Initial Verdict: The TECNO POVA 5 is gunning for the best phone one can buy for under Php 10k in the Philippines especially when gaming performance is your priority. Aside from its insane price-to-performance, the POVA 5 complements that with a large battery and arguably the best back panel design in its class. 

Pros

-Large battery with decent charging speed

-Excellent price-to-specs ratio

-One of the best packaging and back panel design (for its class)

 

Cons

-Only the main camera is decent

-Thick bezels

 

The under Php 10k segment is very competitive nowadays, and TECNO wants to stand out with the POVA 5. Aside from offering a great set of internals of its price tag, the POVA 5 is an interesting budget gaming phone with its huge battery and unique back panel design–along with an unconventional packaging that will make it shine against the competition.

TECNO POVA 5 Free Fire Edition Philippines: Unboxing and Packaging Contents

Without any question, the POVA 5 has the most unique packaging for a phone priced at under Php 10k with its triangular box. The outer sleeve has a Free Fire-themed design that highlights Kelly, one of the game’s most popular characters.

Once you open the triangular box (which also has a unique way of opening it), you are greeted with a lot of contents inside that include a sheet of Free Fire-themed stickers, a redemption card for Free Fire content, documentation, a wired headset, USB-C cable, 45w charging brick, silicone case, and the phone itself.

 

TECNO POVA 5 Free Fire Edition Philippines: Design

Just like the box, the POVA 5 stands out for its unique design called Turbo Mecha, where you get various lines and patterns that make the POVA 5’s back panel look like an exterior of a mecha robot. The design is appropriate especially since the POVA 5’s main market is those who are looking for a gaming phone on a budget. Our review unit is in Amber Gold, and the glossy finish has a tendency of attracting smudges. However, the POVA 5’s color does a decent job of hiding those smudges.

While the frame is made of plastic, TECNO decided to give the POVA 5 a high gloss finish to make it appear like stainless steel–again, being on point with its mecha theme. The bottom part of the phone has a headphone jack, USB-C port, and loudspeaker, while the right side has the power button (that doubles as a fingerprint scanner) and volume controls. The left side houses the SIM tray, while the top part has another loudspeaker.

TECNO POVA 5 Free Fire Edition Philippines: Display

While the POVA 5 has a smaller 6.78-inch display (vs, the 6.82-inch panel of its predecessor), TECNO upgraded the refresh rate to 120hz–with an adaptive option of switching between 60hz, 90hz, and 120hz. While the bezels are rather thick, especially for the chin, the POVA 5’s display has decent colors that make it great for playing games and watching videos.

To further complement that, the POVA 5 joins the growing number of phones that offer stereo speakers as standard. The speakers sound average at best, but they’re definitely better than most phones that offer only a single speaker setup.

 

TECNO POVA 5 Free Fire Edition Philippines: Cameras

Because the POVA 5 is focused more on gaming, TECNO did not prioritize the cameras that much. While the 8-megapixel selfie camera is a bit underwhelming and the QVGA depth sensor is mediocre for its asking price, TECNO made it up with the POVA 5 for its 50-megapixel main camera–and the ability to shoot 2K video with it.  We will have to put the POVA 5 to the test to see if this gaming-focused phone does have decent camera chops.

 

TECNO POVA 5 Free Fire Edition Philippines: Internals

Just like its predecessor, the main selling point of the POVA 5 is its use of an Helio G99 processor, which proved to be a very capable chipset–and in some cases better than the Snapdragon 680 used by the competition. This time around, TECNO is giving even better value to the POVA 5 by offering it up to 256GB of internal storage, which is plenty enough to store games–even those that are over 20GB in size like Genshin Impact. You also get 8GB RAM that’s expandable to up to another 8GB with Extended RAM.

While we are familiar with how the Helio G99 performs (playing Genshin Impact on high graphics should not be an issue), we will put the POVA 5 to the test to see if TECNO’s optimizations–which include Panther Engine and Game Space–do help in delivering a better gaming experience on a budget device.

The POVA 5 comes with Android 13-based HiOS 13, along with a Free Fire theme that includes custom icons and live wallpapers that feature five of the game’s most popular characters. TECNO also made improvements when it comes to software, as the POVA 5 comes with less bloatware compared to TECNO’s previous offerings.

The other big selling point of the POVA 5 is its huge 6000mAh battery, which is definitely the best in its class. While we’re still doing our battery test, the POVA 5 is expected to last for up to 2 days on a single charge with moderate use–which is a really good number thanks to a power-efficient processor and a display that has an adaptive refresh rate option. Topping up the battery is no issue with its 45w charging solution–which is also one of the fastest charging speeds in its class.

 

TECNO POVA 5 Free Fire Edition Philippines: Wrap-up and initial conclusions

Save for the underwhelming cameras and thick bezels, the POVA 5 looks to be a compelling budget gaming phone for under Php 10k with its internals and a huge battery that supports fast charging. Add its gamer-inspired back panel design and unique packaging, and the POVA 5 is set to be one of the most interesting under Php 10k phones for the second half of 2023.

 

TECNO POVA 5 Free Fire Edition Philippines: Price

The POVA 5 Free Fire Edition is priced at Php 7,999 for the 8GB/128GB model and Php 8,499 for the 8GB/256GB model and will be available at TECNO’s official Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok stores.