TECNO’s CAMON series revolutionized budget phones with killer photography features and incredibly sleek designs. Their latest installment, the CAMON 40 series, continues to push the envelope for this segment.
Today, we’ll be focusing on the TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G. Just by looking at the specs list, it already looks like an impressive device that could exceed the expectations we’ve set from its under Php13,000 price tag.
In our full review, we’ll see if the cameras actually take great pictures, is it really comfortable to hold, and of course, test the rest of the hardware to see how well it performs, how long it lasts in a single charge, and more.
TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G Specs
- Android 15, HiOS 15
- Dual SIM, Dual standby
- 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, 2436 x 1080 pixel resolution, ~393ppi
- 144Hz refresh rate
- 2.2GHz MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultimate octa-core processor
- 8GB/12GB RAM
- Mali-G615 MC2 GPU
- 256GB internal storage
- 50-megapixel front camera, AF
- 50-megapixel (1/1.56-inch, OIS) + 8-megapixel (ultra-wide) rear cameras, LED flash
- Under-display fingerprint scanner, Face unlock
- IP68/69 dust and water resistant
- Stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos
- HSPA+, 4G LTE, 5G
- WiFi, WiFi hotspot
- Bluetooth
- GPS, A-GPS
- NFC
- IR blaster
- Dimensions: 164.32 x 74.56 x 7.29mm
- Weight: 179g
- Colors: Emerald Lake Green, Galaxy Black, Glacier White
- 5,200mAh non-removable battery, 45W wired charging
Design and Build Quality
The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G is insanely thin and sleek, possibly the sleekest in its price range. Its thickness of just 7.3mm and the smooth curves in the front and back make it incredibly nice to hold. Plus, it only weighs 179g.
Without exaggerating, the CAMON 40 Pro 5G’s build feels more premium than other, more expensive smartphones out there. What’s more, the device has been incredibly designed as well.
The tall camera island blends seamlessly with the vertically oriented triple rear cameras. The thick lenses create a bump, but it’s forgivable considering how elegant the whole rear panel looks.
According to TECNO, the unique design around the camera is inspired by “Swan Neck Aesthetics.” I’m not sure if that’s the best way to describe it, all I know is that it’s gorgeous to look at.
I also like the marble-like surface of this Galaxy Black colorway. The whole surface has a matte texture and has been subtly studded with glitter. The Glacier White looks similar, only with a lighter tone, while the Emerald Lake has a simpler appearance.
Despite its ultra-thin build, the TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G is still durable like other thicker smartphones. I tried a couple of light bend tests and saw how robust the frame is, unlike other thin and light phones on the market.
The device is IP68/IP69 dust and water resistant and can survive being submerged in water depths of up to 1 meter. It should also survive high-temperature and high-pressure water jets.
In addition, TECNO highlights its sturdy Corning Gorilla Glass 7i that can survive scratches and being dropped onto asphalt from a height of 1.5 meters. The company has also pre-installed a screen protector, so you don’t have to worry about light scratches.
It received SGS 5-Star Drop-Resistant certification as well. I didn’t risk dropping it, especially because of the curved screen. It’s best to use the free snap-on case, which also has good looks with a premium textured surface that adds grip. Although, I’m doubting its ability to protect the screen from front facing drops.
Taking a tour, we have the curved 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen on the front. The bezels are not the thinnest, but they don’t get in the way and still achieved an impressive 94% screen-to-body ratio. A punch-hole holds the 50-megapixel selfie camera.
On top, we have the noise-isolating microphone, IR blaster (use the pre-installed Welife app for this), the Dolby Atmos logo, and the grills for the stereo speakers.
The right side has the lock/power switch and volume controls. The physical buttons are of decent quality with nice tactility and clickiness, but certainly not the best.
As with most phones coming this year, the CAMON 40 Pro 5G has a third physical button. TECNO calls it the One-Tap Button, with a distinct orange color, placed on the left, and has ridges similar to the Action Button on the latest OnePlus phones.
The primary loudspeaker is at the bottom, along with the USB-C port, microphone, and the SIM tray for two nano SIMs back-to-back. No microSD card slot.
On the back, there’s the three lenses. The one on top is the main shooter, then the ultra-wide, and the flicker sensor. A tiny, pill-shaped dual-LED flash and an indicator light is on the side.
As I’ve said earlier, the TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G is possibly the sleekest smartphone in its segment. What’s more, it’s fairly durable, too, and I won’t blame you if you quit reading this review now and get the device just because of its looks alone.
