Tecno Camon 30 Pro Review: Quite Surprising!

The mere mention of “budget smartphone” is usually enough to conjure images of contorted faces, confused chuckles and pearl-clutching reactions from a lot of smartphone buyers these days, and we can’t blame them – as midrange phones have continued to keep getting better, there’s little reason to go with the compromises found on cheap Android phones in exchange for a wallet-friendly experience.

But times have changed, and we’ve seen some interesting approaches to cheap smartphones in the past few years. Take for example the Tecno Camon 30 Pro 5G, which is priced at around $280. It’s not available in countries like North America as Tecno is targeting developing markets, and is instead set to take on rivals such as Xiaomi and Realme, which reign supreme in such regions. Is it worth spending your money on, however? Let’s take a look.

Tecno Camon 30 Pro 5G Specs:

• 6.78-inch AMOLED display; 1080 x 2436 pixels; 144Hz
• Android 14 (with HIOS 14)
• Mediatek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate; Mali-G610 MC6
• 12GB RAM, 256/512GB storage
• 50 MP, f/1.9 primary camera, 50 MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide, 2 MP depth, 50 MP, f/2.5 front camera
• 5,000 mAh battery; 70W fast-charging support

Design and Display

With a lot of smartphones featuring rounded designs nowadays, the Camon 30 Pro is one of the few devices which feature more rectangular designs, something akin to the Pixel 6 series and Sony Xperia phones. The phone is sleek with a metallic finish on the side, and our review unit features a leather-like material on the rear panel. There’s no ingress protection unfortunately, but overall it’s a solid-feeling device with a lightweight profile.

The Camon 30 Pro’s display is a pleasure to look at, and the sharp resolution in addition to the 144Hz refresh rate make it ideal for content consumption. There’s not much to complain about here, although the in-display fingerprint reader often gives me trouble when trying to unlock the phone, leading me to use my lock code instead.

Internal Specs and Software

One of the biggest highlights of the Camon 30 Pro is the Dimensity 8200 Ultimate chipset, a 4nm SoC which beats inside the heart of the handset. It’s accompanied by 12GB of RAM which made for a very smooth user experience during my time using it. Navigating the user interface felt very fluid, and app stutters were far and few – for a budget smartphone, it offers smooth day-to-day usage.

For software the phone runs on the current Android 14 version, although this does come layered with HIOS, Tecno’s custom Android skin. Similar to other UIs such as HyperOS and Color OS for example, HIOS offers a decent amount of customization options which allow users to adjust how they want their phone’s interface to look like. It does come with pre-installed third party apps, some of which you can’t uninstall unfortunately.

As for battery, the phone packs a large 5,000 mAh cell inside, which can charge pretty quickly thanks to 70W fast-charging support. It’s enough to last most users a day, although gaming and data usage for example will take their toll on the battery.

Camera Performance

Unlike other phones in its price segment, the Camon 30 Pro manages to take some surprisingly good-looking photos. As someone who uses his phones for casual photography, photos on the Camon 30 Pro featured decent contrast, with color tones that while not too saturated don’t look dull either (although they do lean towards a warmer look). Highlights weren’t too blown out either, even in outdoor photos with bright sunlight.

For low-light photography, the camera is capable enough, although don’t go expecting the best-looking results – images tend to have a somehwat soft look to them at times, with a bit of noise especially in dark scenarios. Check out some photos below (and yes, the watermark was turned on by default).

Final Thoughts

In closing, it’s safe to say that for a phone in its price bracket, the Tecno Camon 30 Pro ticks all the essential boxes – a good-looking screen, decent camera, beefy battery and capable chipset all add up for a good user experience, and Tecno fans looking for an upgrade will want to consider this one.

There are some considerations of course, such as the troublesome in-display fingerprint scanner, the presence of third-party bloatware, and the lack of any IP rating. But compared to what it gets right and considering its target audience’s needs, Tecno has a winner with the Camon 30 Pro.