Tecno Pova 5 Pro review

GSMArena Team, 08 September 2023.

HiOS 13 coupled with Android 13

The Tecno Pova 5 Pro runs on the latest available Android 13 and the most recent version of Tecno's proprietary HiOS 13 Android overlay. If you are familiar with the older HiOS versions, this one won't look too different, and you will feel right at home. In fact, there are little to no changes compared to the older HiOS 12.

Tecno Pova 5 Pro review

Tecno has been running and refining its own skin for some time now, which we've generally found to be quite good in the past, with a few on-and-off caveats here and there. These mostly come down to pre-installed bloat and ads, but the experience on the Pova 5 Pro is actually pretty clean, as the bloat and the ads are noticeably reduced.

That's not to say there aren't many pre-installed apps and utilities. Tecno is still sticking to its traditions of developing and deploying its own set of apps to cover the basic features. You get an in-house gallery and video player and an app store, even two, depending on how you count them. These can still get annoying at times, but we can understand the angle Tecno is coming from.

Tecno Pova 5 Pro review

Getting into the Pova 5 Pro is business as usual, with both fingerprint and face recognition available. You can choose to either unlock upon touch of the power button or a full-on press. The latter option is advisable if you don't want to have frequent misreadings with your phone in your pocket, for example, because the software will always be looking for a fingertip.

Tecno Pova 5 Pro review

Once you're past that, you arrive at a standard homescreen interface. The leftmost pane, called the Zero screen, holds cards with suggested news, weather and quotes widgets and an app usage widget. You can disable the Zero screen in the 'Desktop settings'.

Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review
Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review
Lock screen, home screen, recent apps, notification shade, quick toggles, app drawer

There's an app drawer by default, which you can access from the old-school A-Z orange icon at the bottom or with an upward swipe from the bottom.

Themes are available as part of HiOS, and there is a dedicated Theme store for this purpose.

Themes and customizations - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Themes and customizations - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Themes and customizations - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review
Themes and customizations

Tecno has a long-standing selection of advanced features that generally get carried forward from older models. That includes the Game mode with all the settings, statistics and parental controls. There is also a Smart panel with slide-from-the-side shortcuts.

Special features, Game mode - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Special features, Game mode - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Special features, Game mode - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Special features, Game mode - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review
Special features, Game mode

Social Turbo toolset is rather interesting (a WhatsApp enhancer of sorts) - it can change your voice, enhance your face during video calls, record your WhatsApp calls, and allow you to read messages without marking them as Read.

Social Turbo and Smart panel - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Social Turbo and Smart panel - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Social Turbo and Smart panel - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review
Social Turbo and Smart panel

MemFusion is Tecno's name for virtual RAM. The Pova 5 Pro has 8GB of physical RAM chips on board and can extend that up to 16GB with another 8GB of virtual memory. By default, MemFusion is set to 5GB.

The special features menu also controls the LED backlight. You can choose different animation styles and colors for each action, such as playing games, receiving notifications, calls, etc. You can even schedule the active time for the backlight effect, too.

Backlight effect - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Backlight effect - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review Backlight effect - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review
Backlight effect

Performance is pretty solid, overall. HiOS feels fast, snappy and responsive on the current handset, and aside from a few weirdly-named menus and features, it feels surprisingly polished.

Synthetic benchmark performance

This is the first time we get to see the MediaTek Dimensity 6080 chipset, which was released not long ago in Q1 2023. The chipset is part of the mid-range Dimensity 6000 series of SoCs and slots in between the Dimensity 6020 and 6100+. It's based on the 6nm N6 manufacturing process from TSMC and features an octa-core CPU and a Mali-G57 GPU running at 950 MHz.

Tecno Pova 5 Pro review

The CPU consists of 2x Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.4 GHz and 6x Cortex-A55 cores ticking at 2.0 GHz for not-so-demanding tasks. The device we reviewed pairs the Dimensity 6080 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but there's a lower-tier version with 128GB of internal storage as well.

Here's how the Pova 5 Pro and its chipset fared against the similarly-priced competition.

Geekbench 5

  • Multi-core
  • Single-core
Redmi Note 12 5G Redmi Note 12 5G
1998
Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 256GB, 8GB RAM
Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
1884
Dimensity 6080 256GB, 8GB RAM
OnePlus Nord N10 5G OnePlus Nord N10 5G
1848
Snapdragon 690 5G 128GB, 6GB RAM
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
1797
Snapdragon 685 54GB, 4GB RAM
Realme 10 Realme 10
1762
Helio G99 128GB, 8GB RAM
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
1727
MT6833 Dimensity 700 64GB, 4GB RAM
OnePlus Nord N10 5G OnePlus Nord N10 5G
608
Snapdragon 690 5G 128GB, 6GB RAM
Redmi Note 12 5G Redmi Note 12 5G
588
Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 256GB, 8GB RAM
Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
577
Dimensity 6080 256GB, 8GB RAM
Realme 10 Realme 10
567
Helio G99 128GB, 8GB RAM
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
530
MT6833 Dimensity 700 64GB, 4GB RAM
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
440
Snapdragon 685 54GB, 4GB RAM

GeekBench 6

  • Multi-core
  • Single-core
Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
2102
Dimensity 6080 256GB, 8GB RAM
Redmi Note 12 5G Redmi Note 12 5G
2017
Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 256GB, 8GB RAM
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
1839
MT6833 Dimensity 700 64GB, 4GB RAM
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
1341
Snapdragon 685 54GB, 4GB RAM
Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
765
Dimensity 6080 256GB, 8GB RAM
Redmi Note 12 5G Redmi Note 12 5G
763
Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 256GB, 8GB RAM
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
694
MT6833 Dimensity 700 64GB, 4GB RAM
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
469
Snapdragon 685 54GB, 4GB RAM

