Tecno Camon 40 Pro review

50MP camera on the back, 50MP on the front

Although the Tecno Camon 40 Pro's camera hardware is slightly above average for the price class, it's a step back from the previous generation.

The Camon 40 Pro one comes with a downgraded 8MP ultrawide camera instead of last year's larger 50MP unit, but it has autofocus, at least.

• Wide (main): 50 MP Sony IMX896, 23mm f/1.8, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, OIS, multi-directional PDAF; 4K@30fps
• Ultrawide: 8 MP GalaxyCore GC08A8, 14mm, f/2.2, 1/4.0", 1.0µm, AF; 1440p@30fps.
• Front camera: 50 MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN1, 20mm, f/2.4, 1/2.76", 0.64µm; 1080p@30fps

The primary 50MP camera remains, though, and so does the selfie shooter, which still offers AF.

Daylight photos

Main camera

The Camon 40 Pro captures high-quality daylight photos, offering plenty of detail, solid sharpness, and vivid colors. Dynamic range is wide for the most part, but you can sometimes see overly dark shadows.

Main camera photos

Indoor shots continue the strong performance, with low noise levels and the same pleasing detail and color characteristics. It's an impressive showing.

Even though the portraits are a bit softer compared to higher-end phones, the overall quality is pretty good.

Portraits: Photo mode • Portrait mode

2x crop zoom

The 2x zoom mode closely matches the 1x mode's rendition, but some scenes have a noticeable dip in quality. Subjects close to the camera are rendered pretty well with plenty of detail and good sharpness, but foliage in the distance, for example, shows upscaling artifacts.

2x crop zoom photos

Ultrawide camera

Since this is an 8MP ultrawide camera, it's unrealistic to expect a great level of detail, but perhaps due to the autofocus, closer subjects appear very detailed and sharp. Dynamic range is impressive for this sort of camera, colors are punchy, and contrast is good. It's definitely one of the best 8MP ultrawide camera implementations we've seen.

Ultrawide camera photos

Thanks to the autofocus, the ultrawide camera can capture decent-looking macro photos, although they are not very detailed due to the limited 8MP resolution. Still, it's a better solution than the dedicated 2MP macro cameras commonly found on budget handsets.

Macro photos

Selfies

As for selfies, the Camon 40 Pro stands out in its class. Its 50MP front-facing camera delivers crisp, detailed images with excellent sharpness, balanced colors, and impressive dynamic range. Autofocus is the real game-changer here - a rarity at this price point, and it pays off big time in consistency and subject clarity.

Selfies

One nitpick we have is that the default selfie mode on the camera app is set to Portrait, which is annoying, and you must select "AI CAM" mode every single time if you want to get a regular selfie without the fake background defocusing.

Daylight photos

Main camera

The images maintain a natural look with a touch of artificial sharpening. Dynamic range is wide, revealing plenty of detail in the shadows without clipping the highlights. While the color output last year lacked saturation, we see a significant improvement this year. Still, color reproduction at night is somewhat conservative.

Main camera photos

The auto Night mode usually kicks in by default. It helps enhance dynamic range and handles bright light sources well, while leaving some shadow areas brighter than we'd like.

2x crop zoom

We weren't expecting much from the 2x zoom shots at night, and they meet our expectations. The results inherit the overall processing from the main camera but show noticeable softness, reduced detail and noticeable grain. They're fine for quick sharing or viewing on a phone screen, but don't hold up well under closer scrutiny.

2x crop zoom photos

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera is a far cry from last year's 50MP ultrawide in terms of overall quality. The new budget 8MP sensor produces okay images for its class which have lots of sharpening and not a lot of fine detail. HDR works well to keep highlights in check.

Ultrawide camera photos

Video recording

The Camon 40 Pro supports 4K video recording at 30fps with its main and selfie cameras. Due to resolution limitations, the ultrawide settles for 1440p@30fps video recording. EIS seems present in all resolution modes and is easy to turn off, except when recording 1440p videos using the ultrawide camera. In this case, EIS is unavailable.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

Video output from the main sensor at 4K is very good - crisp, sharp, and full of rich detail. Colors are lively without appearing over-processed, and while the exposure can run slightly on the bright side, it's not an issue.

The ultrawide's clip isn't bad either, but it's noticeably softer and less detailed due to the 1080p resolution. It's slightly better in 1440p resolution, but extremely shaky too as it lacks EIS. Dynamic range is solid , though.

Low-light recording performs better than expected. There's a little bit of noise here and there, and colors need more punch, but we are happy with the sharpness. The low-light footage is relatively good.

The EIS test footage leaves more to be desired. There's a little bit of jitter and focus hunting.