Display and Audio
The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G has a 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a 2436 x 1080 pixel resolution, ~393ppi, and a high 144Hz refresh rate. It lacks HDR or Dolby Vision support, but I guess that’s too much to ask for the price.
Display quality is above average. The brightness is ample, so it stays legible even if it’s sunny outdoors, the colors and contrast are deep for watching movies, and the details are sharp for reading texts.
It also has stereo speakers with support for Dolby Atmos. The speaker performance is decent. It has enough volume without the volume booster feature that other phones have, the bass is present, and the treble is clear.
However, the second speaker sounds muffled and appears to be using an amplified earpiece instead of a dedicated driver. It’s not noticeable, though, unless you deliberately cover the main bottom-firing driver to listen to its quality.
Hardware and Performance
The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G comes with a 4nm 2.5GHz MediaTek Dimensity 7300 octa-core processor, with a Mali-G615 MC2 GPU, an option between 8GB and 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of non-expandable storage. It then has an 11-layer heat-dissipation cooling system.
TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G Benchmark Scores
It offers smooth and reliable performance in day-to-day tasks. I had no issues and experienced almost zero lag when swiping through social media feeds, TikTok, watching Netflix, navigating using Google Maps, taking pictures, and more. Whether you’re a casual user, student, or professional, you’d be satisfied with the power of the CAMON 40 Pro 5G.
Now the question is, how well does this chic, sleek smartphone handle gaming?
A demanding game such as Genshin Impact ran with no issues under Medium graphics at smooth 60 frames. No overheating problems either. PUBG Mobile is playable under Balanced graphics at Ultra frames, but I prefer the smoothness of the Smooth/Extreme+ setting.
Call of Duty Mobile ran incredibly smooth under Low graphics and Ultra frame rates, but also playable under Very High/Very High if you want the extra splash of color. Farlight84 had no problems running on HD graphics and Very High frames.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was seamless under the highest available settings, as well as Asphalt Legends Unite.
The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G, despite its sleek design, has surprisingly good performance: from day-to-day performance up to gaming.
| Game | Graphics Settings |
| Call of Duty: Mobile | • Graphics Quality: Very High/Low • Frame Rate: Very High/Ultra |
| Farlight84 | • Graphics Quality: HD • Frame Rate: Very High |
| PUBG Mobile | • Graphics Quality: Balanced/Smooth • Frame Rate: Ultra/Extreme+ |
| Genshin Impact | • Render Resolution: Medium • Visual Effects: Medium • FPS: 60 |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | • Graphics Quality: Ultra • Frame Rate: Ultra • HD Mode: On |
| Asphalt Legends Unite | • Visual Quality: High Quality • Frame Rate: 60 |
Software and User Interface
The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G ships with Android 15-based HiOS 15 interface. TECNO also pledges to seed up to 3 major Android upgrades in the future. A future-proof budget phone? Yes, please.
Let’s first take a look at the One-Tap Button. It’s clear from the design of the settings it’s been heavily influenced by the Action Button of the latest iPhones.
By default, a long press summons the virtual assistant while a double press launches the FlashSnap feature. You can remap the double-press to enable quick actions or open any app installed on your phone.
Speaking of the button, it also features TECNO’s Ella assistant, which utilizes China’s DeepSeek AI to provide answers, translations, summarize articles, generate texts and images, and more.
AI Auto-Answer is a clever feature that uses an AI voice to answer calls for you, which will then generate a transcript of the conversation. It’s a great feature if you’re preoccupied but are getting a really important phone call.
Digital nomads will also appreciate the real-time call translator feature, which is handy when communicating with foreign clients.
AI is also prominent in the Gallery. In fact, there’s even a highlighted AI Studio button when you open an image. Tap that and you access the AI editing tools, together with the rest of the editing tools.
There’s the AI Eraser, AI Sharpness Plus that enhances details (great for cropped photos or old photo scanning), and the AI Extender that’s handy if you want to post a landscape photo into a Story.
The rest of the AI features are similar to others I’ve already seen. There’s the AI Writing Assistant, AI Note, Recording Summary, AI Wallpaper Generator, and of course, Circle to Search.
For security, the optical in-display fingerprint scanner worked with no issues during our test. The face unlock was also snappy, even in dark environments.
The Indicator Light on the back is a nice effect inspired by the recording light in professional cameras. It blinks when you’re recording or using the timer. It also lights up for notifications, charging, calls, and when you use the IR blaster.
While it has a well-organized app drawer, there’s a lot of bloatware here. Many of them can be removed, but the others cannot be uninstalled.
The Phone Management scans the whole system (storage, battery, memory, etc) to show you a health score. It can also optimize everything with a single click.
