Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5G hands-on

27 February 2024

Tecno is introducing a new imaging system with the Camon 30 Premier 5G. It is a combination of Sony image sensors, a Sony ISP chip and Tecno AI algorithms and it is called “PolarAce”.

The phone’s focus on photography and video is evident from its camera-inspired design. It has a metal frame that gives it rigidity and a more premium feel, plus Tecno says that it helps with cooling.

The back has a grippy faux leather texture and a “zoom ring” design for the circular camera island. The island is off-center as there is a chamfered area just to the side of it. This improves ergonomics as it is a great place to put your finger – it gives you stable grip on the phone without getting your finger in the frame.

Since we’re focusing on the cameras already, the main module uses a Sony IMX890, a 1/1.56” sensor with 1.0µm pixels. It is joined by a 70mm periscope (3x) with 50MP sensor that will be used for zooming (up to 60x hybrid zoom), portrait shots (with the help of AI) and even macro shots. A 50MP ultra wide rounds off the rear cameras.

Notice that red dot in the corner – that’s a light. It turns on during video recording, just like a real video camera might. This also serves as a charging indicator and lights up when you activate the voice assistant. On the other side of the camera island is the LED flash.

Flipping around the front, there is a 6.77" OLED display (1,264 x 2,780px). This is an LTPO panel, which is a kind of a first – Tecno used LTPO on its foldable phones (Phantom V Fold and V Flip), but this is the first bar Tecno to use the technology. The display peaks at 1,400 nits for outdoor visibility.

The selfie camera in the punch hole has a 50MP sensor and eye tracking - and it has autofocus to boot. You will probably be pleased to hear that the display is flat.

The metal sides of the phone are flat too, aligning with the design trends of today. There are stereo speakers with grilles on top and bottom and Dolby Atmos support. Also on the bottom is a USB-C port and the SIM card tray. There's no 3.5mm headphone jack, however. But it does have an IR blaster on top.

The phone is powered by the Dimensity 8200 Ultra, a 4nm chip with four Cortex-A78 cores and four A55, plus a Mali-G610 MC6 GPU. Here it is paired with 12GB of RAM (plus 12GB virtual RAM) and 512GB storage. The chipset will be assisted by the Sony CXD5622GG – a convoluted name for a dedicated ISP that promises 4.6 TFLOPS for FP16 (16-bit floating point).

Inside is a 5,000mAh battery with 70W fast charging over USB-C. The phone measures 162.7 x 76.2 x 7.9mm.

Tecno will bring the Camon 30 series to market soon with the Premier as the top model, but the company had two more at its booth (and we checked those out too).