Tecno Camon 40 Premier review

Hi OS 15 on top of Android 15

Like the rest of the Camon 40 series, the Premier also runs on the latest custom Hi OS 15 skin based on Android 15. The phone is promised up to 3 major OS updates and 5 years of security patches.

Hi OS is a heavily customized Android overlay with its iconography, appearance and features. We've explored them in detail in our Tecno Camon 40 Pro review, so check the software section to learn more about Tecno's custom Android skin.

Home screen • Quick toggles • Recent apps

One of the highlight features of the Premier and the Pro is the One-Tap Button that can summon the digital AI-powered assistant Ella or launch the camera app in an instant.

There's also an LED indicator light on the back, which isn't a common occurrence nowadays. It also lights up in red when you are recording video like an old-school camcorder.

As far as overall usability and performance go, Hi OS ran smoothly on the Camon 40 Premier with no hiccups or issues.

Benchmark performance

The Tecno Camon 40 Premier is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Extreme chipset (4nm). It packs an octa-core CPU with 1x3.35 GHz Cortex-A715 & 3x3.20 GHz Cortex-A715 & 4x2.20 GHz Cortex-A510 clusters, and a Mali G615-MC6 GPU.

The only difference we could find in MediaTek's materials between the previous Dimensity 8300 and this new model is the StarSpeed Engine for gaming. The old 8300 has the HyperEngine in charge of gaming for what that's worth.

Unlike last year's Premier, this one is offered only in 12GB/256GB memory configurations. For context, the Camon 30 Premier had 512GB of storage.

According to the storage performance test we ran, the Camon 40 Premier is equipped with UFS 4.0 grade storage, which is great for a mid-range device.

Aside from a few outliers like the Poco X7 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, the Camon 40 Premier is on par with most of its rivals and even outperforms others. Depending on the market and pricing, Tecno's contender may be average or above average for its class.

Sustained performance

The Camon 40 Premier did pretty well in our CPU and GPU stress tests. During the CPU stress test, the Dimensity 8350 retained about 80% of its theoretical performance and maintained stable clock speeds throughout the test.

CPU and GPU stress test

The GPU stress test returned 87% stability, which is also pretty solid.

External temperatures

The external temperatures, however, were quite high around the camera bump and the right side of the frame.