Content
- Video review
- Equipment and design
- Software
- Camera
- Performance and Benchmarks
- findings
After leaving the Russian market of the majoritymanufacturers of smartphones formed a vacuum. Few people dare to fill it, but Tecno is trying - the company calls our country a "strategically important market" and is actively gaining a foothold in retail. Moreover, against the backdrop of a stronger ruble, smartphones are imported in a roundabout way with a huge margin, the company decided to turn to its advantage by continuing direct deliveries and setting the price almost at the official rate. As a result, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro camera phone can be bought for only 17,990 rubles. Let's see what he can do for this money.
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Tecno Camon 19 Pro Specifications |
|---|---|
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G |
| Firmware | Android 12 with HiOS 8.6 |
| Screen | 6.8″, 2460x1080 pixels, 20.5:9, 120 Hz, touch 240 Hz, IPS |
| Chipset | MediaTek Helio G96, 12 nm CPU: 2 x A76 x 2.05 GHz + 6 x A55 GPU: Mali-G57 |
| Ram | 8 GB |
| ROM | 128/256 GB |
| SIM and memory card | Two SIM + microSD slots (triple tray) |
| Camera | Main: 64MP, 0.8µm, RGBW, f/1.7, PDAF, 1G+5P optics, OIS, 1440p@30fps video recording Depth sensor: 2 MP, f/2.4, fixed focus, 3P optics telephoto: 50MP, 0.64µm, f/1.98, PDAF, 50mm, 6P optics, 1080p@30fps video recording |
| Selfie | Screen hole, 32MP, 0.8MP, fixed focus, 5P optics, 1080p@30fps video recording |
| Battery | 5000 mAh |
| Charging | USB Type-C, 33W |
| Wireless interfaces | Wi-Fi Bluetooth GPS FM radio |
| NFC | there is |
| Biometrics | Fingerprint scanner (side) |
| Sound | 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Water protection | Not declared |
| Dimensions and weight | 166.79 x 74.55 x 8.58mm |
Video review
Equipment and design
I don't remember what Tecno's boxes looked like before,but I liked the Camon 19 Pro box. And not only with its design, but also with the package: the smartphone itself, a USB cable, a 33-W charger, a protective film, a SIM needle, documentation and a case. The case is quite simple, they didn’t even put the Oraimo logo on it, but for the first time it will do. The sides around the screen and the camera are made.
Tecno designers often look for inspiration inquite unexpected places, and now one look at the Camon 19 Pro is enough to feel the influence of Huawei / Honor on its appearance. The thinnest frames, a slightly turned upward earpiece, flat ends, cameras in two circles - all this is borrowed from one source. But this is by no means bad, and coupled with the unusual plastic processing on the back, the smartphone looks unusual and very beautiful. I'm talking about polar blue; I don’t know how the black version looks, but on renders it looks expensive and strict. But the most winning option is the checkered photochromic Mondrian Edition. If you want to stand out with a smartphone - feel free to take it.
Flat ends are usually bad news forergonomics, but here Tecno did their best by providing small roundings to the screen and back. As a result, the shape of the body does not cause any discomfort to the hands. And in general, ergonomics are good - the protrusions of the cameras are far enough and do not interfere with the grip, the lock button with a finger scanner is at a comfortable height. The scanner itself isn't the best, but it's very fast and accurate enough not to piss you off.
Of the other little things on the ends, I will note the USB portType-C on the bottom panel, a 3.5 mm audio jack in the same place and a triple tray (2 x nano-SIM + microSD) on the left side. There are no stereo speakers, music plays only from the bottom end of the phone. Vibro is standard, not "taptik".
The screen of Tecno Camon 19 Pro is large, although Tecnosometimes it was larger – 6.78″. The aspect ratio is 20.5:9, which is very close to cinematic 21:9, so the movie will be almost as enjoyable to watch as it is on Sony. The panel resolution is 2460x1080 pixels. And, oh happiness, it's IPS! Moreover, it is of high quality - with sufficient brightness (I had no problems with it outdoors) and without color distortion when tilted. The screen refresh rate is 120 Hz, but in order to see it not only in the interface, you need to enable forced 120 Hz in the settings. When the battery charge is below 30% - always 60 Hz. The touch is 240 Hz, and there are no tricks here, it always works like that.
Software
Tecno Camon 19 Pro runs on HiOS 8.6 firmware.The Tecno shell with each update is becoming less African-oriented and more and more friendly to Russian users, which is good news. Separate rudiments remain - for example, Boomplay's proprietary audio streaming, where some track in Arabic tops the pop music chart, "Hagy Wagi" of the Giants children's ensemble and Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance with Somebody, has not disappeared anywhere - but in general, everything is becoming used nicer.
The only negative point is that it got worse withperformance. If earlier HiOS flew on any, even the most retarded hardware, now there are occasional jams even on the rather powerful stuffing of Tecno Camon 19 Pro. Well, the screenshots told the rest for me.
