Tecno Camon 19 Pro review

HiOS 8.6 on top of Android 12

The Camon 19 Pro runs on the latest Android 12 with Tecno's in-house HiOS 8.6 on top. Tecno has been running and refining its own skin for some time now, which we've generally found to be quite good in the past, with a few on and off caveats here and there. These mostly come down to pre-installed bloat and ads. But, credit, where credit is due, the situation on both fronts appears to have gotten a lot better. The Camon 19 didn't annoy us with pesky notifications and pushy offers nearly as much as some of its predecessors. The experience is actually pretty clean.

That's not to say there isn't a whole bunch of pre-installed apps and utilities. Tecno is still sticking to its traditions of developing and deploying its own set of apps to cover the basic features. You get an in-house gallery and video player and an app store, even two depending on how you count them. These can still get annoying at times, but we can understand the angle Tecno is coming from.

Hi Browser • AI Gallery • AI Gallery • Phone Master • AHA Games • Palm Store

If some of the third-party apps are bothering you with various notifications - you can disable those - either from within the annoying app or from the Notification settings.

Getting into the Camon 19 Pro is business as usual, with both fingerprint and face recognition available. You can have the fingerprint reader unlock with just a tap or require a press as well, and you can do that for face recognition as well.

Biometrics and security

Since the Camon 19 Pro has an LCD instead of an OLED, the always-on display feature and its customization options are absent.

The lockscreen has a single shortcut in the bottom right to access the camera. Once you're past that, you arrive at a standard homescreen interface. The leftmost pane, called the Zero screen, holds cards with suggested news, weather and quotes widgets and an app usage widget. You can disable the Zero screen in the 'Desktop settings'. There's an app drawer by default which you can access from the old-school A-Z orange icon at the bottom or with an upward swipe from the bottom.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Zero screen • Folder view • App drawer • Task switcher

Themes are available as part of HiOS, and there is a dedicated Theme store for this purpose.

Hi Theme

Tecno has a long-standing selection of advanced features that generally get carried forward from older models. All of the custom bits from the Camon 16, 17 and 18 families are still present here. That includes the Game mode with all the settings, statistics and parental controls. There is also a Smart panel with slide-from-the-side shortcuts.

Social Turbo toolset is rather interesting (a WhatsApp enhancer of sorts) - it can change your voice, enhance your face during video calls, record your WhatsApp calls, and allow you to read messages without marking them as Read.

MemFusion is a new addition to the features list. It's just Tecno's came for virtual RAM. The Camon 19 Pro has 8GB of physical RAM chips on board and can extend that up to a total of 13GB with another 5GB of virtual memory.

The CarIcare aftersales assistance utility is also onboard, and you can fire it anytime if you encounter problems with your phone.

If you want even more details about the HiOS, you can learn more in the software section of the Camon 16 Premier review. All the extra features outlined there are still present and relevant.

Special function menu • Game mode • Social Turbo • CarIcare • Smart Panel

Performance and benchmarks

The Camon 19 uses the MediaTek Helio G96 chipset just like the Camon 18 Premier. It is fabricated on the 12nm FinFET manufacturing process from TSMC, just like the previous G9x chips.

The Helio G96 has the same octa-core CPU as the Helio G90, G90T (Camon 16 Premier) and G95 (Camon 17 Pro) - it packs two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores ticking at 2.05GHz and six energy-efficient Corext-A55 cores working at 2.0GHz.

The G96 has a GPU from the Valhalla generation by ARM - the Mali-G57. Unlike the previous G9x chips, here we have a dual-core configuration instead of a quad-core, so a drop in GPU numbers is expected compared to some of those older chips. The new GPU does, however, bring about support for 120Hz refresh rate, which the Camon 19 makes great use of with high refresh rate gaming, so we can't complain too much about the core count downgrade.

The Camon 19 Pro is available in two memory configurations - 8GB RAM plus 128GB storage and 8GB RAM plus 256GB storage. We have the smaller of the two for this review.

