Like it or not, Chinese phone makers are unstoppable when it comes to unleashing smartphones beyond 5000mAh.

The latest brand to hop in is none other than TECNO with the POVA Curve 2 — currently the world’s slimmest 8000mAh smartphone.

Cyber-sthetic coolness

While the TECNO POVA Curve 2 isn’t as ambitious as other smartphones with flashy RGB / white light strips, LED matrix, or specific gaming detailing, it looks cool nonetheless.

Rocking this Mystic Purple colorway, its vibrancy is the perfect contrast to the minute black and orange elements all around.

If this isn’t ideal for your taste, there are also the Melting Silver and Storm Titanium color choices.

Looking closely, the lower right part is not an actual cutout that shows its internals. It’s more like a decal of some sort. Still, it makes the overall design as balanced as possible.

That goes along with its cyborg-looking (or starship-inspired, as they say) camera hump at the upper left corner. Thus, a cool-looking phone with cyber aesthetics — or cyber-sthetic in my vocab.

My fascination doesn’t end there.

With a thinness of a mere 7.42mm, I wasn’t kidding when I said this is the slimmest 8000mAh smartphone you can buy right now. As of this writing, it still is.

Other 8000mAh smartphones all range between 7.8mm to 8mm: OPPO K15 Pro+, realme Neo8, HONOR 500 series, nubia RedMagic 11 Pro. The list is short but it keeps growing.

While it’s not as record-breaking as the 5.93mm TECNO Slim, it still proves that TECNO’s consistent innovation push can lead you to making consumer products like this.

When held, the TECNO POVA Curve 2 has a solid yet justifiable heft to it.

Even with such thinness, it’s not super slippery. There’s enough grip to make you hold it for prolonged periods without actually dropping it.

But, in case you drop it, set your worries aside as it’s rated for SGS 5-Star Drop Resistance alongside an IP64 rating. Flipping to its front then reveals its Gorilla Glass 7i protection by Corning.

Now Playing: YENA, LATENCY

Recently, YENA’s latest “Catch Catch” has been playing in my mind non-stop — both the song and her visuals alike.

From that cat get-up reminiscent of T-ARA’s Bo Peep Bo Peep to IU’s iconic red dress in Good Day, it totally brings back the nostalgic 2009 look of the 2nd gen K-Pop I’ve witnessed in my teenage years.

The same can be said with the display of the TECNO POVA Curve 2.

While most brands have already moved over to flat displays, TECNO isn’t totally done with it. They are still keeping those dual-curved edge screens of the last generation.

For its class, it’s more than capable especially that it is a 6.78-inch AMOLED panel after all.

Colors pop with crisper details. That’s courtesy of its Full HD+ display resolution, 1.07 Billion Colors support, plus a 429ppi pixel density. It’s sufficiently bright outdoors too capping at 4500 nits.

Such nostalgia also reminded me that some of my 4th-gen K-Pop faves got reunited in the newer 5th gen by forming an all-new girl band dubbed as “LATENCY” with the same debut song title.

ICYMI, it’s composed of LOONA’s Hyunjin alongside three cignature ex-members: Jeewon (now ZZONE), YeAh (now Haeun), and Semi. That’s also the group where Hyeonju (UNIS) belonged to.

Enough geeking out. Even if we’re already bombarded by a lot of midrangers nowadays with oh-so-thin-bezels, this display won’t disappoint you.

Those curved edges with moderately-sized bezels are more than enough to make one mesmerized. It also won’t get in the way of your day-to-day usage.

On Queue: Archive. 1 by WOODZ

Content consumption doesn’t stop there.

I’m also invested to the latest full album of WOODZ (or Cho Seungyoun if you knew him way back in X1 — or as a contestant in PRODUCE X 101 the way I did).

While he’s popularly known for his all-around versatility in the K-Pop world, the soloist leaning more into rock just means I can test out the Lossless quality of his latest album in a great measure.

Much like most smartphones in this price point, its stereo speakers are loud to fill in those banging bathroom sessions. I felt the emotions most when I played CINEMA, GLASS, and STOP THAT.

That said, having Dolby Atmos doesn’t mean a fuller sound output. Like what I have experienced in my TECNO CAMON 50 Ultra review, sound is loud yet not separated enough to highlight the highs, mids, and the deeper bass altogether.

More so, not enough distinction of WOODZ’s power vocals against the rich rhythm of his band instruments — especially in Human Extinction, Bloodline, and The Spark.

Fortunately, the POVA Curve 2 natively supports Hi-Res Wireless Audio. This means I get to fully enjoy the feature whenever I connect my wireless earphones and headphones that also support LDAC.

Peak performance

The TECNO POVA Curve 2 is one of the very few handsets that rock MediaTek’s Dimensity 7100 SoC. That’s alongside the HONOR 600 Lite and Infinix NOTE Edge.

A chipset nestled in the middle of Dimensity 6500 and 7400 series means gaming performance isn’t as extreme as what you get in the 8- and 9-series.

