We have spent the last couple of weeks using Tecno’s latest smartphone, the Camon C9 and to sum up this review in just one sentence, it is one of the best smartphones one can find in the Kenyan market at the moment for its price, Kshs 18,000.
The Tecno Camon C9 picks up from where its predecessors the Camon C5 and Camon C8 left.
Like the last year duo, its main selling point, according to its makers, is the two very prominent camera sensors on the front and the back. But there’s more to the device than the camera. The cameras only tell one side of the story; the rest of the device tells another.
You can check out specifications of the Tecno Camon C9 here.
Design
When Tecno introduced the music-centred Boom J8 a few months ago, it brought with it the sandstone back cover styling that we are seeing on the black Camon C9.
As it was the case then, the Camon C9 also arrives in several colour options (Champagne Gold, Elegant Blue and Sandstone Black) which are characterized by either soft rubbery-sandstone removable back covers or soft slippery out and out plastic back covers. Either way, it’s still plastic but the sandstone-textured black model which is what we had in for review feels especially good in the hand and makes handling such a big and thick device a little easy.
Old vs New – Camon C8’s design vis-à-vis Camon C9’s
The plastic back and the glass front are separated by a thin strip of metal whose sides are interrupted by plastic cutouts meant to accommodate the device’s network radios.
The upper side of the metal frame is occupied by the centrally-placed 3.5mm audio jack, which, if the rumours are true, is bound to become an endangered species when the next batch of smartphone heavy hitters arrives later in the year. At the bottom is the microUSB port for charging the device and data transfer.
Since the device has a removable back cover, the likes of the dual-SIM and microSD card slots are accommodated behind the device upon removing the plastic cover.
To our surprise, there is only one microphone on the device which can be spotted at the bottom right next to the USB 2.0 port. That means that background noise cancellation during calls is not dealt with even though it never at any one time bothered us that much as calls were very clear.
That very loud speaker is found at the lower end of the back with the Camon branding right above it while the upper side accommodates the large 13-megapixel camera sensor and its accompanying dual-LED flash. The Tecno branding takes the centre. The speaker’s location at the back means that despite its loud output, the sound is muffled when the device is placed on a table lying up instead of face down.
While Tecno abandoned the capacitive navigation buttons on the Boom J8 in favour of on-screen controls, they are back on the Camon C9. As is the breathing/pulsating light which blinks repeatedly when there are unread notifications – messages, missed calls, etc.
The low-down of the Camon C9’s design is this: it’s stylish, the metal frame adds a nice touch, it’s good to feel thanks to that sandstone back but still looks large – because it is – and thick even though it doesn’t feel like it.
Display
The Tecno Camon C9 packs a 5.5-inch full HD LCD display that is vibrant and pixel dense. Tuned to blend well with the device’s interface, the display does just enough to withstand bright outdoor scenarios but not enough to make you not notice the shadows thanks to its not-so-good viewing angles.
Camera
Just like the Camon C8 from last year, the Camon C9 packs a 13-megapixel shooter at the back. The C9’s sensor, however, has some beefed up optics to match the many months gap between the two devices. Its selfie camera is even better with a similar sensor unlike the C8 which only had a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
Tecno’s marketing team ambitiously claims that the Camon C9 has the best cameras on a smartphone on the continent. Well, as you already guessed, that’s a bit of a stretch (a long stretch to be honest) as we’ll see in a moment. However, it sure does go the extra mile for a device of its price and status and you’re unlikely to find anything better than it in its category in the Kenyan market.
Like the previous generation of Camon smartphones, the Tecno Camon C9 also has a dedicated camera key which can be used to summon the viewfinder at a moment’s notice when long pressed and to take shots once inside the viewfinder. We found that using the camera button was a bit slower compared to just using the lock screen or home screen shortcut. There’s still another way to do that: using Tecno’s smart bracelet, the T-Band.
The Camon C9 has better battery life than the Infinix Zero 3 and better cameras, obviously, than the Boom J8 even though the two one-up it in other aspects as well. Throw in Android Marshmallow and that really loud speaker at the back and you have a decent proposition that stands up to the two and any other similarly-priced device from the competition.
That Tecno is offering to replace, for free, any screen shattered up to 3 months after purchase, is a statement of faith in the device and something we don’t get to see being offered to budget smartphone buyers every other day.
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