Amateur Photographer verdict
The Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5G is a well-performing device with an array of interesting features for a very low price.- Great value
- 3x 50MP lenses
- Well-featured app
- Not available in every market
- Poor outlines around portrait subjects
- Colours can be overly vibrant
With products aimed primarily at emerging markets, Tecno is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer that has been producing some impressive devices for quite a while. But will the Tecno Camon 30 Premier make it to our list of the best camera phones for photography? Read on to find out.
The Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5G is the company’s latest flagship device, which is packed with a host of high-end specification designed to help you get high quality photographs in a range of different shooting conditions – and importantly at an affordable price. As well as the Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5G, there’s also the Tecno Camon 30 Pro 5G and the Tecno Camon 30 5G.
Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5G – At a glance:
- 50MP “main” camera, 23mm equivalent f/1.9 lens
- 50MP ultrawide camera, 14mm equivalent f/2.2 lens
- 50MP periscope 70mm equivalent (3x), f/2.2 lens
- 50MP selfie camera with AF
- 4K video at up to 60fps
- 6.7-inch, 1264 x 2780 pixels, 1400 nits peak brightness, 120Hz screen
- Operating system – Android 14
- 12GB RAM, 512GB storage
- Processor – MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate 5G
It features a triple lens set up, with all three having 50MP sensors behind them. On paper, it’s an impressive array, especially for the price. However, being as Tecno’s focus is on emerging markets, those in places such as the UK or US will likely struggle to find it available for sale at the current time.
Prices vary around the world in the markets that the phone is available in, so it’s best to check with your local retailer for the latest up to date sale price.
How we test phones
We review smartphones from the perspective of choosing a smartphone for its photography and camera performance, so we’ll be starting by looking at what the Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5G offers in terms of the cameras and what features are included for photography and video.
Features
Despite being a relatively low-cost smartphone – particularly in comparison to other flagship models such as the iPhone 15 Pro Max or the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – the Tecno Canon 30 Premier 5G has a spec sheet that seems very impressive on paper.
Let’s start with more detail about that triple camera array. The standard / wide-angle camera has a 50MP Sony 1/1.56” sensor, with a 23mm f/1.9 lens. This is joined by two further 50MP sensors, namely an ultrawide (14mm equivalent) f/2.2 lens and a 3x periscope (70mm equivalent) f/2.2 lens. Both of these sensors are 1/2.76”. The main sensor is equipped with OIS, but the two other lenses are not.
Both the ultrawide lens and the periscope lens can be used for shooting macro images – with the ultrawide lens it’s promised that you can get as close as 2.5cm from the subject. The tele lens is designed to shoot macro subjects – such as insects – from a greater distance so as not to disturb them.
At the front of the phone is a fourth 50MP sensor for the selfie camera. Even more impressively, this lens also comes with AF, something we don’t always see with selfie cameras. In fact, it goes a step further and also includes eye-tracking, so, in theory at least, all your selfies should be perfectly focused.
As we’re used to seeing from lots of different brands, there’s a host of AI technology on board the Camon 30. This includes the ability to erase stray subjects in the backgrounds of your portraits, but also from a shooting point of view, the inclusion of Universal Tone, should mean that all types of skin tone are rendered accurately, even when different tones are present within the same scene.
Other interesting specifications include 4K video recording up to 60fps, a 6.7” 1.5K AMOLED screen, and a 5000mAh battery. Although fast charging is available, wireless charging is not.
Tecno promises that there will be three years of Android updates and security updates guaranteed for its Camon 30 series, so that should mean that the phone is good to use for quite a while before you definitely need to consider upgrading.
Handling and Design
At 6.7-inches, the Camon 30 Premier is towards the large side for smartphones, which is great for showing off your images. With a maximum brightness of 1400 nits, it’s not the brightest on the market but it still looks pretty good in most conditions.
Impressively for a low-cost device, the Camon 30 Premier uses a metal frame, which is the strongest Tecno has ever used for the Camon range – drop and scratch resistance is promised to have been improved significantly since previous iterations. While I haven’t been too rough with the device, no scratches have appeared on it during my time with it. Additionally, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 is used for the screen, which should also see the screen withstand some scrapes.
The phone has IP54 water resistance, which means it’s not quite as water proof as those with IP67/IP68 ratings, but it should withstand splashes of water, such as during a rain shower, with no problem. Interestingly, it also has “Wet Hand Touch” which means that you can still use the screen even when your hands are damp from hand-washing or if you’re trying to use it in rainy weather.
At just 7.9mm deep and 210g in weight, the Camon 30 Premier is lightweight and slim, and it also has an excellent screen-to-body ratio. It has been designed to have classic camera type touches, including a zoom ring around the lenses – although note that the ring is there mainly for aesthetic purposes, and it doesn’t move at all – Tecno says that its structure helps with heat dissipation though.
Available in two colours, the back of the phone uses vegan leather, while there’s a cut out to the right of the lenses – again this seems to be mainly for aesthetic purposes only. A small red light is used on the back of the phone to indicate a variety of different things, such as that the phone is charging or that video is recording.
The camera app
Like many other Android phones, the native app for the Camon 30 Premier 5G is well-featured, with an array of different shooting modes to match a variety of subjects.
