Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
If you ’re free-base in the West , you belike have n’t heard of Tecno . It ’s a Formosan tech make aim at emerging markets , with a particular focus on Africa .
Tecno has been sink its toes into wide markets in early 2024 , with a couple ofnotable showingsat MWC in February . Now the brand has get going offer an intriguing new smartphone around for review to European outlets in the Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5G.
We should observe aright off the bat that this phone is n’t available in the UK , European , or US mart at the time of writing , so we ’re not going to be put up up a musical score . However , this is an interesting piece of kit , with some surprisingly in high spirits - end features at what come along to be a low - mid - range cost .
The Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5 G found in India at a price of ₹ 39,999 , which work out to about £ 380 . Direct currency conversions are n’t always useful , but it ’s deserving sharpen out that thePixel 8alaunched in India of late for ₹ 52,999 , which exchange fairly directly to £ 499 .
Suffice to say , with its flagship - killer pretensions and affordable pricing , we ’re getting clear-cut other - OnePlus vibraphone . Can the Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5 G live up to them ?
Design
In case you omit it from the intro , I get the gumption that Tecno is reach out for something swelled with the Camon 30 Premier 5G. That much is obvious the moment you take hold of it out of its box .
This is a phone that ’s trying to ace an ultra flagship aesthetic for a fraction of the cost , and you have to say it mostly pays off . It ’s quite a great phone , with a weight of 210 guanine and a heaviness of 7.9 mm , but it stops just unawares of feeling unwieldy .
The matted - sharpness metallic frame is middling standard at this point , but the use of a “ technical school - art Leather ” back is a bold decision . It looks like some kind of cross between a bathroom floor tile and some sort of animal skin ( it ’s neither ) , and experience nice and textured in the hand .
say back cover also curve out to cover a thick photographic camera discussion section . Talking of which , Tecno has gone for a showy carinate telephone dial environs for the photographic camera module , and there ’s a metal - effect credit card strip alongside it that looks better than it feels .
As Tecno notes on its website , the purpose is that the telephone “ feels like a classical camera ” . bring to that effect is a blood-red telling luminosity just next to the photographic camera , which can be assign to various role like incoming calls and video recording recording .
All in all , it remind me of theXiaomi 14 Ultra , which shoot for a standardized vintage photographic camera esthetic – albeit with a much more premium feel . Indeed , if the slightly atypical bezels and less soaked tolerances do n’t tip you off to the Camon 30 Premier ’s mid - range condition , then its miserable - level Corning Gorilla Glass 5 front and IP54 military rank probably will .
Screen
Tecno has fit the Camon 30 Premier with a large , sharp 6.77 - inch 1264 x 2780 ( aka 1.5 K ) AMOLED presentation .
It ’s got a maximal refresh rate of 120Hz , as you ’d expect these daylight even from an low-cost phone . It ’s also an LTPO gore , which you most certainly would n’t . This means the cover can smartly scale down to a much lower refresh charge per unit whenever the present task is appropriately inactive , and there ’s an always - on purpose that capitalises on that while the earpiece is dormant .
You also get a honorable top luminance of 1400 nits in high luminosity way ( HBM ) . You ’ll take to keep autobrightness engaged for this however , and I did n’t always get hold this to be the most dependable example .
It ’s not the most colour - accurate display either , and there is n’t the common alternative to switch over to a more natural sRGB - graduate colour schema in the options menu . It ’s a good silver screen , but its tuning might be a little gaudy for some .
You get an in - showing fingerprint sensor , and it ’s a satisfying example that worked dependably for me . That much should be table stakes by now , but you ’d be surprised how many phones on the more affordable end of the spectrum regularly resist to pick out my thumbprint .
There ’s a substantial set of stereo speakers here that get enough gaudy , and Dolby Atmos livelihood ensures warm separation and profoundness in bear out culture medium playback . As is ordinarily the case , they ’re a little lacking in bass , but lucidness is good .
Performance
The Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5 gigabyte course on a MediaTek 8200 Ultimate 5 1000 chip , which is a jolly capable mid - range runner .
Especially so when that bit is twin with 12 GB of RAM as monetary standard , as it is here . It ’s a more than solid specification .
In our benchmark test , the earpiece scored somewhere in the region of thePixel 7aand theSamsung Galaxy A55 , though it fall well short of mid - range champ like thePixel 8aand the Poco F6 .
It also go games well . I was able to crank the graphical options right up high on Wreckfest and Genshin Impact , and everything remained overnice and playable . Given that the chip has to labour a tart - than - average 1.5 K display , that ’s pretty good operate .
The Tecno Camon 30 Premier is ridiculously well equipped for storage too , with the only model coming with 512 GB straight out of the boxful . There are flagship telephone set that do n’t even propose such an pick , while most will only do so at a goodly agiotage .
Camera
Perhaps the most ambitious constituent of the Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5 gigabyte , on paper at least , is its camera system . It points to a company that ’s not contented to cede any ground in secure that ‘ flagship orca ’ moniker .
You ’re looking at an telling - sound triple-50MP camera set - up , led by a relatively large and able Sony IMX890 1/1.56″ independent sensor with an f/1.88 aperture and OIS . That ’s the same sensing element that you ’ll find in theOnePlus 12Rand theAsus Zenfone 11 Ultra , two capable flagship ( or thereabouts ) phones released in 2024 .
Now consider that one of those sensor is a consecrated 50MP 3x telephotograph . Such things are n’t uncouth at all on more affordable phones like this .
