TECNO Camon 12 series of phones are here, and by here, we are referring to Kenya. The devices were announced a few weeks ago and hit other markets earlier than Kenya. As has been the case in the past, the Camon 12 is represented by three devices: the Camon 12, the Camon 12 Pro and Camon 12 Air.
We have been playing with the normal Camon 12 for a fortnight or so, and have already examined its offerings in an initial review, a deep camera dive and an overall review. It is an excellent device for the price and will win over its fans, mainly in the camera department, software speediness, and more than enough storage for your media files and matching RAM.
The Camon 12 Pro is for those who want more, and surprisingly, you only need to add KES 4000 (from the Camon 12’s) to own this baby. It is the same as the ordinary 12 but has more RAM (6 GB versus 4 GB), an in-screen fingerprint reader (the Phantom 9 has one too), and a Google Assistant button. Also, its selfie snapper is better in terms of numbers at 32 MP versus the 12’s already good 16 MP one.
Perhaps the star of the show is the Camon 12 Air. This is a device I thought was not going to hit our store shelves because we had wrongly speculated it was meant for other markets. It is also the cheapest of the trio and has a trick up its sleeve with a Dot-in display, which is a fancy way of saying the 8 MP front camera has been snuck under the display. This means this is the only member of the Camon 12 that has successfully avoided a notch (the other two have a tear-drop screen cutout), making it look cleaner and modern.
The Camon 12 series is backed up by large batteries at 4000 mAh each, meaning you are not going to have power issues even if you use them heavily. All are charged via micro-USB, and charge times are quite extended to over two hours or so. This is an issue we hope TECNO will address in the Camon 13 because we have seen cheap phones adopt some form of fast-charging. We are also looking forward to the manufacturer phasing out micro-USB for USB Type C.
And the displays need more pixels (they are currently at HD+), although they look just fine.
Now you ask, how much is TECNO asking for these phones? Here is your answer.
TECNO Camon 12 Air: KES 13,499
TECNO Camon 12: KES 15,499
TECNO Camon 12 Pro: KES 19,499
Is the price range attractive? Are you going to buy one?
