TECNO Camon 19 Pro Review: A Game Changer for Fast Charging, Night Time Photography

Earlier in June, the TECNO Camon 19 was launched on the Ugandan market promising improved style and performance. The device which takes over from the TECNO Camon 18 that was launched last year comes in three variants i.e. Camon 19, Camon 19 Pro and the Camon 19 Pro 5G.

The device created a lot of buzz on social media streets and to get a personal opinion, I got a the TECNO Camon 19 Pro for my review.

If you would like to know what to expect in the box of the device, I performed an unboxing towards the end of July and you can read about it here.

For my review, I concentrated on examining only four components which I think would help one make a decision where or not to buy the Camon 19 Pro.

Display

The Tecno Camon 19 Pro has a 6.8 inch IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 1080 by 2460 pixels.

The fact that the Camon 18 Pro from last year came with Amoled display and the Camon 19 Pro was given IPS LCD panel is a mystery I have failed to understand. Why go through the trouble of making a monster device and end up giving it average display?

But anyway, before you write off the TECNO Camon 19 Pro’s display, it has one of the best IPS LCD panels I have ever seen and used. It’s very vibrant and contrasty and it’s good but despite all this, I still think Amoled would have been better.

It has a refresh rate of 120Hz and that makes scrolling and switching between apps very fluid.

I personally liked the size of the display. I like how thin and compact this smartphone is and using the TECNO Camon 19 Pro to consume media is actually very good. However, viewing content under direct sunlight is actually hard. You will need to use your other hand to block off the sunlight.

Processor

The processor inside the Camon 19 Pro is the Mediatek helio G96 processor. Not to confuse you, it’s the same processor that came with the Tecno Camon 18 pro last year. Another not so exciting discovery that one.

But important to note is that the Mediatek Helio G96 processor is a decent midrange chipset. It’s a 12 nanometer processor and that makes launching applications on the TECNO Camon 19 Pro fast, multitasking is fast and you are not going to experience any slowdown with this smartphone.

It also comes with 8GB RAM that can be expanded to 13GB of RAM true memory fusion and that helps in making this smartphone even faster.

For the mobo gamers, the Camon 19 pro can run games at HD graphics. You also have choice to run the game at smooth graphics and ultra-frame rate.

There are no lags as you play and the phone doesn’t get hot. As a gaming smartphone, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro would be a good choice. It only lacks dual serial speakers which most gamers would appreciate.

The TECNO Camon 19 Pro runs Android OS 12 with a HiOS verison of 8.6.

Camera

Moving to the cameras, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro has a 32MP selfie camera and in poorly lit conditions, it tends to smoothen the face.

When there is better light, it does an even better job in capturing the image. If you want to make the best of the selfie camera on this device, take your selfies outdoor.

The selfie camera has the video bokeh mode that blows out the background and keeps the face on focus.

The rear camera has a 64MP main camera, a 50MP telephoto camera and a 2MP depth camera.

The 64MP main camera takes good looking pictures at night, the colors look so vibrant but the star of the show for me is the 50MP telephoto camera.

It takes amazing portraits and the colors look so amazing. God knows I love this lens.

The Tecno Camon 19 Pro has a feature called the Skyshop and it works only for the rear camera. What it does is; it changes the way the sky looks. This was the first time seeing this feature on the default camera app of any smartphone.

You just point it to the sky, choose how you want the sky to look and you will be good to go. It can even make day time look like night.

Battery

The TECNO Camon 19 Pro comes with a 5,000mAH and the battery life is good for the time takes to charge to 100%.

As for charging, it took this smartphone 83 minutes to charge from zero to 100%.

The most exciting thing about its fast charging capacity is the fact that the smartphone battery can move from zero to 60% in 30 minutes. The last 40% is the one which takes a bit of time.

Judgement

Pros

  • The build quality is good although it doesn’t have the corning gorilla glass protection. (Read more about the build quality in my unboxing article)
  • The display is vibrant but it is an IPS LCD panel. Still confused why this decision was made.
  • Battery life and charging are exceptional on this smartphone.
  • It comes with 8GB RAM that can be expanded to 13GB of RAM, a 64 main camera that takes good pictures at night and a 50MP telephoto camera that takes excellent portraits.

Cons

  • The Mediatek helio G96 processor takes the lead on this front. It wasn’t an upgrade, it was a ‘sidegrade’ because the Camon 18 Pro had the same, I think we expected an upgrade.
  • Another con for me is on the display, I would have loved to see it with Amoled Display. Also the fact that I have to use my hand to block sunlight makes it a low side for me.