Tecno Spark 40 Pro Plus Review – An Affordable Flagship Killer With Premium Surprises

If you’re even remotely familiar with Tecno, you probably know the brand makes a variety of smartphones, including a tri-folding foldable (yes, seriously). But Tecno’s real strength lies in the budget segment—affordable phones that surprisingly don’t feel budget when it comes to features. The newly launched Tecno Spark 40 Pro Plus leads the lineup, and it might just be one of the most exciting budget-friendly phones of the year.

Tecno has introduced three models under the Spark 40 series: the base Spark 40, Spark 40 Pro, and the top-tier Spark 40 Pro Plus. The Pro Plus brings the best hardware and most feature-packed experience of the trio, with a few surprises that make it stand out.

A Fully-Loaded Unboxing Experience

Right from the box, Tecno delivers more than you’d expect. The packaging includes a full set of accessories: a screen protector (with curved edges to match the device), a stylish case featuring a MagSafe-style ring for wireless charging, a 45W wall charger, and even a color-matched USB-C cable with bright orange accents. For a phone that costs around $214, that’s a rare level of attention to detail.

Premium Design on a Budget

At first glance, the Spark 40 Pro Plus looks like a high-end phone. The front features a large 6.78-inch curved AMOLED display wrapped in Gorilla Glass 7i, offering a “golden 48° curvature” for that modern, edge-to-edge feel. The slim profile, measuring just 6.49mm, makes the phone incredibly comfortable to hold despite its large screen.

The bezels are impressively thin, with a great screen-to-body ratio, and the phone’s back panel—especially in the Moon Titanium color—gives off a metallic finish, even if it’s plastic. You get IP64 water and dust resistance, dual physical SIM support, microSD card expansion, and an optical in-display fingerprint sensor paired with face unlock.

There’s no headphone jack, which is a letdown, but that’s increasingly common in even pricier phones.

Stunning Display & Multimedia Experience

One of the Pro Plus’s standout features is its display. The 1.5K AMOLED panel boasts a resolution of 2712×1220 with a 144Hz refresh rate, which is unheard of in this price range. Tecno also claims up to 4,500 nits of peak brightness, making it easily viewable even in direct sunlight. Color calibration options allow users to tweak warmth, saturation, and contrast to their liking.

The dual speaker setup—Dolby Atmos certified—rounds out the media experience, offering loud, balanced sound. For binge-watchers and mobile gamers, this display is reason enough to consider the Spark 40 Pro Plus.

Powered by New Hardware

Under the hood, the Spark 40 Pro Plus is the first phone to feature MediaTek’s Helio G99 Ultimate (G200) processor. It’s a 6nm chip paired with 8GB RAM and an additional 8GB virtual RAM extension. While long-term performance testing is still underway, initial benchmarks suggest respectable results in both everyday tasks and light gaming.

The real test, however, lies in how this processor handles the AI-powered features that Tecno is pushing. The phone includes tools like AI writing assistants, AI photo editing, Circle to Search, AI translation and interpretation, and even AI call assistance. How well all of this runs will be key to the Pro Plus’s long-term success.

Battery Life & Charging

Despite its slim build, the Pro Plus packs a 5,200mAh battery, offering a bit more capacity than the average mid-range phone. You get 45W wired charging and 30W magnetic wireless charging via the MagSafe-style ring on the back. It’s rare to see wireless charging—let alone magnetic wireless charging—on a device under $300, making this a major selling point.

Cameras: Decent But Misleading Design

The rear design shows three camera cutouts, but only one houses an actual camera sensor. The 50MP main lens takes decent photos, and Tecno’s AI Portrait mode helps add some creativity to your shots. The 13MP front-facing camera handles selfies reasonably well.

While the absence of ultrawide and telephoto lenses might disappoint, Tecno seems to have prioritized the features people use every day—like display quality and fast charging—over a more complex but underused camera system.

Final Thoughts: Is It Worth It?

The Tecno Spark 40 Pro Plus is a surprisingly complete smartphone for its price. You get a high-resolution, high-refresh-rate AMOLED screen, excellent battery life, wireless charging, a unique design, and plenty of modern extras. Sure, the camera hardware may be exaggerated by design, and it lacks support for markets like the U.S., but for users in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America, this is a compelling choice.

Tecno has focused on real-world features that matter, and the Pro Plus version of the Spark 40 delivers them in spades—all for just a little over $200.