Introduction
Tecno has launched another Premier phone with a major focus on the camera department. The new Tecno Camon 18 Premier features a significant photography upgrade over the previous Camon 16 Premier and Camon 17 Pro with premium features like gimbal stabilization and long-rage zoom thanks to a periscopic lens.
Tecno mainly targets developing countries, which is why it has a different approach to its smartphones than the mainstream makers. The Camon series bring large screens and batteries, with good camera experience and satisfying performance on the cheap. The price is kept even lower thanks to pre-installed partner apps and baked ads within the interface. For some, this is a deal-breaker, but for others - a welcome deal they will gladly make for the fantastic package they are going to get.
Indeed, the Camon 18 Premier has a few flagship-worthy traits like a large 120Hz AMOLED screen, there is 256GB base storage, a large battery with fast 33W charging, but most importantly - an impressive camera on the back. The primary shooter is a typical 64MP snapper we've seen numerous times, but then you get an 8MP telephoto camera with long-range 5x optical zoom and 12MP ultrawide snapper with gimbal stabilization.
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier is also one beautiful smartphone with a dual-glass design, catchy paintjobs, and a thin 8mm profile. It packs fan-favorite features like a 3.5mm jack, a microSD expansion, and even FM radio. There is also something few phones can offer - a dedicated selfie LED flash!
Let's take a close look at the specs sheet.
Tecno Camon 18 Premier specs at a glance:
- Body: 163.8x75.9x8.2mm, 201g; tempered glass front and back, plastic frame.
- Display: 6.70" AMOLED, 120Hz, 550 nits (typ), 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 393ppi.
- Chipset: Mediatek Helio G96 (12 nm): Octa-core (2x2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G57 MC2.
- Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM; microSDXC (dedicated slot).
- OS/Software: Android 11, HIOS 8.0.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.6, 26mm, PDAF; Telephoto: 8 MP, f/3.5, 135mm, PDAF, 5x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, gimbal OIS.
- Front camera: 32 MP, (wide).
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 4750mAh; Fast charging 33W, 64% in 30 min (advertised).
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); NFC; FM radio; 3.5mm jack.
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier is obviously not ideal - the Helio G96 chip is alright, but gaming with it may require a few graphic tweaks if you are after a smooth performance. And even if the screen allows up to 120fps, we doubt any game would be able to achieve it.
Design, build quality, handling
Tecno Camon 18 Premier may not be a flagship, but it sure looks like one, and the design is a standout for a couple of reasons.
First, it's a dual-glass build with AGC-made flat glass sheets on both sides. The rear panel has this cool silky matte finish, which may be allowing fingerprints to thrive, but it is also pleasant on touch and premium-looking when clean.
The camera rectangle is also flat and made of glass, while the frame is slightly curved and made of plastic. Some budget cuts had to be made, and in most cases, the frame and the chassis take the hit.
So, the Camon 18 Premiere is good-looking and well-built, and we noticed another area with great attention to the detail where mid-ranges often fail - symmetry. See, one of the first things we spotted is the perfectly centered front camera within the screen's punch-hole. While we rarely criticize this, knowing it's all about budget constraints, it's still something that often rubs us the wrong way.
Another place where symmetry is often absent on budget phones - the cutouts for ports and speaker(s) around the frame. The Camon 18 Premiere has a perfectly centered audio jack, mouthpiece, USB port and speaker holes at the bottom, and we are happy that Tecno made the extra effort.
One thing that would have made the Camon 18 Premier build top-notch is some sort of ingress protection. Alas, there is no such thing on the Premier, not even splash resistance or water-repellent coating.
Let's inspect the sides of the phone now and see what's obvious and what - not.
The 6.7-inch AMOLED screen is at the front - it has extended 1080p resolution, supports dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, and has a punch-hole for the new 32MP selfie shooter. As we mentioned, the camera is perfectly centered in the said hole.
