Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ review

Display

The Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ features a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen of 1,080 x 2,436 pixels, 1B colors, and a 120Hz refresh rate. A slightly curved tempered glass protects it and has a small perforation for the selfie camera.

Tecno is advertising the panel as capable of up to 1,000 nits of peak brightness. No other official measurements were given.

We have completed our display test, and the maximum manual brightness we captured was 549 nits. The minimum brightness at point white was just 2.3 nits.

The phone supports sunlight boost, but unfortunately, we were not able to trigger it. Even with that option turned out, the screen did not go beyond 549 nits. Maybe Tecno will fix this with a software update later.

The screen supports wide color gamut and offers up to 120Hz refresh rate.

The phone offers three refresh rate settings - 60Hz, 120Hz and Auto switch. Both the 120Hz and Auto drop the refresh rate down to 60Hz when the screen is static/idling and for incompatible HRR apps like Camera and Maps. The Auto also uses 60Hz for browsing and office apps, while the 120Hz would render those with 120fps.

HDR and streaming

The phone has no HDR support for the screen. It does feature Widevine L1 DRM, though, so you can enjoy 1080p video streaming.

Battery life

The Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ is powered by a 5,000mAh battery, a standard cell by today's standards.

The phone achieved an Active Use Score of 11:56h, which is slightly above average for this class. It has a particularly good web browsing endurance video streaming, too, but gaming drains its battery quicker than most of its peers.

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.

Notably, the Inifinix Hot 40 Pro is the only handset in the set of direct rivals we've picked that matches the Spark 20 Pro+'s screen diagonal and was able to post better overall results, while the Poco M6 Pro and the Redmi Note 13 Pro 4G both trail behind Tecno's offering while having smaller displays.

Charging speed

The Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ supports up to 33W fast wired charging and comes with a power adapter inside the box. Tecno uses its own proprietary charging protocol, so you should definitely keep track of the charger. However, the Type-C to Type-C cable is standard, and any 3A passive cable will do.

We have completed our charging test, and the Spark 20 Pro+ recharges fast enough. It clocked 30% of charge in 15 minutes, 54% in 30 minutes, and 100% (full charge) took 72 minutes.

Speakers - loudness and quality

The Tecno Spark 20 Pro+ features a stereo speaker system, with the earpiece having two front- and top-facing audio outlets. This makes for slightly better stereo separation and balance and also makes the top speaker harder to accidentally cover with your palm. The other speaker is at the bottom, and while louder and with more bass, the sound balance is quite alright due to the clever positioning.

The speakers scored a Very Good mark on our test. The audio quality is good - the high frequencies are well presented, and the vocals are good, but the bass is notably missing. The Spark 20 Pro+ boats DTS enhancement for its speaker setup. There is also support for Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless.

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.

Connectivity

The Spark 20 Pro+ is an LTE-only device, which means that it lacks 5G. It still has simultaneous 4G/LTE on both nano-SIM slots. GPS and GLONASS support are available for positioning. Local connectivity is handled by dual-band Wi-Fi ac as well as Bluetooth 5.2 with LE support. We found that Wi-Fi is a bit unstable on our review unit, with constant speed drops and timeouts. Hopefully, Tecno will address that in an update. The phone can do 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Res & Hi-Res wireless audio. The Spark 20 Pro+ has both an onboard FM radio receiver and NFC. There is no 3.5mm audio jack nor an IR blaster, though.

A standard USB 2.0 data connection backs up the Type-C port. This means a theoretical max transfer speed of 480 Mbps. It is nothing too fancy without support for anything like video output over USB Alt mode. However, there is support for USB Host/OTG.

The Spark 20 Pro+ has a pretty decent set of sensors. There is a lsm6dso accelerometer and gyroscope combo. A mmc5603 magnetometer and compass combo. A sensortek stk35f62 light sensor. Unfortunately, there only seems to be a virtual proximity sensor on board. It reports itself as an Elliptic Labs unit of some sort, but it only seems to work when it recognizes a raising gesture, and you hold the phone up against your year. That means you can't really expect reading from it in third-party apps. On the plus side, it does a pretty good and consistent job of turning off the display during calls. There is no barometer present.