This Android phone is giving Nothing in the best way, with a massive battery and cool AI features to boot

These days, it's hard for me to get particularly excited about a new phone. I've tested so many that it often feels like I'm seeing much of the same thing. The Tecno Pova 8 5G tries to switch things up by borrowing some design cues from other phones while offering a unique feature that I wish more phones had: an Active Matrix display.

I often say that I miss when phones had built-in indicator LEDs for notifications, as I find them more useful than the whole display turning on when I need my phone to be more subtle about when I receive a message. A few OEMs, like Nothing, have started implementing more distinctive lighting fixtures that take that idea and elevate it into something more fun to look at. Even Google is expected to implement a rear "Pixel Glow" feature on its upcoming Pixel 11.

It's nice to see Tecno bringing something unique to the Pove 8 5G, but this affordable phone has surprisingly even more to offer for its price.

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Flashing lights

The first thing I thought when I saw the Pova 8 5G is that it kind of looks like a Nothing Phone. The rear design is not as exciting as the Nothing Phone 3; it's more subtle, like the Nothing Phone 4a, thanks to what it calls a "semi-transparent back cover" design. The Arctic White color option is pretty sleek, although the rear design is a big more noticeable on the other color options.

Adding to the design's uniqueness is the triangular camera housing, which features three modules, only one of which is an actual camera. However, below that is the Tecno Pova 5G's Active Matrix display, which is another reason why this phone resembles Nothing's recent phones, and in the best way.

The display can let you know when you have a notification and show icons for apps like Instagram and Facebook Messenger. It also shows when you're charging the device, displays a moving waveform when you play music, and even flashes the time when you flip the phone face down.

But beyond that, the display is actually quite customizable. You can either choose from a selection of premade lighting effects or make your own, while even adjusting the brightness and duration for when you want the lighting effects on.

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People who have come across me using the Tecno Pova 8 5G have been thoroughly surprised and intrigued by its Active Matrix display, and the overall consensus seems positive, with only one friend calling it "excessive."

I have to disagree; I think it's a cool way to implement something seemingly old-school to spice up a phone's utility, even just a bit. It gives the Tecno Pova 8 5G character, more so than I've seen from most of the phones I've come across in my years reviewing devices.

What about the rest of the phone?

The Tecno Pova 8 5G is about as mid-range as it gets. It's powered by a MediaTek 7100 chipset, which does surprisingly well in day-to-day use with just 8GB of RAM. It's no powerhouse, and games play decently well when not set to the highest settings. Apps may also take a second to open, but overall the software experience is pretty smooth, thanks to Tecno's UI.

It's also aided by the 144Hz LCD panel, which isn't particularly amazing, but it still looks decent, thanks to the FHD+ resolution.

As for the UI, Tecno switched things up on the Pova 8 5G with a unique Vision Art-style theme, giving the phone a more gamer-style look with orange and black accents. At first, it felt like a lot, and I normally don't care for themed icons, but it quickly grew on me. Not every app can be themed, but most are, including third-party apps like Instagram, and the designs are quite nice.

You'll also find a widget on the home screen to easily enable or customize the Active Matrix display.

Tecno also stuffed as much AI as it could into this phone. One interesting feature is YouTube Notes, which will automatically create an AI-generated note whenever you copy a YouTube video. It will summarize the video for you and even highlight timestamps for key points throughout. It's surprisingly effective and does it all in the background, so even if you don't think this kind of feature is useful for you, it will still be there for you to reference if you need it.

There are also plenty of AI image-editing features in the Gallery that let you remove flares, shadows, and reflections to clean up your photos.

Ella is the default AI chatbot, and you can trigger it by double-tapping the navigation bar at the bottom, which I think is a pretty cool gesture I would love to see on more Android phones. Like with other Tecno phones, you can change the AI model Ella uses, including Gemini, Meta AI, Grok, and DeepSeek. Of course, you can also set Gemini as your default AI, which can be triggered by other means, such as swiping from the bottom corner or long-pressing the power button.

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Unfortunately, the camera experience leaves a lot to be desired. The Pove 8 5G takes better photos than the Spark 50 5G, and with the right lighting, you can get some decent contrast and color reproduction. However, there's a bit of fuzziness in the images, and some detail is lost as a result.

And since there's only one camera, you don't get much versatility. You can still get a decent image with the 2x lossless zoom, but go any further and things start to really fall apart.

There's also no 4K video capture, but you can at least get 2K 30fps, something I'd like to see on more mid-range and budget phones. You also get features like Live Photos, Auto Capture, and a cool Vlog feature that lets you create stylized video journals using different templates.

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Of course, I have to touch on the battery, because it's quite impressive. Tecno "squeezed" an 8,000mAh battery into the Pove 8 5G, which provides multi-day battery life. In my use, I easily make it to two days, and I expect you could go beyond that depending on your use.

I say "squeezed" because the Pove 8 5G is actually quite thick at 8.8mm. In fact, it reminds me of the Pixel 10 in this regard, which is only .2mm thinner, although the Pova 8 5G at least has the battery capacity to show for it.

Charging is capped at 45W, which would normally be pretty quick on a device like a Samsung phone, but with an 8,000mAh battery, it ends up being relatively slow. That said, the Pova 8 5G could almost act as a power bank itself, thanks to 10W reverse wired charging. It's no speed demon, but having such a big battery is helpful in a pinch.

Should you buy the Tecno Pova 8 5G?

While I wasn't a fan of the Spark 50 5G, the Tecno Pova 8 5G is a nice step up. Performance is about what you'd expect from a phone at this price point (starting at roughly $400 in India); the battery life is quite phenomenal, and the rear Active Matrix display is a fun addition. The singular camera performance won't win any blind camera tests, but the rest of the phone feels like a solid package.

If you're in a market where the Nothing Phone 4a Pro is available, you might be better off taking the battery-life hit and getting that. Otherwise, the Pova 8 5G isn't a half-bad option if you're in the market for an affordable phone and live in a market where it's sold.