The TECNO Camon 15 is the successor to last year’s Camon 12, and with it continues Camon’s legacy of camera-centric smartphones at prices that won’t break the bank. The Camon 15 has so much going for it and its the reason we are here as we breakdown it down for you in the simplest way possible for your digestion.
Related: TECNO Camon 15 Unboxing and First impressions
Build and Design
The Camon 15 has a unibody plastic design with the Quad camera array at the upper left corner in a portrait format. Still, on the back you’ll find the fingerprint scanner while the physical volume and power buttons on the right, the SIM tray just opposite them while the charging micro-USB port is at the bottom together with the stereo firing speakers and the endangered 3.5mm headphone jack. However, it feels like both the Camon 15 and the Spark were built with the same platform albeit with differing spec sheets. Their design language is almost the same but internally, they’re totally different smartphones.
Surprisingly, the Camon 15 feels compact and solid compared to today’s phone with screens in upwards of 6.6+ inches. It is easy with one-handed use and much as it has a slippery glossy back, the included phone cover can help you with grip.
Overall, the design is refined with fewer bezels with the exception of the lower chin, giving the Camon 15 a full-screen aesthetic except for the hole punch 16MP selfie camera. It tends to disappear the more you use the phone but also, TECNO ships the phone with hole punch-esque wallpapers just to hide it.
The Camon 15’s Camera(s)
A good camera is one where you just point at a photo subject and shoot without a lot of explanations, and the Camon 15’s , main 48MP did just that but with a few caveats. We have no complaints on daylight photography, this it did fine but results were mixed in low-light conditions. Some night mode shots were perfect whereas others were noisy but nonetheless, having such tech trickle down to mid-range phones at such a price, I will reserve the comments. Not only can the camera give you regular shots, but TECNO also added a 2MP for the portrait bokeh effect and another one for macro photography that you’re able to capture subjects at close proximity.
The 16MP selfie camera shines though, in almost all shooting conditions thanks to the added dual flash. Equally, video results were okay during the day but they took a dent during the night.
Display
I’d categorically say that Camon 15 strives to bring high specs down to an everyday phone that everyone can afford but the display is the one spec shy of it achieving that goal. TECNO shipped the Camon 15 with a 6.6” HD+ display meaning it can’t max out fully high definition pictures. Not to say that the display is bad but a full HD screen would do just good for a crisp viewing and reading experience. Also, you might have to crank up its brightness outdoors.
This could be the one area that TECNO compromised that the Camon 15 is as affordable as the word itself.
Performance
The Camon 15 ships with TECNO’s own HiOS 6 atop Android 10. This paired with the 64GB + 4GB of ROM & RAM respectively delivered on most tasks, animations& transition were smooth and it never felt like the Camon 15 was giving more than it could take. Gaming was equally good, and casual gaming even felt faster. Should you feel the need to increase the onboard storage, TECNO includes a Micro-SD slot but if you want to take things a step further, the Camon 15 Premier could be the phone for you at 128GB + 6GB of ROM & RAM respectively.
Battery
The 5000mAh battery is great and can take you throughout a day without charge even on heavy usage. Also, the included 18W fast charger ensures you’re back on track should you run out of battery juice.
Other Perks
There is more to the Camon 15 than just the above but the deal sweetener is the free 3GB data offer every month for 3 months and 100% bonus data in every bundle purchased. The Offer is only available to phones bought from TECNO or MTN shops countrywide.
Also Read: TECNO partners with MTN to launch the Camon 15. Checkout the price, specs and where to buy
What we like
- Price
- Performance
- Battery
- 3GB MTN Data Offer
What could be improved
- Display
Verdict
As mentioned earlier, Camon 15 is affordable for what it brings to the table at UGX 688,000 but not without compromises. If those were fixed, it would catapult it from good to great. In other words, it’s a good smartphone.