Let's kick things off with some CPU testing and GeekBench. The Camon 19 Pro and its Helio G96 chipset find themselves nicely in line with what we've come to expect from the G96 chip. No surprises there, which means Techo has done a good job in software.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  2796
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  2063
• Realme 9 Pro
  2020
• Realme 8i
  1886
• Poco M4 Pro
  1836
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  1800
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  1797
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  1758
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  1734
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1729
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  1719
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  1673
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  1672
• Tecno Phantom X
  1670
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  1668
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  1662
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  1632
• Realme 9
  1601
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1599
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1277
• Samsung Galaxy A03s
  889
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  588

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Realme 9 Pro
  694
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  688
• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  603
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  597
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  560
• Realme 8i
  539
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  534
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  532
• Poco M4 Pro
  523
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  520
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  514
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  512
• Tecno Phantom X
  512
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  511
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  511
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  505
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  380
• Realme 9
  380
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  376
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  361
• Samsung Galaxy A03s
  179
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  153

Generally speaking, the Helio G96 does better in an all-core multi-threaded scenario coming within a stone's throw to chips like the MediaTek Dimensity 810 and the Snapdragon 732G and even beating the Dimensity 7xx line.

Its single-core capabilities are less impressive, but it still finds itself smack in the middle of the pack of competing devices, which is good to see.

AnTuTu and its much more compound benchmarking set is even more favorable towards the Camon 19 Pro as a whole. Mind you, AnTuTu takes into account things like storage and its performance as well for a much broader UX picture.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  504424
• Realme 9 Pro
  401894
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  382902
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  353663
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  348546
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  346389
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  343527
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  319093
• Poco M4 Pro
  318444
• Realme 8i
  308544
• Realme 9
  290097
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  273554
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  244526
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  223188
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  222125
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  136286
• Samsung Galaxy A03s
  101299

The Camon 19 Pro still gets beat out by Snapdragon 695-equipped devices like the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G or the Realme 9 Pro. That's an ongoing trend in these rankings, so perhaps one of those would be a better fit if you are after the best possible performance for your buck. Better still, why not the Samsung Galaxy M52 5G and its Snapdragon 778G, which tends to be a league above the competition in raw power.

The Camon 19 Pro retains its overall poll position in GFXBench graphic tests as well. That is to say that it's not a pack leader, but its Mali-G57 dual-core GPU still manages decent overall performance. About what we would expect from it.

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  18
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  12
• Tecno Phantom X
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  12
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  11
• Realme 9 Pro
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  8.4
• Poco M4 Pro
  8.3
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  8.1
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  7.9
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  5
• Realme 9
  5
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  4.7
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  4.6
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  3.3

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  13
• Tecno Phantom X
  7.8
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  7.8
• Realme 9 Pro
  7.8
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  7.7
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  5.7
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  5.5
• Poco M4 Pro
  5.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.7
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  3.3
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  3.2
• Realme 9
  3.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  3.1
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  2.2

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  19
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  12
• Realme 9 Pro
  12
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  11
• Tecno Phantom X
  11
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  7.8
• Poco M4 Pro
  7.7
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  7.5
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  7.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.3
• Realme 9
  4.9
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  4.8
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  4.6
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  4.4
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  3.4

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  14
• Realme 9 Pro
  8.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  8
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  7.5
• Tecno Phantom X
  7.4
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  5.1
• Poco M4 Pro
  5.1
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  5.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.5
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  3.2
• Realme 9
  3.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  3.1
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  2.9
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  2.3

Naturally, going down the test stack to lower the difficulty scenario, we get higher FPS numbers. Nothing even remotely in the "playable" realm in real life, but that's kind of the point of synthetic loads - they are unrealistically tough. In practice, the Camon 19 Pro handles most modern titles apart from the most demanding AAA ones with grace. Any modern mobile game engine worth its salt tends to be very accommodating to the levels of mid-range performance the Camon 19 Pro can put out.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  28
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  17
• Tecno Phantom X
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Realme 9 Pro
  16
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  15
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  13
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  12
• Poco M4 Pro
  12
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  11
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  11
• Realme 8i
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  8.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  7.9
• Realme 9
  7.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  6.8
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  6.7
• Samsung Galaxy A03s
  5.5
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  5.2