Virtual RAM Expansion feature called MemFusion is also here, which borrows 3GB, 5GB, and 8GB of space from the storage and turns it into “RAM” for an extra performance boost. Again, it barely makes a difference, so don’t bother fiddling with it.
TECNO’s HiOS has really gotten better thanks to a cleaner design and AI. It’s also nice to know that the TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G will have extensive software support. Not the longest, but acceptable for the price.
Cameras
The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G has generated some buzz for its sought-after cameras, which received awards from well-known publications. Now, it’s time to see it for ourselves.
Let’s first talk about the hardware we’re dealing with. We have the 50-megapixel Sony LYT-700C sensor that’s 1/1.56-inch in size, has an f/1.9 aperture, PDAF, and optical image stabilization. There’s also an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, dual-LED flash, and a 50-megapixel sensor for selfies with PDAF.
It has four video recording settings: 720p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, and 4K@30fps. 120fps slow-mo recording at 1080p is also available. FlashSnap, quickly accessible by the One-Tap button takes 15 frames and uses AI algorithms, so you don’t miss a frame.
Daylight shots look really good. Details are sharp and realistic, with no excessive post over sharpening when examined closely, so much so that noise creeps in a little, but that’s forgivable.
Colors are lifelike, and the dynamic range is wide. Shutter can be a little slow at times, so you really want to use that FlashSnap feature for fast-paced moments.
Low-light performance is one of the best I’ve seen in its segment. While noises and grains could’ve been handled better, the photos look really authentic. It captures the light — or the lack thereof — really well. The realness of the details and colors were also kept.
Sadly, the CAMON 40 Pro 5G lacks a dedicated telephoto sensor. On the upside, the main sensor is sharp enough for clean 2x zoom shots, which has a 47mm equivalent that’s really great for portraits.
While the 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera inherited a similar processing to the main shooter, I still wish it had been granted a sharper sensor. That said, while the colors are realistic and the dynamic range is great, don’t expect much from the details.
The 50-megapixel front-facing camera takes as good photos as you might expect from a selfie camera with a high pixel count. Skin tones are realistic, details are sharp even in low-light, and the portrait mode works well even without a dedicated depth sensor.
While the low-resolution ultra-wide and the lack of telephoto lens might disappoint some, the stellar image quality we got from the main and selfie cameras is more than enough to make up for it.
In fact, the performance of the two 50-megapixel cameras is easily one of the best you can get in this price range.
Battery Life and Charging
The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G is equipped with a fairly large 5,200mAh battery, while others are starting to shift with sub-6,000mAh capacities using the latest silicon-carbon technology. Despite this, I was still able to get good battery life, which is impressive for an ultra-thin smartphone.
It lasted for 11 hours and 54 minutes in PCMark’s synthetic battery loop test. That’s lower than the average score of 14 hours and 52 minutes that other competitors got.
However, it got a great score of 20 hours and 39 minutes in our more real-world test of looping a 1080p YouTube video until the battery dropped to 0. That’s much higher than the average score of 17 hours and 15 minutes in our past reviews.
The charging speed was good, too. The Smart Charge feature regulates the speeds to prevent overheating when charging, but you can quickly override it by choosing “Hyper” in the lockscreen, so it charges at its full 45W speeds. See the charging test results below:
- 15mins: 0-25%
- 30mins: 50%
- 45mins: 74%
- 1hr: 93%
- 1hr 10mins: FULL
Verdict
We thought the TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G was only about the cameras, but after spending some time with it, we’re surprised that TECNO was able to provide more despite its midrange price tag.
The first thing that struck us was how incredibly sleek it is. The combination of its thinness, curved front and back, and sturdy build feels really comfortable in the hands while providing assurance that it can withstand the day-to-day challenges of life.
It also got a colorful AMOLED screen, reliable battery life, clean UI with extensive support, and of course, a reliable performance for both daily tasks and gaming.
While the performance of the ultra-wide camera and the lack of a dedicated telephoto lens is disappointing, the device makes up for it by having killer performance from the main snapper and selfie shooter.
Overall, the TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G is one of the best phones you can get in its segment, whether you prioritize camera, performance, or design.
TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G pricing and availability in the Philippines
The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G has an SRP of Php12,999 for the 8GB/256GB and Php14,999 for the 12GB/256GB. It’s available at physical stores nationwide and through Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop.
Pros
- Very sleek, sturdy design
- Reliable performance for basic tasks and gaming
- Extensive software support, clean UI
- Solid main, selfie camera performance
- Reliable battery life
Cons
- Low-resolution ultra-wide, no dedicated telephoto
- Muffled second speaker