The TECNO Camon 11 is the latest camera-centric phone the company has launched in Kenya. It is the successor to the Camon X from earlier in the year. The TECNO Camon 11 is available in Kenya for Ksh 14,999, not a bad price compared to previous Camon devices.
I have been using the TECNO Camon 11 as my primary smartphone for a couple of weeks and thought I should share my experience. I am still working on the full review so I thought I should just share what the cameras have to offer since they are its main selling points.
At the back, the Camon 11 has a dual camera setup of 13MP and 2MP while at the front it has a 16MP shooter. I was particularly interested to see if these cameras offer value for money and wanted to see what the company means by saying these are AI cameras.
Main Cameras
Starting with the back cameras, you do get the 13MP main one and the 2MP one that helps with the portrait shots.
The standard camera mode has AI enabled and there is no way to turn that off. You get the ‘AI CAM’ mode as the default mode but you can swipe through to get to the Video, Beauty, Bokeh (portrait) and Panorama modes. The AI mode as far as I have figured out adjusts the settings to match the scene you are in for slightly better shots. You will not notice that big of a difference as I am still trying to figure it out even after using the phone for a couple of weeks.
The main camera can record Full HD videos at 30 frames per second. This is good in almost every situation and the videos taken are also good.
The AI CAM mode is probably the one that you will be using the most. It is the default mode and will do a pretty good job in taking photos that you will not have to edit before sharing online. In most cases, the camera does a good job in picking the right settings for the perfect shots. When the lighting is not so good, it is a hit or miss situation as in some cases it takes really good photos and in others the photos are not so good.
The other modes are self-explanatory, beauty mode is for smoothening your face and does a good job at that. Bokeh mode is for blurring the background and keeping the main subject in focus for a more dramatic look. I noticed inconsistencies with the edges and wasn’t happy with the results. It really takes a lot to get a perfectly blurred background and this should not be the case. Even with that, the photos taken are not so bad. You do not get manual controls with the Camon 11 in case you wanted to know that.
Below are some samples taken using the TECNO Camon 11. None of these photos have been edited. Use the arrows to scroll through the different images.
Selfie Camera
The star of the show on the TECNO Camon 11 is the 16MP selfie camera. It has some of the modes we saw on the rear camera including the AI CAM mode, beauty mode, portrait mode and an additional WideSelfie mode that you will find useful when you want to fit more people or objects in your selfies.
The portrait mode (for blurred backgrounds) is software based and is not the best. It works well when outdoors but indoors, it tends to blur my hair and ears. Beauty mode clears some of the blemishes you may have on your face but is not as aggressive as I have seen on other smartphones especially those from OPPO. You can adjust the beauty mode level but I have set mine to AI so that the phone can do all the work and I do not have to play around with this setting all the time. I am never a big fan of beauty mode but on the Camon 11 it is subtle and so far I like it.
Below are some of the shots taken with the front-facing camera.
