Tecno Slim 5G: Affordable, but not cheap

The Tecno Slim 5G is a very slim smartphone with a nominal height of less than 6 mm. It offers a bright 6.78-inch AMOLED display with 144 Hz and Gorilla Glass 7i. The housing combines a painted metal frame with a fibreglass back, which provides stability but shows wide and uneven gaps in some places.

Technically, it is a mid-range device with a MediaTek Dimensity 6400 SoC, 8 GB of RAM and up to 256 GB of storage. The device supports 5G, ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but does not support eSIM. The voice quality is decent, but the noise cancellation only works moderately well. A special feature is the FreeLink function, which allows the device to communicate via Bluetooth when there is no mobile signal.

The operating system is Google Android 15 with the HiOS interface, and an Android 16 update is planned, although updates will only be provided for a total of two years. The camera equipment consists of a 50-megapixel main camera with dual LED flash and a 13-megapixel front camera. Photos turn out well in daylight, but image quality deteriorates at night. The battery has a capacity of 5,160 mAh and provides good runtime, but takes around 111 minutes to fully charge with 45-watt charging, which is good but not outstandingly efficient compared to the slim competition.

Special extras include an LED strip on the camera module as a notification light, an optical fingerprint sensor in the display, an IR blaster and analogue FM radio.

All in all, the Tecno Slim 5G offers good value for money at around $200 with some premium features, but remains mid-range in terms of technology and shows weaknesses in build quality, update support and camera quality in low light conditions.