TECNO Mobile India recently added a special edition smartphone under its Spark 10 Pro Series – the TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer Edition which is the latest TECNO smartphone in the affordable category. TECNO has already launched the Spark 10 Pro this year and also introduced its segment’s first leather-finish variants for its Spark Go 2023 and Spark 10 Series smartphones a few months ago. What’s surprising about this smartphone is that it comes with its unique Black and White eco-leather design inspired by India’s recent Moon Mission – Chandrayaan 3.
Highlights and features of the TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer are its 8 GB RAM (+8 GB MemFusion RAM) and 128 GB storage for the price of ₹11,999, a 50 MP dual rear + 32 MP front cameras both aided by dual LED flash, a 90 Hz Full HD+ display, and is powered by MediaTek Helio G88 SoC. Here’s more about the smartphone in our TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer Edition review.
TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer Specifications & Features
- Display & Design: 6.78-inch Dot-in Display, Full HD+ resolution (2460 x 1080 pixels), 90 Hz refresh rate, 270 Hz touch sampling rate, 580 nits peak brightness, Eco-Silicone Leather Triple Matrix Moon Type Camera design
- Software: HiOS 12.6 UI based on Android 13 operating system
- CPU: 12nm MediaTek Helio G88 octa-core SoC clocked up to 2.0 GHz speed (2x ARM Cortex-A75 & 6x ARM Cortex-A55)
- GPU: ARM Mali-G52 MC2 (2-core) Graphics
- Memory: 8 GB LPDDR4x RAM, +8 GB additional MemFusion RAM (total 16 GB RAM)
- Storage: 128 GB internal storage, microSD card support up to 1 TB
- Main Camera: Dual Cameras (50 MP f/1.6 + QVGA depth), AI-enabled camera powered by ASD mode and 3D LUT technology, dual LED flash
- Selfie Camera: 32 MP AI selfie camera, dual LED flash
- Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C, 3.5 mm port, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS (GPS, GNSS, Galileo, Beidou), NFC, Game Turbo Dual Engine
- Cellular: 4G network, dual-SIM dual standby, VoLTE support
- Battery & Charging: 5,000 mAh battery, 18W fast charging, 50% charge in 40 minutes, 27 days standby
- Colors: Special Edition – Moon Explorer
- Price: ₹11,999 (8 GB RAM + 128 GB Storage)
- Availability: 15th September 2023 in retail stores
Design, Display, & Build Quality
On the design front, the TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer flaunts its Eco-Silicone Leather Triple Matrix Moon Type Camera design. The smartphone has a unique dual-shade Black and White leather design crafted from environmentally friendly eco-silicone leather along with a camera module that resembles the moon’s surface. The dual-shade Black and White leather design is also a fitting tribute to India’s recent mission to the Moon – Chandrayaan 3.
The design feels slim, handy, and comfortable to hold due to its leather design. Unlike other dual-tone designs, the Spark 10 Pro Moon Explorer features a one-piece eco-leather back panel that looks stunning for this segment and we really liked the overall design quality and build given the price. There on the back, you can see a negligible camera bump, dual cameras that look like triple cameras, but an LED flash under the camera module.
On the front side, there’s a 6.78-inch Dot-in Display with Full HD+ resolution (2460 x 1080 pixels), a 90 Hz refresh rate with 270 Hz touch sampling rate, and comes with 580 nits peak brightness. The display appears to be good for this budget with a fair amount of brightness and viewing angles.
Moving to the sides, the bottom side has a USB Type-C port for 18W charging, a microphone, loudspeakers (mono), and a 3.5mm audio jack for earphones/headphones. The right side has a power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner, and volume controls just above. Th left side has a dual SIM tray that supports 4G SIM cards, VoLTE, and a dedicated microSD card slot with up to 1 TB expansion.
Software, User Interface, & Features
The TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer runs on the new HiOS 12.6 UI which is based on the Android 13 operating system. The HiOS 12.6 is a customized interface from TECNO and it packs a number of features on top of Android 13 features and perks, however, the brand is already on the HiOS 13 globally (we witnessed it on TECNO POVA 5 Pro 5G). The HiOS also has some traces from the XOS (Infinix Mobiles). The SPARK 10 Pro has a security patch level dated 5th January 2023 which is quite old compared to the competition.
The HiOS 12.6 as we said is a custom UI from the brand that focuses on additional features like Ella voice assistant, and UI personalization, as well as apps like Freezer which prevents apps from starting up on boot, and Phone Master which deals with the phone’s security, and privacy, acts as a utility assistant, antivirus, and performance optimizer.
The HiOS 12.6 seems improved in terms of UI, however, we can still see some bloatware that can’t be removed. The smartphone has some pre-installed apps that can be removed if not need them. Apps such as WPS Office, XShare Mini, Welife, Spotify, Soplay, and Snapchat, while third-party apps and apps from the brand such as AHA Games, Carlcare, Ella, WOW FM, Visha Player, TECNO SPOT, Safety, Smart Scanner, Palm Store, My Health, Hi Party, Hi Browser, Hi Theme, Hi Translate, Mobile Cloner, all can’t be removed.
