Tecno Camon 20 Pro 5G Review: Worthy Of Attention

Launched last year, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro (test) is a good option for the price, but it lacks 5G. With this in mind, Tecno has launched the new Camon 20 Pro with a 5G compatible chipset. But that's not all. The phone also promises camera and performance improvements. Moreover, the Camon 20 Pro 5G has an attractive design that looks like it won a US Golden Muse award.

In this review, we take a look at the current performance of the device and find out if the Tecno Camon 20 Pro 5G is worth it. Read on to find out.

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Tecno Camon 20 Pro 5G is a camera-centric smartphone that impresses with its design and looks. The phone's battery life is also excellent. however, its download speed is significantly slower than that of its competitors.

Design and display

I really like the design of the Tecno Camon 20 Pro 5G, which is in line with other modern Android smartphones. Marketed as a deconstructive puzzle design, Tecno claims the design is inspired by postmodern architecture. The phone features a textured leather back with unique patterns and a pentagonal camera module that's hard to miss. The design hides fingerprints and smudges very well and looks luxurious despite the smartphone's plastic frame.
The phone has smooth edges instead of curved edges, which makes the device comfortable to use. The right side of the phone houses the volume rocker and power button, while the bottom houses the USB Type-C charging port, 3.5mm headphone jack, and speaker grill. At the top edge is another speaker for stereo audio output. The SIM card tray with a dedicated microSD card slot is on the left edge.

The Tecno Camon 20 Pro is equipped with a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display and a center hole. The screen offers a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, the fastest you can get in this segment. The refresh rate is seamlessly applied to the user interface and supported applications, ensuring a smooth and seamless interaction. In addition, users have the option to dynamically adjust the refresh rate or choose between fixed 60Hz and 120Hz options as well as 90Hz, which is not found in many mid-range smartphones.

In addition, the screen has thin bezels and excellent viewing angles. Brightness levels are also impressive and text can be read in direct sunlight. In addition, the phone is Widevine L1 certified, which enables the streaming of content from OTT platforms in FHD resolution. To enhance the sound quality, the phone includes stereo speakers that deliver clear and good sound even at maximum volume.

cAMERA

The Tecno Camon 20 Pro 5G is marketed as a camera-centric smartphone. On the back, the phone has a triple camera setup consisting of a 64MP RGBW (G+P) primary sensor. The main sensor is complemented by a wide-aperture f/1.65 lens and OIS, which increases light sensitivity and improves low-light performance. In addition, the setup includes a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro unit. Performance remains satisfactory if you don't plan to use the camera with AI. AI features enhance colors, resulting in unnatural images and loss of detail and dynamic range.

While some people may find the resulting images appealing for social media, I personally prefer the Camon 20 Pro's camera performance with AI turned off. Images look more balanced, with sharp details, realistic tones and well-preserved highlights on a smartphone screen. In low light, the camera tends to produce some noise, but the detail effect is still acceptable. The phone has a special night mode for the main 64 MP sensor, which like other smartphones adjusts details at the expense of noise reduction.
On the front, the Camon 20 Pro 5G has a 32-megapixel punch-hole camera. This sensor can take decent daytime selfies with good detail and skin tone. However, indoors or in low light, details appear muted and colors appear a little washed out. While the smartphone's portrait mode adds a nice blur effect to the background, edge detection could be better.

Performance and software

Tecno Camon 20 Pro is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoC with 6nm manufacturing process and clock speed up to 3GHz. I haven't had any major issues with the smartphone during daily tasks. The phone even handles multitasking and gaming well. I was able to play BGMI at "HD" graphics and at "high" frame rates without stuttering or dropped frames. The game can be played even after setting the graphics settings to "HDR" and the frame rate to "ultra". However, the phone heats up a bit under heavy loads. Camon 20 Pro's performance reaches 74% of maximum performance, which is slightly lower.
The phone showed high results in benchmark tests. 6,05,882 on AnTuTu and Geekbench, the Tecno smartphone scored 837 and 1,953 in the single-core and multi-core tests respectively. This phone comes with plenty of RAM and storage options of 8GB + 128GB and 8GB + 256GB. The storage space can be expanded up to 512 GB via microSD card. In addition, the Camon 20 Pro has an in-display fingerprint scanner that works great and unlocks the device with ease.

In terms of software, Camon 20 Pro runs on Tecno HiOS 13 custom skin on top of Android 13. Most skins contain bloatware that cannot be removed as well as notifications. Finally, HiOS 13 has all the features and functionality you would expect from any other custom Android skin. It offers call recording, screen recording, dark mode, one-handed mode, theme store, sight test and special notification tones and quick control panel similar to Apple and Xiaomi phones.

Battery and charging speed

Tecno Camon 20 Pro has a decent 5000 mAh battery. In the PCMark battery test, it scored a respectable 10 hours and 42 minutes. Depending on usage, you can enjoy 5 hours or more of screen time. The phone lasted almost a day when my usage included browsing, social media, Gmail checks and video streaming.
As for charging speed, it takes 70-75 minutes to fully charge the phone from 0-100% with a 33W fast charger.

final judgment

The Tecno Camon 20 Pro 5G is priced at Rs 19,999 in India, which puts it in direct competition with the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite (test). In comparison, the OnePlus smartphone has relatively clean software and a 67W fast charging solution. However, in terms of look and feel, it doesn't compare to Tecno smartphones, each of which offers polycarbonate panels wrapped in leather. and glossy and AMOLED with LCD screens. According to the AnTuTu score, the Nord CE 3 Lite's performance also looks a little disappointing compared to the Camon 20 Pro 5G. The camera capabilities of both the devices are almost identical. Both offer fun daytime shots, but lack ultra-wide cameras. If you're looking for a wide-angle camera, the Lava Agni 2 ( review ) is worth a look. The phone is priced at Rs 21,999 in India and comes with a low-end Android variant.

Who should buy Tecno Camon 20 Pro 5G? This phone looks like a good investment for anyone looking for a smartphone under 20,000 rubles, with a great design, impressive display, competent main camera and good performance.

Editor's Rating: 3.5/5

reason to buy

The Tecno Camon 20 Pro 5G is luxurious with a leather cover on the back.
The phone offers an AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate for an immersive viewing experience.
The performance of this device is good for daily tasks, multitasking and some games.
The camera offers satisfactory performance without AI.