AN LTE VARIANT OF AN IMPRESSIVE PHONE IS HERE THE TECNO CAMON 40 PRO

The Tecno CAMON 40 Pro, unveiled in April 2025 alongside its 5G counterparts, is positioned as a feature-rich smartphone designed to cater to users who prioritize a robust photography experience, a vivid display, and reliable performance without necessarily requiring 5G connectivity. While it shares many core attributes with the CAMON 40 Pro 5G, it differentiates itself primarily through its chipset and network capabilities, making it a potentially more accessible option for markets where 5G infrastructure is less prevalent or for users who simply don't need the latest network standard.

Design and Aesthetics: A Blend of Style and Resilience

The CAMON 40 Pro maintains the premium design language established by the CAMON 40 series. It features a sleek and modern aesthetic that is both visually appealing and comfortable to hold. With dimensions of approximately 164.32 x 74.56 x 7.29 mm and a weight around 179g, it strikes a balance between a large display and ergonomic handling. Tecno offers the device in an array of sophisticated color options, likely including Emerald Lake Green, Galaxy Black, and Glacier White, providing choices to suit individual preferences. The "Space Ring" design around the rear camera module continues to be a distinctive visual element, lending the phone a high-end appearance.

A significant highlight of the CAMON 40 Pro's construction is its emphasis on durability. It boasts an IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance rating, which is a standout feature in its category. This certification means the phone is highly protected against dust ingress and can withstand submersion in up to 2 meters of fresh water for 30 minutes, as well as resist high-pressure water jets. This level of protection offers users substantial peace of mind against environmental hazards and accidental spills. The display is further safeguarded by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, providing enhanced resistance against scratches and accidental drops. Tecno reinforces this commitment to durability with an SGS 5-star drop resistance certification, underscoring the phone's robust build quality and resilience to everyday wear and tear.

For user convenience and security, the CAMON 40 Pro integrates an under-display optical fingerprint sensor, offering quick and intuitive unlocking. It also features the programmable "One-Tap Button" on the left side of the device. This button can be customized to perform various functions with a double-tap, such as launching a favorite application or toggling a specific setting. A long press of this button instantly activates Tecno's intelligent Ella AI assistant, providing a seamless way to access AI-powered functionalities.

Display: A Captivating Visual Experience

The display of the CAMON 40 Pro is a crucial component of its appeal, offering an immersive visual experience. It features a generous 6.78-inch curved AMOLED screen with a Full HD+ resolution (1080 x 2436 pixels), resulting in a pixel density of approximately 393 PPI. This combination ensures sharp details, vibrant colors, and deep blacks, which are characteristic advantages of AMOLED technology, making content consumption highly enjoyable.

A key feature enhancing the visual fluidity is the 120Hz refresh rate. While not the 144Hz found on the Pro 5G variant, a 120Hz refresh rate still delivers exceptionally smooth scrolling, fluid animations, and a highly responsive touch experience. This significantly enhances the user interface's responsiveness, making Browse, social media feeds, and compatible games feel incredibly smooth. The display also supports HDR content, which further enriches the viewing experience by providing improved contrast and color accuracy for compatible media. With a peak brightness of 1045 nits, the screen remains highly visible and legible even in bright outdoor conditions, ensuring comfortable usage under various lighting scenarios.

Performance: Efficient Power for Daily Demands

Under the hood, the Tecno CAMON 40 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Helio G99 Ultimate processor, fabricated on a 6nm process. This octa-core chipset features a configuration of 2x 2.2 GHz Cortex-A76 performance cores and 6x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 efficiency cores. The Helio G99 is a well-regarded processor in the 4G segment, known for its balanced performance and power efficiency. It capably handles everyday smartphone operations, including web Browse, social media, multimedia consumption, and multitasking, with ease. The Mali-G57 MC2 GPU manages graphics rendering, providing adequate performance for casual to moderate gaming at respectable settings.

