The camera on this Android phone is confusing, but I love it

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I ’m all for a band of detail , and love to listen about the new engineering that ’s inside a smartphone I ’m about to test , but when I have to look for for an explanation of what something mean , it ’s not a good outset . The Tecno Camon 30 Premier bear from this job , as it has a lot of nerveless camera tech that is explicate in a mystifying means .

So , I think the best affair to do was to just disregard the tech speak and find out if it takes dandy exposure the old - fashioned way .

A person holding the Tecno Camon 30 Premier, showing the back of the phone.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

What’s the problem?

The Tecno Camon 30 Premier has four tv camera — on the buttocks , there ’s a Sony IMX890 50 - megapixel master camera , a 50MP blanket - angle and macro camera , and a 50MP portrayal television camera , while on the front is another 50MP camera with autofocus and eye - tracking . It vocalize unspoilt and also dead intelligible . It ’s all driven by Tecno ’s unexampled PolarAce imaging system of rules , which has a Sony CXD5622 G imaging cow chip at its bosom that is apparently the first to provide “ death - side FP16 floating - point computing with the baron of 4.6TFLOPS@FP16 . ”

This does n’t really mean anything to me , but it does plain drive certain features that are somewhat understandable , such as 4 K resolution AI - NR HDR video transcription at 30 frames per 2nd ( fps ) , 4 K portrait video , and 4 K radical - Nox Vision picture . It all soundsveryspecific and perfect for those posh demonstration scenes with beautifully lit beautiful people in beautiful fix , but what does it really entail when I ’m withdraw photo and shooting TV at all other times ?

It ’s definitely the tech that makes the Camon 30 Premier ’s camera special , but it does appear to be very telecasting - centric and , therefore , potentially slightly limiting . Before we get into the tv camera , there are a few other affair to know about the new telephone set first . It has a MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate C.P.U. and 12 GB of RAM .

A photo taken with the Tecno Camon 30 Premier.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

There ’s a 6.77 - in AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate , a 5,000mAh assault and battery with 70 - watt wired charging , and an strange suede cloth - like , phoney - leather - ish cover over the sculpted , swooping rear panel . See the little violent dot above the tv camera ? It ’s a notification light for charging condition and incoming calls . It ’s a good excogitation and a strong overall specification , so do the telephone and camera inhabit up to all these impressive - sounding specs ?

Taking photos with the Camon 30 Premier

First , an apology . I did n’t notice the plaguy watermark was on by nonpayment and only let out it ruin the photo when I took them off the headphone and put them on my data processor . Still , at least you know these images were absolutely take with the Tecno Camon 30 Premier , and I have n’t chicane and used a unlike phone for some reason . Secondly , as this is only an early hands - on examination with the phone , we ’re only looking at stills today .

On the overconfident side , the Camon 30 Premier ’s camera has a pleasing , born quality but also is n’t afraid to advance the impregnation to create a striking photo . you could also becharm a beautiful depth of field even with the primary camera out of portrait mode . The 3x visual zoom shows mint of contingent and uses HDR to gravid effect . It ’s distinctly a capable camera , and I have n’t really search all its ability yet , or take a good look at television performance .

However , the software is very heavily - handed in some shots , using a lot of smoothing to reduce noise and unnaturally increase detail . This is very obvious in lowlight , even indoors . The photo of the church reed organ pipes — postulate in a very dour corner of a church — looks great at a glance , but when you get closer , the board on either side of the door appear blank where the package has smoothed them out . The pipe also miss grain and realism .

A photo taken with the Tecno Camon 30 Premier.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

But I almost do n’t care , as I ’ve played around with the camera enough to really delight taking picture with it and have found it is able enough to indulge me when I sample to get creative . I may notreallyunderstand what Tecno ’s last on about with its description of the PolarAce imagination scheme , and even whether it ’s making any difference when take still photos , but when the results are what I hoped for — and they are — I can forgive it .

Plenty of promise

The Tecno Camon 30 Premier ’s tv camera has promise , and we ’ll take a more in - depth expression at its power in the near futurity . How about the rest of the earpiece ? It ’s certainly unique , with the metal chassis strain only over the top sharpness of the rear and Tecno ’s “ technical school - Art ” leather textile in the Snowy Silver color date in our photos . The phone is 7.9 millimetre buddy-buddy at its thin spot , but the flat side and extra thickness around the television camera make it palpate larger . peculiarly , it feels lighter than the 210 - gramme free weight suggests .

Tecno calls the 6.77 - in LTPO AMOLED its best screen yet , and it ’s certainly promising and colourful , with a more vivid appearance than that of theSamsung Galaxy A55 , which I straight off compared it to . However , the Galaxy A55 ’s speakers have a full , bass voice - weighty sound than the Camon 30 Premier ’s stereo speaker system . It could be possible to alter the sound profile , but the configurations app keep crash when I endeavor to get at the auditory sensation fare .

I have n’t put my SIM placard in the Camon 30 Premier to test theAndroid 14and HiOS user interface , but enjoyed using it on theTecno Pova 6 ProI lived with recently . The crashing preferences app set me off a snatch , though . However , I am using the phone ahead of its final release .

A photo taken with the Tecno Camon 30 Premier.

Wide-angleImage used with permission by copyright holder

The Camon 30 Premier also resist to excite when I used an Apple USB - C battery charger , which regularly charge other devices , but it was ok when I tried a lowly - office Anker charger , along with its own included 70W charger . These are small vexation , but not a great welcome to a brand unexampled phone .

Excitement, tempered?

When Tecno talked about thePolarAce imaging system during Mobile World Congress ( ACE ) , there was plenty of buzz and attending around it , and we were keen to examine the system out . The party has amount out with avariety of interesting , strange , andsurprisingly open camera phone , and it appeared to be convey the new Camon 30 Premier very seriously indeed .

The final result so far is an challenging camera that clearly has a distinct feel to its exposure and potentially some exciting television feature just waiting to be screen out . However , using the camera for still shows that it ’s good , but not always outstanding , with the computer software sometimes spoiling the epitome . We ’re going to persevere with the Camon 30 Premier ’s photographic camera , as it is packed with different features and some of the hush have really impressed .

Tecno does n’t sell its smartphones in the U.S. or the U.K. , so you ’ll have to puzzle out intemperately to get one . It ’ll be out in May , with the price set to variegate look on where it ’s released . The camera and the design make it tempting , but when I ’ve already find a fairly pestiferous germ in the software program after using it without a SIM card for the good afternoon , it may be worth withstand off before putting in some serious effort to get one right now .

A photo taken with the Tecno Camon 30 Premier.