Tech

Tecno appears to be preparing to unveil a new Pova series smartphone in India soon. The Transsion Holdings subsidiary is yet to confirm its existence, but ahead of it, an alleged teaser video of the phone has leaked on the Internet. The video shows the handset with a triangular-shaped camera module. Tecno teased a similar phone in January this year. The Tecno Pova 6 series was launched last year with three models — Tecno Pova 6, Pova 6 Pro, and Pova 6 Neo 5G.

New Tecno Pova Phone Could Launch in India Soon

91Mobiles has posted an alleged promotional video of an unannounced new Pova series smartphone. The video shows the phone with a triangular-shaped camera island on the rear, housing dual camera sensors and LED flash. The sensors are arranged vertically on the panel. The handset appears to have a boxy design with sharp edges.

Alleged Tecno Pova Curve
Photo Credit: 91Mobiles

The video has “a portal to the supreme” caption. It appears to have an orange-coloured strip below the camera module. Although the video does not include the moniker, the lyrics of the video hint that it could be called Tecno Pova Curve.

Tecno had teased smartphones with a similar design language in January this year. The brand had announced the arrival of the next-generation Pova series, and the images posted by the company showed a similar triangle-shaped camera module bordered with LED light.

The new Pova series smartphones are likely to come with upgrades over last year’s Tecno Pova 6, Pova 6 Pro and Pova 6 Neo 5G. The Tecno Pova 6 Pro 5G and Pova 6 Neo 5G were launched in India in March and September of last year, respectively. They run on MediaTek Dimensity chipsets and have 108-megapixel rear camera units. The Tecno Pova 6 Pro 5G is backed by a 6,000mAh battery with support for 70W wired fast charging. Meanwhile, the Tecno Pova 6 Neo 5G includes a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging support.

Eager fans will have to wait a little longer to reserve their Nintendo Switch 2 in the US after Nintendo delayed pre-orders for its next console in the country in light of widespread international tariffs announced by the Trump administration. The company said the Switch 2’s launch date of June 5 would not change, but pre-orders would be delayed to a later unspecified date while it assesses the market impact of tariffs.

Nintendo Switch 2 Pre-Orders Delayed

In a statement shared with IGN and other games media outlets, Nintendo said Switch 2 pre-orders in the US would not begin on April 9 as announced earlier.

“Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,” the company said in the statement shared on Friday. “Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.”

The announcement comes after the Trump administration announced sweeping tariffs on imports from countries around the world, sending shockwaves across global stock markets and wiping over $6 trillion (roughly Rs. 5,14,59,900 crore) on Wall Street in two days. The anticipated US tariffs were said to be a reason behind the high pricing of the Nintendo Switch 2 in the first place. It’s unclear if Nintendo will assess the market situation and raise prices for its new console before it launches on June 5.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is priced at $449.99 (roughly Rs. 38,500) in the US for the sole 256GB storage option. The console will also be available in a Mario Kart World bundle that will sell for a suggested retail price of $499.99 (roughly Rs. 42,725).

Impact of Tariffs

Last week, US President Donald Trump imposed 10 percent tariffs on imports from other countries, with much higher tariffs on imports from countries like China, Japan, Vietnam and others. According to analysts, the tariffs are likely to adversely impact the video games industry at large. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the trade body for the games industry in the US, told IGN Friday that Trump tariffs would have a “real and detrimental impact on the industry.” ESA spokesperson Aubrey Quinn told the publication that the tariffs would impact pricing, consumer spending and revenues, which could lead to further layoffs in the games industry.

Nintendo fully unveiled the Switch 2 in an hour-long Nintendo Direct livestream on April 2, finally sharing details about the hybrid console and the games coming to it in 2025 and beyond. The Nintendo Switch 2 will be available from June 5.

The Poco M7 5G was launched in India last month as the latest entry-level smartphone from Xiaomi’s performance-focused subsidiary. The handset is priced under the Rs. 10,000 mark, and it features an octa-core Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC, 128GB of built-in storage, a 50-megapixel rear camera, and runs on Android 14. It will compete with similarly priced smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy F06 5G, Redmi A4 and Redmi 14C 5G from Xiaomi, Infinix Hot 50 5G, Tecno Spark 30C, and Lava Blaze 3 5G.

The base model of the Poco M7 5G is priced at Rs. 9,999, while the 8GB variant costs Rs. 10,999. Poco sells the smartphone in three colourways. But is this the best budget smartphone you can buy today? Read our Poco M7 5G review to find out.

