The Tecno Camon 30 Pro Review is quite surprising!

The mere mention of “budget smartphone” usually elicits contorted faces, confused chuckles, and pearl-clutching reactions from many smartphone buyers these days, and we can’t blame them – as midrange phones have continued to improve, there’s little reason to accept the compromises found on cheap Android phones in exchange for a wallet-friendly experience.

But circumstances have changed, and we’ve seen some creative approaches to low-cost smartphones in recent years. Take the Tecno Camon 30 Pro 5G, which costs roughly $280. It is not available in North America since Tecno is targeting developing markets and will compete with rivals such as Xiaomi and Realme, who are dominant in those regions.

TECNO CAMON 30 PRO KEY FEATURES

Tecno launched the incredibly powerful Camon 30 series at the MWC in Barcelona, and we’ve been looking forward to evaluating them ever since. Following the flagship, the cameraphone Camon 30 Premier, comes the Camon 30 Pro. The Tecno Camon 30 Pro is a powerful smartphone powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate CPU. It has a big 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with 144Hz refresh rate. The phone comes with 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage.

The Camon 30 Pro, like the previous Camon 30 phones, has a distinctive design including a unique white texture with a leather-like finish and an indicator light next to the camera and flash.

In addition to the sleek design, amazing screen, and chipset, the Tecno Camon 30 Pro has three 50MP cameras: the main and ultrawide at the back, and the selfie cam on the front, all of which have focusing capabilities.

The Camon 30 Pro is powered by a 5,000mAh battery that supports 70W rapid charging. It is powered by the latest Android 14 operating system, which has been skinned with HiOS 14. The Camon 30 Pro even contains Dolby Atmos-capable stereo speakers, as well as other useful features such as an IR blaster, FM radio, and UD fingerprint reader. What the Camon 30 Pro lacks is ingress protection; even a basic level would have sufficed.

UNBOXING THE TECNO CAMON 30 PRO

The Tecno Camon 30 Pro comes in big paper packaging with a lot of freebies. Aside from the phone, you’ll discover a USB cable, a 70W power adapter, a gray case with a leather-like feel, and a tempered glass protector. Additionally, the phone has a pre-applied plastic screen protector.

But that’s not all. Depending on the market, you could also receive a pair of Tecno Buds 3 with powerful bass and noise cancellation during calls.

CAMERA

Unlike other phones in its pricing range, the Camon 30 Pro captures some unexpectedly nice photos. As someone who uses his phone for casual shooting, photographs on the Camon 30 Pro had good contrast and color tones that, although not overly saturated, did not appear uninteresting. Highlights were also not overly blown out, even in outdoor photographs in high sunlight.

The camera is adequate for low-light shooting, but don’t anticipate the best-looking results – photographs have a soft appearance to them at times, with a touch of noise, especially in dark situations. Check out the photographs below (yep, the watermark was enabled by default).

Finally, it’s safe to say that for a phone in its price range, the Tecno Camon 30 Pro checks all the right boxes: a good-looking screen, decent camera, beefy battery, and capable chipset all add up to a good user experience, and Tecno fans looking for an upgrade should consider this one.

Of course, there are some drawbacks, like as the inconvenient in-display fingerprint scanner, the prevalence of third-party software, and the absence of an IP rating. However, when it comes to what it does well and the needs of its target audience, Tecno’s Camon 30 Pro is a winner.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

With so many smartphones boasting rounded designs nowadays, the Camon 30 Pro is one of the few handsets with more rectangular forms, similar to the Pixel 6 series and Sony Xperia phones. The phone is elegant, with a metallic finish on the sides, and our review device has a leather-like substance on the back panel. Unfortunately, there is no ingress protection, but overall, it feels strong and has a lightweight profile.

The Camon 30 Pro’s display is attractive to look at, and the crisp resolution, combined with the 144Hz refresh rate, makes it excellent for content consumption. There’s not much to complain about here, however, the in-display fingerprint scanner frequently gives me difficulties unlocking the phone, forcing me to use my lock code instead.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

The Tecno Camon 30 Pro uses the same SoC as its Camon 30 Premier sister, the Dimensity 8200 Ultimate SoC, which is manufactured in 4nm. The Ultimate component remains unknown, as the specifications of the Tecno-marketed Dimensity 8200 Ultimate appear to be similar to the previously announced Dimensity 8200.

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. The Camon 30 Pro offers two memory options: 12GB/256GB and 12GB/512GB. Both options are relatively generous within this price range.

Tecno does not specify the type of storage used, however, our benchmark results suggest that it is either highly fast UFS 2.2 or slower UFS 3.1. Our review device was the 512GB variant, thus your findings may vary if you have the 256GB version.

It’s hardly surprising that the Camon 30 Pro behaved similarly to the Camon 30 Premier, given that they share the same design and technology. So, like its sibling, the 30 Pro struggles to maintain near-maximum CPU clock speeds, and we occasionally saw moderate throttling, which is not ideal.

However, the GPU stability proved to be quite strong, with the device maintaining 91% stability throughout the 3DMark Wild Life stress test.

Buy it if...

• The design is thin, light, and stands out, with a premium feel.
• Excellent camera performance overall, including selfies and videos.
• Excellent battery life and quick charging.
• Powerful midrange chipset.
• Default memory is 12GB/256GB, with an IR blaster.

Don't buy it if…

• The main camera’s automatic focus is occasionally unreliable.