The TECNO Boom J8 is the second coming in TECNO’s music-centric Boom range. The first, the Boom J7, was a device that we love very much here at Mobility Arena. We loved the design, Boom Player and the impressive loudspeaker. But for some reason, the J7 just didn’t make as much waves as we felt it deserved. But the Boom J8 is here now and is looking to change that. Will it? Is this a Hallelujah moment? Come with me on this detailed review of the Boom J8.
Pros
– Slim, beautiful design
– Good battery life
– Comes with Boom headphone
– Extra functionality via HiOS
– Smooth/fluid user operations with nice transition effects
Cons
– HiOS needs polishing in a few places
– Lag in drop-down menu
Design
The Boom J8 is a well designed smartphone, but it is tiring how every smaller brand now produces one smartphone or the other that copy the iPhone’s design lines. The J8 is another iPhone-lookalike. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? You tell us.
The device is predominantly plastic with metal strips here and there. Or metal-like strips. Overall, it is a pleasing design.
The TECNO logo is imprinted boldly on the rear where the camera lens and LED flash sit. It has two micro SIM slots and one microSD card slot. The usual suspects are all there – 3.5mm port, microUSB port, volume buttons and power button.
Software
The TECNO Boom J8 is the first smartphone to run HiOS, TECNO’s new custom user interface. HiOS is light and fluid. Everyone who I handed the J8 to try out has liked the UI. For more details on how HiOS performs, see my earlier Review of HiOS.
Issues Encountered Using Boom J8
On a daily basis, I would get a pop up that says, “Messaging has stopped” or “Calendar has stopped”. As you can imagine, that became quite annoying. Sometimes, when such messages pop-up, whatever app I am using is terminated.
Also, on a number of occasions, I would create a contact and save it, but when I search through the Contacts app, the contact doesn’t exist.
Lastly, when you swipe down from the top to pull down the drop-down menu, there is a very noticeable lag before the menu responds.
These are in addition to some of the stuff I have already mentioned in my HiOS review. I suspect that these issues may be from HiOS needing more polishing.
Music On The Boom J8
The Boom J8 is sold as a music smartphone. A Boom headphone even came with our package. So, does it live up to expectations? I would say Yes to that. First up, Boom Player is just as good as it was a year ago. Even better now, it allows discovery of music videos too. Which is cool.
But all sorts of apps have been added to enhance the music experience of the J8. There is Boom Maxx, a standalone app that lets you choose various preset audio quality settings. You can create yours too, if you like.
Boom Player has all the standard features you would expect from a music app, plus it lets you find music and videos by African artistes conveniently. It also notifies you of new music when they are available.
What of audio reproduction? After all, what is the point of all the music discovery in the world if it sounds crappy? The builtin loudspeaker is only mono, but it is fairly, not very, loud. Audio quality of the loudspeaker is good too, but not outstanding. Where you get outstanding audio is when you plug the Boom headphone to the J8. Damn! The party really gets started then.
Camera and Photography
The Boom J8 sports a 13 megapixel camera just like its flagship sibling, the TECNO Phantom 5. However, this is not the Phantom 5. The camera is good but does not deliver as good as the 5. If you want a TECNO that takes outstanding photographs, you know where to look.
Performance
TECNO Boom J8 runs smooth for everyday tasks, but if you give it more demanding tasks, you will feel it struggle to keep up. Of course, that is expected in this class. It is no heavyweight. That Quad-core 1.3 GHz processor and 2 GB of RAM are just enough for everyday use.
We put up the J8 to the usual benchmark tests and came out with the following results:
- AnTuTu: 32,037
- GeekBench: 623 Single-Core, 1,807 Multi-Core
- Quadrant: 14,233
Battery
The Boom J8 has impressed us with battery life. We regularly get a full work day of use when connected to a WiFi network and slightly lower endurance if using a 3G network. When using 4G, we still got close to a full work day on it, having to top it off just once during the day.
Conclusions
This is a good phone. It is beautiful and it lives up to the marketing hype. However, HiOS needs fine-tuning. Those errors that keep popping up get annoying after a while. Hopefully, TECNO will fix them in an update. Don’t forget to check out the full TECNO Boom J8 specifications.
waiting to get a confirmation to those bugs fixed else i stick to my camon c8, mr mo, keep up your good work.
LOL
I am also waiting eagerly ooo
But, the phone is quite beautiful sha
Yeah, but by then it might be sold out o. who knows.
Sleek phone… Looks like phone for women
Hi, just wanted to know if tecno has pushed an update to fix that bug. Thanks
The HiOS should make updates easy to fix tho
Great Phone. I think Tecno Greatly Improved in this One.
I Concur with that too
Yes, they surely did….
I think the Boom J8 is an improved Version of the J7. Lots of features were added especially the Boom Player & The HIOS Manager. I need to get this Phone.
You are not alone on the thought.
This is a lovely review, you killed it.
With this, i think i am convinced to get this phone
I would love to try out this new UI
This definitely is my type of phone, my boo has to get me this
Let your boo get for me too. I don’t mind having another phone.
Why must your Boom get it for you, Can you get it yourself?
Mr ‘boo’ run for your life oO
Camera is so on point
It has been launched
oky guys no phone perfect i think j8 is oky
Yeah, you are right
Exactly. No perfect phone. But “[Bla bla app] has stopped” gets quite annoying. The j8 is quite good though, in terms of design, camera, speed, and this their HIOS thing. Also of course with superb sound output (as a music phone obvs).
I like it only because it is a music phone.
It is a music phone of course. Just like the boom j7
I cannot leave this blog without commending the review of the author. Balanced objective and very easy to read.
No Just the Music Phone, But the Camera and other features is on point.
The is the most complete Phone in the market for now, Tecno Really did a great job Here.
Well, You might be Right Judging from the Price and Sleekness. But I think there are more complete Phone In the Market.
I stand to be Corrected by my Comment, please mention One complete Phone in the market now.
To say that the phone is complete would mean overstating things please. It is a really nice Music Flagship Phone. Let’s leave it at that.
But why is the antutu benchmark for this phone always going higher sef
The music part of the phone is what is attracting me.
Not only you. And me too.
music is the medicine of the soul.
music rules the world
i know what tecno is up to
I just need that headset more that anything
Heard a lot about this HiOS…..i need to try it myself
The boom headphone is the selling point.
@dave unfortunately you can’t buy the headphone alone.
@jafin NO PHONE is ever complete!!
@Jayboy that’s very unfortunate indeed….
I’m loving the phone!
Tecno finished job by bringing out the headset concept.
The Real Second Coming!!!
C8 is grt buh J8 is Champion…Tecno all the way!
Lovely, honestly techno are really doing their best to stay sharp in business… nice project mehn….
Honestly I really like everything about the phone