Poco M7 5G Design: Hard to Spot the Differences

• Dimensions – 171.9×77.8×8.2 mm
• Weight – 205.4g
• Colours – Mint Green, Ocean Blue (Featured in this review), Satin Black

The Poco M7 5G has a 6.88-inch display and a considerably big phone. The lower half of the handset’s rear panel has a matte finish, while the upper portion (which also houses the 50-megapixel rear camera) has a smooth finish. The rear panel and the raised camera island are made of plastic, and the latter glitter when held at various angles.

Poco M7 5G has half-matte and half glossy rear design

If you’ve looked at the Redmi A4 from last year or the Redmi 14C 5G, the new Poco M7 5G should feel very familiar. All three phones have the same display size and dimensions, while the Poco M7 5G and the Redmi 14C 5G both weigh 204.5g. At a glance, the only way to identify Poco’s handset among these three models is to look for the half-matte, half-glossy design on the rear panel.

On the front, the Poco M7 5G sports an LCD screen with thick bezels at the top, left and right edges, and an even thicker chin. A waterdrop-style notch at the top houses the selfie camera, and the front of the smartphone is identical to the aforementioned Redmi phones.

The edges of the Poco handset are made of plastic, and there’s a volume rocker and power button on the right side, a USB Type-C port at the bottom, and a 3.5mm audio jack on the top edge. The review unit we received did not include a screen protector or a cover. You get a 33W power adapter, a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable, and a SIM ejector tool.

Poco M7 5G Software: Older Android Version, Preinstalled Apps

• Software – HyperOS
• Version – Android 14
• Latest security patch – January 1, 2025

The Poco M7 5G runs on Android 14, with Xiaomi’s HyperOS skin on top. It’s a little disappointing to see it ship with this version six months after Google released Android 15. The company says that the Poco M7 5G will receive two Android OS updates (which means its last major update will be Android 16) and four years of security updates.

The Poco M7 5G comes with a handful of preinstalled apps (Tap to expand)

The HyperOS skin seems to be optimised to run on the Poco M7 5G, and switching to the previous app and back feels smooth. The unit we received had 6GB of RAM, with a memory extension feature turned off by default.

Like other smartphones in this price segment, the Poco M7 5G includes a few preinstalled apps and games. These include Spotify, Snapchat, LinkedIn, WPS Office, Facebook, Word Scenery: Crossword, Jewels Blast, Tile Fun, and a couple of bubble shooter games.

They are located in folders called “More apps” and “Games” that also prompt you to install apps like Junglee Rummy, Ludo Supreme, MPL, and Dream11. These apps can be uninstalled, and the folders disappear after their contents are emptied. You will also need to disable advertisements on various system applications to prevent full-screen ads from showing up while opening these apps.

Poco M7 5G Performance: Good Value for Money

• Processor – Snapdragon 4 Gen 2
• Memory – Up to 8GB LPDDR4x
• Storage – 128GB UFS 2.2

There’s a 4nm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chip inside the Poco M7 5G — the same processor powers the Redmi 14C, and it comprises two Cortex-A78 cores (2.2GHz) and six Cortex-A55 cores (1.95GHz), along with an Adreno 613 GPU. The chipset is slightly more capable than the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 SoC on the Redmi A4, and it can handle popular apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).

The Poco M7 5G delivers performance on par with similarly priced smartphones (Tap to expand)

Games like Temple Run 2 and Asphalt Legends Unite run on the default settings without any issues. I also ran Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which ran fine on Smooth settings with the Ultra framerate option. The phone doesn’t have a gyroscope, so you’ll need to make adjustments while moving your character around in the game.

We also ran benchmark tests to see how the Poco M7 5G performs against rivals like the Redmi A4 5G, Moto G35, and the more expensive HMD Fusion, which also features the same chipset.

The 6.88-inch HD+ (720×1640 pixels) IPS LCD screen on the Poco M7 5G has a 120Hz refresh rate. While there’s an automatic mode that switches between 60Hz and 120Hz, you can also select one of the two manually. I enabled the Standard colour scheme in the display settings, which offered improved colour accuracy.

The display on the Poco M7 5G is bright enough for most outdoor scenarios

Poco says that the handset’s display has a peak brightness of 450nits (and 600nits in high brightness mode). The screen gets bright enough while outdoors during the day, except if you’re using the phone when it’s extremely sunny outside.

Poco M7 5G Cameras: Decent Daytime Photos

• Main camera – 50-megapixel (f/1.8), PDAF, up to 1080p/ 30fps video
• Selfie camera – 8-megapixel

A 50-megapixel primary camera on the Poco M7 5G with phase detection autofocus (PDAF) and an f/1.8 aperture. This camera delivers bright and sharp photos during the day, and colours are reproduced accurately. Images captured with the rear camera have a lot of detail, even when you zoom in.