The earpiece is above the screen, but what you cannot see is the LED flash next to it. It's quite thin yet powerful enough to make a difference at night.
The back of the phone is indeed silky smooth and has a smaller and subtle Tecno Camon insignia. The camera island is not that flashy, on the contrary - it looks stylish and not that intrusive. It contains the 64MP primary camera, the 12MP ultrawide shooter, and last is the periscopic lens of the 8MP snapper for 5x optical magnification. A four-LED flash is also around.
The frame is made of plastic, slightly curved, and is all glossy. In fact, it is the largest fingerprint magnet on the phone despite the prone to smudges rear panel. It is far from grippy, too, and is probably the only part of the Camon 18 Premier that we don't like as much.
The tri-card slot is alone on the left, while the volume rocker and the power/lock key are on the right.
The surface of the lock key is also your fingerprint scanner - always-on, fast and accurate as usual.
The top of the Camon 18 Premier has a lonely secondary microphone. It is used for stereo recording in videos but not for noise canceling when in a call.
Finally, the bottom houses the 3.5mm jack, the primary microphone, the USB-C port and the single speaker.
The top • the bottom • the right side
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier measures 163.8 x 75.9 x 8.2 mm and weighs 200 grams - that's about 7mm shorter and 1mm thinner than the Tecno 16 Premier. It is also 10g lighter.
At the end of the day, we did love our time spent with the Tecno Camon 18 Premier. It is a phone of solid build and no-nonsense design. The dual-tempered glass is always good to have, and the only omission we noted is the lack of any sort of ingress protection. The plastic frame could have been better with matt finish, like the back, but we cannot have it all, can we?
Overall, we think people will like the Camon 18 Premier, and if handling issues are present, the supplied case should solve most, if not all of them.
Display
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier packs a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen of the usual 1,080 x 2,400 pixels (395ppi). It has a small punch-hole centered around the top and is protected with an AGC-made glass.
The display supports an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz. There is no HDR support, unfortunately, but even if there were - the lowest Widevine L3 DRM support won't allow you to enjoy it.
There are three Refresh Rate modes - 120Hz, Auto, and 60Hz. The 60Hz is self-explanatory, while Auto uses 120Hz throughout the UI and 60Hz in apps and games.
The highest 120Hz mode pushes all apps to use their maximum supported mode - 120Hz in most cases, 90Hz in some apps like Play Store, and 60Hz in video apps.
We also did our usual display measurements and found out the Tecno Camon 18 Premier has a bright enough screen with a maximum brightness of 425 nits. We were able to capture 450 nits at one occasion, but it happened only once, and we couldn't repeat this result.
There is no Auto-Brightness boost, which is a bit disappointing. On the other hand, the minimum brightness at point white is just 3.2nits - an excellent one.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 422 | ∞ | |
| 0.438 | 342 | 781:1 | |
| 0.446 | 538 | 1206:1 | |
| 0.211 | 400 | 1896:1 | |
| 0 | 405 | ∞ | |
| 0.292 | 470 | 1610:1 | |
| 0.337 | 447 | 1326:1 | |
| 0 | 515 | ∞ | |
| 0.327 | 458 | 1401:1 | |
| 0.4 | 534 | 1335:1 | |
| 0.301 | 429 | 1425:1 | |
| 0.38 | 537 | 1413:1 | |
| 0 | 393 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 814 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 383 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 800 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 457 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 725 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 454 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 627 | ∞ | |
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier's display supports a wide color gamut, but the accuracy towards the DCI-P3 isn't that good with prominently bluish-white and gray hues.
Battery life
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier is powered by a 4,750 mAh battery, and it supports fast 33W charging.
This Camon 18 Premier model scored an excellent 112-hour Endurance rating in our battery. It did a commendable job across all test scenarios - video playback, calls, web browsing, and demonstrated long-lasting standby performance.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.
