Tecno Pova 6 Pro review

Big 120Hz OLED panel

The Tecno Pova 6 Pro retains the same 6.78-inch diagonal as its predecessor and the same 1080 x 2346px resolution. However, the LCD panel has been swapped with a brighter OLED panel still running at 120Hz.

Since this is a budget-oriented device, we don't expect any premium display features, so any form of HDR video is unavailable, but the device seems to be Widevine L1-compliant, so high-quality Netflix and Amazon Prime Video streaming is available. Notably, the panel uses high-frequency PWM dimming at 2,160Hz, reducing eye strain and potentially sparing people with more sensitive eyes.

Brightness-wise, the panel reaches the respectable 565 nits in manual mode and 1070 nits in auto mode when there's strong ambient light around. That's an impressive max brightness level for such a budget phone, but it's important to note that the so-called High-brightness mode has to be enabled in the display settings. Otherwise, brightness will only go up to the mid-550 nits.

Refresh rate

The display offers four refresh rate modes - 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz and Auto switch. They are all pretty self-explanatory, but the Auto switch is quite simple. An idling display will bring down the refresh rate to 60Hz, while a single tap will boost the refresh rate to 120Hz. All apps we've tried support 120Hz, even YouTube. But don't worry - as long as you aren't touching the display, the refresh rate will go down to 60Hz to save power during video playback.

Battery life

Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.

The Tecno Pova 6 Pro achieved the excellent Active Use Score of 13:26h, which is sensibly more than most of its competitors in the same price range.

It stands out owing to its bigger-than-average 6,000 mAh battery and possibly due to the efficient Dimensity 6080 SoC.

While the overall score is quite respectable, it's still not as high as the Motorola G54 Power's and the Samsung Galaxy A15 5G's. Breaking down the Active Use Score reveals why.

The Pova 6 Pro seems to match and even outpace its competitors in web browsing, video playback and phone calls, but the largely underwhelming gaming runtime brings the Active Use Score down. So, if you don't indulge in gaming sessions all that often, the Pova 6 Pro might possibly be the best choice for battery endurance in its price bracket.

Charging speed

The Tecno Pova 6 Pro supports up to 70W fast charging using the bundled charger inside the box. That's a modest upgrade over last year's 68W charging, so the difference should be all that noticeable.

However, the larger 6,000 mAh battery has a say in this, and that's why the Pova 6 Pro charges a tad slower than its Pova 5 Pro predecessor. On the other hand, the Pova 6 Pro maintains a solid lead over its direct rivals, outpacing all of them at each checkpoint. You get 65% of the charge back in just 30 minutes, while a complete 0-100% charging cycle takes exactly 1 hour. A very good result.

Speakers

The Pova 6 Pro borrows the Pova 5 Pro's speakers, which means a hybrid stereo setup. The bottom-firing speaker is the main one, while the secondary unit acts as an earpiece, too. This leads to a noticeable imbalance in loudness, although that's to be expected.

Loudness-wise, the speakers are more than decent. The handset achieved a "Very Good" loudness score with -25.2 LUFS. In terms of quality, however, the setup leaves more to be desired. The bass is almost non-existent, and the highs and vocals have a bit of ringing at higher volumes.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.