Tecno Pova 8 5G debuts with an 8,000mAh battery and a pixel light panel on its back
Tecno has launched the Pova 8 5G in India, and its headline feature is a massive 8,000mAh battery the company says lasts two days on a single charge. Sales start June 18 on Flipkart, priced from ₹29,999 (around $360) for the 6GB/128GB model. No UK or US pricing has been announced, and Tecno hasn't given a timeline for a Western rollout.
The hardware
The Pova 8 5G runs a MediaTek Dimensity 7100 5G chip — a mid-range processor aimed at everyday tasks and casual gaming. Two proprietary chips, the G1 and SE1, are supposed to improve mobile signal quality and Wi-Fi reception. The phone pairs that with a 6.76-inch IPS display running at 144Hz, up to 12GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of storage.
Camera hardware leads with a 50-megapixel Sony LYTIA 600 main sensor and a 13-megapixel front camera.
The Alive Matrix
The phone's most distinctive feature is a secondary pixel panel built into the rear camera module — Tecno calls it the Alive Matrix Display. It shows notifications, incoming calls, charging status, and gaming alerts without waking the main screen. Tecno says it supports up to 49 different animations, and the back panel itself is semi-transparent.
Battery and software
The 8,000mAh cell is the real pitch here. Tecno claims it retains over 80% of its original capacity after 2,000 charge cycles — a metric rarely emphasized in Western markets but relevant to buyers in regions with inconsistent power access. The phone ships with HiOS 16 on top of Android 16, with two guaranteed Android version updates and three years of security patches.
On the software side, the Pova 8 5G includes AI tools: a feature that summarizes YouTube videos as text, AI photo enhancement, and noise cancellation for calls. A contactless health-monitoring function — heart rate and blood oxygen via the front camera — is listed for select markets only.
What it means outside India
The Pova 8 5G is an India-first device. At ₹29,999, it competes directly with Realme, iQOO, and Infinix in a crowded ₹25,000–₹35,000 bracket. The Alive Matrix panel is a clear differentiator in a social-media-driven market where visible hardware novelty sells. For US or UK buyers, the phone is confirmed India-only for now — per PR Newswire, Tecno says only that "other markets will follow worldwide," with no dates attached.