AnTuTu 9

Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
389037
Dimensity 6080 256GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2460 px
Realme 10 Realme 10
385829
Helio G99 128GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px
Redmi Note 12 5G Redmi Note 12 5G
360745
Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 256GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
319219
Snapdragon 685 54GB, 4GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
307886
MT6833 Dimensity 700 64GB, 4GB RAM 1080 x 2408 px

GFXBench (onscreen)

  • Aztek Vulkan High
  • Manhattan ES 3.1
Realme 10 Realme 10
9.3
Helio G99 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2400 px
OnePlus Nord N10 5G OnePlus Nord N10 5G
8.7
Snapdragon 690 5G Adreno 619L 1080 x 2400 px
Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
8.5
Dimensity 6080 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2460 px
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
7.9
MT6833 Dimensity 700 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2408 px
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
5.3
Snapdragon 685 Adreno 610 1080 x 2400 px
Realme 10 Realme 10
28
Helio G99 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2400 px
Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
23
Dimensity 6080 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2460 px
OnePlus Nord N10 5G OnePlus Nord N10 5G
23
Snapdragon 690 5G Adreno 619L 1080 x 2400 px
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
21
MT6833 Dimensity 700 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2408 px
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
14
Snapdragon 685 Adreno 610 1080 x 2400 px

GFXBench (offscreen)

  • Aztek Vulkan High 1440p
  • Manhattan ES 3.1 1080p
OnePlus Nord N10 5G OnePlus Nord N10 5G
8.8
Snapdragon 690 5G Adreno 619L 1080 x 2400 px
Realme 10 Realme 10
6.1
Helio G99 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2400 px
Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
5.9
Dimensity 6080 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2460 px
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
5.3
MT6833 Dimensity 700 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2408 px
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
3.6
Snapdragon 685 Adreno 610 1080 x 2400 px
Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
28
Dimensity 6080 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2460 px
OnePlus Nord N10 5G OnePlus Nord N10 5G
26
Snapdragon 690 5G Adreno 619L 1080 x 2400 px
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
25
MT6833 Dimensity 700 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2408 px
Realme 10 Realme 10
25
Helio G99 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2400 px
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
16
Snapdragon 685 Adreno 610 1080 x 2400 px

3DMark (offscreen 1440p) - Wild Life Vulkan 1.1

Tecno Pova 5 Pro Tecno Pova 5 Pro
1334
Dimensity 6080 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2460 px
Realme 10 Realme 10
1320
Helio G99 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2400 px
Galaxy A14 5G Galaxy A14 5G
1197
MT6833 Dimensity 700 Mali-G57 MC2 1080 x 2408 px
OnePlus Nord N10 5G OnePlus Nord N10 5G
811
Snapdragon 690 5G Adreno 619L 1080 x 2400 px
Redmi Note 12 4G Redmi Note 12 4G
652
Snapdragon 685 Adreno 610 1080 x 2400 px

The Dimensity 6080 fares very well in its own price category and even edges out its competitors in most tests. The CPU-intensive and combined tests, such as AnTuTu, seem to be its strongest suit. In pure GPU scenarios, the device falls short mostly in offscreen tests at higher resolution.

However, in 1080p and in the 1440p offscreen 3DMark Wild Life Vulkan tests, the Dimensity 6080 proves to be more powerful than the Snapdragon 690 and Snapdragon 685.

Sustained and gaming performance

Somehow, Tecno was able to cram up a vapor chamber into the tight budget. The company advertises a 2,820mm2 vapor chamber coupled with a huge 10,159mm2 graphene-based heat sink. But it looks like it paid off.

The Pova 5 Pro fared great in our CPU torture test and maintained above 90% of the CPU's clock speeds. The device didn't get warm either, so it felt pleasant in hand.

CPU throttle test: 30 min - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review CPU throttle test: 60 min - Tecno Pova 5 Pro review
CPU throttle test: 30 min • 60 min

Even after 1 hour of continuous load, the CPU dropped only to 89% of its theoretical performance. To be fair, the Dimensity 6080 isn't very demanding to begin with, as it offers just two Cortex-A76 cores. Still, believe the applied cooling solution does make a difference.

Tecno Pova 5 Pro review

We also tried playing Mobile Legend: Bang Bang and Free Fire, which are advertised to maintain 80 and 90fps. However, we could not force the display above 60Hz, so you won't be able to take full advantage of the fast display during gaming.

Reader comments

  • Jj
  • 19 Jun 2024
  • t78

My tecno pova 5 5g it drains faster than my old phone. I just bought it yesterday and I used it today. I only use it for 1 hour and it already consumed around 20% of the battery. All in all its okay. It charge fast but it also drains fast.

  • Anonymous
  • 19 May 2024
  • wYJ

The battery drains quite fast especially with 120Hz. In one hour, I consume around 13% to 17% whether gaming or just daily usage. The "Power Boost" option doesn't help much. Even when screen off, the battery drain is also fast. It cons...

  • Anonymous
  • 18 May 2024
  • wYJ

The battery drains quite fast especially with 120Hz. In one hour, I consume around 13% to 17% whether gaming or just daily usage. The "Power Boost" option doesn't help much. Even when screen off, the battery drain is also fast. It cons...