By default, you’ll be shooting in AI CAM mode, which is essentially just a point-and-shoot mode. Here the camera will automatically detect the kind of scene you’re shooting and adjust settings accordingly. You can also make some changes yourself, such as switching between different colour modes (Standard, Bright and “Camon”), as well as adding different filters. You can switch HDR on or off, adjust aspect ratio and choose to shoot in 100 megapixel mode, if you’re using the 1x lens, or 50MP if using the ultrawide or the tele lenses. The 100MP mode uses upsampling since the sensor is only actually 50MP. The results are pretty poor though, so it’s generally best to stick to the default output.
A SuperNight mode kicks in when the phone detects low light levels, but you can also select it manually if you’re worried that it’s not activating when you want it to.
As is pretty standard these days, there’s a Portrait mode, with which you can use a 1x, 2x or 3x option, as well as adjusting the level of simulated bokeh via an aperture slider (which goes from f/1.0 to f/16). There are some dubious settings in portrait mode which allow you to dramatically change someone’s appearance, including lots of slimming tools, but also the ability to adjust a person’s skin tone.
A selection of other shooting modes include Super Macro, Panorama and a Pro mode which advanced photographers might want to make use of. In the Pro mode you can adjust exposure compensation, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, AF mode and metering.
Further modes utilising artificial intelligence include a “Sky Shop” which enables you to take landscape shots with superimposed different skies on. Some are more realistic than others – if used with caution and transparency they can be a bit of fun, but most of the time it’s pretty obvious that the scene you’re looking at is fake. Another is “AIGC Portrait”, where you can take photos of someone else (or yourself via the selfie camera) and it creates an AI rendering of “you” in various settings – say for example at a graduation that you never really attended. The results here look absolutely nothing like me, however, so I’m not sure what the point of it is. Again, though, you might find it a bit of fun to experiment with.
Image Quality and Performance
In plenty of situations, the Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5G takes great photos.
Generally speaking, colours are good, being nicely vibrant and well-saturated so as to be pleasing to most. This means that on the whole landscape-type shots are pretty good, but I have found that where there is both bright blue sky and green grass in the frame, the AI camera ramps the saturation up far too high. You don’t see the same issue with a beach in the shot, so it must be the combination of blue and green which is wreaking havoc with the algorithm here.
As we’d expect, the main sensor produces the best images, but the ultrawide puts in a solid performance too, as does the telephoto lens if used reasonably sparingly. I would probably avoid the digital zoom in most situations unless desperate as you start to lose quite a bit of detail at this point. At 10x it’s just about usable but the advertised 60x is, as is usually the case even with high-end smartphones, pretty poor.
Macro mode works well to allow you to get close to the subject for some pleasing frame filling shots.
As already mentioned, Portrait mode has some strange settings. If you ignore these and just use it as a normal portrait mode, then you can get some fairly nice results. Around soft hair, outlines can be a little on the unrealistic side, but that’s generally only something you’ll notice if you examine very closely. Even without all of the extra Portrait options left on, skin is often smoothed perhaps more than I’d like to see – but again, this is only particularly noticeable when examining closely, but it can render some portraits a little “doll-like”.
You can also use the Portrait mode for non-human subjects, including pets and inanimate objects. This works well with my smooth-haired dog, but again, the fussier the outline, the less realistic it is.
The selfie camera has AF, which is quite good for a phone at this price point. Again, you have the same slightly strange portrait settings here, but if you leave all of that off then you get some good natural results. You can also use the Portrait mode to create shallow depth of field effects for your selfies.
In low light, the Night mode produces the best results when using the 1x lens. The ultrawide and telephoto lens struggle unless there is quite a bit of light available somewhere in the scene. For a phone at this price point though, it’s not too bad a performance.
Value for Money
This is a phone which is available in a variety of different markets, with a variety of different prices. However, we can see that the current price converts to around $350/£280, which gives us an idea of just how good value for money this phone truly is.
When you consider that other flagships will set you back at least $1000/£1000, what you get for your money is great. Having three 50MP sensors in a slick device, as well as the well-rounded native camera app makes it a great choice for anyone looking for a good photography smartphone but who doesn’t have a huge amount of money to spend. For more options, have a look at the best budget phones.
Verdict
When looking for a flagship smartphone, it’s usually true that prices are enormously high. However, here we have a well-performing device with an array of interesting features for a very low price.
Now, that’s not to say the Tecno Camon 30 is perfect. There are times when the AI goes overboard with colours, portraits are “OK” but not great, and low light shooting could certainly be better. It’s fair to say that if this were a $1000 phone it would almost certainly be getting a lower score. But, for something that costs under $350, it’s great.
In short, if you don’t want to spend a fortune and just want a decent all rounder, it’s certainly a compelling choice. It’s a shame that this brand isn’t widely available across the world, but for those markets in which it appears, it gives those looking for a good quality device something which won’t break the bank and comes recommended.
Specifications
| Ultra-wide camera | 50MP 14mm equivalent, f/2.2, PDAF |
| Wide camera | 50MP 23mm equivalent, f/1.9, PDAF, OIS |
| Telephoto camera | 50MP 70mm equivalent periscope lens, f/2.2, PDAF |
| Front selfie camera | 50MP f/2.5, 24mm equivalent, AF |
| Display | 6.77” LPTO AMOLED, 1264 x 2780 pixels, 120Hz, 1400 nits |
| Operating system | Android 14 |
| Dimensions | 162.7 x 76.2 x 7.9mm |
| Weight | 210g |
Related reading:
- New TECNO collaboration to study skin tone and portrait preferences
- TECNO PHANTOM V Fold: skin-deep beauty
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