TECNO unveiled the Camon 19 series in late June this year and we have used both of them extensively since then. The new phones include a Camon 19, Camon 19 Pro and Camon 19 Pro 5G.
TECNO Camon 19 series succeed the TECNO Camon 18 Series from last year and feature new upgrades.
We’ve taken the TECNO Camon 19 through its paces including a first look review, a comparison review with the OPPO A57 and Samsung Galaxy A23 and a dedicated camera performance review.
This review is an in-depth look at the Camon 19’s features and we share final thoughts.
DESIGN
TECNO Camon 19 ships with the lovely build quality and elegant design. 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.
TECNO Camon 19 comes in three colours including Eco Black, Sea Salt White, and Digital Green.
Camon 19 has a more boxy design with a matte-like finish rocking the Star Diamond Twin-Camera design.
The phone is lightweight coming at 198 grams. The phone is narrow and tall and the compact size is easier to manage.
On the left is the sim card slot for a Dual nano-sim card and a dedicated MicroSD slot for external storage.
On the right is the volume rockers and the power button within which a fingerprint reader has been embedded.
The fingerprint reader is much easier to access and was consistently quick and accurate during my time.
Face unlock is included too as another form of biometric.
The phones make use of the earpiece together with a downward-firing speaker to create a stereo effect which is fine for casual listening.
Camon 19 rocks type-C charging port, headphone jack, and dual microphones at the top and bottom.
The front sports a 6.8-inch 1080p High Gamut brilliant and sharp LCD display that dazzles. The vanilla version sadly comes with a 60Hz refresh rate while the pro has a 120Hz refresh rate.
The screen offered a large canvas for consuming multimedia content – playing games, browsing websites and watching movies.
TECNO Camon 19 felt great to use and use and certainly looked the part of premium smartphones.
PERFORMANCE
The Camon 19 is a snappy performer. It comes wielding MediaTek’s Helio G85 processor and Mali-G52 GPU paired with 4G of RAM and 128GB of storage. With MemFusion tech, you also get up to 3GB of virtual RAM.
You are getting 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 interface comes revamped with new designs including a new notification shade/ quick settings toggles. Swiping down from the right side of the screen pulls the quick settings panel while swiping down from the left side brings the notifications shade.
The change in accessing the quick toggles can be so annoying but it’s efficient for glances.
The revamp spills over to the colours, shapes, light and motion of HiOS elements. HiOS 8.6 brings richly designed icons, vivid interactions and lively wallpapers. HiOS 8.6 also has new security and privacy protocols from Za-Hooc Security Solution 2.0 such as Peek Proof, Anti-theft Alert, Pop-up blocker, App Twins with Fingerprint, and Privacy Auth.
AI gallery now has features like Pic Film, Video Editor, and Visha Player among others.
The bloatware is unnecessary and you can easily uninstall or disable most of the apps.
You get all the sweet Android 12 features such as an updated privacy dashboard, revamped new widgets, direct share, scrolling screenshots, enhanced privacy indicators, smarter auto-rotate, redesigned power menu, and redesigned lock screen, share Wi-Fi passwords with Nearby Share, and more.
HiOS 8.6 misses out on one key Android 12 feature – Material You Theming which picks colours from your wallpaper and customizes elements of the operating system with that colour.
TECNO has promised to upgrade the Camon 19 to Android 13 later this year or early next year when the new OS becomes available.
In everyday use, the regular Camon 19 is as fast and smooth. You are getting more than enough performance for day-to-day apps and games.
Camon 19 chugged along just fine without any slowdowns – you’ll just have to dial down on the graphic settings when you decide to play demanding games.
BATTERY LIFE
TECNO Camon 19 has a 5000mAh battery and supports 18W fast type-C charging.
The Camon 19 charges slowly as it takes 39 minutes to go from 2% to 41% and an hour and a half from 2% to 85%.
Switching between moderate and light use, you can go up to two days. I was getting up to 8 and half hours and between 11% and 20% left in the tank.
CAMERAS
Now let’s focus on the highlight of the photography-focused Camon lineup.
Both Camon 19 and the Pro version ship with 64MP main rear cameras in the dual ring setup. The Pro has a 50MP portrait camera with 2X optical zoom and 2MP bokeh lens while the non-pro version has a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP AI camera.
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.
Housed in the punch-hole cutout is the 16MP selfie camera.
NOW READ: TECNO Camon 19 Camera Review: Competent Performer
TL;DR The TECNO Camon 19 is not far off from its Pro version when it comes to how its cameras perform and is just as capable.
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.
