Tecno’s R3,000 Spark 20C is a budget buyer’s dream

Being an entry-level smartphone in South Africa might just be the most overpowered cheat code there is. Attach a sub-R3,000 price tag, and you’ve instantly got a fair few eyebrows raised. That’s the route Tecno’s latest addition to the market, the Spark 20C, has headed. The mobile brand, currently peddling its devices in over 70 markets globally, introduced the country to the successor of the Spark 10C just last week.

Sure, the R3,000 price will do a lot of the heavy lifting, at least in the phone’s early life. See, Tecno is simply getting customers through the door with that attractive price point, which is only exclusive to Edgars stores until the end of May 2024. After that, Tecno will unceremoniously reveal the Spark 20C’s true price of R3,850. Is it still worth the hype beyond that?

Tecno Sparks are flying

“Building on the foundation set by the SPARK 10C, the SPARK 20C comes with the mantra of Double Up, Level Up, a reflection of the upgrades to this phone’s tech from its predecessor,” Tecno notes in a press release.

With the ‘Double Up, Level Up’ mantra in mind, we were hoping for a little more evolution this time around. To that end, the standout feature is easily still the 5,000mAh battery and 18W charging, unchanged from the Spark 10. While ultimately still a decent spec, it’s not exactly giving off the vibes of an ‘upgrade’.

The first big change arrives in the Spark 20C’s sound profile, with Tecno claiming a massive 400% jump in volume, citing the addition of a dual-speaker DTS set-up.

Read More: Samsung’s A Series officially arrives in South Africa, starts at R7,500

Excluding the switch from a teardrop selfie cutout to a punch-hole one, the Spark 20C touts the same specs as its older brother. It’s still the same 6.6in HD+ IPS LCD panel capable of hitting a 90Hz refresh rate. It’s not all recycled content, however. The best addition, easily, lies in the Spark 20C’s camera abilities. It reps a 50MP main sensor found on the rear, accompanied by a 0.08MP auxiliary lens, with an 8MP shooter holding the fort on the other end.

Finally, there’s the processor to tie it all together. Tecno’s mightily quiet about the thing, noting that it’s an “octa-core 2.2Ghz processor,” and not much else. A trip to GSMArena tells us that it’s rocking a MediaTek chipset and Cortex-A53 processor. There’s also 128GB of storage tucked away in there, somewhere.