Still, playing Call of Duty: Mobile (CoDM) was easy-peasy. It can run High settings with frame rate set at the Max level. It’s more enjoyable especially that this phone possesses 144Hz refresh rate.

The more demanding Racing Master I love playing runs in Standard resolution + 30fps frame rate by default.

Overriding it to higher setting results to some game stutters — even when Performance Mode under High Boost gaming is enabled.

The opposite happens with the rest of apps. You can multitask and breeze through ’em without hiccups.

Thanks to the newer HiOS 16, overall UI experience felt smoother, faster, and more intuitive.

I also love how there’s a special skin on top of it. A cool way to differentiate it from the usual SPARK and CAMON series.

Of course, TECNO’s AI Tools weren’t left behind: Ella, Translation and Document Assistants, AI Writing, Note, Recording Summary, and many more in the list.

The POVA Curve 2 also promises connectivity in greater heights (literally and figuratively).

Not only is it the world’s first triple chipset smartphone, it’s also the first one to feature 20 5G bands.

As someone who’s living in an area where data reception can still be spotty, I can definitely attest that the POVA Curve 2 has the better network coverage compared to most smartphones.

Case in point: In a certain area of a transportation terminal I go to, the POVA Curve 2 detects 5G+ network with full signal bars. Whereas, the iPhone 13 Pro Max I have is only limited to a one-bar 4G / LTE.

The vivo X300 Pro I daily drive? Full bars but only limited to 4G+.

This totally makes the TECNO POVA Curve 2 ideal for being connected in crowded areas or even against building blind spots.

Assurance to endurance

As mentioned many times in this write-up, the TECNO POVA Curve 2 boasts a monstrous 8000mAh battery in it.

It’s a smartphone that’s really hard to kill. It reminds me of those corrupt government leaders who are still alive and kicking even after 20 years of bad service.

Sentiments aside, I’ve installed all the gaming resources for an hour and played for another hour. In other midrangers, that means a significant 20% decrease.

TECNO’s POVA Curve 2 only managed to shed around 8~10%.

Another example: Playing WOODZ’s album for 49 minutes accounted for only a 3% decrease — from 9% down to 7%.

I then played my 2.5-hour-long girl-group studded playlist:

Shockingly, the phone lasted up ’til CHUU’s XO, My Cyberlove before it ultimately died down. That’s 33 out of the 52 songs in the playlist I curated.

Additionally, the POVA Curve 2 lasts for more than a week when left in standby.

The POCO X8 Pro Max I held with an even bigger 8500mAh tank inside it can only last up to 4 days when untouched. The culprit? Its ever-plagued HyperOS.

This further justifies that TECNO’s revamped OS is more power-efficient compared to previous versions that drained battery a lot.

To save one’s battery anxiety, 45W wired charging is here. While it’s not the fastest out there, it’s definitely doable for under 1.5 hours.

My GadgetMatch Charge Test proves that compared to the TECNO CAMON 50 Ultra I held a month ago.

	TECNO POVA Curve 2 8000mAh 45W Hyper Charge	TECNO CAMON 50 Ultra 6500mAh 45W Hyper Charge
START TIME (From 0%)	8:16AM	4:34PM
3 minutes	3%	4%
5 minutes	6%	6%
10 minutes	11%	12%
15 minutes	16%	21%
20 minutes	24%	30%
30 minutes	34%	43%
45 minutes	51%	65%
1 hour	69%	85%
1 hour 15 minutes	86%	99%
1 hour 30 minutes	97%	—
END TIME	9:50AM 1 hour 34 minutes	5:51PM 1 hour 16 minutes

Settled snapper

Despite that futuristic camera cutout, the POVA Curve 2 only has a single 50MP snapper.

I can somehow say the quality is decent for what you get. That’s evident whenever you take photos in broad daylight.

I value how TECNO included the versatility of 23mm, 28mm, and 35mm focal length through a series of taps.

That main camera is also responsible for 2x zoomed shots through in-sensor cropping.

As obvious as it seems, this has been my most used mode more than 1x.

47mm is also the perfect focal length I consider for food shots.

The bokeh falloff looks right without looking too abrupt.

It can even capture way beyond its means through digital zoom (plus AI magic after the fact).

Albeit, the lack of an ultra-wide lens means you either have to back up to get your desired shot — or ditch it altogether.

While the camera preview struggles when shooting indoors, the quality turned out to be decent after all.

For low-light scenes, Super Night Mode helps take better snaps.

Just don’t expect an outstanding quality — especially in 2x with grain presence when you crop in.

Before I forget, here’s a macro shot of a flower — just to prove that the extra 2MP macro camera has some purpose.

Is the TECNO POVA Curve 2 your GadgetMatch?

With prices of INR 27,999 and INR 29,999 for the 8+256GB and 12+256GB configurations respectively, the TECNO POVA Curve 2 is one among the ideal budget midrangers you can buy today.

In other regions, there’s even a 12+256GB model with pricing yet to be announced.

