Indian smartphone upstart Tecno has launched the Pop 9 5G. It follows up after the Pop 8 launched in October last year and betters its predecessor in every way. The Pop 9 5G is an entry-level 5G smartphone which is being offered at an introductory price of ₹8,499 only and is expected to give stiff competition to budget offerings from brands like Realme, Redmi, Vivo and Oppo. The Pop 9 5G packs quite a few tricks up its sleeve to differentiate itself from the crowd.
Our review unit came in the rather understated Midnight Shadow color, with a gold band around the vertically aligned camera setup providing an accent. The chassis is plastic mimicking an anodized aluminum finish and the back panel is frosted plastic. Weighing in at a scant 189 grams, the phone feels light in the hand yet sturdy and is easy to use single-handed. The screen is a 6.67” inch IPS LCD unit boasting HD+ resolution and 90% screen-to-body ratio. The performance is snazzy for the price with its 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. The animations look reasonably smooth due to its 263 PPI pixel density. Maximum brightness is 480Nits, making it easy to use outside on a sunny day. The focus is clearly on media consumption as the color reproduction is up to mark for an LCD unit and the high refresh rate ensures crisp visuals.
The Pop 9 5G is powered by an adequately capable 6nm octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 6300 5G chipset coupled with a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU, up to 8 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and up to 128 GB of storage. The phone has scored 4,63,000 on the AnTuTu benchmark and also supports expandable storage of up to 1TB. This combination ensures that daily tasks along with social media and streaming are all dispatched easily. The Pop 9 5G is currently running HiOS 14.5 (based on Android 14), which is easy to use and looks neat. As is the case with most smartphones nowadays, the Pop 9 5G also comes with some harmless pre-installed bloatware, which can be easily uninstalled by the user. The phone also comes with Dolby’s Atmos technology and supports both wired and wireless hi-res audio playback.
The Pop 9 5G’s camera is its highlight. It packs a 48MP Sony IMX58 sensor with AI support, 10X Digital Zoom, Slow Motion, Time-lapse, and Panorama modes. The front camera is a 8MP unit with dual color-temperature flash and supports portrait, wide selfie, vlog and time-lapse modes, among other features. Both the cameras perform reasonably well in good lighting conditions and are perfect to make reels and tiktoks.
The battery backup on this phone is brilliant, with Tecno claiming 401 hours of standby time on 5G. The 5000 mAh battery easily lasted a full day of moderate usage during our test period. The 18W fast charging is also a nice feature to have, ensuring quick top-ups. The phone also comes with a flexible clear case and 2 funky skins out of the box!
Dual speakers, NFC for wireless payments, an IR blaster for controlling home appliances and an IP54-rated water resistance capability are a host of features which help the Pop 9 5G stand apart from the crowd.
The Pop 9 5G is a budget hero that promises to democratise 5G among the masses and is a great choice for teenagers and college students, who want a no-nonsense phone at an affordable price.
₹ 8,499 onwards
