TECNO Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition Review: Artsy Midrange Performer

TECNO Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition is finally here. It joins the Camon 19, the Camon 19 Pro and the Camon 19 Pro 5G. This is the more artsy edition and here’s what you get in the box.

the device
33W power brick and USB-C charging cable
a set of earphones
Sim ejector tool
a plastic case
a screen protector
warranty card

DESIGN

The first thing you’ll notice is how light this phone is and switching to the front is the bright 6.8” 1080p display.

When put against its Pro sibling, the Mondrian Edition is relatively brighter which means you can use it better when you’re out and about for checking social media or binging shows on it.

It also rocks a 120 Hz refresh rate for more smooth gameplay and animations when scrolling and interacting with the overall phone’s interface.

Coming to the side we have the side-mounted fingerprint reader and volume rockers on the side, a type-c charger, headphone jack, microphone and bottom-firing speaker that works well with the top speaker to offer a stereo sound when consuming multimedia content.

From the name, the Camon 19 Pro Art Edition pay tribute to Dutch painter Piet Mondrian and his form of abstract art which features a grid-pattern composition of horizontal and vertical lines in the form of squares and rectangles.

TECNO partnered with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) to make this edition which uses the industry’s first ‘Sunlight Drawing’ technology with the stylistic art form, allowing the phone back colour to change with the light.

TECNO interpreted his style with pastel shades when the phone is under the sun or UV light.

This polychromatic photoisomer technology is an innovation which uses the breakage and recovery effect of the chain of photosensitive molecular bonds under ultraviolet light, making colourless molecular groups become chromogenic and then revert to colourless. The process breaks through the technical limitations of single-colour or dual-colour discolouration, and realizes for the first time the industry ideal of “making mobile phones not only a technology product but also a work of art.”

The TECNO Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition has collected two international design awards, the 2022 MUSE Design Award from the US and the A’ Design Award from Italy.

CAMERAS

Like the Pro version, we get the same 64MP main rear cameras in the dual ring setup and a 50MP portrait camera with 2X optical zoom and a 2MP bokeh lens. You also get OIS support and the Mondrian edition uses an industry-first RGBW+G+P lens for ‘Bright Night Portrait’

You can also access the 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 selfie lovers, we get a 32MP front-facing camera.

Overall, most shots came out crisp and well-exposed with plenty of detail and little noise. Photos come in nice colours and details. You also get a decent dynamic range but some scenes challenge the phone. The colours are vibrant which most people will love especially if you’re sharing with family or friends or on social media, no editing is needed.

Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition performs well even in low light – so you can depend on it on your night-out adventures.

It has the same camera performance as the Camon 19 Pro which we’ve already accessed in our in-depth photography performance.

Here are some samples taken on the Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition:

Selfies and Portraits and Lowlight

Regular Shots

PERFORMANCE

Just like its big sibling, we get a Helio G96 chipset paired with 256GB of onboard storage with 8GB of RAM and support for up to 5GB of virtual RAM.

The CAMON 19 Pro Mondrian Edition easily keeps up with daily tasks and some more when you add in mobile gaming. The high refresh rate and the top RAM and storage combo makes using the phone so enjoyable especially when multitasking.

Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition ships with Android 12 and HiOS 8.6 straight out of the box. It will get the Android 13 update later this year or early next year.

Now Read: TECNO’s 5G Phone Brings Android 13 Ahead of the Pack

BATTERY

For power, the Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition has a 5000mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging which means you can charge from 0% to 75% in under an hour. Screen-on-time was averaging 8 hours on heavy use and can easily be a two-day phone on light and medium use.

VERDICT

The new and appealing design complements the Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition’s other features and makes for a perfect phone to pick as it matches beauty with performance – giving it a personality of its own.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

The TECNO Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition goes for Ksh 35,000 and is available at any of TECNO’s official retail stores countrywide, Safaricom’s official retail shop and online at Masoko, Jumia and Kilimall.