Tecno Camon CX: A Threat To The Mid-Range Smartphone Market? [Unboxing + Review]

The emerging smartphone brand, Tecno, has just recently launched a duo of their mid range smartphones, the Camon CX and Camon CX Air.

We got our hands on the Camon CX and here’s what we think of it.

Coming in at a price of Rs. 20,900, it sports some pretty decent specs for its price and will definitely be able to compete with other similar priced smartphones available in the market.

Unboxing + Review [Urdu]

Design & Display

Keeping in line with most other mid-range smartphones these days, the Camon CX features a metal unibody build. On the front you have the display above which you get the earpiece, sensors, front camer and dual LED flash. There’s nothing on the bottom of the display except a huge bezel.

On the back there’s the primary camera, quad-LED flash, a fingerprint scanner and Tecno branding. On the right side you have the volume rocker and a textured power button.

Moving on to the display, it is a 5.5-inch, 1080×1920 panel. Being a 1080p panel, it is sharp and the viewing experience is good. Not only is the panel of good quality, outdoor visibility was also better than expected. It was bright enough to easily view the screen in direct sunlight. Being an IPS panel, the viewing angles were excellent.

Performance

In the performance department, the Camon CX holds its head. Talking about the specifications, it uses a MediaTek 6750 processor alongwith 3GB of RAM. We have seen the MT6750 in other devices as well and it has been a decent performer. The Camon CX is no different. Apps load in pretty decent time and even resource intensive apps such as Facebook work without a hiccup. Some games like the Asphalt 8 do have some dropped frames and it was immediately noticeable.

However, the 3GB of RAM keeps everything in order. It can usually hold up to 10 apps at least before closing down. You can easily switch between apps without refreshing them.

Camera and Battery

While the Camon CX is good in the screen and performance department, I think the camera is the area where it really excels.

On the back you have a 16MP primary camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus and a quad-LED flash. That’s right, it’s nor single nor dual but quad LED. Needless to say, if you think your phone’s flashlight is not strong enough, this is the answer for you. However, it’s not dual-tone (quad-tone), so you are stuck with a single color.

Coming to the actual picture quality, it is really good. In well-lit conditions, pictures usually come out sharp and clear. On closer look sometimes, you do spot a bit softness around the edges of objects but it’s forgivable. In low light, things do start to fall apart a little bit. Noise increases, sharpness and clarity decrease a lot. I usually don’t use the LED flash light personally but on the Camon CX the flash was spread evenly and I got some good results with it.

The front camera is also a 16MP shooter and carries the same capabilities as the primary camera. Photos are undoubtedly sharp. Even in some low light conditions, the camera held up and if it gets too dark, there’s a dual-LED flashlight available on the front. You can take a look at the camera samples below:

The battery on the Camon CX is 3,200mAh which is pretty decently sized. I was expecting a larger battery life but keeping in mind how slim the phone is, I can’t complain too much. The battery life itself was very decent. In fact the day I got the phone it was already charged up to 80%. During the regular testing and benchmarks, I forgot to charge the phone and it finally warned me at 15% about 24 hours later. Screen on time was 4h15m by that time. So, for a light user it will give good battery timings.

Verdict

The Tecno Camon CX is a relatively new entry in the Pakistani market and it will take some time for them to become as popular as any other brands here. If they keep making phones like these with a comparatively lower price tag though, they won’t have many issues.

To sum it up, in Rs. 20,900 you get a FHD display, good performance, an excellent camera, fingerprint scanner. Not to mention a metal unibody design and you also get 13 months of warranty instead of the usual 12. All these goodies make the Tecno Camon CX a good choice in the market.