The Tecno Camon 11 is part of the Camon family but is however slightly different from its sisters. The Camon 11 has the distinction of being the first Tecno to come with a notch and A1 Cameras.
The phone was launched in November in Kenya and is retailing at Ksh. 14,999.
I was curious about the phone especially with the new additions and I was happy to get the chance to test drive it. Here are my thoughts on it.
Out of the box
- Tecno Camon 11 itself
- USB Charger
- Earphones
- Screen guard
- Back cover
- Warranty card
- User manual
- SIM port pin
Design
The Camon 11 is a bit more compact than its predecessors and it fits nicely in your hand when you hold it.
It has a plastic back that extends to the sides. The front is completely covered by the 6.2 inch screen.
At the back, it has 2 cameras on the left side and the fingerprint sensor is in the middle. On the sides, you will find the power button and volume controls on the right and the SIM plus memory card port on the left.
At the bottom, there is the speaker, charging port, mouth piece and audio jack. On the front of the phone (top), there is the earpiece, the front camera plus light.
Software
The phone ships with Android 8.1 (Oreo) operating software coupled with HiOS 4.1. It comes with the usual Google apps and others apps such as Boomplay, Carlcare, Eagleee News, Freezer, Visha among others.
I like that you can delete some of the apps that the phone comes with. However, there are some non-essential ones that you can’t delete which is annoying. There’s also an app that serves random ads on the homepage.
A software update for the phone has already been sent out which included a Google Security Patch and update of third party apps.
Tecno Camon 11
Screen
The phone comes with a 6.2 inch IPS LCD touchscreen that has 1500 x 720 pixels. It is quite clear and bright and it comes with an automatic feature that changes the screen brightness depending on your light situation. At 0% the screen is dull and you cannot really see or read anything on the screen well. It’s pretty visible in the sun. It comes with a eye care feature that provides soft light at night so that you don’t stress your eyes while using the phone at night.
The notch can be disabled by enabling full screen mode which blacks out the notch making it invisible.
Performance
The phone comes with a MediaTek Helio A22 processor with Octa-core 2.0GHz and PowerVR GE8320. It also comes with 3GB RAM. For normal operation, the processor and the RAM handle fine but it struggles with heavy use. The phone lags a bit when you have heavy apps working side by side.
Gaming works fine except that you have to quit other apps for it to work properly.
Storage
The 32GB internal storage the phone comes with is adequate. However you may need to continuously backup pictures and delete or add a memory card if you take a lot of pictures.
For my case, WhatsApp took up most of the space with pictures and video.
Battery
The phone comes with a 3750mAh non-removable battery. It gave me about 12 hours with light use and about 7 hours with heavy use. The only downside to the battery is that it charges so slowly so a powerbank with this phone is advisable if you move around a lot.
Camera
The phone cameras come coupled with AI technology to help you take better and clearer pictures. The Rear camera comes with Dual 13MP + 2MP with Quad flash and the selfie camera with 16MP plus LED flash.
The cameras features include:
- It shoots video in Full HD (1920*1080)
- It only shoots video in normal mode
- It can take pictures in 4:3, 16:9 and 18:9.
- It can take pictures to a maximum of 4160 x 3120 pixels.
- Pictures can be taken in AI CAM mode, beauty mode, Bokeh, and Panorama.
- It also has HDR, Portrait and Wideselfie modes.
Here are some of the pictures I took with the phone.
Final thoughts
For a phone with a retail price of Ksh. 14,999, the Camon 11 is actually pretty okay. It is a perfect mid-range device for those on a budget but still want a phone that works well and has fire selfies. Heavy users may struggle a bit but at that price, it is worth it.