The story of Tecno is relatively new. The company was founded back in 2006. Over the last decade, the company has slowly established itself as a strong player in the budget and entry mid-range segment. The brand had widespread success in Africa followed by India and the rest of the sub-continent. The company also found prominence in Bangladesh with its budget and mid-range devices. Their latest mid-range offering, the Tecno Camon 19 Neo was launched on 14th June in Bangladesh. Here’s a detailed review of the price and key specs of the same.
Key Features of Tecno Camon 19 Neo
Design and Build Quality
Budget and mid-range devices are prone to frequent design changes. These changes are often a hit or miss with some working and others not. Tecno has completely overhauled the Camon 19 Neo from its predecessor, the Camon 18. While the previous model has a frosted singular back, the 19 Neo features a geometric color-shifting frost which definitely catches the eye. Be it indoors or outdoors, the light reflected on each of the indices brings out a unique look every time.
The changes aren’t just limited to the back. The camera module also had a complete revamp. The triple camera setup is positioned uniquely with one lens serving as the housing for two sensors.
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The dual large lens along with the overall boxy shape gives a very iPhone-like look to the device. But being mid-range, the entire device is made from plastic both on the back and the frame. The ports and button selection are all as usual with the power button acting as the physical fingerprint sensor. The 3.5 mm headphone jack also survives with no sign of disappearing from the mid-range segment.
Overall, Tecno definitely got the design elements right with the Camon 19 Neo as it brings noticeable changes over the previous generation.
Display
The display of the Tecno Camon 19 Neo is an IPS LCD one. Devices like Samsung A03 Core, Redmi 10 2022, and Realme 9i all provide AMOLED panels within the same budget range. So, it’s a bit disappointing to see an LCD panel on a mid-range device.
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The 6.8-inch large display comes with FHD+ resolution which is a saving grace for the device. The colors are generally vivid but the display doesn’t get very bright under direct sunlight. The blacks also don’t look as deep as AMOLED panels. Viewing angles are good so props for that. Overall, the display is passable at best. It's nothing stellar to be the main selling point for the device.
Camera
The triple camera setup on the Tecno Camon 19 Neo has a 48 MP main sensor with f/1.8 and a 26 mm wide lens. The other two accompanying sensors are a 2 MP depth sensor and a QVGA sensor. Needless to say, this is ultimately going to be a single sensor camera setup as the depth and QVGA sensors are basically useless.
The main camera with its 48 MP resolution does a decent job. Pictures look bright and sharp in outdoor and well-lit environments. There is a built-in portrait mode but the edge detection still isn’t up to the standard. It sometimes catches the edges perfectly but completely fails in others. The camera also fares well in dimly-lit conditions. But it does suffer from occasional underexposure.
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The videography is limited to 1080P at 30 fps. While the sensor itself is capable of pushing the higher resolution, it gets limited due to the chipset.
There is also a 32 MP selfie shooter. Images looked great from the front camera but it definitely lacked the wide-angle view.
Processor and Performance
The Tecno Camon 19 Neo comes equipped with a MediaTek Helio G85 processor. It’s a 12 Nm processor built on octa-core 2 2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 and 6 1.8 GHz Cortex-A55 design. The G85 isn’t exactly an upper mid-range processor as it's more geared towards entry-level mid-range devices. For its price, Tecno could’ve at least gone for the G88 processor.
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The Camon 19 Neo isn’t a performance-oriented phone. It’s perfect for light usage like browsing social media, the web, or watching YouTube. The processor can also handle lightweight games and graphics-intensive games at a moderate setup. We ran PUBG on the device and it performed well in low to middle graphics settings. But it also caused the device to significantly heat up.
But typical users shouldn’t worry as the device does a great job at heat management. The device also performs smoothly thanks to the RAM fusion option. In addition to the 6GB onboard RAM, users will be able to harness an extra 5GB of memory from the ROM taking the effective RAM count to 11 GB when necessary.
Like all other Tecno phones, users will be getting the HIOS 8.6 based on Android 12. Tecno still needs to address the bloatware issue to make it a smoother experience. while out of the box the device is smooth, but it will eventually slow down owing to the heavy skin on top of it.
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Battery and Charge Time
The Tecno Camon 19 Neo comes with a 5000 mAh battery. The efficient design of the G85 will allow for 6 to 7 hours of continued usage on a single full charge. Tecno has also included an 18W fast charger which can top up the device in just over an hour.
Price of Tecno Camon 19 Neo
The Tecno Camon 19 Neo is officially available in Bangladesh in the 6GB/128GB variant. The price of the device is 18,490 BDT as of release.
Final Thoughts
The Tecno Camon 19 Neo is yet another Tecno device that has its fair share of drawbacks. Firstly, there are better specification mid-range devices in this price range. Devices that offer better features. Secondly, Tecno is still struggling with its camera performance and bloated OS. On the flip side, the brand did a great job with the design, build quality, and processor of the 19 Neo. It's definitely a step in the right direction, but Tecno has to do more to stay competitive in the mid-range market.
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