The Tecno Camon series is known for its impressive cameras and the Camon 16 is the latest iteration in this growing series. This is the second Camon device we are seeing from the company this year as we already saw the Camon 15 a few months back.
The Tecno Camon 16 builds up on the Camon 15 with subtle but important upgrades that make the series competitive when compared with some of the other device within its price range. Speaking of price, the Camon 16 Premier is available in Kenya for Ksh 28,500.
The Camon 16 Premier was unveiled in Kenya early last month and I have been using it ever since. In this review I will highlight what is good with this phone and if it is worth your money.
Before we get to the review, I did an unboxing video that you can check out below.
Design and Build Quality
The Tecno Camon 16 Premier is well built. Compared to Its predecessor, it does feel great to hold although it feels bulky and heavy on the hand. Compared to some of the other smartphones I have been using recently, it does feel heavy but not too heavy.
The build quality is still good and with the glossy back that I got in the Glacial silver color, the phone looks stunning. This is the only color available for the Camon 16 Premier and you won’t go wrong with it. This is the first time I am seeing this colour implementation on a Tecno smartphone.
At the back we get the quad camera setup arranged in a square module. It does look different from most other smartphones we have seen in 2020. The camera module is made up of a 64MP main sensor, an 8MP sensor and two 2MP sensors.
Overall, the design is not that different from most other smartphones this year. It still does look good and the colour Tecno has gone with is stunning.
Display
The Tecno Camon 16 Premier comes with a massive 6.9-inch display that makes it one of the biggest smartphones I have used this year. This size is huge and adds to the overall phablet-like size of the phone. Reaching all corners of the display when using the phone with one hand may be challenging.
The display has a resolution of 1080 x 2460 pixels which is crisp and very sharp. Using this display under direct sunlight is no problem at all as it gets bright enough for such situations.
With a display this big, the Tecno Camon 16 Premier is the perfect device for media consumption. If you love watching videos and movies on your phone, this might be the perfect phone. Even with the dual selfie cameras taking up some space on the top left corner, the experience is not that bad considering the size of this display.
Read: The Infinix Zero 8 Review
Software and Performance
The Tecno Camon 16 Premier is the company’s flagship for 2020 and that is what you expect from its performance. The phone is powered by the gaming focused MediaTek Helio G90T processor that the company has paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage space.
The phone comes with Android 10 out of the box with HiOS 7.0 on top. HiOS has seen some changes over the year and the look of version 7 is more polished with no big additions compared to previous versions. It does have some subtle additional features that make the whole experience good.
For day to day use, this phone will handle all you throw at it without any struggles. For gaming and some other demanding tasks, the Camon 16 Premier handles such wIth no problems. I played Asphalt 9 and PUBG on this phone with no performance lag or any issues with graphics handling.
Also Read: The Tecno Camon 16 Premier Specifications and Price in Kenya
Cameras
The Camon series is a camera-centric series and the Camon 16 Premier is exactly that. The 64MP main camera at the back takes some very good shots. I was expecting more from this camera given that it is a 64MP one but I did not get that. The shots taken are good but not extraordinary as I was expecting. In the end, I still got decent shots with very good colour balance and saturation.
Night mode is one of the features I was keen to see and compare it to the one on the Infinix Zero 8. It does a good job in lighting up the subjects when the lighting is not so good.
The selfie cameras also take good shots. Again, seeing that there are two sensors, you expect some level of performance but you don’t get that. The shots are still good but I was just expecting more.
Battery
The Tecno Camon 16 Premier comes with a 4,500 mAh battery that has been good for me. It does last an entire day even with heavy usage. The phone supports 33W fast charging so you can charge up this battery very fast. 30 minutes should get you from 0 to 50%. Even with the display and powerful processor, I was impressed at how long this battery lasted.
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