The Tecno Camon 18 is the cheapest in the recently released Camon 18 series. This phone goes for Ksh22,199 (USD200). Another advantage is that it has a bigger battery than the Tecno Camon 18 Premier. The fact that this phone has a USB Type C port is another advantage because I actually thought that it would have a micro USB port because its the cheapest.
The Tecno Camon 18 is a 6.8 Inch Full HD+ device with a 90Hz refresh rate. It performs well with its Helio G88 processor and 4GB RAM. The Internal storage capacity is 128GB and is expandable via an external SD card. The SD card slot can also hold two Nano SIM cards making the Camon 18 a dual SIM device.
Camera
The Camon 18 has a triple camera setup at the rear. The main lens is 48MP with the other two being a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP Macro sensor. The wide angle as well as the ultra steady feature are not available on the Camon 18. I have done a full Camera Review of the Camon 18 here.
Video Recording
When it comes to video recording, the maximum quality is 1440p which is 2K. The other qualities are 1080p and 720p all at 30 frames per second. have a done a video camera review of the Tecno Camon 18 and here is the review.
5000mAh Battery
The Camon 18 is in fact bigger thin size than the Camon 18 Premier, it has a bigger screen and a bigger battery. Eeveryone wants a bigger battery on their phone for obvious reasons. It w will last longer bwetwwn charges and can go a whole working day without the need for charging.
Speaking of charging, the Tecno Camon 18comes with an 18 Watt fast charger. I did an experiment to find out how long it takes to fully charge the device and here the results in video form.
The Camon 18 charger is a dual voltage charger and you can see that in the video above, it charges at an average of 9 VOLTS. The phone can automatically adjust the charge output and my USB meter could capture that. At first the charging current was 1.81 Amperes and this dropped to 0.93 Amperes and then the voltage dropped to 5 Volts after the phone had charged to 90%.
These are the results by time and battery percentage
- 2Min – 2%
- 3Min – 3%
- 10Min – 9%
- 20Min – 20%
- 30Min – 29%
- 40Min – 39%
- 50Min – 48%
- 1Hr – 57%
- 1Hr 10Min – 66%
- 1Hr 20Min – 75%
- 1Hr 30Min – 84%
- 1Hr 40Min – 90%
- 1Hr 50Min – 93%
- 2Hrs – 96%
- 2Hrs 5Min – 97%
- 2Hrs 15Min – 98%
- 2Hrs 25Min – Full Charge
Display
The screen is on the Camon 18 is 6.8 Inches with a dot in display front camera. The screen resolution is 1080*2460 meaning that it is a Full HD+ display that is perfect for watching videos.
The screen refresh rate is also sufficient at 9OHz for smoother animations without jaggy movements. Using the 990Hx refresh rate may reduce battery life so I recommend using the Auto-switch refresh rate. This automatically switches the refresh rate according to actual use.
Performance
The Camon 18 is powered by a Helio G88 Processor. This is a 2.0GHz octa-core processor that gets the work done fast. Together with 4GB RAM, this phone can load apps on the touch. The camera app is especially fast and ready to take photos or videos immediately after opening it.
There is another 6GB version of the Camon 18 and I’m sure its even faster than what I currently have. More RAM means that the phone can hold apps in the multitasking space without killing them in the background. This is what makes apps load from the start after you switch between multiple apps.
Android 11
The new HiOS V8.0.0 that is based on the Android 11 operating system is much more cleaner than previous HiOS versions. There are less intrusive Ads and the settings page is now better organized and with few text. Just compare the Camon 18 Screen recording to the Camon 17 Pro Screen recording to see what I mean.
The one thing that I found annoying is the stock gesture navigation system. This is very hard to use for the first time and it completely messed up my use of other smartphones. It frees up the screen very well but I had to switch back to the traditional 3 button navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen.
This setting can be found in the system setting all the way down in the settings page.
Android 12
Very soon the Tecno Camon will get the Android 12 update.
Storage
I believe 128GB is sufficient for some applications, games and movies as well as music but if that fills up then the phone has a slot to upgrade the memory.
Conclusion
If you want a budget photography content creator phone that has a good battery life and big screen for watching movies, then the Camon 18 is the phone for you.