Charging speed
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier ships with a 33W power adapter, and you don't need to buy anything to enjoy the maximum possible fast charging. It's a 5V/3A, 10V/3.3A charger, not the most versatile one, obviously, but still - a fast one.
We've completed our charging test, and the bundled 33W adapter takes the Camon 18 Premier's 4,750mAh battery from 0% to 60% in 30 minutes.
30min charging test (from 0%)
Higher is better
- Realme 7 Pro
94% - Realme 8 Pro
88% - Infinix Zero X Pro
76% - Poco X3 GT
75% - Tecno Camon 18 Premier
60% - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
59% - Tecno Phantom X
56% - Poco X3 Pro
50% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
50% - Tecno Camon 17 Pro
47% - Realme 8i
30% - Infinix Note 11 Pro
25%
A full charge takes 65 minutes - that's plenty fast!
Time to full charge (from 0%)
Lower is better
- Realme 7 Pro
0:37h - Realme 8 Pro
0:38h - Poco X3 GT
0:48h - Infinix Zero X Pro
0:58h - Tecno Camon 18 Premier
1:05h - Poco X3 Pro
1:08h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
1:21h - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
1:25h - Tecno Phantom X
1:28h - Tecno Camon 17 Pro
1:40h - Infinix Note 11 Pro
2:07h - Realme 8i
2:21h
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier doesn't support wireless charging. There is also no support for reverse wired charging and cannot be used as a power bank for other devices.
Speaker quality
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier, just like many other Tecno phones, has one bottom-firing speaker. It scored a Good mark on our loudness test, but that's the best we can say about it.
The audio quality of the speaker is thoroughly unimpressive - there is no bass, the mid-tones are somewhat suppressed, but we can hear some good high notes. If you use our tool here, you can clearly hear the Camon 18 Premier speaker is lacking range and sounds, well, cheap.
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 11 with HiOS 8
The Camon 18 Premier boots Android 11 with a layer of Tecno's in-house HiOS on top (v.8.0). We were less than thrilled with the company's aggressive advertising policies and pre-installed bloatware when we reviewed the Camon 16 Premier. Still, the Premier is different - the approach is toned-down and lightweight on bloat, and we do appreciate it.
That's not to say there isn't a whole bunch of pre-installed apps and utilities, and an in-house gallery and video player, and an app store - no, these are all still here. That app store still pushes a ton of notifications, nudging you to install this or that app or game.
Hi Browser • AI Gallery • AI Gallery • Phone Master • AHA Games • Palm Store
If some of the third-party apps are bothering you with various notifications - you can disable those - either from within the annoying app or from the Notification settings.
Getting into the Camon 18 Premier is business as usual, with both fingerprint and face recognition available (you can even opt for the front flash help if you are in a dark area). You can have the fingerprint reader unlock with just a tap, or require a press as well, and you can do that for the face recognition as well.
Biometrics and security
Always-on screen is available, and there are plenty of cool themes. It's not an always-on display, though - it shows up for 10 seconds only when you pick up the phone, get it out from the pocket, or tap the screen.
Always-on display
The lockscreen has a single shortcut in the bottom right to access the camera. Once you're past that, you arrive at a standard homescreen interface. The leftmost pane, called Zero screen, holds cards with suggested news, weather and quotes widgets and an app usage widget. You can disable the Zero screen in the 'Desktop settings'. There's an app drawer by default which you can access from the old-school A-Z orange icon at the bottom or with an upward swipe from the bottom.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Zero screen • Folder view • App drawer • Task switcher
Themes are available as part of HiOS, and there is a dedicated Theme store for this purpose.
Hi Theme
All the custom bits found on the Camon 17 Pro and 16 Premier are also here on the 18 Premier. That includes the Game mode with all the settings statistics and parental controls. There is also a Smart panel with slide-from-the-side shortcuts.
Social Turbo toolset is rather interesting (a WhatsApp enhancer of sorts) - it can change your voice, enhance your face during video calls, record your WhatsApp calls, and allow you to read messages without marking them as Read.
