TECNO Camon 12 Air Review

What I loved about the Galaxy S10e was it’s compact nature, and it’s punch-hole display on the side. It looked so good. And for me, that was it’s major selling point.

Not that I am comparing the S10e to this Camon 12 Air. Nope. The gap between the two both in specifications, and price is too wide for comparison. One is KES. 75,000+ while the other is KES. 13,500. However, I’m drawing comparisons in one thing: that punch-hole selfie camera.

This would be a very boring review if this were a normal looking device. It’d be a boring phone too. But that twist, that change, that decision to go with a punch-hole display is what makes this device very exciting for me, and for the many people who will be getting it.

I had already said if you’re a retailer, the device to stock is the Camon 12 Air. Why? Because, it features acceptably good specs – 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, 4000mAh battery, Helio P22 – for a low price point. Then it takes everything a notch higher by having a full screen display with a hole. Something no other phone (well except the new Infinix S5 also from Transsion) does at this price point.

I’ve been using the device for a long while now. It has my Faiba4G line – because it supports VoLTE. And there’s many things I love about it. These are things I’d appreciate whether or not it had that punch-hole cutout:

1. Great battery life – On normal use, you can hit two days of use. Which is great. I’ve been able to do well over 7hrs screen-on time with mixed use. On battery test, it died after 10hrs of CPU load. Great!
2. Performance – NOT BAD. But obviously not great. What I like, and why I am encouraging you to pick this phone over other devices is that Helio P22. For 13k, it is a good processor to have. There’s many phone remember around this price point that come with the less powerful Helio A22.

The TECNO Camon series line is known to be their camera focused line of phones. So of course, I must talk about the cameras.

Rear setup consists of a 16MP main lens, a 5MP wide angle lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. The difference between this setup and the setup on the normal Camon 12 is that the normal Camon 12 has an 8MP wide angle lens. There’s not much difference in the quality of the pictures. Also, the software is exactly identical. Which means you should read my review of the Camon 12 Cameras – which is very in-depth. From that you’ll get a clear picture of what cameras you’re getting with the Camon 12 Air.

The front camera is an 8MP shooter. There’s a nice animation that goes around the lens on the display whenever you switch to the selfie camera. It has excited many people I’ve shown the device to, even though it does nothing much. But it is a cool feature to have.

Throughout the year, TECNO has had one design with all their devices. Look at the Spark 4 all through to the Phantom 9. One design that’s now boring. I like that this hole on the display makes this sort of a different device all together. A small thing when you think of it, but a big leap in perception.

Not a single person who’s seen this device hasn’t liked it. Not because it is an expensive phone, not because it has wildly good specifications. Not because the cameras are any good, but because it looks different. I know it won’t stand out for long, but at least it does now, and that’s what’s important.

If you’re in the market for a phone around 13k, consider this one. But remember, like with the normal Camon 12, the Air would be better if it had:

1. USB Type-C
2. A Full HD display
3. New Skin – Do away with HiOS. Samsung killed Touchwiz when they realised it wasn’t working. They then killed Samsung Experience UI when it didn’t work. And now they have ONE UI which is really good. Huawei removed all the unnecessary features it had bundles with Emotion UI, and decided to even call it just EMUI.
4. Better Cameras 
5. Fast charging.

TECNO Camon 12 Air Specifications: