The Tecno Camon 19 Pro series was launched in June earlier this year and consisted of the standard Camon 19, the Camon 19 Pro and the Camon 19 5G. The Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition was launched in the Kenyan market earlier this month.
We took the phone out for a spin, and these are our thoughts.
Out of the box
The phone comes with.
- Protective case
- Charger + usb cable
- Earphones
- Sim ejector pin
- Warranty & user guide documents
Design
The Tecno Camon 19 Pro measures 6.57 x 2.94 x 0.34 inches. Being on the larger side of standard handheld devices, it sits generally comfortably in the hand. Depending on what functions a user is executing, it requires some dexterity to use one-handed considering it is on the taller side.
A combination of a slick frame and a textured back make the Camon 19 Pro relatively safe in the hand. The introduction of the silicone case it comes with on purchase, adds the thickness ever so slightly but improves on the grip. Its 204 grams weight rounds off the handling experience nicely – not too light, and not too heavy.
The Camon 19 Pro features its high Gamut 6.8-inch monolithic screen with no cutouts. Under the top edge of the screen is a 32MP selfie camera. The phone has one of the thinnest bezels in the business coming in at only 0.98mm. This gives the 19 Pro a screen-to-body ratio of approximately 88.2 per cent.
Browsing, viewing and gaming on the Tecno Camon 19 Pro is a delight with its full high definition 1080 X 2640 resolution at approximately 395 pixels per inch density. This coupled with the 19 Pro’s 120 Hertz refresh rate gives a crisp display which you will definitely enjoy.
Straight out of the factory, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro comes pre-installed with a screen protector. It does pick up scratches reasonably quickly though. A word to the wise, this phone does not like to share space in your pocket with anything pointy that can leave scratches on it. An aftermarket alternative would be a sound investment for this thin-bezel device.
The top edge has the earpiece, proximity and ambient light sensor as well as a secondary microphone for machine learning ambient sound.
The left edge features a sim tray that can house two nano-SIM cards. There’s no provision for internal memory expansion via micro-SD card.
The bottom edge houses a loudspeaker, the Type C charging port, a microphone and the 3.5 mm audio jack.
The right edge has a power button that also doubles up as a fingerprint sensor. Above that is the volume rocker.
Camera
The Tecno Camon 19 Pro is set apart from the competition when it comes to its cameras. A combination of four cameras, 64MP Bright Night Pro, 50MP Pro Portrait and 2MP Macro lens, and the 32MP selfie camera with HDR create some of the most visually appealing photographs.
With shooting modes such as Film, Video, AI Cam, Beauty, Portrait and Super Night, smartphone photography enthusiasts are spoilt for choice and are only limited by the stretch of their imagination. What’s more, both sets of cameras can shoot videos in 1080 pixels up to 30 frames per second.
There are additional frame ratio settings – that is 16:9, 4:3 and 1:1 for that extra creativity boost when it comes to composition. This also facilitates easier upload to social media platforms with a bias for certain image compositions.
Check out the photos.
Performance
The Camon 19 Pro runs on the Android 12 operating system straight out of the box and has HiOS 8.6 interface. It also comes with some preinstalled apps like Phoenix, Boomplay, Scooper News and some games which I doubt anyone would be interested in. However, these can be disabled or uninstalled with ease.
Under the hood, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro rocks a Mediatek Helio G96 processor. The chipset is built on a 12nm process node technology and has a maximum CPU frequency of 2.05GHz. For gaming, it uses the Arm Mali-G57 MC2 GPU which is adequate for games which are not very graphic intensive.
It has 128GB 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 5GB 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.
Battery
The Camon 19 series flagship continues the manufacturer’s rich history of pushing the envelope insofar as the battery is concerned. This device features a 5000 mAh non-removable battery supported by a 33Watt flash charging power brick. This means that it can fully charge the device in just under 60 minutes
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. Additionally, capturing videos and photos is also hassle-free with that much power.
Tecno Camon 19 Pro Specifications
Network: GSM / HSPA / LTE
Body dimensions: 6.57 x 2.94 x 0.34 inches
SIM: Dual Nano-SIM
Screen size: 6.8 inches
Resolution: 1080 x 2460 pixels
OS: Android 12
Chipset: MediaTek Helio G96 (12nm)
CPU: Octa-core (2×2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55)
GPU: Mali-G57 MC2
Internal storage: 256GB
RAM: 8GB + 5GB Virtual RAM
Main camera: Triple 64MP wide + 50MP telephoto + 2MP depth
Selfie camera: Single 32 MP
USB: Type-C 2.0
Battery type: Li-Po 5000 mAh, non-removable
Charging: 33Watts Flash Charging
Colours: Mondrian
Conclusion
You should definitely buy this phone if you are looking for a device with excellent cameras and good battery life. Also, the price point of Ksh. 35,000 will not leave a huge dent in your pocket.
Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition unboxing and first impressions