The CarIcare aftersales assistance utility is also onboard, and you can fire it anytime if you encounter problems with your phone.
If you want even more details about the HiOS, you can learn more in the software section of the Camon 16 Premier review.
Special function menu • Game mode • Social Turbo • CarIcare • Smart Panel
Performance and benchmarks
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier runs on the Helio G96 chipset by MediaTek. It is fabricated on the 12nm FinFET manufacturing process from TSMC, just like the previous G9x chips.
The Helio G96 has the same octa-core CPU as the Helio G90, G90T (Camon 16 Premier) and G95 (Camon 17 Pro) - it packs two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores ticking at 2.05GHz and six energy-efficient Corext-A55 cores working at 2.0GHz.
But the Helio G96 chip features a new GPU from the Valhalla generation by ARM - the Mali-G57. Unlike the previous G9x chips, here we have a dual-core configuration instead of a quad-core, so we expect some drop in the theoretical performance compared to the previous versions. What's new, though, is the support for a 120Hz refresh rate. It's a whole other thing if it will be able to reach 120fps in games (spoiler alert - no).
Finally, the Tecno Camon 18 Premier is available in one configuration with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS storage.
We ran the usual benchmarks, and the scores are in.
The CPU benchmarks are alright - the processor is quite capable of handling whatever you throw at it.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Realme GT Master
2917 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
2801 - Poco X3 Pro
2574 - Poco X3 GT
2310 - Realme 8i
1886 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
1812 - Infinix Note 11 Pro
1800 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
1780 - Tecno Camon 18 Premier
1758 - Realme 8 Pro
1678 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
1672 - Tecno Phantom X
1670 - Tecno Camon 17 Pro
1668 - Infinix Note 10 Pro
1644 - Samsung Galaxy A32
1277
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Realme GT Master
785 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
771 - Poco X3 Pro
735 - Poco X3 GT
693 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
641 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
569 - Realme 8 Pro
566 - Realme 8i
539 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
532 - Infinix Note 11 Pro
520 - Tecno Camon 18 Premier
514 - Tecno Phantom X
512 - Tecno Camon 17 Pro
511 - Infinix Note 10 Pro
510 - Samsung Galaxy A32
361
The offscreen performance of the new GPU is passable, though indeed inferior to the Helio G95's and G90T's (in the previous Tecno Camon phones).
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Poco X3 GT
68 - Poco X3 Pro
67 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
49 - Realme GT Master
46 - Realme 8 Pro
31 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
30 - Tecno Camon 17 Pro
28 - Infinix Note 10 Pro
28 - Tecno Phantom X
28 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
26 - Realme 8i
22 - Tecno Camon 18 Premier
21 - Infinix Note 11 Pro
20 - Samsung Galaxy A32
13
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Poco X3 Pro
38 - Poco X3 GT
38 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
28 - Realme GT Master
27 - Tecno Camon 17 Pro
17 - Infinix Note 10 Pro
17 - Tecno Phantom X
17 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
17 - Realme 8 Pro
16 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
16 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
15 - Tecno Camon 18 Premier
12 - Realme 8i
11 - Infinix Note 11 Pro
11 - Samsung Galaxy A32
8.1
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Poco X3 GT
3991 - Poco X3 Pro
3401 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
2491 - Realme GT Master
2481 - Infinix Note 10 Pro
1506 - Tecno Phantom X
1501 - Tecno Camon 17 Pro
1498 - Tecno Camon 18 Premier
1105 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
1103 - Realme 8i
1102 - Infinix Note 11 Pro
1100 - Realme 8 Pro
1051 - Samsung Galaxy A32
686
Finally, AnTuTu suggests the performance of the new Camon 18 Premier is in the ballpark of the previous Camon modes.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Poco X3 GT
506800 - Poco X3 Pro
453223 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
429675 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
318672 - Infinix Note 10 Pro
310342 - Tecno Camon 17 Pro
309107 - Tecno Phantom X
309055 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
295442 - Tecno Camon 18 Premier
293517 - Realme 8i
293507 - Infinix Note 11 Pro
290797 - Realme 8 Pro
286666 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
283847 - Samsung Galaxy A32
174332
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
- Poco X3 GT
578505 - Realme GT Master
529263 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
506432 - OnePlus Nord CE 5G
391770 - Infinix Note 10 Pro
365490 - Tecno Camon 18 Premier
346389 - Infinix Note 11 Pro
343527 - Realme 8i
308544
Finally, we ran the two stress tests we always do - CPU Throttle and 3D Mark Wild Life.
