Review: Tecno Camon C9

Tecno have recently released the latest phone in their enhanced camera line, the Camon series.

The Camon C9, the successor to last year Camon C8, sports a massive upgrade on the front camera, going from 5 megapixels on the C8 to a whooping 13 megapixels on the C9. Read the full review below.

Tecno Camon C9 – Design and display

With the main selling point of Tecno’s Camon line being its camera, the phone had to have a big enough screen for taken pictures to be best appreciated, while not being so big that it entered tablet territory. At 5.5 inches, the Camon C9 is perfect size-wise.

It has a full HD 1920 x 1080 screen which makes sure pictures come out looking great, and is also great for watching videos.

The Home, Return and Menu buttons are no longer on the screen as was the case in the Camon C8, The buttons are now located just below the screen. The light around the Home button pulses when the phone is charging or has new notifications, which is way cooler than any LED notification.

The phone is surrounded by an aluminium frame, and has four buttons on the right side: two volume buttons, a power button and a dedicated camera button. The camera button can open the camera directly without unlocking the phone, and is placed at the end of the phone so you can stretch out and take great selfies with one hand.

The increased quality of the front camera means it’s not longer as subtle as most front cameras are, and one’s attention is easily caught by the relatively-big lens just above the screen. A USB charging port is located at the bottom of the phone, with an earphone jack placed on top of the phone.

The phone’s speakers are located on the back of the phone case just below the Camon logo, and are quite good for a phone whose primary strength is photos, and not music (Remember Tecno has a music-oriented line, the Boom J series).

The phone comes in a number of colors, including champagne gold, elegant blue and sandstone black (my personal favorite).

Tecno Camon C9 software and performance

The Camon C9 is run by Android 6.0 Marshamallow coupled with Tecno’s skin, HiOS 1.0. The HiOS gives Android Marshmallow a different feel. The icons and apps are a tad different, and it introduces a couple of its own features such as the ability to change into a variety of themes, and eye detection software for security.  The eye detection software is pretty impressive, and uses retina detection in just seconds.

One of the more important additions of the HiOS is a data traffic manager, which allows users to plan their data usage based on their subscriptions. There’s also a speed indicator at the top of the screen, which lets you know if your internet is working and how fast its working at.

The Camon C9’s MediaTek MT6753 features MediaTek’s CorePilot, which allows full usage of its 8 cores for faster performance.

The phone is powered by 2GB of RAM and has 16 GB of internal memory. Considering the large size that comes with the Camon C9’s high quality photos, it’d be wise to get an external memory card. It’s graphics processing unit is the ARM’s Mali-T720, and games play very well on the Camon C9, and there’s virtually no lag on it. It’s Geekbench 3 Multi-Core score is 2872, a very impressive score for a mid-level phone.

Tecno Camon C9 camera

The camera of the Camon C9 is easily its best feature. The phone has two 13-megapixel cameras on both sides, with a single flash in front and a dual flash at the back.

The front camera adds an impressive 83-degree capturing angle, which allows more people to feature in selfies. The Camon C9’s camera are particularly optimized for low light photography, and take great pictures in the dark. This is thanks to it’s F/2.0 lens, which also allows it to have faster shutter speeds.

The camera app itself is fast, and the dedicated camera button greatly improves the camera experience. The camera comes pre-loaded with a bunch of editing tools that gives you the ability to edit photos to little details. The video quality is almost as impressive, and videos can be recorded in either 720p or 1080p quality.

It all culminates in the Camon C9 producing the best photos you’d ever find in a mid level phone.

Tecno Camon C9 battery

At 3000mAh, the Camon C9’s battery guarantees to get you through most of your day, though if you’re a heavy user, you’re going to have to charge the phone more than once a day.

Tecno Camon C9 verdict

The Camon C9 is easily one of the best mid-level smartphones in the market, providing efficiency and beauty without having to break the bank. A very, very good phone.

Tecno Camon C9 Specs

Design and display

153 x 76.4 x 6.8 mm body with aluminium frame.

5.5 Full HD, in-plane switching (IPS) screen with 1920 x 1080 pixel display

Hardware

1.3 GHz 64-bit octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor

2GB ROM + 16GB internal memory (expandable to 128GB)

3000 mAH battery

13-megapixel front camera with flash

13-megapixel autofocus back camera with dual flash, geo-tagging and high dynamic resolution (HDR).

Software

HiOS 1.0 (based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow)

Beauty Plus 2.0

Network and connectivity

Dual sim ability with up to 4G network support

2G:GSM 900MHz/1800MHz

3G: WCDMA 900/2100MHz

4G: FDD/CSFB Band 3.7.20

Wi-Fi

Bluetooth v4.2