Top to bottom: Samples from primary rear camera, 2x zoom, Portrait (Tap to expand)

The primary camera has a 2x in-sensor crop option, which allows you to zoom in on subjects that are further away. When there’s enough natural light, this mode can deliver decent photos of subjects that are slightly further away.

While shooting images with the Poco M7 5G, I noticed that the camera app is quick to capture images in the default mode. Unlike some other budget phones that take a moment to capture each shot, the Poco M7 5G saved each image as soon as I tapped the shutter button.

If you’re shooting images in low light scenarios, I recommend using the default photo mode (wherever possible) unless your subject is perfectly still or your surroundings are very dark. Images of animals and other moving subjects taken with the default mode have more detail (and more noise), but it’s preferable to the softening on images captured when Night mode is enabled.

Low light samples (Tap to expand)

The default camera app has two other modes — 50MP and Portrait. The former captures very detailed images and takes a moment to save before the camera is ready to take another shot. However, if you want to capture images with a lot of detail and don’t mind the extra storage required by these photos, I recommend using the 50-megapixel mode.

Without support for image stabilisation, the Poco M7 5G captures shaky videos during the day and night when using the rear camera or the front-facing camera. If you have a handheld gimbal, you might be able to mitigate this. You can record up to 1080p at 30fps using the rear camera and the selfie shooter.

Poco M7 5G Battery: A Day and a Half on One Charge

• Battery Capacity – 5,160mAh
• Wired Charging – 18W (USB Type-C)

The combination of the 5,160mAh battery and the efficient Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC on the Poco M7 5G is enough to deliver over a day and a half of battery life. This included a mix of calls and texting (with WhatsApp in companion device mode), some light gaming, browsing Instagram and X, and streaming videos on YouTube.

Poco M7 5G doesn’t ship with a case in the box

On our HD video battery loop test, the Poco M7 5G lasted for 23 hours and 10 minutes. Keep in mind that this is a synthetic test, so that the real world will vary based on actual usage. The phone ships with a 33W charger, but the handset can only be charged at 18W. It took around 1 hour and 50 minutes for a full charge.

Poco M7 5G: Final Thoughts

At Rs. 9,999, the Poco M7 5G is one of the most value-for-money offerings currently available in India. It offers support for 5G connectivity and has a familiar-looking design, and offers decent camera performance during the day. Battery life and charging speeds are also on par with other similarly priced smartphones.

It’s disappointing to see the Poco M7 5G launch with Android 14 when Android 15 has been out for several months when its biggest rival — the Samsung Galaxy F06 5G — ships with the latest version and is slated to receive four Android OS version upgrades. Other alternatives to the Poco M7 5G include the Redmi A4 (Review), Redmi 14C 5G, and the Moto G35 (Review).

ChatGPT Plus will be free to access for select users over the next few weeks, OpenAI announced on Friday. The AI firm’s ChatGPT Plus subscription tier typically costs $20 (roughly Rs. 1,700) per month, but eligible users won’t have to pay for access to OpenAI’s deep research and multiple reasoning models and limited access to Sora video generation. The lowest paid subscription plan lifts limits on messaging or file uploads, and image generation, while also offering limited access to Sora video generation.

ChatGPT Plus Free Access for Students to Remain Available Through May

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), CEO Sam Altman announced that the company will offer students in the US and Canada free access to ChatGPT Plus. This is part of a limited promotion that offers access to the paid subscription for free, until the end of May, and details of the promotion are available on the company’s support website.

In order to avail of the student promotion, students must be enrolled at a degree-granting school in the US or Canada. OpenAI requires users to verify their student status via SheerID’s secure verification system before claiming access to the complimentary ChatGPT Plus subscription. Students who are already paying for the service will get two months of access at no additional cost.

ChatGPT Plus Subscription Plan Benefits, Features

The free version of ChatGPT already offers access to ChatGPT-4o mini, along with limited access to GPT-4o and o3-mini models, while the Plus subscription offers access to deep research and multiple reasoning models. These include o1, o3-mini, and o3-mini-high. The paid subscription also offers access to a research preview of the GPT-4.5 model that was announced in February.

ChatGPT Plus also lets users upload more files, send more messages, and generate more images than users on the free tier. Subscribers also have access to the advanced voice mde with support for video and screensharing.

OpenAI also allows ChatGPT Plus subscribers to create custom GPTs and enables users to try out upcoming features on the platform. A subscription to ChatGPT Plus also grants limited access to Sora video generation, which isn’t available on the free tier.