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  33
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  20
• Tecno Phantom X
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  19
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  19
• Realme 9 Pro
  19
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  18
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  16
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  15
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  14
• Poco M4 Pro
  14
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  14
• Realme 8i
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  9.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  9.3
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  8.3
• Realme 9
  8.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  8
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  6.2
• Samsung Galaxy A03s
  3.5

We also remind you that fps comparisons across different devices in GFXBench are only really valid in off-screen rendering, where the native display resolution of the device does not affect the render resolution. The Camon 19 has a higher than FullHD native resolution, which is not really helping the numbers.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  47
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  30
• Realme 9 Pro
  29
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  28
• Tecno Phantom X
  28
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  26
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  23
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  22
• Realme 8i
  22
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  21
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  21
• Poco M4 Pro
  21
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  20
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A03s
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  13
• Realme 9
  13
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  8.3

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  56
• Realme 9 Pro
  35
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  34
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  33
• Tecno Phantom X
  33
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  30
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  26
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  25
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  24
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  24
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  24
• Poco M4 Pro
  24
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  24
• Realme 8i
  24
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  15
• Realme 9
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  9.4
• Samsung Galaxy A03s
  7.9

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  77
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  54
• Tecno Phantom X
  54
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  49
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  47
• Realme 9 Pro
  47
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  40
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  39
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  37
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  37
• Poco M4 Pro
  37
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  37
• Realme 8i
  37
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  32
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  24
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  24
• Realme 9
  22
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  21
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  20
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A03s
  11

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  64
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  47
• Tecno Phantom X
  47
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  42
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  41
• Realme 9 Pro
  41
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  37
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  34
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  33
• Poco M4 Pro
  33
• Realme 8i
  33
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  32
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  31
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  31
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  21
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  21
• Realme 9
  20
• Samsung Galaxy A03s
  19
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  18
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  18
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  14

3DMark usually offers a more streamlined and clear-to-read performance delta, and we once again find the Camon 19 Pro smack in the middle of the pack. One observation would be that it does well for the G96 chipset that it carries. However, expectedly, that chip gets outperformed by the likes of the older Helio G95 with its four GPU cores as well as the Snapdragon 695 and 778G. No surprises there either.

3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  5015
• Realme 9 Pro
  2946
• Tecno Phantom X
  2733
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  2719
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2638
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  2531
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  2444
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  2431
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  2391
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1471
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1323
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  1320
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  1316
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  886

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  4274
• Realme 9 Pro
  2773
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  2593
• Tecno Phantom X
  2587
• TECNO Camon 16 Premier
  2577
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2509
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  2399
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  2257
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  2256
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1372
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1371
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  1267
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  1261
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  931

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
  2470
• Tecno Phantom X
  1501
• Tecno Camon 17 Pro
  1498
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  1232
• Realme 9 Pro
  1211
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  1204
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  1187
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  1185
• Tecno Camon 18 Premier
  1105
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  1104
• Realme 8i
  1102
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1101
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  1100
• Poco M4 Pro
  1099
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  686
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  510
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  482
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  439
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  429

The Camon 19 Pro makes the most out of its Helio G96 chipset. It might not be the fastest chip around, nor is it particularly current, given that we already saw it in last year's Camon 18 Premier, among many other phones, but it is still a solid and modern part that delivers plenty of performance for daily tasks and a nice set of additional features. In practice, the Camon 19 Pro feels responsive and has plenty of "oomph". The thing that is actually holding back and spoiling the fluidity of its experience is the relatively sluggish display pixel response time rather than any shortage in computing power.