When looking for smartphones with great displays and cameras, most people will think of flagships from brands like Apple, Samsung, or Google. The thing is, however, those phones don’t come cheap, even when on sale.
Sure, by paying a fortune, you do get a premium experience as well in other aspects, including software and design. But what if I were to tell you that there’s a phone out there that delivers a (more than) decent display and camera experience at less than RM1,200? Well, it’s called the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G, and here’s what I learnt after trying it out for a couple of months.
A display that puts the iPhone 16 to shame?
So let’s cut to the chase and talk about the first aspect of the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G that impressed me — its display. On paper, this is a 6.78” AMOLED display that pushes out a Full HD+ (2436×1080) resolution, with a refresh rate of up to 144Hz.
Yes, a 144Hz display for less than RM1,200. Even the iPhone 16 Plus, which costs over three times as much, only comes with a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz. That’s not all. The display is also protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 7i and is curved on both sides, reminding me of older Samsung flagships.
Beyond its specs, though, I gotta say this display is pretty nice to look at. It’s vibrant, contrasty, and is decently bright enough too under the sunlight, although we can’t tell you exactly how bright it can get as Tecno did not publish its peak brightness figures. Of course, as bright as it is, this panel isn’t the brightest in the world, but yet again, it costs less than smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 10. So is the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G’s display perfect? If you’re reading this review with a sane mind, you would expect a no, and you will be right.
First off, although vibrant and contrasty, the colours can be a little bit on the oversaturated side, making things like skin tone look a tad bit unnatural. And as fancy as the curved glass is, it reminds me of why Samsung ditched them for its flagship phones years ago — the curved edges make the phone a little uncomfortable to hold at certain angles and can cause quite a bit of mistouches in the process.
Though I won’t blame Tecno too much for this, as again, this phone costs less than RM1,200. The sub-RM1,500 phone market is a crowded one, and things like the curved display with its high resolution and refresh rate are surely helpful in attracting customers’ attention.
144Hz display on a sub-RM1,200 phone, for real?
Speaking of the refresh rate, although impressive on paper, I wasn’t exactly able to witness the full potential of its girth, and that’s most probably Tecno’s HiOS skin to blame. It doesn’t look horrible and reminds me of Xiaomi’s Mi UI versions from many years ago, and at this price point, I’ve sort of expected it to come with some bloatware. It even comes with its own AI chatbot called Ella, which uses DeepSeek‘s R1 large language model (LLM). You can always fall back on Google Gemini or install ChatGPT just in case Ella isn’t to your liking.
But my main complaint with HiOS is with its fluidity, or lack thereof, reminding me of how UIs from brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, or Vivo used to be a decade ago. Another thing I hope to see change in HiOS is the amount of bloatware it comes with out of the box, with almost half of them being games. The good news is, the majority of these apps can be uninstalled, except for some of Tecno’s own services like “Palm Store”, “Carlcare”, and “Phone Master”.
I get it, to price a phone at a budget-friendly price of under RM1,200 while offering decent specs means some corners must be cut. But I hope this is just a phase for Tecno, and that it will continually work and improve on its UI moving forward.
No need to spend thousands of Ringgit just to capture pretty-looking portraits
Now, the part you are probably trying to find out the most, its camera quality. On paper, the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G comes with a 50MP f/1.8 main camera that’s backed by a 1/1.56” Sony LYT-700C sensor with OIS, along with an 8MP ultra-wide-angle shooter.
Yes, there’s also technically a third sensor on the back of the phone, but it isn’t a telephoto sensor or a camera for you to take photos with. Instead, it’s what Tecno calls an AI snapshot sensor that leverages existing sensors and software intelligence to detect and snap key moments automatically.
But with a price tag of less than RM1,200, most people wouldn’t expect a phone, especially from a brand that’s not yet common among Malaysians, to provide great, let alone outstanding photos, right? Well, you might be in for a surprise with the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G.
The main Sony sensor found in the Camon 40 Pro 5G is already pretty decent for its price point, but Tecno’s efforts in tweaking its computational photography algorithm must also have quite a role to play here.
Photos taken using the phone look vibrant, contrasty, with good dynamic range, making them essentially ready for social media with little to no editing needed. In fact, its photos remind me of those from Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus, and Xiaomi’s recent flagships. You already get to enjoy, I would say, 75% of that experience at just a fraction of the price.
Portraits taken using the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G also appear as if someone has edited them using Lightroom. This isn’t the first time I’m impressed with Tecno’s smartphone camera, as the Camon 30S already did the year before. Thus, I’m pleased to see Tecno continuing to deliver excellence in this department.
But of course, the Camon 40 Pro 5G’s cameras don’t deliver the most accurate-looking colours. If you’re after that, you might want to shell out more cash for higher-end devices or look for other alternatives. But again, being able to get such image quality from a phone that costs less than an Apple Watch Series 10 is money well spent.
Tecno’s Camon 40 Pro 5G isn’t a one two-trick pony
Now, about the rest of my experience with the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G. Battery life has been great with its 5,200mAh, delivering me with over 7 hours of screen-on time over two days of use under my daily usage pattern. This includes texts, calls, social media, web browsing, text processing, and a load of time on YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify. Antennas such as WiFi, mobile data, and GPS are also left on 24/7.
Performance has also been decent for daily use, thanks to its MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset, coupled with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage with the review unit I’ve been using. If you want better performance, there’s also the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage configuration to choose from.
Furthermore, the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G comes with some smart AI features, including its own DeepSeek R1-powered Ella Assistant, which I’ve mentioned briefly above. That’s not all, the phone also packs other AI features, including Auto Call Answer, Call translation, Call Summary, as well as imaging-related features like AI Eraser, AI Image Extender, and so on. You can’t even get many of these features on your iPhone.
Tecno has also added a new orange-painted key, called the One Tap Button, onto the left frame of the Camon 40 series. By default, the key is programmed to launch FlashSnap with a double press, a new feature that can automatically snap a photo when it detects the subject moving or jumping.
But Tecno didn’t just stop there, allowing you to customise the gesture to also launch other functions like the camera app, set the phone to mute, start screen recording, or even better, launch any app you want.
Long-press the One Tap Button, on the other hand, launches Tecno’s in-house DeepSeek R1-powered Ella AI assistant. If you like, you can also change the default voice assistant to Google’s Gemini. Sweet!
Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G: A great display and camera experience on a budget
All in all, if you want to get one of the best displays and camera experiences at under RM1,500, the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G is certainly one of the best options you shouldn’t overlook. That is, unless a refined, clean, and polished software is a must for your next device, or you must have a phone made by a popular brand to impress your friends.
If you’re still reading and wondering where you can purchase the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G, the phone is available on Tecno’s official e-commerce stores such as Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop, with starting prices dipping to as low as RM1,096 at the time of writing.
