Gadget Review: A week spent with the Tecno Boom J8

Tecno mobile recently launched the Boom J8 in the Country. It’s a successor to the best music phone from Tecno mobile last year; Boom J7. When you look at the Boom J8, you will agree with me that the Boom J8 is a complete upgrade in almost all departments compared to its predecessor. I was expecting to see little upgrade from the Boom J7 but I was taken aback by what is packed into the device from software to hardware point of view, it’s a massive upgrade. I bought a unit of the device, so I will be reviewing the black version of the device.

Let’s talk the about camera

The Tecno Boom J8 features a powerful 13MP back camera. This camera has many additional features that help to make it perfect for photo lovers. Like HDR mode, guidelines, Delay capture, preview size, gesture shot and GPS location. But it doesn’t have the full usual manual setting mode but photos still come out very good. It features a 5.0MP front camera for selfies and video calls. To take good natural selfie photos always untick the beautification icon on the camera, because if you don’t your photos will look like it’s been edited, but some people will still find it helpful.

Check out the photos I took with the rear camera.

The 13mp shooter takes great and quality photos both day and night. The photo depth is even better than the camera centric camon C8 as you can see from those photos above.  I have cropped those photos but they still look very good. I also love the new UI of the camera, low-light photography is now better than before. Many people have been clamoring for the camera reviews, this I believe will put an end to the controversy going on whether the camera is good or not. Judge for yourself

Fluidity and screen responsiveness

When it comes to fluidity and screen responsiveness, many phone makers are really still lagging behind. Tecno mobile has really impressed me with their recent devices like camon c8, phantom 5 and the newly launched Boom J8. This is the best midrange device from Tecno Mobile so far. I compared the screen responsiveness of the three of them; the Phantom 5 was ahead while the boom J8 came second.  Tecno Boom J8 is very fluid and smooth thanks to the new android skin; HiOS from Tecno mobile. Apps open very fast on the Boom j8 and I didn’t experience any lag while using the device.

Gaming Reviews

The Tecno J8 is powered by 1.3GHz quadcore processor. This 64Bit Cortex-A53 Mediatek processor is supported by 2GB of RAM and the graphics is handled by Mali T720 which is decent enough to handle most of the heavy games for game lovers. This hardware configuration makes the Tecno Boom J8 a decent phone for multitasking. It runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop but upgradable to android 6.0 marshmallow.

I tested few games like FIFA 16, Temple run, Tennis 3D, candy crush and they all run smoothly; no lag was experienced, so it’s pretty good for gaming.

Design and display

This phone is designed with simplicity and beauty firmly in mind. It’s a complete departure from Tecno’s midrange devices in the past. Lots of people were comparing it with the IPhone 6s plus, the fact is the device shares some resemblances with the iPhone but when you look at it closely, Tecno Boom J8 is slimmer and easier to hold than the IPhone 6s

I have the black colour of the Boom J8 which I believe is the cutest with this matte finished with touch of texture on it. It makes holding it so easy and also catches attention of people easily. One can easily spot the expansive 5.5 inch IPS screen with about 78% screen to body ratio. This is lovely for watching videos and playing games, it also contributes to the general beauty and sexiness of the phone.

All Hail the Music King

Tecno Boom J8 is the first device from Tecno to use the Grammy award winning WAVES Maxx Audio. When I checked online i saw this about MaxxAudio; MaxxAudio is a suite of advanced audio enhancement tools from Waves that brings award-winning technologies to consumer electronics devices. MaxxAudio offers end-users unparalleled sound performance, whether they’re playing a game, watching a movie, listening to music, or using online voice communication. With clearer highs, enhanced bass, and increased volume. Now, what sounded great in the studio will sound great on the go.

This phone boasts of quality audio output whether you are using the headphone that come with it or listening to songs on the phone’s speaker, thanks to the boom maxx equalizer. The boom maxx is so intelligent, it quickly detects the type of headphone you plug into the phone. You can imagine how the audio quality will be, when you have Boom Player and Boom Maxx working together for better audio experience. My unit came with a free Boom headphone and I was told that for every unit of the device purchased, a free Boom headphone will be given, which I believe is a good deal

I love the sound output from the phantom 5 headphone, it does the job so well. The speaker is well positioned on the device, which is similar to the way the Iphone 6s is positioned. Playing songs on the Boom J8 is something I can’t stop doing because the sound output is very good and there is this breathing light that dances as I play music on the device. This light also serves as notification light.

Software and performance

If there is one thing i will quickly notice about this phone, it’s the clean and intelligent user interface from Tecno. It’s called the HiOS. HiOS is very fast and it comes with lots of tweaks like changing the themes and Fonts, customizing the Folders and lots more. This android skin is based on android 5.1 lollipop, I expect to see android marshmallow but the device still runs smoothly

Performance

I ran the popular benchmarking app, antutu benchmark 6.0.1 on it to reveal the hardware and software specifications, and the results were decent when compared to devices on the same range. The device has the recent 64bit MediaTek 6735 ARM Cortex- A53 architecture with openGL ES 3.1 as against 2.0 and 3.0 on some devices. The advantages of the openGL ES 3.1 are enormous over the older versions. It enhances 3D graphics and from the developer’s point of view, what used to work well on desktop computer will now be possible on mobile.  See the results below

Battery

The phone came with 3000mAh battery and it also charges really fast because I get like 70% battery within an hour of charging it. The battery serves me full day on normal usage but one may have to charge once more in case you are a heavy user but the battery really delivers to its full capacity

Lest I forget, the battery is irremovable and tightly well packed on the device. The HiOS is very light and clean which I believe has been well optimized to help reduce battery consumption on the Boom J8 because I have used some android devices with 3000mAh battery that have poor battery life. It’s not about the amount of mAh, optimization is key.

In conclusion, Tecno Boom J8 is not only a good music smartphone; it is also a very good smartphone with great specs suitable for business and photography. It performs really well in most of the aspects I tested and for a phone that cost just N41, 000; it’s a good value for money