Tecno Camon 40 Pro review

Introduction

Tecno has unveiled its Camon 40 series at the MWC in Barcelona, and today, we are going to meet one of the most interesting specimens - the Camon 40 Pro 5G. It offers a well-rounded specs sheet with plenty of premium features at an attractively low price point.

The Camon 40 Pro 5G bets heavily on design and multimedia - it has a curved shape with an unusual looking back, a fast 144Hz OLED, Dolby Atmos speakers, a powerful processor, and 50MP cameras on both sides for a premium photo experience.

Let's start from the beginning. The Camon 40 Pro 5G has curved panels and a thin profile, Gorilla Glass 7i protection, and IP68 plus IP69 ratings. It is also tested to be drop resistant - to an extent.

The Camon 40 Pro 5G packs a 6.78-inch 1080p OLED display with 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ certifications. The model utilizes a rather popular chipset lately - the Dimensity 7300 5G.

The Camon lineup has always had a focus on the camera kit, and the Camon 40 Pro 5G is no exception. It has a 50MP LYT-700C main camera, an 8MP ultrawide secondary, and a 50MP AF selfie imager.

The Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G is powered by a 5,200mAh battery that supports up to 45W wired charging. It boots Android 15 with Hi OS 15, which is brimming with AI options, and it is promised to get three major software upgrades in the following years.

Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G specs at a glance:

• Body: 164.3x74.6x7.3mm, 179g; Gorilla Glass 7i front. plastic frame, plastic back; IP68/IP69 dust tight and water resistant (high pressure water jets; immersible up to 2m for 30 min).
• Display: 6.78" AMOLED, 144Hz, 1080x2436px resolution, 20.3:9 aspect ratio, 393ppi; Always-on display, HDR image support.
• Chipset: Mediatek Dimensity 7300 (4 nm): Octa-core (4x2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G615 MC2.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 2.x.
• OS/Software: Android 15, up to 3 major Android upgrades, HIOS 15.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP.
• Front camera: 50 MP, f/2.5, 24mm (wide), 1/2.8", 0.64µm, PDAF.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps (HDR), 1080p@30fps; Front camera: Yes.
• Battery: 5200mAh; 45W wired, 50% in 23 min, 100% in 43 min.
• Connectivity: 5G; Wi-Fi; BT; NFC; FM radio; Infrared port.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers; Circle to Search.

The Camon 40 Pro 5G seems like a sweet deal, but it's not exactly an update over the Camon 30 Pro 5G. The chipset is a lower class, the ultrawide camera has been severely downgraded, and the charging power is lower. Those features are now reserved for the Premium model. On a positive note, these cuts made the Camon 40 Pro 5G more affordable, so it is a silver lining of sorts.

Unboxing the Camon 40 Pro 5G

The Camon 40 Pro 5G arrives in a thick paper box, which is filled with goodies. It all starts with the phone, of course, then there is a USB-A-to-C cable, and even a 45W power adapter.

That's not all! Tecno bundles the phone with a premium protective case, which features an incredibly grippy and stylish back that matches the phone's design.

Finally, the phone arrives with a factory-applied protective folio on its screen.

Design, build quality, handling

The Tecno Camon series has always been known with great attention to detail, and the new models are no exception. The Camon 40 Pro 5G looks and feels great.

The Camon 40 Pro 5G has the build of a mid-ranger - Gorilla Glass 7i front, plastic back, plastic frame. Both panels are curved towards the frame, making the Camon appear incredibly slim. It is also IP68-rated for dust and water protection (dip in water). But there is more!

The Camon 40 Pro 5G is also IP69-rated for resistance against high-temperature and high-pressure water jets. Furthermore, Tecno advertises the phone as drop-resistant from 1.5 meters onto asphalt. It even got the SGS 5-star drop-resistant certification. Nice!

The design is another thing where Tecno goes the extra mile. The back has a seamless two-tone design, which rises to engulf the cameras in a rather unique and likable way. One part (the one with the cameras) is of a solid color, while the larger one has this subtle frost texture.

The Camon 40 Pro 5G is available in Galaxy Black (ours), Emerald Lake Green, and Glacier White.

The phone measures 164.3 x 74.6 x 7.3 mm and weighs 179 grams - meaning it's pretty thin and lightweight.

Let's take a closer look at the Camon 40 Pro 5G now.

