ANOTHER SUCCESSOR OF A MIDRANGE GIANT THE NEW TECNO CAMON 40 PRO 5G

The Tecno CAMON 40 Pro 5G, released in April 2025 as part of Tecno's flagship CAMON 40 series, represents a compelling offering in the upper-midrange smartphone segment. It aims to deliver a premium user experience, particularly excelling in photography and overall performance, while maintaining a competitive price point. This device is designed for users who seek advanced features, a stunning display, and reliable performance for daily tasks, multimedia consumption, and even moderate gaming.

Design and Build Quality: Elegant and Resilient

The CAMON 40 Pro 5G exudes a sense of premium craftsmanship. It has a slim profile, measuring 164.32 x 74.56 x 7.29 mm, and is relatively lightweight at 179g, making it comfortable to hold and easy to pocket. Tecno offers the device in aesthetically pleasing color options such as Emerald Lake Green, Galaxy Black, and Glacier White, catering to various style preferences.

Durability is a significant highlight of the CAMON 40 Pro 5G. The phone boasts an IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance rating, which means it's highly protected against dust ingress and can withstand immersion in up to 2 meters of fresh water for 30 minutes, as well as high-pressure water jets. This level of protection is a notable feature in its segment, offering peace of mind against accidental spills and splashes. The display is further fortified with Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, providing enhanced scratch and drop resistance. Tecno also emphasizes its SGS 5-star drop resistance certification, underscoring the phone's robust build quality.

Similar to its Premier sibling, the CAMON 40 Pro 5G incorporates an under-display optical fingerprint sensor for quick and secure unlocking. It also features the convenient "One-Tap Button" on the left side, which can be customized for quick access to various applications or functions with a double-tap. A long press of this button activates Tecno's intelligent Ella AI assistant, providing seamless integration of AI features into the user experience. The "Space Ring" design around the rear camera module gives the phone a distinctive and modern look.

Display: Immersive Visuals with Fluidity

The display is a cornerstone of the CAMON 40 Pro 5G's appeal. It features a large 6.78-inch curved AMOLED screen with a Full HD+ resolution (1080 x 2436 pixels), resulting in a pixel density of approximately 393 PPI. While not a 1.5K resolution like the Premier model, it still delivers sharp, vibrant colors and deep blacks characteristic of AMOLED panels.

A key selling point is the 144Hz refresh rate, which ensures incredibly smooth scrolling, fluid animations, and a highly responsive touch experience. This high refresh rate is particularly beneficial for gaming and multimedia consumption, providing a more immersive visual experience. While it's not an LTPO panel, meaning it doesn't dynamically adjust the refresh rate down to 1Hz, it likely offers adaptive steps to optimize battery consumption. The display also supports HDR content, enhancing contrast and color accuracy for compatible media. With a reported peak brightness of 1045 nits, the screen is bright enough for comfortable outdoor viewing, even under direct sunlight.

Performance: Balanced Power for Everyday Use

Powering the Tecno CAMON 40 Pro 5G is the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultimate processor, built on an efficient 4nm fabrication process. This octa-core chipset comprises a configuration of 4x 2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 performance cores and 4x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 efficiency cores. This setup provides a balanced blend of power for demanding applications and efficiency for everyday tasks, ensuring smooth multitasking and quick app launches. The Mali-G615 MC2 GPU handles graphics rendering, offering solid performance for popular mobile games at respectable settings.

The CAMON 40 Pro 5G is available with two RAM configurations: 8GB RAM and 12GB RAM, both coupled with 256GB of internal UFS 2.x storage. Tecno also incorporates its "Memory Fusion" technology, allowing users to virtually expand the RAM by utilizing a portion of the internal storage. For instance, the 8GB RAM variant can effectively have up to 16GB (8GB physical + 8GB extended), and the 12GB RAM variant up to 24GB (12GB physical + 12GB extended). This ample RAM ensures smooth multitasking and efficient app switching. However, similar to the Premier model, there is no microSD card slot for expandable storage, so users should choose their storage variant accordingly.

In terms of real-world performance, the Dimensity 7300 Ultimate is a capable processor for its class. It handles typical smartphone operations, social media, web Browse, and streaming without a hitch. For gaming, users can expect to play popular titles like PUBG Mobile at high settings and maintain stable frame rates. Benchmarking results, such as AnTuTu scores around 700,000, confirm its strong performance in the upper-midrange segment.

Camera System: Focus on Photography

Photography is a core strength of the CAMON series, and the CAMON 40 Pro 5G continues this tradition with a capable camera setup, though slightly different from the Premier model. The rear camera system features a dual-camera configuration:

• 50MP Main Camera: This is the primary sensor, featuring the Sony LYT-700C sensor (or a similar 1/1.56" sensor size with 1.0µm pixels), a wide f/1.9 aperture, and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The OIS is crucial for reducing blur from handshakes, resulting in sharper photos and more stable videos, especially in challenging lighting conditions. This main sensor is designed to capture excellent detail and vibrant colors in various scenarios.
• 8MP Ultrawide Camera: This lens expands the field of view, making it suitable for capturing landscapes, architectural shots, and large group photos. While it lacks the high resolution of the main sensor, it provides versatility in composition.