The Camon 18 Premier did very well on the CPU Throttle test by keeping nearly 70% of its maximum performance during an hour of 100% CPU usage. Then it scored 99.5% stability on the 3D Mark Stress Test - an excellent result. These numbers mean the phone offers top-notch stability and long-lasting peak performance. It may get warm when using 100% of its resources but never hot. And that's why it gets an excellent mark for sustained performance.
CPU stress test • GPU stress test
It's quite apparent the Tecno Camon 18 Premier is far from a powerhouse; it's not even close to the best in the mid-range. It's not a slouch, though, and we can confirm this after spending a week with it. We've played plenty of games with good 3D graphics and a smooth frame rate stutter-free. The OS ran great at 120fps, multi-tasking is good, and demanding office apps. Sure, we cannot have the best gaming experience, but everything else was just fine.
Triple camera with gimbal stabilization and periscope zoom
The highlight of the Tecno Camon 18 Pro is its triple camera on the back. It features a 64MP primary camera, a 12MP ultrawide shooter with gimbal stabilization and an 8MP tele snapper with a periscopic lens for 5x optical zoom. There is also a 4-LED flash. Impressive, indeed.
The primary camera uses a 64MP Samsung S5KGW1 sensor - a 1/1.72" Tetrapixel imager with 0.8µm pixels. The lens in front has an f/1.6 aperture as per Tecno specs (or f/1.89 as per EXIF data) and a focal length around the 26mm mark. There is no OIS here, while PDAF is available.
The ultrawide camera relies on a 12MP OmniVision OV12D2Q sensor - a 1/2.4" imager with 16:9 native aspect and 1.4µm pixels. It sits behind a 16mm f/2.2 lens and the focus is fixed at infinity.
The ultrawide camera features high-end gimbal stabilization. Here is Tecno's video promo of the feature.
The telephoto camera utilizes an 8MP OmniVision OV08A10 1/4.4" sensor with 1.0µm pixels and f/23.4 135mm periscopic lens. Both OIS and PDAF are available. This camera provides a 5x optical zoom.
Over on the front, the Camon 18 premier has a 32MP camera for selfies - it uses Samsung's ISOCELL S5KGD2 (same as on Galaxy A52s) - it's a 1/3.4" sensor with 0.8µm pixels and Tetracell color filter. This camera has 28mm-ish f/2.45 lens, and the focus is fixed at infinity. This snapper saves 8MP images by default - as it should be.
The camera app is straightforward - aside from the full-auto photo mode being called AI Cam, things are mostly as expected. You can swipe down on the viewfinder to bring the top row of icons closer - something Techno calls one-handed mode.
Night Mode is available only on the main camera. There is Super Moon mode if you are interested. But there is no Manual/Pro mode, unfortunately.
In Film mode, you have different presets for short videos. Bokeh mode is available in Video mode if that's your thing.
Camera app
Photo quality
The default 16MP photos from the primary camera are alright - their contrast is good, the noise is low, while the colors stay true to reality. The images aren't as over-sharpened as on other phones and retain a bit more natural look. The corners are as sharp as the rest of the image, which is good, too. The dynamic range is commendable on most occasions (Auto HDR was on by default).
