The Camon line of phones from TECNO has been around for some time. The series is known for its camera performance and has placed some good smartphone snappers in the hands of many people, especially in Africa where the Chinese phone maker sells millions of devices.
A few months ago, TECNO released the Camon 11 and Camon 11 Pro. Both were fantastic devices, and the manufacturer is building on the same momentum with the Camon 12. The successor of the Camon 11 was announced in an event in Hong Kong and is essentially composed of three phones: the normal Camon 12, Camon 12 Pro and Camon 12 Air.
As mentioned, the Camon 12’s upper hand is based on camera performance. It has picked a triple camera setup at the back with 16 MP, 2 MP and 8 MP sensors. One of the lenses allows wide-angle shooting (up to 120°). A depth sensor has also been included for portrait images. Similar to recent TECNO releases, the cameras are augmented by AI to adjust camera sets based on a subject and its surroundings for the best output.
At the front is a 16 MP selfie shooter with dual-tone flash. The Pro model has a 32 MP selfie camera. The Air model tones it down to 8 MP.
The screen is a large 6.52” panel (TECNO has not specified its resolution), which is the same size as the likes of the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019, among other competitors from the likes of OPPO. We hope these are FHD+ panels considering they are too big to be equipped with HD+ screens, considering TECNO shortchanged a lot of people with the Camon 11. In fact, cheaper devices from other manufacturers ship with 1080p panels. At least they have dropped the big notch of the Camon 11 series for a tear-drop cutout.
The normal Camon 12 has a large 3500 mAh battery. No details have been given about the size of the cells in the Pro and Air models. We will update this information as soon as TECNO gives us the numbers.
Local availability has not been revealed, but we are certain TECNO Kenya is prepping a local launch that will detail models that will be sold locally and their price.
The variants
Camon 12 Air
Memory: 32 GB ROM + 3 GB RAM
Camera: 8 MP selfie snapper punched in the screen, triple 16 + 2 + 5 MP main shooter
Processor: MediaTek Helio P22
Camon 12
Memory: 64 GB ROM + 4 GB RAM
Camera: 16 MP selfie snapper, triple 16 + 2 + 5 MP main shooter
Processor: MediaTek Helio P22
6.52″ 720p screen
Camon 12 Pro
Memory: 64 GB ROM + 6 GB RAM
Camera: 32 MP selfie snapper, triple 16 + 2 + 8 MP main shooter
Processor: MediaTek Helio P22
In-screen fingerprint reader
Google Assistant button
720p 6.4″ AMOLED screen