Tecno Camon 30SPro smartphone review

I try to review Russian or at least nominally Russian equipment, preferably from the mass market or available for purchase by individuals. Everything is quite simple: I myself am more interested in finding out how localized production is, whether it has its own operating system or the shell of some other system, how much it has been finalized in Russia. Or at least whether the technological design of the device was developed by Russian specialists. Sometimes you come across interesting foreign devices or gadgets, but this is rather an exception.

Just recently, when I was writing a review of the Huawei Nova 12s phone and the Huawei Watch 4 pro smart watch, I promised myself not to write about foreign gadgets anymore. But on the same day I was offered to review another Chinese-made smartphone. I thought about it and decided: why not. Moreover, I had never even heard of such a company. As they say, never say never. This is a review of the Tecno Camon 30SPro phone.

I want to clarify: there won’t be many graphs of performance tests and everything else, since I don’t like them and consider them uninformative for the mass user. Such things are of interest only to enthusiasts who like to compare devices, processors and video cards. In my opinion, people are more interested in user experience and usability rather than numbers and letters. Happy reading!

Introduction

Let's start with the company. According to the information on the Wikipedia page, Tecno Mobile is a Chinese manufacturer of mobile equipment. The company is focused on the African and South Asian markets, was founded in 2006 in Hong Kong and is part of Transsion Holdings. At the end of 2023, Tecno took first place in the supply of smartphones to Africa (its market share on the continent exceeded 40%). The company is also represented in Russia: for example, in a group on the social network VKontakte there are 500 thousand subscribers. The company's products are also available on Russian marketplaces. This is where my information about the company ends. I had never heard anything about her before.

About the smartphone

Now about the smartphone. The Camon 30SPro model from Techno, which I received for testing, has the following characteristics:

– MediaTek Helio G100 processor (8 cores);

– Parameters 164.64×74.64×7.75 mm;

– Screen 6.8 inches FHD+ (resolution 1080×2436, curved screen), AMOLED, 120 Hz;

– RAM 24 GB (12+12);

– ROM 256 GB;

– Front camera 50 MP (autofocus, dual flash); main camera 50 MP (1/156”, 2 MP depth sensor, dual flash);

– Battery 5000 mAh (45 W, fast charging, Type-C);

– Hi-Res Audio sound (stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support);

– NFC;

– Wi-Fi, Bluetooth;

– Mobile connection: 2G, 3G, 4G.

The phone's equipment is as follows: the phone itself, a USB-C cable, a charger with a USB connector, wireless charging, a case, screen wipes, a SIM card ejector and a user manual. The case is equipped with a magnet so that the phone can be placed comfortably on wireless charging. Android 14 operating system with proprietary HiOS shell.

I used the phone for 2 weeks, installed various programs, including games and video editors. The battery lasts an average of a day with moderate use (chatting on the Internet, making calls, watching videos on the way to work for about an hour). With constant communication, watching videos or long games, of course, battery life is reduced. The camera supports AI mode and shooting in 1080p 60 Fps or 2K 30 Fps formats. The declared 24 GB of RAM (12+12) and 256 GB of storage allow you to run quite demanding games, such as Fortnite and Standoff 2. I connected the Huawei Watch GT 4-187 smart watch to the phone. A nice bonus was the learning function for remote controls to control various devices.

Uploaded video from smartphone to folder There are not many of them, but I don’t want to upload them to hosting sites so that the quality isn’t cut off. The original photos are in the same folder.

Opinion

Equipment

I’ll start with the configuration, which, as they say on the Internet, is “expensive and rich.” Most manufacturers limit themselves to just the charging cord and plug, and the company with the bitten apple logo doesn't always include even that. The frameless display pleasantly reminded me of Samsung smartphones. The phone is quite fast, with such characteristics it should not slow down. I enjoyed playing various games on it. Now I play mostly on my phone with Aurora, I'm into retrogaming, but I also tried Alien Isolation, Devil May Cry (in gacha format), Arena: Breakout, Fortnite and Standoff 2. Alien Isolation was a little slow in a couple of places, but overall the game was going fine.

Design

As for the design, to be honest, I am not a designer and cannot evaluate the design. I don’t really like iPhone designs starting from 10 anymore. And if the phone doesn’t have a propeller and doesn’t have a knife stuck into it, I don’t pay much attention to the design. To me, the design looks standard for such a phone, the convex screen adds elegance, but overall, a universal design for both the office and some informal settings.

operating system

A few words about the OS. There’s nothing special to say about the OS, because I didn’t really go inside, the main functions of Android work, there are programs for which, of course, you need to register with your own account. And just like everywhere else, you can register through end-to-end Google account registration, which is what I did. By the way, to connect the Huawei Watch GT 4-187 smart watch you need to download a program from Huawei; the OS comes with its own proprietary program for smart watches by default, but it is for Techno watches.

Camera

The camera in the Tecno Camon 30SPro turned out to be better than on the Huawei Nova 12s smartphone, but when compared with the iPhone 11, the latter wins. The camera is more than enough for social networks, but my old iPhone shoots in 4K 60 FPS. Overall, the impressions were pleasant.

Gaming and other features

I liked the remote control learning feature. I didn’t like the lack of 5G – with such characteristics it would be nice to have it. By the way, regarding the Techno shell on Android, Retroarch did not install, perhaps due to the peculiarities of the HiOS shell. Of the two controllers, one did not work, I don’t know what this is connected with, perhaps with the ArtPlayLYNX 3 Fold itself, or maybe with my hands, but the second – Magic Ghost CUH-ZCT2E (bought for Plastation 4) worked and felt great . By the way, these controllers behaved exactly the same way with the Aurora.

Another interesting nuance for the phone holder on the joystick is that the power button on the phone is too close to the middle, so it needs to be moved a little to the left. Therefore, someone who is a perfectionist may become very upset.

The phone supports three marketplaces: Google Play, Palm Market and RuStore. And since the device was officially imported, all the necessary applications according to the requirements of Russian regulators are preinstalled. Sometimes this helps, since what is not in one market can be found in another.

Yes, by the way, about the protective glass, because of my crooked hands, the smartphone fell more than once, so a protective case was in order, but unfortunately, due to a slight fall, the cover of the case, also known as the protective glass, cracked in several places. It's not critical, but I couldn't mention it.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the phone has two disadvantages: the camera and the lack of 5G. Otherwise, the smartphone copes with its functions. For example, NFC works correctly. Writing about such functions that should work fine is a little strange. It is clear that NFC was disabled in iPhones for Russia, but it works in other devices, including Huawei. If you don't have a personal preference for mobile OS or platform, the Tecno Camon 30SPro may be right for you.

I also don’t like to discuss the price of a phone – expensive or cheap, for that price it’s normal. Phone price: * in DNS 23999 rubles. It’s up to you, dear readers, to decide whether the Tecno Camon 30SPro is worth buying. Personally, I would buy it, despite my skepticism about Android and shells. By the way, as soon as I return this phone, I’ll probably buy the same one for myself. Yes, contrary to popular belief, not all journalists, bloggers and reviewers are given devices forever and are also paid for reviews.

This is how the review of the Tecno Camon 30SPro turned out. Thanks for reading!