The rear camera is accompanied by a Dual-LED flash and a Flicker Sensor to optimize lighting and reduce banding in artificial light. It supports 4K video recording at 30/60fps (with HDR) and 1080p video recording at 30fps.

For selfies and video calls, the CAMON 40 Pro 5G is equipped with a high-resolution 50MP front-facing camera with autofocus (AF) and a f/2.5 aperture. This high-resolution sensor ensures detailed and sharp selfies. It also supports 4K video recording at 30fps for high-quality vlogging or video conferencing. The selfie camera also benefits from eye tracking and AI portrait distortion correction, ensuring natural-looking group selfies.

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

• AI Studio: Offers various editing tools, such as AI Eraser 2.0 for object removal and AI Image Extender for intelligently expanding image backgrounds.
• AI Perfect Face: Enhances facial features, clarifies skin tones, and can even attempt to "repair" closed-eye photos.
• FlashSnap: Designed for capturing fast-moving subjects with extreme clarity by utilizing a super-fast shutter speed and AI-powered "BestMoment Capture" for burst shots.
• Pro Mode: Allows advanced users to manually control camera settings like ISO, shutter speed, and white balance.
• Long Exposure: Features presets like "Starry Night," "Star Trails," and "Silky Water" for creative photography.
• Super Night Mode: Optimizes low-light photography, producing brighter and more detailed images in challenging conditions.
• Dual-view Video: Enables simultaneous recording from both front and rear cameras, ideal for vlogging or reaction videos.

Battery and Charging: Long-lasting Power with Fast Charging

The Tecno CAMON 40 Pro 5G packs a substantial 5200mAh battery, offering impressive endurance for extended usage. This large capacity ensures that the phone can comfortably last a full day or even longer on a single charge for most users.

Complementing the large battery is 45W wired fast charging. While not as fast as the 70W charging on the Premier model, 45W is still very respectable, allowing the phone to charge from 0% to 50% in approximately 23 minutes and to 100% in around 43 minutes. This quick charging capability minimizes downtime and keeps users connected. The phone also incorporates an "AI charging system" that learns user habits to optimize charging patterns and extend battery lifespan. Tecno claims the battery retains more than 80% of its capacity even after 5 years of use, indicating excellent long-term durability.

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

The CAMON 40 Pro 5G 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 the phone remains updated with the latest features and security enhancements for years to come.

HiOS 15 offers a feature-rich and generally smooth user experience. It integrates various AI enhancements throughout the system. 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. 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 apps and shortcuts. The overall software experience is optimized to leverage the Dimensity 7300 Ultimate processor, resulting in a responsive and fluid interface.

Connectivity and Sensors: Comprehensive and Modern

The Tecno CAMON 40 Pro 5G offers a complete set of connectivity options:

• 5G connectivity: Supports both SA/NSA modes, providing access to high-speed 5G networks.
• Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax): Ensures fast and stable wireless internet connections. It also includes Wi-Fi MiMO, Dual Band, Wi-Fi Direct, and Wi-Fi Hotspot.
• Bluetooth 5.4: For efficient and stable connections with wireless accessories.
• NFC: Enables contactless payments and quick pairing.
• Infrared (IR) Blaster: Allows the phone to function as a universal remote control for various 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 navigation support for accurate location services.
• Dual Nano-SIM support: For managing two active phone numbers.
• Stereo Speakers with Dolby Atmos: Delivers an immersive audio experience for media consumption.

The phone is equipped with a full array of 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.

Conclusion

The Tecno CAMON 40 Pro 5G stands out as a strong contender in the 2025 upper-midrange smartphone market. It successfully balances a sleek and durable design with a vibrant 144Hz AMOLED display protected by Gorilla Glass 7i and an impressive IP68/IP69 rating. The MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultimate processor, combined with ample RAM and storage, ensures smooth and responsive performance for a wide range of applications and games.

The device's camera system, particularly its 50MP OIS main sensor and AI-driven photography features, offers a compelling experience for mobile photographers. The large 5200mAh battery paired with 45W fast charging provides excellent battery life and quick recharges. Furthermore, the commitment to long-term software updates (Android 15 with HiOS 15 and 3 major OS upgrades) and a comprehensive suite of AI tools enhance its value proposition.

While it may lack the periscope telephoto lens of the Premier model, the CAMON 40 Pro 5G offers a highly competitive package for users seeking a feature-rich, high-performing smartphone with a strong emphasis on photography and durability, making it an attractive option in its segment.