Tecno Camon 16 Premier Review: Built For Performance With a Perfect Display

Barely four months after launching Camon 15 Premier, Tecno Mobile announced, the Tecno Camon 16 Premier to succeed it. On Oct. 14th, the smartphone manufacturer collaborated with telecom operator, MTN Uganda to unveil the phone, in its series. The collaboration sees Tecno customers receive 3GB of mobile data for 3 months if they purchase the Camon 16 Premier. In addition to this, customers also get 100% bonus on all bundles they activate for 90 days.

Having received the Camon 16 Premier, brief we can say that the phone was designed for great performance which it delivered. For the price it is tagged, is worth it even though it will be too much for a majority of the customers.

We reviewed the device extensively to understand how well the Tecno does behind the curtains of all the hype, and we were not at all disappointed, well, almost.

Design, Build and Display

The Tecno Camon 16 Premier can be categorized under high-end devices. It built with plastic frames and the back is plastic as well while the front is glass. It feels totally solid and sturdy when held —weighs about 200g. The phone features a large HDR10+ display at 6.9-Inches with a screen resolution of 1080 x 2460 pixels.

The device has the power and volume buttons on the right, a sim tray with dual SIM support and a dedicated memory card slot. The headphone jack appears at the bottom, along with a microphone hole, a single speaker grill and a USB Type-C port.

The display here is praise-worthy. It is vivid and bright, enough to be used outdoors and while you might have to struggle with text a little under the direct sunlight, the phone is still fairly usable. We applaud this. Viewing angles are great too. The display given that it’s HDR10+ gives a more realistic view, and better HDR experience. It is able to bring out the blacks and whites clear, as well as the saturation and luminance —giving users clear brighter colors.

Overall to us, the design, build and display is an A+ for this kind of phone.

Cameras

The cameras especially the rear are another perfect build (probably). The rear cameras of the phone sports a 64MP f/1.9 wide sensor, 8MP ultra-wide sensor, 2MP dedicated video sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. The camera performs well outdoors, average indoors and fairly when the flash is used.

The default AI camera will automatically take care of most of your shooting needs, and the options to switch between the three lenses lies on the right edge. The portrait mode gives good shots —brings out the bokeh well but you’ll have to get used to taking a while to focus on the subject.

The front-facing camera comes in a punch-hole format housing two sensors; a 48MP and 8MP and a powerful dual-led flash assisting which is somehow almost invisible, hidden within the thin bezels. Selfies are good thanks to the 48MP with an aperture of f/2.2. The low-light shot photos are not that great but also not an issue.

Shooting videos on this phone was a good experience. The front cameras shoot full HD at 1080p which is not bad considering most handsets are still in 1080p format. The rear camera on the other hand goes up to 4K at 30fps and this impressed us a lot. It is also able to shoot at 1080p at 30fps and 720p at 960fps if you want space. 4K footage consumes a lot of storage space.

4K recording is the next big thing for recording videos today, though earlier it was the only FullHD resolution. Tecno upgrading to this is because the Camon 16 Premier has a powerful processor and its cameras come with higher resolutions.

Software

The phone runs on the Android 10 coupled with the HIOS 6.0 interface. The skin is not the lightest but its not bulky either. It doesn’t slow down your device, instead giving you tons of customizations like themes and cool transitions. There is a little bloat on the device but most of it can be uninstalled. Little things in the interface like the screenshot editing options available right after you take one made us momentarily question our love for stock android.

Performance

The Tecno Camon 16 Premier is mostly built to offer consumers great performance. It is powered by the 12nm Mediatek Helio G90T chipset, and an octa-core processor running at a maximum of 2.05GHz and coupled with the 8GB of RAM, this ensures a snappy phone with smooth animations, transitions and scrolling, even in content heavy. The phone does well with multiple apps running at once and switching between them.

Gaming performance is surprisingly well on the phone. While there are drawbacks in heavy games like PUBG Mobile like the unavailability of the ‘high’ framerate option, running the game on the available settings ensures a decent gameplay experience.

There are a few rare frame drops occasionally but they shouldn’t hamper your experience. Overall for us, this device gives good performance.

Battery Life

Battery life is everything on a phone and for a consumer —it gives value for your money. The Li-Po 4500mAh non-removable battery on the Camon 16 Premier delivers over a day and a half or two of juice on a single charge if you’re a moderate or light user while heavy users might get a single day. There’s fast charging on the device and were able to get 65% in 38 minutes. It is enough juice as it can push you throughout the day. Overall, this is definitely a thumbs up.

Verdict

The Tecno Camon 16 Premier is an excellent device for the price, we have no doubts for that. It offers great performance (general performance) on the software, camera and all other departments. The device often flies through heavy usage and multitasking at near-flagship-level speeds. The UI is not too cartoonish and hits the right amount of balance between being clean and packed with features.