Now, thus goes the Tecno F2 review that you have been waiting for. It is an entry-level device. How much is even the Tecno F2? Just N22,000 only. Let’s go on with the review.

Tecno F2 1

Tecno F2 Review – Quick Highlights

Before we roll into the review proper, starting with the highlights of this budget device.

  • 5-inch display
  • Android Go Edition apps pre-installed

Hardware/Design

The Tecno F2 is an all-plastic device, and that is no surprise. At the price point, that is expected. It isn’t striking in any way, and nether is it ugly. It is what it is. We can move on to the internals.

Software

Despite the packaging print mentioning Android 8 Go Edition, our experience confirms otherwise. The phone’s About menu indicates that it runs Android 7 Nougat. Is it just a case of this belonging to an early batch? We have no way of telling.

Our experience with it is that it runs Android 7 Nougat with HiOS on top. And we think that impacts on the performance and perhaps app compatibility. There are a number of apps that wouldn’t install. The apps would show us a message in green that said, “Your device isn’t compatible with this version”.

Nothing we did changed anything. Not reboots, nor clearing of cache, at least. And we checked for software updates, hoping to bump it to Oreo but all available updates were for bug fixes and none fixed the app compatibility issues.

Note that this issue happened with only a few random specialised apps – certainly not with everyday apps. So, it might be a big deal or not.

But while the phone runs Nougat, it has Android Go Edition apps pre-installed. Most of them are adequate, but we found Maps Go and YouTube Go to be too restrictive and so installed the full Google Maps and YouTube apps. To get a better picture of how Maps Go is limiting.

Network, Telephony

This is a 3G smartphone, meaning that you get both 3G and 2G network service. Telephony and SMS worked as expected. Voice calls were okay.

Display and Multimedia

The 5-inch display is fine. Of course, it isn’t the brightest or sharpest around, all of which is perfectly fine for the price.

Tecno F2. 1

Photography

Nobody buys an entry-level smartphone with the expectation of getting a great camera. As such, the cameras on the F2 are adequate for its class. They do not deviate from what is the norm here.

On the front is a 2-megapixel camera and behind is a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.

F2 Camera

Multitasking/Performance

This is an entry-level Android smartphone with 1GB RAM and a basic quad-core processor. If you do not throw heavy tasks at it, it runs fine. As long as you do not try to run more than 3 apps at a time, it runs fine too. That is the way budget Android smartphones work best. Don’t push.

For internal storage, you get just 8GB – standard fare in this class. The use of Android Go Edition apps helps to keep your internal storage usage down a bit. But you will need a micro-SD card to use with the phone if you intend to store photos, images and videos.

Tecno F2..

Battery life

With a 2000mAh battery, there isn’t anything fantastic about the Tecno F2’s battery life. It isn’t piss-poor either. It just gets by. Stay close to a charger if you use your phone for long periods.

Conclusion

The Tecno F2 is the average entry-level smartphone. It isn’t bad and it isn’t good. The app compatibility issue we ran into are a bother, though it does not affect the vast majority of apps. We have reviewed and used other smartphones in its class and didn’t have that issue.

So how much does the F2 cost? You will find it to buy for about N22,000 only.

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