The photos exhibit average detail, and we somewhat expected more. Sometimes the exposure tweaking may go terribly wrong, and you can end up with a super bright and blown photo (like the castle). It happens even if not that often, and we couldn't do anything about that. So, while the Auto HDR may be handling demanding scenes well if extreme situations arise (i.e. yellow of white buildings, prepare for some bad results).
Main camera, 16MP
There is a 64MP mode available (called Ultra HD), and it saves detailed enough photos, with excellent colors and good contrast. The dynamic range is mostly good, too. Sure, it's a Tetracell camera, so artifacts are expected, but there is a case for shooting in Ultra HD mode.
First, this is the way you can get 2x lossless zoom - just crop the 16MP center out of the 64MP images.
Main camera, 64MP
Second, and most importantly, if you downsize the 64MP photos to 16MP, you will get impressive shots - sharp with previously invisible detail, with a balanced unprocessed look. In fact, if you are after outstanding photo quality - this is the way.
And here are some downscaled photos if you'd like to compare the results with the default ones.
64MP-to-16MP photos
While the 12MP ultrawide camera features a 16mm lens, you get different ultrawide-angle results since it's a 16:9 shooter. The 4:3 center of these photos is similar to what you'd get with the primary camera, with the ultra-wide benefit being the extra stuff you fit in the 16:9 frame.
Here is a quick illustration - we shot this scene with the two cameras - the darker area is what you get with the main camera, while the rest is the benefit of shooting with the ultrawide camera. It's wide, alright, just not the ultra wide.
So, the 12MP photos from the ultrawide camera come out with accurate colors, good contrast, and well-handled noise. The dynamic range is excellent on most occasions, though misfires with the exposure are possible here as well.
Unfortunately, the resolved detail is rather low, and the photos are soft, especially outside the center. the automatic barrel distortion fix is probably part of the issue in the corners, but there is no excuse for the rest - the sensor has large pixels, and we did expect more detail than this soft mess.
On a positive note, the images look good on the phone's screen and on the social networks as they are usually downscaled during the upload.
Ultrawide camera, 12MP
We liked the 8MP zoomed photos a lot - the 5x optical magnification can be a real helper during the day, and this camera can capture otherwise impossible to shoot stuff. The images are detailed enough with gentle noise reduction (hence more detail, but also more noise), the colors are accurate, and the contrast is great. The dynamic range is also rather wide most of the time.
Telephoto camera, 8MP
You can shoot portraits with the primary camera, and those turned up good - the 16MP shots present detailed subjects, proficiently separated from the background. Contrast is good, though not great, and the blur could benefit from some further adjustments.
Portraits, 16MP
The 16MP low-light images from the primary camera are in line with what we've seen from similar shooters. The resolved detail is okay, though some of it was eaten by the aggressive noise reduction. Noise is still present here and there, but not that intrusive.
The color saturation is good and stays true to life, and so is the exposure. The highlights are clipped often, while the shadows are developed more than expected.
Overall, while the photo quality is a bit of a mixed bag, it's fine.
Main camera, 16MP
Super Night mode is available only on this camera, and it's, well, absurdly unnatural. It takes about 3 seconds and turns the night into day. The photos are punchier, and the highlights are restored, but there are all sorts of visible artifacts, and the contrast is visibly lower.
This is one of the weirdest night modes we've seen and won't be everyone's cup of tea for sure.
Super Night, 16MP
If you need to turn your pitch-black night into a day, the Super Night is definitely the mode to use and here is an example.
Regular • Super Night
The ultrawide photos at night are good as far as colors, contrast and realistic looks are concerned. These could be class-leading, but their detail is extremely low, hurt by the overly aggressive noise reduction and poor processing algorithms. And since there is no Super Night for this camera, we suggest using the main snapper.
The low-light ultrawide photos are best looked out-zoomed or downscaled to, say, 1MP. Such a missed opportunity with this great sensor and gimbal stabilization...