Hardware, Performance & Gaming
For the specifications, the TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer is powered by the MediaTek Helio G88 octa-core SoC clocked up to 2.0 GHz. As this is a special edition, the SoC comes paired with 8 GB LPDDR4x RAM, 128 GB eMMC 5.1 internal storage, and a Mali-G52 MP2 GPU for gamers. The regular variants of the Spark 10 Pro also come in the same 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage lone variant. The smartphone supports microSD cards up to 1 TB and +8 GB MemFusion RAM (a total of 16 GB RAM).
The MediaTek Helio G88 is a midrange SoC manufactured in a 12nm FinFET process (unlike 6nm which we see nowadays) and consists of 8x Cortex CPUs (2x Cortex-A75 and 6x Cortex-A55 processors). The two performance ARM Cortex-A75 cores are clocked at 2.0 GHz, and the six power-efficient ARM Cortex-A55 cores are clocked at 1.8 GHz or more (unverified).
Speaking about the CPU and its performance, the Helio G88 SoC is very similar to the Helio G85, it appears to be identical to the Helio G80 in terms of specs and performance when comparing both of them. You might get a similar performance as you see on the Helio G85, slightly on the higher side compared to the Helio G80, but it all may not be noticeable in the real world. The performance of the CPU is below the 6nm Snapdragon 680, but better than Helio G80, you can expect a decent performance for this price (₹11,999).
Another important aspect of the SoC is it is laced with a GPU which is now clocked up to 1,000 MHz (up from 950 MHz found on the Helio G80). This might give you a slight advantage in the games. The SoC is upgraded to support 90 Hz displays and features HyperEngine version 2.0. The RAM is an LPDDR4x type and the storage is an eMMC 5.1 type.
Connectivity and features include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C, 3.5 mm port, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS (GPS, GNSS, Galileo, Beidou), NFC, and Game Turbo Dual Engine.
Cameras
The cameras on the back include a dual setup with a 50 MP f/1.6 AI camera as the primary aided by a secondary depth camera while the front side has a 32 MP AI selfie camera for selfie and video calling needs. Both, the front and the back are aided by dual LED flash. The 50 MP is an AI-enabled camera powered by ASD mode and 3D LUT technology.
About the cameras, the SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer mainly relies on the 50 MP AI camera, and for this price, you will rarely find a dedicated wide-angle camera and a macro camera, forget telephoto. We can see its three big camera modules, two of them are camera lenses while the third one is a dual LED flash.
Moving to the camera interface and modes, the camera app offers modes such as 50 MP, Film, AI Cam, Video, Beauty, Portrait, Super Night, AR shot, Panorama, Documents, Short Video, Slow Motion, Pro, and Time-lapse, 2x digital zoom option (up to 10x digital zoom), and more. One of the camera features that we liked is its Film mode which helps you shoot directly from the camera with various video effects.
Another major thing about the camera is it has the ability to record videos of up to a whopping 2K at 30 fps and slow motion 720p at 240 fps. While many tend to smartphones offer 1080p at 30fps, this one has the more crispier 2K resolution. The slow-motion videos can be recorded for 1 second (9 seconds slow-video) in 720p at 240 fps while the 120 fps mode can be used for longer video recording.
Moving to its image quality, we clicked some shots to see how the camera performs, the 50 MP camera takes good shots in the daylight and appears to be decent for its price. Seflies turn out to be good as well. Take a look at the camera samples below.
TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer Camera Samples
Battery Runtime & Charging
The TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer equips a 5,000 mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging. As far as our experience, the 5,000 mAh may deliver up to 1.5 to 2 days of battery backup, you can expect the smartphone to last longer depending on your usage.
For charging, it has 18W support, but we have recently seen some smartphones with 33W fast charging in this segment. Nevertheless, the 18W charger can charge the battery up to 50% in 40 minutes which is fair, however, if you still want faster charging speeds, consider the faster 33W ones in the segment.
Verdict – TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer Edition Review
The TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer has a lot to offer for its price (₹11,999). You get 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant at this price, a stunning slim and lightweight dual-shade leather design, a 90 Hz Full HD+ screen, decent performance, a reasonable 50 MP camera that records 2K videos & 240 fps slow-motion videos, a 32 MP selfie camera with LED flash, while it comes with HiOS 12.6 (Android 13) and it seems improved. Overall, the TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer has a compressive package at a price of ₹11,999 making it a good deal in this segment.
TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer Price In India – Where To Buy
The price for the TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer Edition is ₹11,999 for its lone 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant and is available in retail stores from 15th September 2023 i.e. today.
Know More About TECNO SPARK 10 Pro Moon Explorer Edition on tecno-mobile.in
