This $280 phone is a lesson in affordability I hope Apple and Samsung are paying attention

Date:
Sun, 19 Jun 2022 15:00:17 +0000

Description:
The Tecno Camon 19 Pro Android smartphone is cheap and packed with features

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Youll probably never use a Tecno phone. Until this week, Id never heard of
the Chinese brand or its Camon line of handsets. Now, its unlikely Ill forget them.

The company recently held a swanky New York City launch for its new Tecno Camon Series 19 Pro Android 12 phones even though the products wont be for sale in the US (or the UK, for that matter). I honestly wondered what they were doing there and, more importantly, why I was there.

Tecno insisted on describing the handsets as being designed for fashionistas. I could not tell you what that means, but I admit to being intrigued by the design, specs, and, especially, the price.

Key specs include: 6.8-inch FHD+ virtually edge-to-edge 120 Hz display Drill-hole front-facing 32MP camera 64 MP and 50 MP cameras on the back 2X optical zoom Optical Image Stabilization 5,000 mAh battery Fingerprint reader Face unlocking Some nifty AI-infused photo tricks a 3.5mm headphone jack (!)
A power brick, cable, and earbuds (!!)

Its also a surprisingly attractive phone. Theres a fingerprint-rejecting diamond-coated back that looks and feels lovely. The dual circle camera array (which houses three cameras there is a 2MP bokeh-assisting lens), is large but elegant, its premium looks assisted by its crystal glass covering. The chassis is only slightly thicker than an iPhone 13 Pro Max , but the phone feels considerably lighter.

The Camon 19 Pro comes will all this (and more) for $280. Thats a phone you could pay off in the space of five or six months (if you pay around $50 a month). The Camon Series 19 Pro 5G starts at just $320. Thats, on both
phones, with 128 GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.

To put that in perspective, the cheapest iPhone you can buy is the $429 Apple iPhone SE , which has just 64 GB of storage. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff) There's a catch

There are, of course, huge caveats, the biggest one being global
availability. These Tecno phones are available in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Southern Asia, but not, as I noted earlier, in the US or Europe. Pricing might also vary and the $280 and $320 Tecno offered is still just an estimate for my market.

There are numerous limits often associated with budget phones like no under-the-screen fingerprint reader. Instead, the power/wake button doubles
as an effective fingerprint reader. The screen is still LCD and not OLED. Theres no reported IP rating (maybe keep it away from deep puddles). It
doesnt offer wireless charging.

Then theres the mobile CPU, a MediaTek Helio G96 , which is probably equivalent to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G . Its benchmark numbers arent even
in the same neighborhood as, say, an Apple A15 Bionic or a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 .

So, when I unexpectedly walked out of the event with a review unit in hand
and decided to spend a day or so with it, I tried to level-set my expectations.

For the most part, though, this budget device exceeded them. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff) Not bad at all Image 1 of 6 (Image credit: Future)
All shots taken with the Tecno Camon 19 Pro. Image 2 of 6 (Image credit: Future) Image 3 of 6 (Image credit: Future) Image 4 of 6 (Image credit: Future) Image 5 of 6 (Image credit: Future) Image 6 of 6 (Image credit: Future)

As I mentioned its an attractive big-screen phone with a vibrant display
that, naturally, looks excellent indoors. Outside is a different matter. It struggled in bright light, but I could still see well enough to use its
camera and rather rich settings to take a variety of shots. Everything from standard to 2x telephoto, and from Portrait to slow motion looked quite good. Even low-light and night shots were decent (nothing would qualify as remarkable). Theres no wide-angle lens, let alone ultra-wide but the included lenses captured sharp, colorful, and accurate images. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Portrait mode from the rear camera is good (the front camera had more artifacts), though you cant adjust the level of bokeh before or after the
shot (how many people do this on their iPhone 13 or Samsung Galaxy ,
anyway?). There is an editing tool that lets you add and adjust a bokeh
effect on any image, but its not directly tied to Portrait Mode photography, which is kind of silly.

The AI-powered camera and its efforts to identify objects in a scene were entertaining. At one point, I pointed the phone at my hand, and it came up with Pet.

There are so many image manipulation options that you may never find or use them all. The set for body manipulation is, at best, problematic. It offers
to slim the waistline, head, shoulder, slim and lengthen legs, plump butt, along with other cosmetic alterations. Perhaps this is what Techno meant by a phone for fashionistas.

It was, to be fair, hard to find those features and the phone certainly
doesnt push them. Still, its weird that theyre there. Punching above its weight

For a sub-$300 phone, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro is quite the performer. It
played taxing games like Asphalt 9: Legends without missing a beat. I think
it might've been dropping a frame or two, and the audio could be richer, but it was still an enjoyable experience.

Its an effective productivity platform for browsing and file management, and
I do love the alphabetically ordered app list (Apple, Samsung, please do this).

That 5,000 mAh battery is, by the way, an all-day champ.

Basically, this is an above-average phone at a ridiculously good price.

Will it ever arrive in the US and UK? I dont know and Tecno offered no guidance. Im not sure it matters. What the Tecno Camon 19 Pro demonstrates
for me is that all phone manufacturers can do better on the affordability front. Were paying as much as $999 for powerful big-screen phones that probably do far more than well ever need them to (at least for most of us).

The Camon 19 Pro sets a nice example for the possibilities of budget. I think its time Apple, Samsung, and others answer in kind.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/this-dollar280-phone-is-a-lesson-in-affordabili ty-i-hope-apple-and-samsung-are-paying-attention/


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