Ultrawide camera, 12MP
You shouldn't use the zoom camera at night unless it's a pretty bright scene. If there is enough light, you'd get a noisy but detailed photo with good colors. Otherwise, it will be a blurry image with a ton of noise and nothing to see.
Telephoto camera, 8MP
Finally, there is a Super Moon mode, which we tried as well. It uses the telephoto camera and works after you zoom beyond 25x. Basically, the software tries to read the moon's shape and texture and then enhance it artificially. And it works okay if you don't expect anything beyond an enhanced digitally zoomed Moon.
Super Moon
And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Tecno Camon 18 Premier. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.
Tecno Camon 18 Premier against the Camon 17 Pro and the Infinix Note 11 Pro in our Photo compare tool
The selfie camera saves 8MP, and we are so happy with that decision; it's a Quad-Bayer snapper, after all. And those are particularly good - sharp, with a ton of resolved detail, accurate colors, and high contrast. The dynamic range is good, too.
There is some sort of beatification at play, 'thanks' to the AI camera, and we couldn't turn that off. It's not that intrusive, though, so it's not a major issue.
Selfies, 8MP
The portrait selfies turned out good, too. They are detailed and colorful, with acceptable subject separation, though the faux bokeh could use some improvements.
Portrait selfies, 8MP
Video recording
The video capturing on the Tecno Camon 18 Premier is a bit weird and somewhat disappointing given the high-end camera kit at the back.
The video resolution for the main camera maxes out at 2560x1440 (1440p), while all other snappers are limited to 1080p@30fps. We really can't see a good reason why that is the case since, theoretically, both the camera sensor(s) and the Helio G96 chipset should be capable of 4K@30fps capture.
The videos 1440p videos have a solid 50 Mbps bitrate at right around 30fps. The 1080p clips also look promising with a 20Mbps bitrate. Audio is captured stereo with 256Kbps.
The 1440p footage from the main camera is quite good - the picture is sharp and detailed, the colors are accurate, and the contrast is high. The dynamic range is above the average, so that's a good thing, too.
Tecno has gone a bit overboard with the sharpening, and the videos will be better with a bit gentle approach.
The audio is poor, though - it's like one of the channels is almost entirely missing, and the quality sounds low with compression-like artifacts.
The 1080p clips from the ultrawide camera are okay, though not great. They also show accurate colors and are nicely contrasty, but the resolved detail is average, and the sharpening is excessive. The dynamic range is okay for such a type of camera.
The Full HD videos from the zoom camera are easily likable - they show you what's far away with great detail, good colors and contrast.
The low-light videos are alright, too. The ones from the main camera benefit from a gentle noise reduction, and while noisy, they are also sharp and detailed, with good color saturation and satisfying exposure.
The ultrawide camera, thanks to its gimbal stabilization, also produces usable night videos with good colors, though darker because of the f/2.2 lens. Here the noise reduction is on the other end - aggressive - and it smears more fine detail than we would have liked.
The Camera app has this additional Film mode, which contains a few different video presets. This is like an automatic video editor - you choose the theme, then manually press the capture button six times (each step records about 3s of footage), and everything is stitched together. We used Vintage and Street for the samples we shot (these come at 2,400 x 1,080px resolution).
Finally, let's talk about stabilization. The ultrawide camera has gimbal, while the zoom snapper benefits from optical stabilization. The main camera has no hardware stabilization.
There is no electronic stabilization, so the videos from the main camera are as shaky as expected, while the others are stabilized well, but abrupt transitions do happen often.
There is a Super Stable mode, which is, in fact, electronic stabilization, but it works only on the ultrawide camera and makes use of both gimbal and software to make an action-like video. This is useful only if you are going to run after something as it compromises the video quality due to heavy cropping and upscaling.
Finally, here is the Tecno Camon 18 Premier in our video comparison database.
