Since 2006, Tecno has been a well-known name in mobile technology worldwide, particularly popular in certain markets. As they continue to expand into North America, they’ve launched a special collaboration marking the 40th anniversary of the iconic Transformers cartoon, toy, and movie series with the Tecno Spark 30 series. This includes the Tecno Spark 30 and the subject of this review, the Tecno Spark 30 Pro. While it’s not a flagship by any measure, it has a lot of heart.
The unboxing experience was impressive, with plenty inside the box. The Tecno Spark 30 Pro is designed to honour the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime. The box, featuring Optimus’ iconic red and blue colours with the Autobot symbol front and center, opens to reveal the Tecno Spark 30 Pro, a phone case (Note: our review unit did not include the case), which is clear with writing and patterns to complement the phone’s design and a blue edge, an 18W charging block, a USB-A to USB-C cable, and wired earbuds.
The accessories (charging block, USB cable, and earbuds) are all white without any Transformers branding. The outer box unfolds into a small poster with an Autobot-shaped cutout. While making the inner box resemble Prime’s trailer would have been a nice touch, the packaging was still well-executed.
“The Tecno Spark 30 Pro: Transformers Edition is a budget-friendly phone with a lot of heart, offering surprising features for its price range.”
The Tecno Spark 30 Pro comes with a pre-installed screen protector and an under-display fingerprint scanner. It supports dual SIMs and includes a microSD slot for expanded storage, which is useful since the phone only comes in 128GB and 256GB versions (both with 8GB of RAM, plus up to 8GB of virtual RAM). The Spark 30 Pro runs on the Mediatek Helio G100 chipset, with an octa-core CPU and Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. The phone connects to 4.5G LTE networks and features several AI functions, including AI wallpaper design and a customizable voice assistant, Ella, which is fun to use.
The display is a 6.78-inch, 1080×2436 Full HD AMOLED with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1700 nits of brightness. According to Tecno, it supports 1 billion colours and offers excellent colour accuracy when gaming or streaming video. The Tecno Spark 30 Pro also features dual speakers with Dolby Atmos, delivering beautiful sound for a mobile device.
There is one camera on the rear, a 108MP f/1.9 wide-angle lens with 3x zoom, capable of up to 2K/30fps video (or up to 60 frames per second at 1080p). The front-facing camera is a 13MP wide-angle lens with the same maximum video capabilities. Shots on the Tecno Spark 30 Pro have decent color but lack detail unless the 108MP mode is enabled.
If you want better-quality pictures, you’ll need to accept the larger file size. One interesting feature in the gallery is that it provides shooting details, including lens length, shutter speed, and ISO, which could be helpful for more advanced users looking to recreate specific setups. Low-light photos turned out fairly well thanks to the wide aperture.
Video is perfectly serviceable but not quite content creator-ready. For someone capturing moments to share with friends, it should perform well. However, low-light conditions weren’t as favourable for video, with poorer colour reproduction and contrast and more grain than desirable.
“The battery life on the Tecno Spark 30 Pro is exceptional, with its 5000mAh battery comfortably lasting through a full day of heavy usage, even in performance mode.”
The Tecno Spark 30 Pro also offers some AI photo features worth exploring, including AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content) portraits, which take multiple photos and place you in various scenarios like Lifestyle, Love, Graduation, and Childhood. After multiple tests, the results were underwhelming, often producing photos that looked like a relative of mine rather than me. It’s not quite there yet, but it could become more fun as it improves.
The UI of the Tecno Spark 30 Pro: Transformers Edition is smooth. The phone has some Transformers-themed elements, including a wallpaper that matches the back design and app icons framed in a technical style. The ringtone is set to a Transformers “anthem,” and the power-up animation includes Transformer references. The animations for swiping through options and scrolling through apps are smooth, and while the charging animation isn’t Transformers-themed, it’s still clear and fluid.
Gaming on the Tecno Spark 30 Pro: Transformers Edition is a smooth experience, which is surprising given its specs. The phone is well-optimized for demanding games. I tested Real Racing 3 and Genshin Impact, and both ran without glitches or lag during gameplay. Most importantly, the phone stayed cool. Additionally, if you want to game for longer periods near a power source, the Spark 30 Pro can bypass the battery and play directly from the cable, which helps prevent overheating and prolongs the battery’s life.
What truly shocked me when gaming was that it did everything I mentioned above and could handle high graphics settings while doing it. When I first started testing Genshin Impact, I was initially unimpressed—though not surprised—by the low detail in the game, as it defaulted to the lowest graphics setting. I assumed this was how the game would perform at an acceptable level with low RAM and a non-flagship chipset. However, as I increased the graphics to the highest settings, it performed surprisingly well. While you won’t get a 60fps frame rate at the highest settings (I capped out around 38fps), it still ran very smoothly.
The battery life on the Tecno Spark 30 Pro: Transformers Edition is impressive. With a 5000mAh battery, it boasts excellent battery life when idle and remains strong even with multiple apps running. Even when gaming in performance mode, which tends to drain the battery faster, it still holds up well. After leaving the phone idle for a couple of days, downloading all the games I wanted to test, and playing them extensively in performance mode, I made it through the entire day without needing to charge it.
“Offering dual SIM support, a microSD slot, and 8GB of RAM with up to 8GB of virtual RAM, the Tecno Spark 30 Pro provides solid versatility for its price.”
I ran Geekbench 6 and AnTuTu benchmarks, and to be frank, it didn’t perform well. On AnTuTu, it scored 432,943, beating only 3% of the phones in the database. Its closest competitors among Android phones were the Motorola Moto G54 and Infinix Note 40 Pro, which outscored it in CPU and UX, but the Tecno outscored them in GPU and MEM. Below are their overall scores, and to give you an idea of the leap to a flagship, I’ll compare these results with my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
| Tecno Spark 30 Pro | Motorola Moto G54 | Infinix Note 40 Pro | Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | |
| CPU | 138632 | 149216 | 142272 | 437950 |
| GPU | 70134 | 59643 | 59662 | 659722 |
| MEM | 114062 | 109058 | 109689 | 371140 |
| UX | 110115 | 129617 | 129351 | 295450 |
| TOTAL | 432943 | 447534 | 440972 | 1764262 |
For Geekbench 6, the Tecno had a single-core score just above the Realme 6 Pro and a multi-core score just beating out the Oneplus Nord N20. Here are the scores, also including the flagship S24 Ultra for comparison
| Tecno Spark 30 Pro | Realme 6 Pro | Oneplus Nord N20 | Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | |
| Single-Core | 734 | 733 | 891 | 2172 |
| Multi-Core | 1978 | 1727 | 1972 | 6782 |
Its official price is as of yet unknown, but it is expected to cost roughly $200 USD. So when I say this is not a flagship, this price is proof. When looking at what you are getting for that expected price, you are getting quite a lot. People who don’t feel the need for that flagship quality or just don’t want to pay that flagship price would do well with the Tecno Spark 30 Pro: Transformers Edition. If you aren’t a Transformers fan, however, you can opt for the regular Tecno Spark 30 Pro and leave Optimus Prime behind. But honestly, who doesn’t love them some Optimus Prime?