Finally you have a 50MP extremist - wide with a comparatively narrow 114 - point field of view , and a well - outfit 50MP selfie television camera with autofocus and eye - tracking – another component you would n’t expect to find on anything less than a flagship phone .
Tecno has offered quite a luck of expert babble in talking up its camera system , but this burden of it is that it employs a dual chip set - up , including the Sony Imaging Chip CXD5622GG , to enhance its shots .
Whatever the procedure , the Tecno Camon 30 Premier takes bright , vibrant gingersnap in most condition . In a side - by - side human face - off with the Pixel 8a it seemed to be more belligerent at pulling out item in shady arena and indoors scenarios ( food guessing take care spectacular ) , though it also tend to punch colours up a short too much compared to Google ’s mid - range champ . Fine item often was n’t as unspoilt either .
All in all , the Camon 30 Premier ’s main tv camera is equal to of obtaining good resultant , but Tecno could do with reining in its processing a little in future phones . Oh , and there ’s an obnoxious water line active by default .
Having that dedicated telephoto camera is a huge plus , though , and it captures squeamish , crisp 3x shots . radical - wide shots do n’t attain the widest slant , but they pack a square amount of detail , and the color tone is n’t a million miles off the main detector .
The front camera , too , is capable of capturing elaborated selfies , aid no end by the cellular inclusion of autofocus – another distinctly flagship - shape flourish . Skin tones look gracious and natural .
On the TV front , the Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5 G can seize 4 K footage at a silky 60fps .
Software
The Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5 G run a usance HIOS 14 UI on top of Android 14 , and it ’s very much of a piece with other such effort from Xiaomi and Honor . That is , it ’s perfectly smooth and functional , but passably ugly and overstuff with extraneous apps .
The initial need to sign up for a Tecno account is immediately grating , while the comprehension of two big rest home screen widgets is also somewhat off - putting . One provides contextual app suggestion that almost never surfaced the app I actually wanted to use , while the other is a weather condition widget that sit needlessly separate from the clock widget .
Drag down from the top and there ’s a fragmented notification bar that screams MIUI / HyperOS , with notifications to the left and a screen full of chunky mastery widgets to the right wing .
Another somewhat disheartening touch manifest when you hook left , where Tecno has replaced the Google Feed with its own selection of widgets ( latterly used apps , whole tone numeration , Aries the Ram custom , and screen time by default option ) .
The old matter of bloatware rears its head too . There ’s the usual duplicate web web web browser , a bespoke voice assistant awkwardly running alongside Google ’s , and a separate app computer memory ( ditto mark ) . There ’s a radio app , a smarthome app , a Themes app , and so on . Facebook comes preinstalled , as is too often the case .
There are also a couple of bothersome bug here . None were too serious , but for example the battery configurations filmdom initially defy to show me my projection screen on time figure , while I also noticed an case of the sound not cutting back in on the Disney+ app for a good 10 seconds after I ’d cranked the book up .
hurl in the fact that Tecno is only offering two software update and three twelvemonth of security patches , and it all amounts to a fairly underwhelming software offering . That ’s something that will ideally need to be addressed if Tecno is to expand into new markets .
Battery Life
Tecno has packed in a 5000mAh battery here , which is pretty standard for a heavy mid - ranger such as this .
I was able to get through a full day of light use with well over 65 % leave in the cooler , which suggests that two - day custom is a possibility if you ’re not too sonorous with the sensitive apps .
Even then , an 60 minutes of Disney+ cyclosis sap 6 % of a charge , while 30 minutes of light gaming on Slay the Spire corrode through 4 % . That ’s pretty adept going .
The Tecno Camon 30 Premier comes bundle with a 70W charger , which is a solid provision . In my experience , it was able to get from empty to 52 % in 15 minute , while a full guardianship took around 40 mo .
It ’s with a little disappointment that I observe there ’s no wireless institutionalise bread and butter here . Of course , this is n’t a uncouth inclusion for a mid - range phone , but the Pixel 7a and Pixel 8a both admit it , and its skip invariably breaks the flagship spell slightly .
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Should you buy it?
The Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5 G probably wo n’t be you much money , yet it has a complete triple - camera system with a dedicated 50MP 3x telephoto .
The UI here is rather messy and clearly non - strain , with a just amount of bloatware .
Final Thoughts
We ca n’t put up a final score for the Tecno Camon 30 Premier , as world availability has n’t been announced , so we do n’t have a Leontyne Price . However , it does enough to make us hope that either this or succeeding poser make their way to more territories .
Tecno ’s provision of a well - rounded camera organization , singular design , and becoming carrying into action makes it stand out as a potential ‘ flagship killer ’ candidate – specially if the mark can carry that mid - range pricing across .
As of now , the Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5 gigabyte is n’t sufficiently special to justify importing right now , particularly with its average software and strangely graduate display . But we ’ll definitely be keep on our optic on this brand from now on .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every fluid phone we review soundly . We apply industry - standard tests to equate feature of speech properly and we use the telephone set as our master gadget over the review period . We ’ll always say you what we find and we never , ever , bear money to go over a product .
find out out more about how we test in ourethics policy .
FAQs
Yes , you ’ll get a 70W charger in the box .
Yes , but only a fairly meagre IP54 .
Tecno is tender two full O upgrades ( up to Android 16 ) and three years of protection updates .
Test Data
Full Specs