The phone is expected to come with a substantial amount of RAM, likely 8GB or 12GB, paired with 256GB of internal UFS 2.x storage. Tecno's "Memory Fusion" technology is also present, allowing users to virtually expand the RAM by utilizing a portion of the internal storage. For example, an 8GB RAM variant could effectively have up to 16GB (8GB physical + 8GB extended) by leveraging this feature. This ample RAM ensures smooth multitasking and efficient app switching, preventing slowdowns even with multiple applications running in the background. However, it's worth noting that the CAMON 40 Pro, like its 5G siblings, does not include a microSD card slot for expandable storage, so users should consider their storage needs when choosing a variant.

In terms of real-world performance, the Helio G99 Ultimate delivers a solid and consistent experience for a 4G device. It can handle most popular mobile games, though users might need to adjust graphics settings for the most demanding titles. Benchmark scores typically place the Helio G99 in the mid-range category, confirming its capability for a fluid daily user experience.

Camera System: AI-Enhanced Photography

Photography remains a core focus for the CAMON 40 Pro, leveraging Tecno's advancements in AI imaging to deliver an enhanced shooting experience. The rear camera system features a versatile triple-camera setup:

• 50MP Main Camera with OIS: This primary sensor is the star of the show, featuring a large sensor size (likely 1/1.56" or similar with 1.0µm pixels) and a wide f/1.9 aperture. Crucially, it incorporates Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which is essential for minimizing blur from handshakes, resulting in sharper photos and more stable videos, especially in challenging lighting conditions. This main camera is designed to capture excellent detail, vibrant colors, and good dynamic range in various scenarios.
• 2MP Macro Lens: This dedicated lens allows users to capture extreme close-up shots, revealing intricate details of small subjects. While a 2MP resolution is standard for macro lenses in this segment, it offers a creative avenue for photography.
• 2MP Depth Sensor: This sensor assists the main camera in accurately mapping depth information, primarily for enhancing portrait mode shots with a more natural-looking background blur (bokeh effect).

The rear camera system is supported by a Dual-LED flash and a Flicker Sensor to optimize lighting and reduce banding artifacts in photos and videos shot under artificial light. It supports 1440p (2K) video recording at 30fps and 1080p video recording at 30/60fps.

For selfies and video calls, the CAMON 40 Pro is equipped with a high-resolution 50MP front-facing camera with autofocus (AF) and a wide f/2.5 aperture. This high-resolution sensor ensures detailed and sharp self-portraits. It is also capable of 1440p (2K) video recording at 30fps for high-quality vlogging or video conferencing. The selfie camera benefits from features like eye tracking and AI portrait distortion correction, ensuring natural-looking group selfies.

Tecno heavily integrates its AI capabilities into the camera software to further enhance the photography experience. These include:

• AI Studio: Offers a suite of advanced editing tools within the gallery, such as AI Eraser 2.0 for intelligently removing unwanted objects or people from photos, and AI Image Extender for expanding image backgrounds while intelligently filling in details.
• AI Perfect Face: Enhances facial features, clarifies skin tones, and can even attempt to "repair" closed-eye scenes in group photos.
• FlashSnap: Engineered for capturing fast-moving subjects with extreme clarity. It leverages a super-fast shutter speed and incorporates AI-powered "BestMoment Capture" (saving multiple frames per second to select the sharpest one) and AutoSnap for automatic burst photography.
• Pro Mode: Provides advanced users with manual control over camera settings like ISO, shutter speed, and white balance for greater creative flexibility.
• Long Exposure: Features various presets like "Starry Night," "Star Trails," and "Silky Water" for capturing artistic long-exposure shots.
• Super Night Mode: Optimizes low-light photography, producing brighter, more detailed, and less noisy images in challenging night conditions.
• Dual-view Video: Allows simultaneous recording from both the front and rear cameras, ideal for vlogging or reaction videos.

Battery and Charging: Enduring Power with Efficient Charging

The Tecno CAMON 40 Pro is equipped with a robust 5000mAh battery, offering excellent endurance for prolonged usage. This large capacity ensures that the phone can comfortably last a full day, or even longer for light users, on a single charge. This makes it a reliable companion for daily activities without constant worry about battery levels.