Swipe Left if you are the type of user who prioritizes gaming or camera needs.

But, for all things considered, the TECNO POVA Curve 2 is still a Swipe Right.

Its all-around versatility will still satisfy most users — especially those who want stylish aesthetics, bright and vivid display, plus performance decency at its core.

While other midrangers in the same range offer better specs such as a faster chipset or speedier wired charging, I can assure you that nothing beats its overall battery endurance.

The TECNO POVA Curve 2 is the truest definition of a battery champ.

More so, the aggressive network feats that cannot be achieved by other phones — regardless if they are in the same league or the class-leading flagships.

If only it had eSIM support and a larger 512GB storage, this would be an ideal smartphone to take with you as a frequent traveler. More so, a digital nomad.

Stopping at nothing

Let me get this straight. TECNO isn’t the first phone maker to bring in an 8000mAh smartphone to the table.

Still, the Chinese brand truly amazes me. In just a span of a year (or even less), TECNO has done drastic battery boosting among most (if not all) of their phones.

The first POVA Curve model from May 2025 already had an ample 5500mAh battery. In just nine months, they added 2500mAh more despite having almost the same thinness as its predecessor.

This justifies TECNO’s “Stop at Nothing” mantra — a true feat of engineering and a continuous strive for innovation, whereas brands like Samsung, a major tech component supplier, can’t even do the same, putting them to shame.

Their S Ultra models have been stuck in the same 5000mAh situation from 2020 up until this 2026 — that’s six years of consistency for the wrong reason.

It’s clearly a long overdue matter that was swept under the rug. But, maybe, they’re still trying to play it too safe. They want us to remember how the Galaxy Note7 fiasco shook the tech space a decade ago.

I just hope that we don’t have to deal with the same situation ever again — especially when everyone goes cray cray over this capacity craze.

realme has given a first look at the upcoming realme 16 Series 5G, highlighting a mix of refined design and upgraded portrait photography ahead of its local debut.

The new Number Series leans into tactile materials and nature-inspired aesthetics, while positioning its camera system as a key upgrade.

Nature-inspired design, refined finish

At the center of the update is the Urban Wild Design, developed with Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa. The approach blends organic textures with a clean, urban look.

Leading the lineup is the realme 16 Pro+ 5G in Master Gold, inspired by sunlit wheat fields. The realme 16 Pro 5G follows in Pebble Grey and Orchid Purple, while the standard realme 16 5G opts for a minimalist “Air” aesthetic in White and Black.

The Pro+ model uses a bio-based silicone back panel derived from plant-based straw, designed to feel soft while remaining durable and resistant to wear. Meanwhile, the base model shifts to a horizontal camera strip, replacing the Pro series’ rounded square module and integrating a selfie mirror beside the main camera.

200MP portrait system leads upgrades

Photography takes center stage with a 200MP multi-focal camera system on the Pro models. The realme 16 Pro+ 5G pairs its 200MP OIS main sensor with a 50MP 3.5x telephoto lens, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, and a 50MP front camera.

It also introduces what realme claims is the industry’s first TÜV Rheinland-certified LumaColor Image Camera, aimed at improving color accuracy, balancing exposure, and delivering more natural skin tones.

The realme 16 Pro 5G retains the 200MP OIS main sensor alongside an 8MP ultra-wide, while the realme 16 5G features a 50MP Sony IMX852 main camera and a 50MP front shooter.

realme will officially launch the 16 Series 5G in the Philippines on April 23 at 5:30 PM via a livestream on its official Facebook page.

HONOR has announced a strategic partnership with ZXMOTO, marking its entry into global motorsport through the FIM Superbike World Championship.

Under the agreement, HONOR will serve as ZXMOTO’s official strategic partner and sponsor its global campaign in the WSBK. The collaboration brings together two fast-rising players aiming to push boundaries in performance, manufacturing, and premium experiences.

A shared challenger mindset

ZXMOTO, founded by Zhang Xue, has quickly grown from a startup into a serious contender in international racing. The brand recently made history by becoming the first Chinese manufacturer to secure a double victory in the World Supersport category at a WSBK round in Portugal.

That momentum feeds directly into this partnership. Both companies are positioning themselves toward a similar audience—young, performance-driven consumers and tech enthusiasts who value speed, precision, and innovation.

For HONOR, the move extends its premiumization and globalization strategy beyond traditional consumer tech. It also opens a direct line to the motorsport community, where performance and brand identity often go hand in hand.

Beyond sponsorship

More than just a branding exercise, both companies frame the partnership as a long-term collaboration. Future plans point toward deeper technological synergy, built on a shared “challenger” spirit.

Zhang Xue has also expressed admiration for HONOR’s latest foldable, the HONOR Magic V6, highlighting its slim and lightweight design as a practical fit for a fast-paced professional lifestyle.

As HONOR and ZXMOTO align across industries, the partnership signals a broader ambition: to translate high-performance thinking from racetracks into everyday tech experiences.