. While It is a solid processor for productivity and everyday use, it is limited in its overall power and performance. This is most notable in game testing. Diablo Immortal, for example, was restricted to medium resolution and capped at 30FPS. For context, the Google Pixel 6, a 2-year-old phone, can easily run Diablo Immortal at high resolution and 60FPS.
The other notable spot where the processor seems to be a bottleneck is with filming. While the POVA 6 Pro does sport a seriously impressive 1080MP camera, filming is limited to 2K30FPS. When compared to other TECNO phones on their roster that can produce 4K30PFS, the stand-out difference in spec is the processor.
However, despite these two minor bottlenecks, the POVA 6 Pro is exceptionally responsive in the area of productivity and daily use. The MediaTek Dimensity 6080 has no issue handling daily operations. Even with multiple apps open, operations and navigation around the OS are quick and responsive. Video streaming, likewise, is smooth, and no issues were noted during testing.
The 6080 is a bit of a tension point. It has some advantages in that it has a lower power consumption and does handle daily tasks well. However, when paired with essentially 24GB of RAM and a beautiful display, it seems like the odd tech out. When put in the context of its sub $300 USD price point, though, the POVA 6 Pro, when compared to other phones in that price class, is a powerhouse. It would have been nice to see a more powerful processor, considering all of the other features working in the POVA 6 Pro’s favour, and it would have made it swing above its weight class in regards to power for the price point.
The 6000mAh battery, however, has no critiques from this reviewer. The POVA 6 Pro has no problem making it over a day of average use. This included streaming several episodes of Halo, about 2 hours of gaming, an hour of YouTube watching and the normal work days worth of email, texting and phone calls. More impressive still is the fast charge on the POVA 6 Pro.
The TECNO POVA 6 Pro fast charges from 1% to 100% in under an hour and even includes a ladder charge function to give users options for how they want to handle charging. The advantage of this is that it can help prolong the life of the battery by preventing unnecessary strain from constant fast charging. While all three modes, low-temp, smart and hyper, all worked well, I found keeping it in Smart Charge mode to be the most efficient.
“There aren’t many phones on the market at this price point that can hold a candle to what the TECNO POVA 6 Pro offers.”
The POVA 6 Pro also includes an interesting feature called Bypass Charge. Designed for gaming primarily, when active, the 6 Pro bypasses charging and powers the motherboard directly. In turn, it reduces the overall heat build-up typically associated with gaming on a phone. In testing, there was a noticeable difference in touch while gaming with Bypass on and off. It’s a smart system that, once again, could help prolong the life of the battery.
Looking at the camera, the POVA 6 Pro offers an impressively powerful set of camera options. Most notable is the 108MP Ultra Vivid rear lens. The sensor does an impressive job of picking up detail and capturing light. The result is some beautifully detailed images. The front camera features a 32MP dual-tone lens with LED flash that doubles as a fill light. The lens, much like the 108, does an impressive job with detail capture.
Portrait mode is also quite impressive, managing to capture the foreground image with all of its detail while subtly washing out the details of the background. Night mode is also quite stunning. In testing the POVA 6 Pro, it let in an exceptional amount of light without the typical associated noise while still maintaining a serious amount of detail.
While there are a lot of fun features baked into the camera app, like filters and editing, there are a few things that would have helped bring the camera to the next level. For starters, there is no option to capture in RAW format. As an editor, RAW gives so much more data to work with when editing. Additionally, while there is an option for full frame, 4:3 and 1:1 ratio for the sensor, there was no 16:9 option. While not a deal breaker, it does create an extra layer of work when taking product shots for websites.
While the camera is impressive for photography, filming is a bit more of a mixed bag. While the quality of the shot capture looks clean with solid white balance, light levels, and autofocus, the POVA 6 Pro is also limited in terms of resolution and FPS. The camera officially supports 2K30pFPS, 1080p60FPS and 1080p30FPS. There is no option for 4K capture, which seems like an odd choice in 2024. Additionally, the built-in stabilization is a bit underwhelming, often resulting in less than smooth motion shots.
Despite these critiques, the POVA 6 Pro does have an interesting feature in the form of Dual Video Recording. This allows for simultaneous filming with both the front and rear cameras. With the option to configure the video to PIP or simply split the screen in half, it’s a great and unique feature that could work well for content creators. The only caveat is that when in Dual Video mode, the cameras are limited to 1080p30FPS. Despite this, it’s one of the more interesting recording modes I’ve seen in a phone in recent memory.
The POVA 6 Pro also comes with TECNO’s HiOS 14 software that acts as the launcher for the phone. It features a lot of fun additions to the stock Android experience, including Game Space and Game Assist, as well as a unique, customizable Life Wallpaper experience. There are also a host of other valuable customization features included with the HiOS experience, such as dynamic port, which allows for customization of how information and notifications are displayed.
All of these systems work quite well, actually, and don’t seem to impact the overall speed and functionality of the POVA 6 Pro, something that is generally a concern when companies add their flavour to the Android experience. In the case of the HiOS, it’s functional, easy to use and navigate and adds some quality-of-life features to the phone experience.
The POVA 6 Pro from TECNO is a solid phone that offers a lot of features and power for an under $300 USD price point. While it does suffer from some bottlenecking at the processor, the overall user experience is exceptional. There aren’t many phones on the market at this price point that can hold a candle to what the TECNO POVA 6 Pro offers.
