Tecno Camon 18P

The Camon 18P features a 6.8 inches display, Android 11, and a Mediatek Helio G96 chipset. It also comes with a 48 MP camera and a 5,000 mAh battery. The phone comes in colors Dusk Gray, Ceramic White, and Iris purple..

Unboxing

Now Tecno Camon 18P comes in a light silver box with a device name printed on top, along with the usual TECNO branding. Inside is the Camon 18P and underneath it includes a free clear case, documentation, SIM ejector tool, 33-watt power brick, USB A-C cable, and earphones. Yes, earphones are included in this package!

Design and build

For its build quality and design, Tecno Camon 18P makes use of a polycarbonate back and frame while in front, it already has a pre-installed screen protector. The design of the phone looks premium for the price with its combination of Matte and glossy finish on its back as well as sides. The phone itself comes in colors Dusk Gray, Ceramic White, and Iris purple. The back also features the glass-like rectangular camera module bump and the TECNO branding below.

You get to see slim bezels on all sides of its front panel and a center punch hole for the 16 MP selfie camera. On the bottom department of Camon 18P, you will find a 3.5-millimeter audio jack. Otherwise, those freely included earphones would have been such a waste. There is also a USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go port, and a speaker grille at the bottom. The left-hand side features a SIM tray with a microSD card slot at the back. Lastly, on the right is the volume rocker and the fingerprint scanner cum power button.

Clearer photos with Telephoto

Let’s talk about the cameras here now, shall we? The rear of Tecno Camon 18P houses a triple camera configuration. These are a 48 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), PDAF main lens, a 13 MP, 45mm (telephoto), PDAF, 1.7x optical zoom, and a 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth). Now that 13 MP, 45mm (telephoto) is what sets it apart when it comes to camera performance with the base Camon 18 that has a 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) instead. What does a telephoto lens do? A telephoto lens increases focal length. It’s most commonly used to show far-away objects with accurate perspective and with a level of precise detail that was once only possible with close-range photography.

The front-facing camera on the other hand is the same 16-megapixel wide sensor which does a decent job in terms of the camera. Super night mode brings back details to images you would otherwise find useless with a regular AI cam mode. And that’s a good thing! Videos on both the front and rear cameras can be recorded at up to 1080p@30fps resolution for better quality videos. Tecno, on its official product website, brands the camera of the Camon 18 this way, “Ultra Clear and Sharp Camera.”

A 120Hz, 1080 x 2460P display

There is a cutout notch for the front-facing camera to the top center of the Tecno Camon 18P, and a single Dual-LED flash which is next to the earpiece opening. And one other thing you should notice about this display is the huge bezels. This is especially at the bottom side where there is quite a chin. You will also find a film screen protector pre-installed on this display. This is still an IPS LCD panel though maybe look Tecno Camon 18 Premier-wards for the AMOLED experience.

Now, this is a 1080 x 2460 (excellent choice this one and an improvement also), with a 6.8-inch dot-in the IPS panel. It comes with a 120Hz (and not 90Hz like on Camon 18) refresh rate which is one of the major upgrades on the smartphone this year. From within the settings, you can set the display to 120, 60 Hertz for longer battery life, or the auto switch suite automatically switches your refresh rates depending on the actual use case. This display can attain a higher 550 nits brightness which is great especially for viewing outdoors.

Battery

The 5,000 mAh battery capacity is what you get with Tecno Camon 18P. It basically is the same battery capacity on Camon 18 and definitely will last you a great deal of usage especially if you are a regular user and gaming all day isn’t what you do with your smartphone. Its fast charging capability is better than the 18’s 18W at 33W. With the 33W fast flash charge feature on the smartphone, you get to charge it from 0 to 100 in a matter of minutes.

What we think

As the middle phone in the Camon 18 Series, we think that Tecno Camon 18P is a special one. One would think of it as a breed of specs from the two other phones. It boasts the large size of the regular Camon 18 and the powerful processor and GPU of the Camon 18 Premier.