TECNO has refreshed its camera-centric lineup of smartphones in the country with the launch of the TECNO Camon 19 series, including the entry-level Camon 19, the Camon 19 Pro and the Camon 19 Pro 5G.

After teasing the Camon 19 series during the unveiling of musician Otile Brown as their new brand ambassador and chief creative officer early this month, the company has officially announced the new series that includes a 5G version.

TECNO Camon 19 series succeed the TECNO Camon 18 Series from last year and feature new upgrades.

All of them feature 1080p High Gamut 6.8″ screens with the Camon 19 having an LCD screen and the Pro and the 5G version having AMOLED screens with a 120Hz refresh rate.

The TECNO Camon 19 series come with elegant designs. They’ve already scooped several awards including the iF Design Award 2022 in the product and telecommunication categories for its product design and the MUSE Design Award for Product Design Silver award for its exceptional craftsmanship.

Under the hood, all of them run on MediaTek chipsets with the Helio G96 and Helio G85 powering the Pro and the regular version while the 5G version has a Dimensity 810 chipset.

They come packing different RAM and storage configurations too – expandable via an external microSD card.  19 Pro has 256GB of onboard storage with 8GB of RAM and support for up to 5GB of virtual RAM while the regular Camon 19 has 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM with the same virtual expansion support up to 3GB.

All of them ship with Android 12 and HiOS 8 .6 straight out of the box.

HiOSS 8.6 is a continuation of TECNO’s ethereal, fluid and smart brand aesthetic with enhanced UI and a new set of features.

The regular Camon 19 has a 5000mAh battery and supports 18W fast type-c charging while the Camon 19 Pro packs a larger 5000mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. Its predecessor had a rather smaller 4750mAh battery.

TECNO Camon 19 and the Pro version come with 64MP main rear cameras in the dual ring setup. The Pro has a 50MP portrait camera with 2X optical zoom and a 2MP bokeh lens. The non-pro version has a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP AI camera.

The Pro version’s main camera has OIS support and uses an industry-first RGBW+G+P lens for ‘Bright Night Portrait’. TECNO says that the switch from plastic to glass lens increases the light intake by more than 208%.

Apart from the usual modes such as beauty, Portrait and super night – you also get a new fun Sky Shop mode that lets you change the sky in the background of a photo and you can choose between sunny, rainbow, azure sky, starry, galaxy and more

For selfies, we get a 32MP front-facing camera.

The non-pro version has a 16MP selfie.

Kenyan independent R&B singer, songwriter and guitarist Otile Brown(Jacob Obunga) who is the Chief Creative Officer and Brand Ambassador for the just-launched TECNO Camon 19 series was also present.

“The Camon 19 series has the true-tone portrait mode that shows a clear picture of the subject being taken especially in the low light environment and at night,” said Kenyan Photographer Thandiwe Muriu.

TECNO has also partnered with the 48Hour Film Project to showcase the Camon 19’s content creation capabilities.

Other personalities present during the launch included Maureen Waititu, Pascal Tokodi, Bridget Shigadi, Nick Mutuma and Joy Kendi.

We’ll be taking all of them through their paces in our upcoming reviews, so stay tuned.

Pricing and Availability

The TECNO Camon 19 series smartphones are available at any of TECNO’s official retail stores countrywide, Safaricom’s official retail shop and online at Masoko, Jumia and Kilimall.

• TECNO Camon 19 Pro 5G: Ksh 41,599
• TECNO Camon 19 Pro: Ksh 33,799
• TECNO Camon 19: Ksh 23,499

Here’s a full list of TECNO’s official retail stores in the country.