TECNO Camon 17 Pro recently launched in the country. We’ve been using it for a good amount of time, taking through its paces in our first impressions review and camera performance review and now we get to check out how it generally stacks up in our full review.
Before we begin, here’s what you get in the TECNO Camon 17 Pro’s box:
- the device
- 25W power brick and USB-C charging cable
- a set of earphones
- Sim ejector tool
- a plastic case
- a screen protector
- warranty card
Design
TECNO Camon 17 Pro is incredibly built with a perfect balance of beauty and quality. It sports a 6.8 FHD+[1080 by 2460 pixel resolution] Dot-in display with peak brightness at 500 nits.
As we’ve seen in smartphones launching in this price category, TECNO included 90Hz refresh rate that makes it more enjoyable to use the smartphone thanks to the smooth scrolling and animations when gaming, opening apps, switching apps, browsing the web and scrolling through your social media feeds.
At the back, we have a quad setup includes a 64MP main camera, an 8MP wide camera, 2MP depth and a 2MP monochrome sensor.
TECNO CAMON 17 PRO TECNO Camon 17 Pro Back Cameras TECNO Camon 17 Pro selfie camera TECNO Camon 17 Pro 90Hz FHD display
The vertically aligned camera bump sits at the top left. There’s a quad-LED flash next to it.
Rounding out the design, you’ll find the volume and power buttons to the right, and TECNO went with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that’s baked into the power button for quickly unlocking your smartphone.
The fingerprint reader works unerringly fast and is located where your thumb naturally rests on the side for quick access.
You also have face unlock too for biometric authentication. Both methods are reliable in day-to-day use.
At the bottom, we have a type-C charging port, microphone, headphone jack and speaker grille.
Working in tandem with the earpiece at the top bezel, you get stereo sound that you’ll love when you want to watch a movie, listen to music or podcasts. It gets loud enough without distortion to serve your multimedia needs.
The display is huge enough with minimal bezels and sufficiently bright for outdoor use and you’ll enjoy using the phone form gaming, binge-watching and scrolling the web or social media.
The back has a glossy finish that gives the Camon 17 Pro a premium aesthetic vibe. The smartphone also comes in various head-turning colours including California Dream Silver and Malibu Blue.
Software and Performance
TECNO also decided to max out on the internal specs of the Camon 17 Pro. There’s a laundry list of top-of-the-line specs. We get Helio G95 processor, Mali G76 GPU coupled with 8GB RAM and 256GB of onboard storage.
The TECNO Camon 17 Pro levelled up in terms of performance during the past few weeks I’ve had the device as my main driver. You’ll never have to worry about performance with this smartphone – no matter what you need to do.
Camon 17 Pro ships with the latest software from Google and TECNO. You are getting Android 11 and HiOS 7.6.
HiOS 7.6 comes with a new modern layout with a minimalist visual experience and new features like Peek Proof, App Twin, Video Assistant, Improved Smart scanner with document correction, Phone cloner, among others.
HiOS 7.6 boasts improved features and is leaner compared to other past versions. It’s refined with new visual tweaks but the user interface is still intrusive with the bloatware and unnecessary app suggestions for you to download. I had to uninstall the apps that came with the phone and disable others. It’s worth noting you’ll need to install a third-party launcher to enjoy using the phone.
Android 11 brings new privacy and security features including improved handling of app permissions for the camera, microphone, and location, scoped storage, and auto-reset permissions for apps you haven’t used in a while, Nearby Share, ability to pin apps in the share menu and scheduled dark mode, powerful media controls, seamless updates, Multitasking pane, improved autofill, suggested apps, biometric authentication, among a host of other useful features.
TECNO Camon 17 Pro delivers unquestionable performance in just about any use – be it light, mixed or heravy use. You’re going to be able to throw anything you want at this smartphone and you’ll never see any lag or slowdowns.
I was playing PUBG mobile with its highest settings(HD graphics and ultra frame rate) and TECNO Camon 17 Pro handled the intense graphics without breaking a sweat.
This also includes other graphic intense games including Critical OPS, Grimvalour, Dead Trigger 2 and the occasional bouts of playing Ninja Arashi. All at 90Hz.
Other day to day tasks are handled smoothly and the 90Hz display makes the TECNO Camon 17 Pro feel fluid. Browsing the web, checking out long reads, replying to emails, switching between the apps, scrolling Twitter and Instagram was so responsive.
Battery Life Performance
When I say TECNO went all in on their latest smartphone – they didn’t stop with just the RAM and storage – TECNO Camon 17 Pro also has a beefy 5000mAh battery.
With all this battery capacity, I didn’t have to worry about the Camon 17 Pro running out of juice before the end of the day.
With heavy use, I was averaging six and half hours of screen-on-time. On days I wasn’t taxing the phone, I was getting close to 8 hours of screen-on-time.
With battery optimization features shipping with HiOS 7.6, you can definitely push this phone to a day and a half of use.
And when you do need to charge the phone, there’s 25W type-charging that can get you from empty to 58% in 30 minutes. 19 minutes can get you from empty to 41%.
From 5% to 100% can take close to 73 minutes.
These charging speeds show that you don’t need to leave the TECNO Camon 17 Pro plugged overnight.
Generally, I didn’t have any shortcomings with the TECNO Camon 17 Pro battery performance.
Camera Performance
We’ve already done an in-depth review of the TECNO Camon 17 Pro in a previous article which you can read here.
I’ll give you quick rundown and overview here:
TECNO Camon 17 Pro sports five cameras – a quad setup at the back and centtred punch-hole selfie camera.
The quad setup includes a 64MP main camera, an 8MP wide camera, 2MP depth and a 2MP monochrome sensor.
In the top middle of the 6.8″ display is the 48MP front-facing camera housed inside the punch-hole cutout. We have a dual-LED flash at the top bezel too.
Aside from the hardware features, TECNO brought in new AI-powered photography and videography features to play around with when using the TECNO Camon 17 Pro.
There’s SuperNight mode(for both selfies and regular nighttime shots), Time Lapse, Slow Motion, Film Mode with customizable video templates with themes surrounding travel, sport, party, performance, street, family and more. These templates come together with a variety of transitions, camera movements and music choices in the Film mode.
WITH THE TECNO CAMON 17 PRO, YOU ARE GETTING PHENOMENAL PHOTO AND VIDEO QUALITY FROM THE SELFIE AND REAR QUAD CAMERAS
Sample shots are also available in the link provided above.
With the TECNO Camon 17 Pro, you are getting phenomenal photo and video quality from the selfie and rear quad cameras.
I was generally pleased with the overall results of the TECNO Camon 17 Pro cameras for both photos and videos.
The TECNO Camon 17 Pro has been properly equipped better than before to handle any picturesque and once-in-a-lifetime moments and memories you’ll encounter, be it photos or videos – great for sharing on social media platforms.
Verdict
TECNO Camon 17 Pro is a midrange standout with its maxed-out hardware and software features. You are getting a feature-rich smartphone with great value thanks to its reliable hardware, modern design, lightweight chassis, high-quality high-resolution 90Hz display, stereo sound, consistent camera performance, trustworthy battery life performance to give you a great overall smartphone.
Pricing and Availability
TECNO Camon 17 Pro is available online and in TECNO’s official retail stores countrywide(check here) for Ksh 30,999.
Its smaller sibling, the TECNO Camon 17 goes for Ksh 19,799.
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