TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G Review: An Imaging Flagship with Leading Performance

Foreword: TECNO's latest flagship imaging series is launched, equipped with innovative AI technology

At the end of February this year, TECNO showcased their series of AI technologies during MWC, not only emphasizing their closer cooperation with MediaTek, but also demonstrating a series of self-developed smartphone AI functions – especially improving system experience and imaging.

At that time, TECNO had firstly unveiled the new CAMON 30 series. As the brand's flagship mobile imaging series, the CAMON 30 series would be equipped with MediaTek's flagship SoC, and would also have the support of a high-end Sony sensor configuration and self-developed AI technology matrix. Its flagship model, CAMON 30 Premier 5G, is equipped with dual imaging chips for the first time in CAMON's history.

Now the sub-flagship model in the series, TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G, has come to us for testing.

Appearance: Rangefinder camera shape with unique body material

Since this model focuses on imaging design, TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G naturally adopts an appearance design that makes people think of the classic camera shape.

It is reported that its shape takes inspiration from the design concept of classic rangefinder cameras. The back of the device has an asymmetrical cut back panel, and a popular large-size circular rear camera Deco.

A closer look shows that CAMON 30 Pro 5G features a decorative ring that imitates the camera zoom ring. On the rear camera trim, "IMX890", "50MP", "1.0 micrometer", and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) information are clearly marked.

Interestingly, on one side of the rear camera module, CAMON 30 Pro 5G integrates two LED lights. One is a regular fill light, and the other is a red light called the Action Dot.

The Action Dot lights up when charging or with incoming calls, so that users can intuitively notice the status of the phone without having to turn on the screen to check. At the same time, the Action Dot is a nod to the focus assist light element of traditional cameras.

On the back panel, CAMON 30 Pro 5G uses the industry's first suede Tech-Art Leather back panel. This new material has a delicate matte touch similar to paper, and the Lotus Leaf Biomimetic Skin on its surface repels water droplets and dust, making the phone easier to clean after use and leaving no fingerprints or other traces of use.

In other aspects of its appearance, TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G includes many popular design features that cater to current consumer preferences, such as its upright frame and flat screen panel.

The 6.8-inch screen has a resolution of 1080*2436 and a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz, taking into account the needs of gamers.

Performance: Equipped with Dimensity 8200-Ultra, excellent performance

As TECNO’s current imaging sub-flagship, CAMON 30 Pro 5G is equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 8200-Ultra main chip – an SoC with a good reputation at this level.

This SoC is built based on TSMC's 4nm process, and the CPU is composed of 4*Cortex-A78+4*Cortex-A55. Since it does not use the ARM v9 instruction set, it means that all cores can support 32-bit applications, meaning no performance issues when running them.

At the same time, the CAMON 30 Pro 5G we have our hands on is equipped with a combination of 12GB LPDDR5X memory and 512GB UFS3.1 flash memory. In addition, it supports an additional up to 12GB of extended memory to increase the number of background applications mounted.

Judging from the flash memory speed test results from AnTuTu V10, the flash memory quality of this model belongs to the upper-middle level. In particular, the read and write cache mechanism performs well, which is a positive for maintaining fluency after long-term use.

In the AnTuTu V10 test, TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G achieved a benchmark result of more than 964,000 points. After repeated tests and confirmations, we found a significant temperature drop after the initial GPU scene test, and then subsequently heated up and stabilized only with the CPU and UX tests. This seems to indicate that the Dimensity 8200-Ultra can quickly drop to very low frequency and power consumption in some low-load scenarios, and it reflects the good heat dissipation design of CAMON 30 Pro 5G.

To further verify this, we conducted a continuous full-load test on CAMON 30 Pro 5G for more than 2 hours at room temperature and without additional heat dissipation. Its battery temperature stopped rising after reaching 40°C, and the CPU achieved stable high-performance release. This shows that the excellent SoC energy efficiency ratio and stable heat dissipation design have indeed given this model a foundation for excellent performance.

Gaming and AI: Industry-first built-in AIGC Portrait function, good gaming performance

So with good performance in the theoretical performance test, how does TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G actually perform?

First of all, TECNO has played around with the performance advantages of the Dimensity 8200-Ultra and equipped CAMON 30 Pro 5G with a lot of interesting functions with AI elements.

These include AIGC-based generative wallpapers, automatic classification of pictures in albums, automatic creation of videos, etc.

CAMON 30 Pro 5G also brings the industry's first built in AIGC portrait generation function. It can easily integrate the facial features of the subject with the scenes and characters drawn by AI, creating a very interesting photo-taking experience.