To complement the substantial battery, the device supports 33W wired fast charging. While not the fastest charging speed available, 33W is still highly efficient, allowing the phone to be charged from 0% to 50% in approximately 30 minutes, and a full charge typically takes around 70-80 minutes. This quick charging capability minimizes downtime and ensures that users can rapidly power up their device when needed. The inclusion of a compatible fast charger in the box is a welcome addition. Tecno also incorporates an "AI charging system" that intelligently manages charging patterns to optimize battery health and extend its overall lifespan.

Software and User Experience: Android 15 with HiOS 15 and AI

The CAMON 40 Pro runs on the latest Android 15 operating system, customized with Tecno's proprietary user interface, HiOS 15. Tecno has committed to providing long-term software support for the CAMON 40 series, promising 5 years of security updates and up to 3 major Android OS upgrades (up to Android 18). This commitment is a significant advantage, ensuring that the phone receives the latest features, performance improvements, and crucial security patches for an extended period, enhancing its longevity and value proposition.

HiOS 15 delivers a feature-rich and generally smooth user experience. It integrates various AI enhancements throughout the system to improve efficiency and user interaction. The Ella AI assistant, powered by the DeepSeek R1 language model, is a highlight, offering capabilities such as real-time voice translation, call summarization, intelligent call screening (AI Auto Answer), and AI writing assistance for text generation, rewriting, proofreading, and summarization. The 360° AI Call Assistant provides advanced noise cancellation during calls, ensuring clear communication even in noisy environments.

Other notable software features include the "Dynamic Port" for interactive notifications and a customizable "Smart Panel" for quick access to frequently used apps and shortcuts. The overall software experience is optimized to leverage the Helio G99 Ultimate processor, resulting in a responsive and fluid interface that provides a pleasant daily usage experience.

Connectivity and Sensors: Comprehensive and Reliable

The Tecno CAMON 40 Pro offers a comprehensive suite of connectivity options suitable for a 4G device:

• 4G LTE connectivity: Ensures reliable and fast mobile data speeds where 4G networks are available.
• Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac): Provides stable wireless internet connections. It also includes Wi-Fi MiMO, Dual Band, Wi-Fi Direct, and Wi-Fi Hotspot features.
• Bluetooth 5.3: For efficient and stable connections with wireless accessories like headphones and smartwatches.
• NFC: Enables contactless payments and quick pairing with other NFC-enabled devices.
• Infrared (IR) Blaster: A convenient feature that allows the phone to act as a universal remote control for various home appliances.
• USB Type-C 2.0: For charging, data transfer, and audio output (the phone does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack but supports 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Res audio via USB-C).
• GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BeiDou: Comprehensive global positioning systems for accurate navigation.
• Dual Nano-SIM support: For managing two active phone numbers simultaneously.
• Stereo Speakers with Dolby Atmos: Delivers an immersive audio experience for media consumption, gaming, and calls.

The phone is equipped with a full array of essential sensors, including an under-display optical fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, electronic compass, and geomagnetic sensor, all contributing to its comprehensive functionality and smart features.

Conclusion

The Tecno CAMON 40 Pro emerges as a highly competitive option in the 4G smartphone segment for 2025. It successfully blends a premium and durable design with an impressive IP68/IP69 rating and Gorilla Glass 7i protection. The vibrant 120Hz AMOLED display provides an immersive visual experience. While powered by the MediaTek Helio G99 Ultimate, it delivers efficient and reliable performance for everyday tasks and moderate gaming.

The device's strong emphasis on photography, highlighted by its 50MP OIS main camera and a rich suite of AI-enhanced camera features, makes it particularly appealing to mobile photography enthusiasts. The large 5000mAh battery coupled with 33W fast charging ensures long-lasting power and quick recharges. Furthermore, Tecno's commitment to long-term software updates (Android 15 with HiOS 15 and 3 major OS upgrades) and the integration of a comprehensive set of AI tools throughout the system enhance its value proposition and future-proof the device to a significant extent. For users who don't require 5G connectivity but demand a well-rounded smartphone with a focus on camera performance, display quality, and durability, the CAMON 40 Pro presents a very attractive and capable package.