Tecno Camon i Review

8999

Tecno Camon i Price in India

8999/-

The Tecno Camon i brings with it a good display and good build quality. The camera and performance is however, lacklustre.

Tecno Camon i Rating 59100100

Our Verdict

The Techno Camon i is a well-built phone with a good display. If you plan on watching movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime on the go then the phone has a good display for you to enjoy content on. It has an 18:9 display as well. It is well built too. It will work well as a basic smartphone. However, the camera is lacklustre, and if the camera is a priority you can look at other smartphones in this price range. The battery life is underwhelming too and if you like playing graphically heavy games, this phone isn’t for you. Casual games like Charms King and Bubble burst work fine.

PROS

Well built
Good display

CONS

Battery life could have been better
Lacklustre camera performance in low light

Tecno Camon i: Detailed Review

Xiaomi continues to dominate the sub 10k market and for good reason. The company provides impressive hardware at an affordable price. A lot of companies have tried to impress audiences in the budget segment and today we have one more device – the Tecno Camon i.

Build and design

Kicking things off with the build and design, the Tecno Camon i brings with it an 18:9 form factor in a slim, well-built body. The back of the device is made of plastic but it is sturdy plastic giving you the impression that it’s a metal back and that is a very good thing. You have a fingerprint sensor in the middle of the back panel conveniently located. The top left has the single camera which has a slight bump. Personally, I don’t have a problem with the bump.

At the front, you have no physical buttons, just the display above which we have the front facing camera accompanied with a flash and the earpiece. The bottom has the single speaker grill along with the microUSB port and the top has the headphones jack. The display has bezels on all sides and for the price, that’s ok, not a hindrance. Considering how slim the phone is, it is easy to grip and use with one hand.

Overall, the Tecno Camon i is a well-built smartphone for the price that has the ability to withstand a few drops.

Display and UI

As we mentioned earlier, the smartphone has an 18:9 5.65-inches IPS HD+ Display with a resolution of 1440x720 pixels. The display is one of the highlights of the phone. It is smooth to the touch and above all, in our tests shows relatively true to source colours. Watching the Spider-Man Homecoming trailer on the device, we found that the reds looked red and the blue looked blue. The display has good white balance and good viewing angles too. However, this is limited to indoors or dimly lit situation. Outdoors, in the Delhi summer, you will struggle to see the display clearly. With a maximum luminance of 642 lux, the phone is bright enough to enjoy content on as long as you aren’t under direct sunlight.

Not all the apps have been updated to the new tall 18:9 form factor so be prepared to see black bars at the top and bottom for unsupported apps.

Coming to audio, the experience from the built-in speaker is lacklustre. The audio stretches at high volumes and you’d do better to use a pair of headphones to enjoy music, movies and games.

The Tecno Camon i runs on Android 7.0 out of the box skinned with Tecno’s Hi OS. For the most part, the UI is smooth until you get to some heavy multitasking. Personally, I think the icons in the UI look childish. You have the notifications and the shortcuts when you swipe down from the top of the display. You also have an app drawer.

Performance

If basic use is what you are looking for, then you will do OK with the Techno Camon i. The smartphone can run every day apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Messaging, etc. with ease and almost no lag. Heavy games will take time to load and multitasking with heavy apps will cause a slowdown, but like I said, if basic use is what you are looking for, the device will work fine.

When it comes to gaming, we played Asphalt 8 and Galaxy on Fire 3. Asphalt 8 was playable and the experience was ok. When there are a bunch of cars on screen the game lags but is still playable. Galaxy on Fire 3 on the other hand had quite low framerates. The game is still playable but not enjoyable. Light games like Charms King and Bubble Burst work fine on the phone. If playing heavy games on the go is a priority for you, then you are better off looking elsewhere.

Camera

The Tecno Camon i has a 13MP rear camera and a 13MP front camera. The camera is average considering the price point. In well-lit conditions, the camera clicks good images. Colours reproduced are nice but the images lack details upon close inspection. It will get the job done for social networking though.

Low light photos are plagued with noise and lose details. Don’t expect it to click great pictures on your trip to a nightclub.

Below are some image samples (resized for web)

Battery life

On our PC mark battery test, the device lasted for about 6 hours which is below average. If you are a casual user, then you may be able to get through a day of use. But if you are looking to play games, watch videos and behave like a social networking addict, then you will need to carry a power bank with you.