Tecno Camon 18 Premier against the Camon 17 Pro and the Infinix Note 11 Pro in our Video compare tool
Alternative offers
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier, where available, costs around the equivalent of €300 or so. The price suggests it's an upper mid-ranger, but it sure punches above that. The Camon 18 Premier won us with its good AMOLED screen, long-lasting battery life and fast charging, but most importantly - its camera hardware. There is no camera phone like this Premier in its price bracket.
And that is what makes the Camon 18 Premier an easy recommendation if you are after the best camera on a budget.
Here are a couple of other offers you may want to consider.
The Poco X3 GT maybe even cheaper than the Camon 18 Premier in some markets, and its performance is miles ahead. The X3 GT has a similar 120Hz display but of the LCD kind, while its camera is your typical midrange kit without any zoom or hardware stabilization (though EIS is available in video). If you want better performance (and stereo speakers) over a high-end camera setup, the X3 GT is a good alternative.
The Infinix Zero X Pro is like a reworked Camon 18 Premier, but that's understandable since both companies are part of the same parent - Transsion Holdings. Anyway, the Zero X Pro has the same AMOLED screen but offers better GPU performance. The Zero X Pro has a much better main camera with a 108MP sensor and OIS, the same 8MP 5x telephoto, and a mediocre 8MP ultrawide shooter without stabilization. It's like the gimbal hardware is gone in favor of a better primary snapper, and it makes more sense knowing what we know now in terms of quality. We suggest looking at this similarly priced Infinix before opting for the Camon 18 Premier.
The Realme GT Neo2 is another smartphone with a similar 120Hz AMOLED screen and a mid-range triple-camera without optical zoom or gimbal/OIS, but it impresses with flagship performance and 5G thanks to the Snapdragon 870 5G chip. It also recharges super-fast via its bundled 65W power adapter. It should be slightly more expensive than the Tecno but is worth checking out.
Finally, the Motorola Edge 20 is another good alternative with an even better 144Hz OLED screen, more powerful gaming-capable hardware and a similar triple camera without the gimbal on the ultrawide, though. The Ready For support and the water-repellent design are surely tipping the scales in its favor as well.
Xiaomi Poco X3 GT • Infinix Zero X Pro • Realme GT Neo2 • Motorola Edge 20
Our verdict
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier is a thoroughly intriguing smartphone, no two questions about that. It has a great AMOLED screen and a unique camera that's not only versatile but features premium hardware like a gimbal and periscopic lens. The 18 Premier also offers excellent battery life and fast charging, and its software isn't as infested with third-party services as we expected.
The gimbal stabilization works as expected, but the photo and video quality are not up to par. Tecno didn't squeeze the maximum of the 12MP sensor for some reason, quite on the opposite. And this pretty much makes the gimbal stabilization a bit overkill on a mediocre camera. Take that away, and then it's your typical mid-rangers with one major advantage - 5x optical zoom, and one massive disadvantage - subpar performance.
We did like the Tecno Camon 18 Premier, and the potential for greatness is there. Still, until Tecno improves on its photo and video quality, we can see only one reason why get it before, say the Infinix Zero X Pro - the long-range zoom.
The Tecno Camon 18 Premier is not a bad phone, not at all. We just recommend exhausting the other options and then deciding which one is the best fit for you. With that in mind, we do believe many people will be happy with the Camon 18 Premier and its well-rounded mid-range package with premium hints.
Pros
- Classy dual-glass design, rich retail bundle.
- Great AMOLED screen, adaptive 120Hz refresh rate.
- Good battery life, fast to charge.
- Unique camera package with lots of options.
- Dependable camera for photos and videos, if you are not picky.
- Great selfies.
- Standalone microSD slot, 3.5mm jack, FM radio, NFC.
Cons
- No ingress protection.
- Single speaker, uninspiring sound.
- Mediocre performance.
- Photo and video quality could have been better.
- The ultrawide camera's 16:9 aspect ratio may not be everyone's cup of tea.
- No OIS or EIS for the main camera!
- No Night Mode for the ultrawide camera!
- No 4K video capturing.
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