Cameras
The rear camera of Tecno Camon 19 Pro is triple.Let's talk about the modules in turn, good, two of them are quite interesting. The main one, for example, has a resolution of 64 megapixels and is based on a custom Samsung GWB sensor. Judging by the characteristics, this is the good old GW1, but with a changed color filter structure: Quad Bayer RGBW is used instead of Quad Bayer RGGB. This means that some of the pixels do not have a color filter at all (“white” pixels), which allows them to capture much more light. Well, information about color, type, and other pixels is enough. In addition, OIS was brought to the main camera - it seems that such a combo should give a gorgeous result at night. What about in practice?
In practice, Tecno Camon 19 Pro shoots well,but, it seems to me, it does not fully reveal the potential of the iron that it has. About half of the pictures look like they were taken with a smartphone for 30-40 thousand rubles, and not at all with a budget. Good, adult footage. And the second half will cause a facepalm even for an unprepared viewer. Tecno Camon 19 Pro will either fail the color reproduction (mostly it is AI trying, and you just need to turn it off once and for all, but sometimes the pictures are strange even without AI - perhaps the algorithms can’t cope with RGBW), then it will suddenly set a long shutter speed and take a blurry photo, it will give a very, very dark frame even in night mode. In general, Tecno still needs to refine the algorithms for this camera, and the potential in it is hoo.
The second camera is a telephoto camera.Not strong, only 2x, but 50 megapixels (Samsung JN1) and… and in general, how often do you see televisions in budget phones? While other companies use JN1 as the main camera for smartphones for twenty, Tecno puts it in an additional module and gets excellent results. The benefits of the telephoto are obvious, the difference in detail is significant. In addition, the Samsung JN1 has a standard color filter structure, so old proven algorithms work with it, and color rendition is much more accurate than with the main camera. Well, as for the third camera, Tecno continues the genocide of wide receivers, so a depth sensor plug is adjacent to the main camera and telephoto. Please note that the 5G version of Camon 19 Pro does not have a telephoto camera, instead there is another plug; This model is not and will not be in Russia, but just in case, I’ll clarify.
The 32-megapixel front camera is good, you can't say anything about it.True, for the sake of narrow frames, I had to abandon the LED flash, which was Tecno's signature chip - but well, progress is relentless, and screen flash is usually enough.
auto - AI
auto - night
Video on the main camera can be written in1440p@30fps, there is a constant autofocus. During shooting, only OIS works, so the video sequence is not as smooth as we are used to, but generally without ghosting and other EIS artifacts. If you want maximum smoothness, turn on the stabilization mode, there is 1080p@30fps, everything is very smooth and doubles. At 1080p, you can also switch to telephoto, but there is no OIS, so EIS, that is, without Stabilization Mode, is indispensable. However, if you turn on the stabilization mode, switching between cameras as you shoot breaks down - either start the video right on the telephoto, or be content with digital zoom. In general, we are also waiting for software improvements from Tecno.
Performance and tests
Tecno is very conservative in its choice of hardware fortheir smartphones. The Camon 19 Pro is powered by the well-known MediaTek Helio G96, which we have already seen in the Camon 18 series and many Xiaomi models. This is a fairly successful chip - throttling is minimal in it, and the performance is enough to comfortably run Genshin Impact at medium settings, for example. Here is what the benchmarks show (this is the normal mode; there is a game mode, but it only affects notifications, etc., but not performance):
A little more about games.In PUBG Mobile, everything is fine with non-maximum parameters, but in SuperTuxKart, you have to lower the settings to 4/6 in order to play comfortably (at the maximum in the hourly test, the average fps was 32). If you prefer undemanding games like Brawl Stars or some kind of "three in a row", then there is nothing to worry about at all. Heating even under heavy load is minimal, hands smartphone feels a little warm. Moreover, the heat is distributed throughout the case almost evenly (albeit not immediately), which indicates a good heat dissipation.
Battery capacity Tecno Camon 19 Prostandard for modern budgets: 5000 mAh. In tests with maximum brightness, the smartphone was discharged by 19% in two hours of video and by 20% in an hour in the game. In everyday mode, you can safely count on 1.5-2 days, especially if you use auto-brightness and auto-hertz. It takes 1 hour 20 minutes to fully charge the complete unit, and half the smartphone is charged in 32 minutes, and up to 90% in 1 hour 2 minutes. So if you forgot to charge your phone at night, during breakfast and morning preparations, it will charge enough to get through the day with it.
Conclusions
Tecno Camon 19 Pro is a great option for 17,990rubles in retail. It has its drawbacks - they forgot the stereo, for some reason there is no width, and HiOS is still far from perfect. However, there are plenty of strengths: good IPS at 120 Hz that work in games, nice design, decent performance, as well as little things like a triple tray, NFC and an audio jack. As for the camera, as in the case of the Camon 18 Premier, Tecno tried to jump above its head - it turned out quite high, and the camera is really good for a smartphone for the money, but it feels like there is even more potential in it.
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© Oleg Lazarev.