The entire front is occupied by the 6.78-inch OLED screen with 1080p resolution and 144Hz refresh rate. It has a small perforation for the 50MP AF selfie camera.

Also at the front is the earpiece with a top-facing second outlet.

And then there is the under-display fingerprint scanner, which works pretty fast.

The back has a cool design, which Tecno likes to refer to as "artistic". The back panel rises slightly to cover the two rear cameras and a sensor. Indeed, there are three rings, but there are only two cameras at the back.

The dual-LED flash is outside the camera housing. There is also a configurable indicator light next to the flash.

Tecno has put an extra key on the Camon 40 Pro 5G - on its left side. It is configurable, and you can assign two functions of your choice to be triggered by pressing it.

The top has an IR blaster next to a microphone.

And the bottom houses the other stereo speaker, the USB-C port, the primary microphone and the dual-SIM tray.

There is no microSD expansion on this Tecno. And its proximity sensor is a virtual one, but it does work very well.

We are sure most people would like the cool Camon 40 Pro 5G design - its unique and not over the top. Then there is the solid build and thin profile, which can easily seal the deal. The phone provides a good enough grip, but it's even better with the provided case.

Display

The Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G packs a 6.78-inch OLED screen of 1,080 x 2,436 pixels (393ppi density). It supports 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ content.

The screen is protected by a curved Gorilla Glass 7i curved sheet.

The maximum brightness we measured when using the slider was 554 nits in both manual and automatic brightness. Turning on the High Brightness Mode allows the Auto mode to go as high as 1,054 nits.

The minimum brightness while displaying a white patch on the screen was 2.4 nits.

The Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G supports up to 144Hz display refresh rate. There are three refresh rate modes in the Settings menu - Auto, Standard, and High.

High mode allows for 120Hz in supported apps and games. 144Hz is used only when scrolling certain content, while the rest of the UI and its animations are displayed at 120hz.

Auto Switch uses 120Hz for the UI, but dials down to 60Hz for most apps and games. Both Auto and High go to 60Hz when idling.

Finally, the Standard fixes the refresh rate at 60Hz.

The OS supports Widevine L1 DRM, allowing you to stream high-quality videos on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. HDR10/HDR10+ is supported, and the screen is recognized as HDR10-capable by YouTube and all information-gathering apps. Netflix does not allow HDR streaming, though.

Battery life

The Camon 40 Pro 5G is powered by a 5,200mah battery, up from 5,000mAh capacity on the previous model.

The Camon 40 Pro 5G posted an Active Use Score of 13:51h, which is a good one, but a bit lower than the Camon 30 Pro 5G's.

The model from last year had a slightly smaller battery but a higher-end Dimensity 8200 Ultimate (which is fabbed on the same 4nm node as the Dimensity 7300).

The extra performance helped in the gaming test where the old model lasted an hour longer. It also had the upper hand in the call test, while the web and video tests are quite close - this gave the 2024 Pro an extra 40 minutes of Active use score.

The recent Motorola Edge 60 Fusion makes for an interesting point of comparison - the global model (which is the one we tested) uses the same Dimensity 7300 chip and the battery has the same 5,200mAh capacity. The screen is a bit smaller, but it has a higher resolution - 6.67" 1220p+ for the Motorola compared to 6.78" 1080p+ for the Tecno. It has an advantage of over 2 hours in the video playback test, which was enough to outscore the Tecno by a small margin.

The Poco X7 runs on the Dimensity 7300 Ultra (a minor variation of the 7300) and 5,110mAh batteries (just 90mAh less than the Tecno). It has a smaller, sharper 6.67" 1220p+ display that has a 120Hz refresh rate. While the hardware appears close, the X7 is down 2:30 hours in the Active use score with worse results across the board.

Charging speed

The Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G supports 45W fast wired charging and comes with a 45W power adapter in the box. There are Smart and Low-Temperature charging options, but there is also a hidden one - Hyper Charging. The latter is available only via a notification pop-up, which appears when you start charging via Smart Charging and it will boost the charging speed even further.

Charging in Smart mode yields some good results - we captured 27% of Charge in 15 minutes, 51% in 30 minutes and 100% in 64 minutes.

Then we tried charging with the Hyper option and the difference is minimal - there is 2% increase on the 15min mark and a full charge takes 4min less.

In terms of battery protection features, Tecno offers Bypass Charging option, AI Charging protection (based on your routine), and Custom Charging Protection (setting a charge limit between 80% and 95%).

