Tecno Pova 8 unboxing and hands-on

This is the brand-new Tecno Pova 8, and it brings a design-first approach to the lower midrange segment. But first order of business, what do you get in the box?

Pova 8 ships with a clear silicone case, a 45W charger and a USB-C cable.

Now that we have that covered, we can go over the phone’s key feature – the Alive Matrix Display. It’s a tiny LED status display, which occupies its own cutout in the triangular camera island.

With an array of individual LEDs, it can quickly alert you for incoming notifications but that’s far from the only useful bit. Similar to the Nothing Phone (3) and Phone (4a) Pro, the panel can display all kinds of animations in a fun dot matrix style.

Tecno says it custom-built 49 unique scenarios for the Alive Matrix, ranging across calls, notifications, music, gaming, charging, and the best part is you can customize your own sequences from the settings.

Pova 8's Alive Matrix Display in action

While we’re covering the back, we should also talk about the cameras, or the camera, as the phone features a single 50MP main lens armed with a 1/1.95-inch Sony Lytia 600 sensor.

Our Arc White unit keeps a cool appearance, with its back featuring some translucent bits which again remind us of the Nothing Phone series.

There’s a substantial 8,000 mAh battery under that back plate. Tecno claims you can get up to 2 days of usage with over 29 hours of video streaming. Despite the large cell, the phone feels light in the hand.

Turning our attention to the front, we have a 6.76-inch IPS LCD with FHD+ resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. The phone is running Tecno’s HIOS 16 UI, which is based on Android 16. It brings a more minimalist look than previous devices from the brand. Tecno is pledging two major Android OS updates and three years of security patches.

HIOS 16 on the Pova 8

There’s a Dimensity 7100 combined with Tecno’s G1 signal enhancement and SE1 Wi-Fi chips. You can configure the Pova 8 with up to 8GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage.

And that’s all the key info for the Pova 8. It’s an eye-catching midranger with solid specs and an INR 29,999 ($313/€272 converted) starting price in India.