Tecno Mobile last month launched its first set of smartphones this year, the Camon 19s —the first in the company’s pool of smartphones to come with 5G, the fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks.
The company unveiled four handsets; the Tecno Camon 19, Tecno Camon 19 Neo, Tecno Camon 19 Pro, and Tecno Camon 19 Pro with 5G, which will succeed its sisters the Camon 18 series that was launched late last year.
While launching the phones, Mr. Timmy Shen, Brand Manager at Tecno Mobile Uganda noted that “The Tecno Camon 19 series is the answer for consumers who are seeking premium smartphones that combine style and performance with an elevated photographic experience.”
Shen added that “We’re very proud to introduce the Tecno Camon 19 series and continue to reinforce Tecno’s commitment to exploring more possibilities in the fusion of technology, innovation, and design.”
Other than the 5G, the Camon 19 has received major upgrades including the display, processor, operating system, design & build, and cameras, to mention a few. Shen said they were very proud of the Tecno Camon 19 series and continue to reinforce their commitment to exploring more possibilities in the fusion of technology, innovation, and design.
The Tecno Camon 19s have been designed ‘for young fashionistas’ says the company. Well, indeed the company’s target is fashionistas including photographers and probably filmmakers overcoming the traditional challenges associated with photography in nighttime and low-light conditions.
Unboxing the Tecno Camon 19 Pro
Tecno keeps the same kind of packaging as previous Camon handsets but with a twist on how the accessories; the charging cable and the earphones are packed.
Unboxing the sealed box, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro seats on top, the accessories the 3.5mm standard earphones and USB Type-C cable packed in a separate box, 33W charging brick, a rubber transparent phone case, and a warranty card appear underneath.
Design, Build Quality, and Display
Tecno Camon 19 Pro has a standout design compared to its predecessors –it has a thicker body compared to the predecessors we have come to see which all have thinner bodies. It comes with a glass build with plastic frames which makes it look premium and stylish, the rear panel with a glass finish gives the user an interesting effect when the light hits it. Tecno does pay great attention to detail —symmetry. The front 32MP camera is centered in a punch-hole format and a unique design the company has added is a cut-out microphone grill on top.
On the sides, at the left is the microSD and sim card slot, while at the right is the volume buttons and the power button that also acts as the fingerprint sensor. And finally, at the bottom you get the usual design, i.e. the 3.5mm audio jack, mouthpiece, USB Type-C port, and speaker grille at the bottom.
At the back, you get the camera, they look stylish and not that intrusive. While the Camon 19 Pro has a trio-rear camera, the design only has two circles housing the cameras instead of three. The top circle houses the main camera 64MP, and the second circle houses the 50MP telephoto and 2MP depth cameras. The Quad-LED flash appears at the side of the cameras.
The phone has a 6.8-inch FHD+ display with a 1080p resolution which provides a comfortable viewing experience. The phone has a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate [and a 60Hz as another option] making the use of the phone swift and smooth. The 60Hz is self-explanatory, while 120Hz mode pushes all apps to use their maximum supported mode – 120Hz in most cases, 90Hz in some apps like Play Store, and 60Hz in video apps.
At the end of the day, Tecno did somewhat a great job on the Camon 19 Pro. We thought the phone had a solid build and a well-thought-out design — it is worth knowing that Tecno won the design 2022 award because of its outstanding design of the Camon 19 Pro.
The screen is bright enough and can be adjusted according to the ambient light and a very good indoors and is quite legible outdoors in direct sunlight. The phone’s display also supports a wide color gamut.
Software, Performance, and Battery
The Camon 19 Pro boots Android 12 with a layer of Tecno’s in-house HiOS 8.6. The company still insists on having pre-installed apps and utilities, and the app store still pushes a ton of notifications, nudging you to install the apps or games even when you don’t need them. If some of the third-party apps are bothering you with various notifications – you can disable those – either from within the annoying app or from the Notification settings but can’t be uninstalled.
For performance;
The Tecno Camon 19 Pro runs on the Helio G96 chipset by MediaTek same processor as the Camon 18 – which is perfect for the phone for its price and runs apps smoothly and gaming as well. The handset also packs two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores ticking at 2.05GHz and six energy-efficient Corext-A55 cores working at 2.0GHz. The chipset features a new GPU from the Valhalla generation by ARM – the Mali-G57. Unlike the previous G9x chips, here we have a dual-core configuration instead of a quad-core, so we expect some drop in the theoretical performance compared to the previous versions.
The phone is available in one configuration with 8GB RAM, 128GB as base storage, and 256GB onboard storage (expandable with a microSD card). Finally, the offscreen performance of the new GPU is passable. The 8GB RAM can be expandable to 11GB to give better performance.
Playing games on the Camon 19 Pro, we noticed a few lags and frame drops when playing heavy-duty games that consume so much of the phone’s memory. Games have good 3D graphics making your gaming experience even much better.
Multi-tasking was fine.
For battery life and charging;
The Tecno Camon 19 Pro is powered by a non-removable 5,000 mAh Li-Po battery, and it supports fast 33W charging. According to the test performance, it did a commendable job across all test scenarios including; video playback, calls, and web browsing, and demonstrated long-lasting standby performance.
When it comes to charging, the Camon 19 Pro comes with a 33W power adapter. It’s a 5V/3A, 10V/3.3A charger, not the most versatile one, obviously, but still – a fast one. The battery was able to charge from 0% to 60% in 30 minutes (as opposed to the 0% to 64% in 30 minutes advertised by the company) as a full charge takes nearly 65 minutes.
Camera, Photo, and Video Quality
One of the highlights of the Camon 19 Pro is the cameras. It comes with a trio-rear camera, a 64MP (wide) primary camera, 50MP telephoto, and 2MP depth cameras. The front camera is a single 32MP shooter.
Photo Quality;
Generally, the photos are alright and detailed enough under good light conditions because their contrast is good, the noise is low, and the excellent colors stay true to reality. The images aren’t as over-sharpened it is able to retain the natural look, especially when shooting in portrait mode. The dynamic range is commendable on most occasions (Auto HDR was on by default). The ultrawide camera gets ultrawide-angle and the photo results have accurate colors, and good contrast, and the noise is almost not noticeable if not zoomed in. With the telephoto camera, you’re able to zoom 30x however, the photo has so much noise, loses its natural look, and has no stabilization at 30x zoom. Under low-light settings, the photo appeared noisy and lost all details.
The last photo [billboard photo] is taken using the telephoto camera at 30x, and you notice the detail is all lost and appears blurred, and noisy.
Super Night mode is well, absurdly unnatural. The photos taken with this mode are punchier, and the highlights are restored, but there are all sorts of visible artifacts, and the contrast is visibly lower.
With the 32MP selfie camera, the photos turned out good but loses out on the natural look. The dynamic range is okay as well. The portrait selfies turned out good, too. They are detailed and colorful, with acceptable subject separation, though the faux bokeh could use some improvements.
Overall, the photo quality is okay.
Video Recording;
The cameras shoot videos at 1080p@30fps with stabilization. The footage is good — the contrast and the dynamic range are good.
Verdict
The Tecno Camon 19 Pro comes at the price of UGX1,201,000 and for that price, you get a phone with good specs and features, and the cameras do give great photos and videos, not the best you would see from high-end smartphones but a phone of its price range. The performance, in general, is a 4 out of 5, the refresh rate, the Helio G96 chipset, and the high-performance Cortex-A76 cores ticking at 2.05GHz and six energy-efficient Corext-A55 cores working at 2.0GHz. Thus, you could buy one if recommended.
