Tecno Camon 40 Premier review

50MP cameras on the front and back

The new Camon 40 Premier features roughly the same camera hardware with 50MP sensors for all of its four cameras. However, there's a slight change in the sensor models, which doesn't affect the overall user experience.

• Wide (main): 50MP Sony IMX 890, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, f/1.9, 23mm, PDAF, OIS; 2160p@60fps
• Ultrawide: 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1, f/2.2, 1/2.76", 0.64µm, 14mm, PDAF; 2160p@30fps
• Telephoto: 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN5, f/2.2, 1/2.76", 0.64µm, 70mm (periscope telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom; 2160p@60fps
• Front camera: 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1, f/2.5, 24mm, 1/2.76", 0.64µm, PDAF; 2160p@30fps

Kudos to Tecno for including autofocus on its ultrawide and selfie cameras. There are more expensive devices that don't even offer these.

Daylight photos

Main camera

The Tecno Camon 40 Premier's main camera delivers exceptional daylight performance, easily outclassing many of its mid-range rivals and even surpassing its predecessor. Shots come out with excellent sharpness and plenty of fine detail, aided by a wide dynamic range that preserves highlights and shadows well. Color reproduction is lively without veering into oversaturation.

Main camera photos

The camera maintains that performance indoors as well.

Portrait mode deserves praise too, producing nicely separated subjects with pleasing skin tones and good background blur.

Portraits: Photo mode • Portrait mode

2x crop zoom

Tecno's 2x zoom via a digital crop from the main sensor results in a noticeable drop in image quality. The cropped images are disappointingly soft and lack fine detail, standing in stark contrast to the otherwise stellar main cam output. For a feature often marketed as a zoom option, its performance is underwhelming and best avoided unless necessary.

2x crop zoom photos

And here are 2x zoom portraits.

2x zoom portraits: Photo mode • Portrait mode

3x telephoto camera

The dedicated 3x telephoto camera on the Camon 40 Premier is simply in a class of its own at this price point. It delivers stunningly sharp images with great detail, and although some artificial sharpening is clearly applied, it's done tastefully. Closer subjects remain clean and natural-looking, while foliage is excellently defined even from afar. Even in less-than-ideal lighting, the telephoto camera holds its ground, offering consistency that's rare in this segment.

3x telephoto camera photos

Portraits are once again excellent, even with more challenging lighting conditions.

3x zoom portraits: Photo mode • Portrait mode

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera is another standout component of the Camon 40 Premier. For a mid-range device, the ultrawide shooter offers surprisingly good image quality, with great detail, solid sharpness, and color rendition that matches the main camera nicely. Dynamic range and contrast are handled well too.

Ultrawide photos

The autofocus opens the door for macro-style shots, though results in that specific mode are unimpressive, but good enough for undemanding users.

Macro photos

Selfies

Selfie performance on the Camon 40 Premier is solid, though not quite remarkable. The images are decently sharp and detailed, with natural skin tones and an overall pleasing color reproduction. Dynamic range is acceptable, though highlights can sometimes get overly bright. A bit more contrast would have helped give the images more depth, but the results should still satisfy most casual users and social media needs.

Selfies

Low-light photos

Main camera

The Camon 40 Premier's main camera holds up well in low-light scenarios, producing clean, sharp, and detailed images that impress within the phone's price bracket. There's visible artificial sharpening, but it's restrained enough to enhance clarity without making the photos look overly processed. Details in the shadows are preserved nicely, though highlights and bright light sources often end up clipped. Colors take a more conservative turn at night, appearing more subdued than during the day, but this works in favor of maintaining a natural look.

Main camera photos

2x crop zoom

At night, the 2x zoom mode remains serviceable, but it doesn't exactly shine. The images can look decent at a glance or when viewed on a smaller screen, but a closer inspection reveals a lack of definition. It's not unusable, and for social media or quick snaps, it may suffice, but the limitations of this crop-based approach become all too apparent after dark.

2x crop zoom photos

3x telephoto camera

Low light is the one scenario where the otherwise excellent 3x telephoto camera stumbles. Shots taken in dim conditions are soft, often even mushier than the 2x zoom samples, and suffer from visible and heavy processing. The camera tries to compensate with aggressive sharpening, but it only highlights the shortcomings. Clipped highlights and overexposed light sources further detract from the results.

3x telephoto camera photos

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera turns in passable performance at night, though expectations should be tempered. While the shots are usable, there's a clear drop in quality compared to daylight use. Highlight clipping is frequent, and color saturation takes a noticeable dip, resulting in flat-looking images. It's acceptable for occasional night shots, but not a strong point of the camera system.

Ultrawide camera photos

Video recording

The device supports 4K video recording at up to 60fps with all of its cameras, including the selfie one. Video stabilization is available in 4K as well.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

Video recording on the Tecno Camon 40 Premier's main camera is good quality overall. Daytime footage looks sharp and detailed, with lively colors and wide dynamic range that handles challenging lighting well. Contrast is also excellent, giving the footage a punch. Stabilization, however, could use improvement. While functional, it falls short of some competitors in the segment.

Low-light video recording is surprisingly competent too, with solid detail retention, well-controlled noise, and decent sharpness. Highlights and light sources tend to clip, but the dynamic range remains respectable, and there's a good amount of shadow detail preserved.

The 2x crop zoom video is far from impressive. It's quite soft, lacks fine detail and it's hard to call it "usable".

The telephoto camera carries its strong stills performance into video recording, at least in terms of image quality. Detail and sharpness are impressive, and the overall processing closely mirrors that of the main cam. Dynamic range is slightly narrower, and highlights can clip more easily, but footage still looks quite polished, especially considering the price range. Unfortunately, stabilization is a weak point here as well; handheld footage can appear jittery, which limits its usability without a tripod or gimbal.

Unsurprisingly, the ultrawide camera is the weakest of the bunch when it comes to overall quality. Sharpness takes a noticeable hit, and the narrower dynamic range leads to frequent clipping in highlights. White cars, for example, can look blown out under direct sun. That said, colors remain lively, and the footage is generally noise-free, which helps maintain a clean look in decent lighting.