Tecno launched the Camon 20 series in the Kenyan market last week, the series consists of Camon 20 Premier 5G, Camon 20 Pro 5G, Camon 20 Pro and Camon 20. The Camon 20 series is the successor to Camon 19 which was launched last year.
We took the Camon 20 Pro out for a spin, and these are our thoughts.
Build
The Tecno Camon 20 Pro measures 6.37 x 2.93 x 0.31 inches which I found to be generally comfortable in the hand. It comes with a polycarbonate back which Tecno refers to as Magic Skin that gives phone a unique and premium look while ensuring that there are no fingerprint smudges.
The Camon 20 features a 6.67-inch screen with minimal bezels giving the phone a screen-to-body ratio of approximately 87 per cent which means more real estate for viewing. It has a high definition 1080 X 2400 resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio which translates to 395 pixels per inch density. This coupled with a 120 Hertz dynamic refresh rate and a 360 Hertz sampling rate gives you a crisp and responsive display that you will definitely enjoy.
The screen has an IP rating for dust and water resistance, but we would advise you not to take it swimming. It has a screen protector out of the box, which will at least protect the device from scratches.
The selfie camera is located at the top side of the screen with the top edge featuring a stereo speaker, the left edge has the sim card tray that can house two nano-SIM cards. While the right edge features the volume up and down rocker plus the power button. The bottom of the phone holds a earphone jack, a stereo speaker, Type C charging port and a microphone. The back houses the triple camera setup and led flash.
Performance
The Tecno Camon 20 Pro runs on the Android 13 operating system straight out of the box and a Hios 13 interface. However, the Camon 20 will be among the first devices that will receive the Android 14 upgrade. It also comes with some preinstalled apps, however, these can be disabled or uninstalled with ease.
Under the hood, the Camon rocks a MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, which is a pale comparison to the MediaTek Dimensity 8050 processor on the Camon 20 Premier but it gets the job done. For gaming, it uses the Mali-G52 GPU which is adequate for games which are not very graphic intensive.
It has 256GB of internal storage and 8 GB of RAM and Android’s latest memory fusion (virtual memory extension) that enables the phone to increase RAM by an extra 8GB by taking space from the storage. Given these specs, I did not experience any lag while using the phone be it while streaming, switching between apps or even gaming.
Camera
The Camon series of phones have been touted as being camera first and the Camon 20 did not disappoint in this regard. A combination of three cameras at the back, 64MP wide+ 2MP depth+AI cam, and the 32MP selfie camera with HDR work to create photos which are sharp and detailed.
With shooting modes such as Film, Video, AI Cam, Portrait and Night, smartphone photography enthusiasts are spoilt for choice. What’s more, both sets of cameras can shoot videos in 1080 pixels up to 30 frames per second.
Check out the photos.
Battery
The Tecno Camon 20 features a 5000 mAh non-removable battery supported by an 33Watt flash charging power brick. This means that it can fully charge the device from 0 to 100% in under 1 hour.
A user gets a full day’s heavy use from a fully charged battery, so everything from listening to music, to reading and browsing as well as gaming is possible. While moderate usage can give you two to three days.
Conclusion
You should definitely buy this phone if you are looking for a device with excellent cameras and good battery life. The Tecno Camon 20 Pro is retailing at Ksh. 30,999 and comes in two colors that is the Predawn Black and Serenity Blue.