Secondly, as we mentioned earlier, TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G also has a very typical game mode built in.

Surprisingly, this model’s game mode not only supports common performance adjustments, anti-disturbance and other functions, but also provides bypass charging options that usually only appear in professional gaming phones, and can customize the start and end points of bypass charging, automatically enabling charging when the battery is running low.

From the hardware configuration and game-related software functions, TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G is obviously a model that attaches great importance to gaming performance. It has top SoC performance in its class, screen parameters are sufficient for high-frame rate games, and details are designed for long gaming hours. With its scores and heat performance in theoretical performance tests, there is obviously every reason to believe that this device is able to cope with all kinds of current mainstream high-frame rate mobile games, while showing excellent energy efficiency and heating control.

It’s also worth mentioning that along with the TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G we also received a set of TECNO Buds 3 TWS earphones.

So gamers will also benefit from the immersive audio enjoyment brought by this matching TWS headset. Whether in terms of the surround-sound feeling or sound source positioning, using the earphones obviously results in a better experience than with the phone’s external speaker.

Charging: 70W fast charging + 5000mAh battery, 50% charged in 17 minutes

Next, let's take a look at TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G’s charging performance. As mentioned earlier, this model has some special features in the charging circuit design.

In addition to supporting bypass charging, CAMON 30 Pro 5G is equipped with a 5000mAh battery, and the package comes standard with a 70W charging head.

After draining the power of CAMON 30 Pro 5G to 1% and ensuring that it’s at room temperature, we started the charging test. Under the default "Smart" charging mode, CAMON 30 Pro 5G only took 17 minutes to charge from 1% to more than 50%.

The charging speed did not slow down significantly afterwards. After 19 minutes, it had charged almost another 40%.

From then, the phone finally entered the battery maintenance mode. After another 13 minutes, the battery was charged to 100%, with a total charging time of 49 minutes. CAMON 30 Pro 5G's charging performance is even better than that of some more expensive flagship models that claim to have 100W charging power.

Imaging: 50MP OIS main camera, outstanding AI portrait quality

Finally, we come to the imaging test.

In terms of hardware, TECNO CAMON 30 Pro 5G is equipped with a total of four cameras, namely a 50MP Eye-tracking Autofocus Front camera, and a rear triple-camera module consisting of a 50MP OIS Main Camera, a 50MP Anti-Distortion Wide-Angle Macro Camera, and a 2MP Depth Camera.

You can clearly see from the rear camera configuration that CAMON 30 Pro 5G completely hands over the telephoto imaging task to the wide-angle camera based on the Sony IMX890 sensor. However, its actual performance is really good. Whether it is 2x or 5x magnification, it can maintain excellent picture detail while ensuring exposure and color consistency.

And because the IMX890 features full-pixel focus, it can also be used to shoot macro images when the picture is enlarged. As a result, you don't need to get very close to use CAMON 30 Pro 5G to get a clear macro imaging effect.

Where the fast focus characteristics of the sensor meet TECNO's AI portrait technology, the CAMON 30 Pro 5G delivers impressive portrait capture. It’s clear to see that it can accurately distinguish the distance of the scene, significantly blur the distant view, and even complete clear capture in portrait mode. This has often only been possible with flagship phones before.

Even in night scenes, CAMON 30 Pro 5G can still maintain fast and accurate portrait capture.

In common city lighting scenes, CAMON 30 Pro 5G's night scene algorithm tends to enhance the contrast of the picture, especially the visual effect of the light source, but it’s not active in brightening the dark. This means that it uses an algorithm strategy that is more suitable for the needs of urban night scenes, rather than the common "night vision goggles" style.

Summary: Comprehensive imaging and performance, more cost-effective in its class

In general, as the sub-flagship of TECNO's high-end imaging product line, CAMON 30 Pro 5G's comprehensive performance is undoubtedly a positive surprise.

On the one hand, it has a highly recognizable appearance, and the body material gives the device a stable and comfortable feel – while as an imaging model, it is not heavy.

On the other hand, the more practical imaging configuration and algorithms make CAMON 30 Pro 5G fully capable of meeting diverse shooting needs in various scenes. Especially when it comes to portrait and dynamic performance, this device is better than many models of the same level.

In addition, the phone also has high-performance elements that cannot be ignored, incorporating professional gaming performance and the most fashionable AI functions, which further enhances its cost-effectiveness and reflects TECNO's increasingly comprehensive product development capabilities.