Tecno Camon 30 Premier: Comprehensive Review

The Tecno Camon 30 Premier smartphone is widely anticipated and boasts several outstanding features. Tecno’s Camon 30 Premier boasts some high-end features that outperform its pricing point. In this review, we’ll look at the device’s essential features, including as performance, photography capabilities, and overall user experience.

The Tecno Camon 30 Premier runs HiOS 7.6, which is based on Android 11. This user-friendly design provides a fluid and intuitive experience. The smartphone includes a variety of pre-installed apps and features, such as a fingerprint sensor, face unlock, and a dedicated gaming mode.

The Camon 30 Premier has 128GB of internal storage, which is more than enough for your apps, photographs, and movies. The device also supports expandable storage, which allows you to enhance storage capacity even more.

TECNO CAMON 30 PREMIER KEY FEATURES

Indeed, the specifications sheet indicates that the Camon 30 Premier’s main feature is the camera hardware. The device includes a powerful triple 50MP camera array on the back, as well as an AF-enabled 50MP selfie camera.

The main 50MP camera has a nice 1/1.56-inch sensor, but the 50MP, 2.76″ periscope telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom is probably more striking. The two cameras are supplemented with another 50MP ultrawide unit, while the front features a rare find: a 50MP selfie unit with AF capability.

The display department is not forgotten either. Some flagship options do not include LTPO OLED panels, while the Camon 30 Premier does. It features a greater resolution than typical, supports HDR, and can reach a 120Hz refresh rate. The Dimensity 8200, a superb upper-mid-range solution, is responsible for driving all those pixels. The only memory combination offered is 12GB/512GB, therefore the lack of a microSD card port may be overlooked. As for the battery, it’s business as usual: 5,000 mAh with rapid 70W charging, which we expect to be pretty competitive.

Before we continue, the design and construction require a little note. The Camon 30 Premier may not have the best ingress protection (just IP54), but it does have a sturdy design with a Gorilla Glass 5 front sheet and an aluminum chassis with a hint of vegan leather.

TECNO CAMON 30 PREMIER UNBOXING

The device comes in regular retail packaging with user instructions, a USB-A to USB-C connection, and a 70W charger. Tecno also includes a protective silicone shell with an apparent metallic ring around the camera island.

Our review device came with the Tecno TWS Buds 3, which were purportedly part of the retail package and not offered separately. Tecno advertises that the headphones have an interesting added feature that allows you to use them as a camera remote – a double tap takes an image.

CAMERA

The Tecno Camon 30 Premier is an upper mid-range smartphone with a focus on photography, as evidenced by its hardware. The device has a triple 50MP camera arrangement, including a reasonably large main sensor and a massive 50MP sensor for the telephoto camera, which sits behind a periscope. The latter enables smartphone manufacturers to integrate larger sensors into confined space.

Interestingly, the telephoto camera is the same as in the Xiaomi 14. The sole difference is that the latter’s arrangement does not include a periscope, and the zoom reach is 3.2x rather than 3x. The selfie camera is also upgraded, with a 50MP sensor and autofocus functionality. An uncommon find not only in this price bracket but throughout the smartphone industry.

In addition to the already outstanding camera hardware, the Tecno Camon 30 Premier is advertised as the first smartphone to have Sony’s specialized CXD5622GG image chip. It aids computing for photo processing, although we doubt it will completely replace the MediaTek 8200’s own ISP. Overall, the camera hardware appears promising on paper, so let’s see how it performs in the real world.

The handset produces good daylight images with plenty of information, sharpness, wide dynamic range, and slightly conservative color reproduction. Foliage can be rubbed away on occasion, although the cause is difficult to determine. Noise is kept at bay even in more difficult indoor situations, for example.

Tecno’s additional processing adds some sharpness, and you can see some sharpening halos around the edges of houses, trees, and greenery. It’s not immediately noticeable, but we believe it’s a beautiful rendering. Shadows can be a bit dark at times, however this is a small issue. Focus hunting was also an issue in some circumstances.

The ultrawide camera is softer than the other two, but it remains rather stunning in comparison to competing alternatives. We saw a comparable rendition to the primary camera, with less detail, poorer color saturation, and a slightly narrower dynamic range. Highlights are sometimes cut, and shadows are crushed in some settings. Still, the performance is superb, and the faults mentioned aren’t significant.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

The Camon 30 Premier is designed to have a high-end feel and build quality, and we believe Tecno has succeeded. Sure, the handset only has IP54 ingress protection, and the Gorilla Glass 5 sheet on the front isn’t the most recent, but the overall build and materials are fairly sturdy.

The side frame and a little section of the back are constructed of aluminum, while the majority of the back panel is vegan leather. However, the eco-leather feels different than usual. It has a delicate, soft-touch texture that feels great but isn’t particularly gripping. The available colors are Alps Snowy Silver and Hawaii Lava Black. As evidenced by the photographs, we have the former.

Despite the handset’s understandably heavier weight, it doesn’t feel heavy in hand. It’s also thinner than expected, measuring 7.9mm without the camera bulge. The flat side frame is slightly bent toward the borders, creating a smooth transition between the rear and front panels.

The Tecno Camon 30 Premier’s display outperforms its price point. The handset’s 6.77-inch LTPO OLED panel has a resolution of 1264 x 2780 pixels. This is an above-average resolution for the pricing category, as well as a rare LTPO panel that allows for precise refresh rate customization. We also enjoyed the relatively slim bezels all around. They offer the phone a more modern appearance and feel. The screen supports HDR and Widevine L1, allowing you to stream high-quality videos from services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

The Tecno Camon 30 Premier is powered by the popular HiOS 14 custom Android overlay, which sits on top of the Android 14 operating system. Unfortunately, Tecno does not specifically promise any software updates, so we are unsure how long the handset will be relevant. Still, at least one more major update is presumably on the way.

Anyway, the SoC is meant to be a direct successor to the Dimensity 8100, although the specifications sheet indicates that it is a whole new device. Instead of a 4+4 core design, the 8200 uses a more modern 1+3+4 combination. The primary core, clocked at 3.1 GHz, remains Cortex-A78, while the second cluster of three Cortex-A78 cores is clocked at 3.0 GHz. The energy-efficient cluster of four Cortex-A55 cores operates at 2.0 GHz. The GPU, however, remains unaltered from the previous version, with the Mali-G610 MC6.

Interestingly, Tecno only offers one memory option: 12GB/512GB. We must acknowledge, however, that it is a generous one. We tested the storage speed, which is most likely a fast UFS 2.2 or a slower UFS 3.1. Tecno does not reveal the technical specifications, so we are kept in the dark here.

The Dimensity 8200 is a difficult chip, yet the gadget handled it rather well. During a one-hour test, the CPU maintained 73% of its performance under intense loads, which is better than some Dimensity 8200-equipped competitors, but we’ve seen better.

Buy it if...

• The design is thin, light, and stands out, with a premium feel.
• Energy-efficient 120Hz LTPO OLED.
• Excellent camera performance overall, including selfies and videos.
• Excellent battery life and quick charging.
• Features one of the loudest speakers available and a promising CPU.
• Default memory is 12GB/512GB, with an IR blaster.

Don't buy it if…

• Minor difficulties with focusing on the primary and telephoto cameras.
• The display might be brighter.
• Uncertain software support.

FULL SPECIFICATION