After much anticipation and wait, Tecno Mobiles has finally released its much-awaited smartphone, the Tecno Camon 12 Air in India. Tecno Mobiles decided to enlarge its millennial smartphones series; the Tecno Camon series which is better known for producing smartphones with great cameras. Tecno introduced three new smartphones; the Camon 12, Camon 12 Pro, and Camon 12 Air into the Camon series.
Today we will be reviewing the Tecno Camon 12 Air, the latest budget-centric smartphone. We will be bringing out the best and worst of the smartphone as well as listing out the price at which you can purchase this smartphone, reasons why should buy or not buy the smartphone.
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The new smartphone is like to take over the budget smartphone market considering the features such as the great camera that it delivers, the dot-notch design, which the company claims to be the segment-first feature that it brings along. Apart from the already listed, you will still find the smartphone properly deliver all the necessary specifications and features which makes the device an interesting option for the budget segment.
After delivering such great specifications and interesting features, we would like to properly go into the review to find out if this smartphone will be able to match other great budget smartphones such as the Redmi 8 and others.
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This is actually the second time Tecno Mobile is actually coming out with an Air model after the release of the Tecno CX-AIR. And this is the first time the company is announcing the three models of a particular series at the same time. Without any further ados, let’s see all that the budget smartphone has in stock for us.
Design
Just like its other siblings (The Camon 12 and Camon 12 Pro), the Tecno Camon 12 Air also features a plastic body build. The smartphone happens to be slightly different from its other siblings, though there is this touch of brotherhood running through the smartphones.
One of the most interesting and outstanding features of the Camon 12 Air is its screen. The new smartphone features a Display-O. The smartphone rocks a 6.55-inch HD+ display which has a punch hole where the single selfie camera stays.
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Tecno was able to achieve an almost all-screen display, though the smartphone also comes with an extremely trimmed bezel and an almost invisible notch that holds the earpiece. The screen is actually an IPS panel that boasts a 720 x 1600 pixels resolution and was able to achieve above 85% screen-to-body (Actually a 90.3 percent screen-to-body ratio).
The display of the Camon 12 Air looks decent arriving with an aspect ratio of 20:9 and providing users with an immersive viewing experience. The viewing angles are great and it is also bright with 500nits brightness.
On the back of this smartphone, you will find the beautiful plastic glossy back panel and it is currently available in two color options which are the Stellar Purple and Baby Blue. The smartphone has a lightweight and has a premium look. Overall, the Camon 12 Air is one of the smartphones in the recently released Camon series that has a very nice design and equally fits in very well in the palm,
Camera
If there is anything that the Tecno Camon 12 is supposed to be best at, it is in the cameras; which actually happens to be among its strongest points. The Tecno Camon 12 is a Camera-centric smartphone and it indeed delivers great shoots.
The smartphone arrives with a total number of four cameras; three-camera sensors at the back and a single selfie shooter on top of the screen.
The triple cameras on the back of the smartphone are made up of a 16 MegaPiexel for AI scene detection, 8 MegaPixel for wide-angle shots, and the 2 MegaPixel used for depth sensing. The 16MegaPixel main primary camera has an f2.0 aperture and other interesting features such as an AI HDR (which offers AI optimization) and AI scene detection.
The AI cameras help the smartphone recognize persons and objects. There are yet other features such as the Beauty mode which enhances the features of the face, Panorama and AR Shot which makes your images emojified!, and the Bokeh mode that blurs the background and highlights the main portrait.
On the front side of the smartphone, you will find the single selfie camera is a 16-megapixels and assisted by a powerful dual LED flash that helps to achieve more detailed selfies even I low light conditions. In addition to the aforementioned, you will find another wide-selfie feature that resembles the panorama effect found on the rear camera.
Performance
The Camon 12 Air arrives in two versions; African and the Asian version. The African version is a Quad-core Mediatek MT6761 Helio A22 CPU which runs at 2.0GHz and assisted by a 3GB RAM, and a 32GB internal storage for all your files.
The second version of the smartphone is the Asian version which is powered by an Octa-core Mediatek MT6762 Helio P22 CPU which clocks at 2.0GHz. It is assisted by a 4GB RAM which oversees multi-tasking and helps for better performance. For all your storage purposes, you have the 64GB internal storage of which can be further expanded just as the African model.
When it comes to the performance of the smartphone, the Tecno Camon 12 Air delivers very well and will be facing other rivals such as Xiaomi Redmi Note 7s, Realme 5 and more.
The new smartphone runs on the latest Operating System which is the company’s (Tecno Mobile) Operating System HiOS 5.5, which is based latest OS Android 9.0 Pie. The user-interface is simple to use and easy to navigate and you can easily find your way without any instructions. But one of the downsides of the software is that it features too many bloatware.
Battery
Just like the Tecno Camon 12 Pro, the Tecno Camon 12 Air comes with a powerful 4000mAh battery. The battery is capable of confidently lasting you for a full day even with heavy usage. It sure delivers a great use time, even if the battery is huge, Tecno Mobile still needs to work on the time in which the battery used in completely refilling. The smartphone takes slightly over two (2) hours to completely charge.
Other Features
- FM ~ Yes,
- 3.5mm Jack ~ Yes,
- Expandable storage ~ Yes.
- Triple Primary Cameras ~ Yes.
Tecno Camon 12 Air Price
The Tecno Camon 12 Air has a starting price of Rs 9,999 which is equivalent to $141 while it is equivalent to N50,970 in Nigerian currency.
If you want to purchase this smartphone, you can do that at any Tecno smartphone authorized distributor around your region. Or better still, you can purchase it from most online stores, though prices may slightly differ as a result of location and region.
Verdict
When it comes to the design, the Tecno Camon 12 Air seems to be the best among the three newly released Camon series devices. One of the promising features of the smartphone is its dot-notch display as well as the performance and the general performance of the smartphone.
The smartphone ticks all the vital boxes such as a huge screen, long-lasting battery, and a low price tag. The Camon 12 Air can go head to head with other mid-range smartphones such as the Realme 5, Redmi Note 7s and more.