Speakers

The Camon 40 Pro 5G offers stereo speakers with one bottom-firing and another one with top and front-facing outlets for better sound balance.

The speakers support Dolby Atmos and it's ON by default, set on Intelligent mode.

The stereo speakers scored an Average mark on our loudness test. Their audio quality is also average - the vocals are alright, the high-frequency range is well presented, but the bass is minimal of any, and songs sound shallow.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Android 15 with Hi OS 15

The Camon 40 Pro runs on a fresh Android 14 software platform with a custom Hi OS 15 skin on top. Tecno promised 3 generational OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches.

The Android OS, even with the Tecno skin, is pretty straightforward.

Hi OS 15

There is an always-on screen, which is everything but always-on (it lights up for 15s). It supports landscape mode when charging to act as a night clock.

The new AOD

The lockscreen has a couple of shortcuts on the bottom - one for the camera, and the other for the flashlight.

Multitasking features include split-screen and pop-up window modes for supported apps - nothing out of the ordinary.

There are some pre-installed apps and utilities, but overall, it's a clean enough package. You get an in-house gallery and video player but no proprietary app stores and no Hi browser pre-installed. Not even the Hi Themes app is here - there are just a couple of themes pre-installed.

Tecno has its own AI assistant called Ella. It is chock-full of useful features and offers voice wake-up and voice responses. Most of the data for the AI model requires an internet connection to fetch; however, commands for phone settings and tasks can also work offline.

Ella

Holding the Quick button summons Tecno's Ella voice assistant, which uses the DeepSeek R1 language model.

A double press will open up the camera for what Tecno has dubbed FastSnap mode.

AI

Tecno's AI functions include real-time translations, document and writing assistance, sketch conversion to pictures in notes, wallpaper generation, picture editing (expand, remove objects), and more.

Image AI

Google's Circle to Search is also included out of the box.

Gallery Edits • Circle to Search

Performance and benchmarking

The Tecno Camon 40 Pro runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 5G chip (4nm). It packs an octa-core processor with 4 x 2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 cores and 4 x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 cores, while the GPU is the Mali-G615. The new chip promises a 25% improvement in efficiency compared to its 6nm predecessor.

Memory options are more limited than last time - 8GB RAM + 256GB (ours) and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage. Both configurations use LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage.

Let's see some benchmarks now.

The Camon 40 Pro offers adequate performance for the midrange class, and it does provide a smooth experience across the board. It is a pity that the chipset class has been lowered, as seen by the Camon 30 Pro tests, but this will be addressed with the retail price, hopefully.

The phone provides rock solid sustained performance - it scored 85% for CPU and 99% for GPU when running prolonged stress tests. It never got uncomfortably hot.

CPU test • GPU test

Overall, Tecno Camon 40 Pro is a good performer and will answer most users' needs in this class. It's no gaming phone, but it does games well, too, just don't expect high-end smooth experience. 

50MP camera on the back, 50MP on the front

Although the Tecno Camon 40 Pro's camera hardware is slightly above average for the price class, it's a step back from the previous generation.

The Camon 40 Pro one comes with a downgraded 8MP ultrawide camera instead of last year's larger 50MP unit, but it has autofocus, at least.

• Wide (main): 50 MP Sony IMX896, 23mm f/1.8, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, OIS, multi-directional PDAF; 4K@30fps
• Ultrawide: 8 MP GalaxyCore GC08A8, 14mm, f/2.2, 1/4.0", 1.0µm, AF; 1440p@30fps.
• Front camera: 50 MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN1, 20mm, f/2.4, 1/2.76", 0.64µm; 1080p@30fps

The primary 50MP camera remains, though, and so does the selfie shooter, which still offers AF.

Daylight photos

Main camera

The Camon 40 Pro captures high-quality daylight photos, offering plenty of detail, solid sharpness, and vivid colors. Dynamic range is wide for the most part, but you can sometimes see overly dark shadows.

Indoor shots continue the strong performance, with low noise levels and the same pleasing detail and color characteristics. It's an impressive showing.

Even though the portraits are a bit softer compared to higher-end phones, the overall quality is pretty good.

2x crop zoom

The 2x zoom mode closely matches the 1x mode's rendition, but some scenes have a noticeable dip in quality. Subjects close to the camera are rendered pretty well with plenty of detail and good sharpness, but foliage in the distance, for example, shows upscaling artifacts.

 

Ultrawide camera

Since this is an 8MP ultrawide camera, it's unrealistic to expect a great level of detail, but perhaps due to the autofocus, closer subjects appear very detailed and sharp. Dynamic range is impressive for this sort of camera, colors are punchy, and contrast is good. It's definitely one of the best 8MP ultrawide camera implementations we've seen.

Thanks to the autofocus, the ultrawide camera can capture decent-looking macro photos, although they are not very detailed due to the limited 8MP resolution. Still, it's a better solution than the dedicated 2MP macro cameras commonly found on budget handsets.

Selfies

As for selfies, the Camon 40 Pro stands out in its class. Its 50MP front-facing camera delivers crisp, detailed images with excellent sharpness, balanced colors, and impressive dynamic range. Autofocus is the real game-changer here - a rarity at this price point, and it pays off big time in consistency and subject clarity.

 
One nitpick we have is that the default selfie mode on the camera app is set to Portrait, which is annoying, and you must select "AI CAM" mode every single time if you want to get a regular selfie without the fake background defocusing.

Daylight photos

Main camera

The images maintain a natural look with a touch of artificial sharpening. Dynamic range is wide, revealing plenty of detail in the shadows without clipping the highlights. While the color output last year lacked saturation, we see a significant improvement this year. Still, color reproduction at night is somewhat conservative.

 

The auto Night mode usually kicks in by default. It helps enhance dynamic range and handles bright light sources well, while leaving some shadow areas brighter than we'd like.

2x crop zoom

We weren't expecting much from the 2x zoom shots at night, and they meet our expectations. The results inherit the overall processing from the main camera but show noticeable softness, reduced detail and noticeable grain. They're fine for quick sharing or viewing on a phone screen, but don't hold up well under closer scrutiny.

 

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera is a far cry from last year's 50MP ultrawide in terms of overall quality. The new budget 8MP sensor produces okay images for its class which have lots of sharpening and not a lot of fine detail. HDR works well to keep highlights in check.

Video recording

The Camon 40 Pro supports 4K video recording at 30fps with its main and selfie cameras. Due to resolution limitations, the ultrawide settles for 1440p@30fps video recording. EIS seems present in all resolution modes and is easy to turn off, except when recording 1440p videos using the ultrawide camera. In this case, EIS is unavailable.

Video output from the main sensor at 4K is very good - crisp, sharp, and full of rich detail. Colors are lively without appearing over-processed, and while the exposure can run slightly on the bright side, it's not an issue.

The ultrawide's clip isn't bad either, but it's noticeably softer and less detailed due to the 1080p resolution. It's slightly better in 1440p resolution, but extremely shaky too as it lacks EIS. Dynamic range is solid , though.

Low-light recording performs better than expected. There's a little bit of noise here and there, and colors need more punch, but we are happy with the sharpness. The low-light footage is relatively good.

The EIS test footage leaves more to be desired. There's a little bit of jitter and focus hunting.

Verdict

Months after the release, the Tecno Camon 40 Pro's market availability is still very limited. The phone can be found in some Asian countries and Africa, but with a varying price tag. Moreover, the Camon 40 Pro's direct competitors are different in each market, making it extremely hard for us to make an objective assessment of its market situation. The phone can be found for around $300 or less in one region, while in another, it can cost around $400.

Having said that, the Camon 40 Pro is a dependable all-rounder. Sure, it may not stand out from the crowd with unique features or exceptional performance, but it's an affordable phone with a decent camera experience, a fresh and durable design, good battery life and 256GB base storage.

Even though we've seen brighter displays, faster charging solutions and maybe snappier chipsets in the same class, the screen is bright enough for comfortable use, charging isn't painfully slow like Samsung's, and the chipset is perfectly fine for everyday tasks and light gaming. The lack of a hardware proximity sensor remains our single annoyance which says a lot how good of a smartphone Tecno has come up with.

All in all, the Camon 40 Pro is easy to recommend, especially in markets where it costs around $300 or less. It gets trickier in countries with a price tag closer to $400, but even then, it holds up well in some regards.

Pros

• Fresh design with premium feel, IP68/69.
• Large OLED panel with 144Hz refresh rate.
• Dependable battery life.
• Overall good camera experience.

Cons

• Virtual proximity sensor.
• We've seen brighter displays.
• Charging could be quicker.
• No eSIM support.