Tecno Camon iClick unboxing, first impressions

Tecno Camon iClick is the latest entrant in the budget segment, with the company priding on its AI-powered selfie camera. Here are our first impressions of the device.

Tecno Camon iClick has a striking resemblance to Apple iPhone 7 and Xiaomi Mi A1. (HT Photo)

Tecno Mobile on Monday launched a new smartphone, Camon iClick in India. Priced at ₹13,999, the smartphone is available in two colour options: Midnight Black and Champagne Gold.

The smartphone's highlight is the 20-megapixel AI-powered camera. The company has also placed a risky price tag for Camon iClick considering the recent trend of offering smartphones at budget prices below ₹10,000.

Tecno Camon iClick unboxing

The retail box of Camon iClick contains the smartphone unit, along with a transparent case and tempered glass. There's a SIM ejector pin, a pair of earphones with extra earbuds and a charger. We spent a brief time with the Camon iClick, and here are our first impressions of the device.

Tecno Camon iClick first impressions

The first thing that catches anyone's attention is the design and look of the smartphone. Camon iClick is a sandwich between Xiaomi Mi A1 and Apple iPhone 7. I might seem harsh here but the stark similarity cannot be ignored. Up front, you have the full display with the white panel. This description can be used for most Android smartphones as well, but the resemblance is just very striking.

On the rear, you'll see the antenna lines placed at the extreme top and bottom as seen on the Apple iPhone 7 series. The rear camera is also placed in a similar fashion sitting at the top left corner. There's a circular fingerprint sensor at the centre with the 'Tecno' branding just below. In some ways, it looks quite similar to the Mi A1, again.

Tecno Camon iClick has a large 6-inch HD+ full display with 18:9 aspect ratio. The smartphone is slightly bigger with a chunk of bottom bezel which doesn't house a home button. The power button and volume keys are within reach, but I was using both my hands for navigating mostly. At the bottom, you have a speaker grille, USB port and the 3.5mm audio jack.

Camera

I fiddled around with the 20-megapixel selfie camera which comes with AI-based capabilities. There's a bokeh mode which worked pretty well during my brief usage. More features include beauty mode, HDR, panorama and different filters to choose from. Tecno says that the camera also comes with AI auto scene recognition which deep learns scenes fed to the smartphone.

At the rear, Tecno Camon iClick houses a 16-megapixel camera with f/1.8 aperture. The rear camera has a 'Super Pixel' feature which essentially focuses on the subject and blurs the background. Users can also choose between different aspect ratios like 1:1, 4:3, 16:9 and 18:9.

Performance

For performance, the smartphone runs a MediaTek Helio P23 octa-core processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB. During my brief usage I didn't face any lags as such, but an in-depth review will give a better judgement on the overall performance.

As with most smartphones these days, the Tecno iClick also comes pre-loaded with Google's suite of apps. There is no excess bloatware as such, other than apps like WhatsApp and Facebook pre-installed.

On the software front, the smartphone runs its custom HiOS based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Personally, not many custom UIs impress me but this one seemed pretty okay without any unnecessary gimmicks like Oppo's or Vivo's. On the left tab of the home screen, there's an iOS-like tab for commonly-used apps, news section along with video and game recommendations.

The smartphone includes a 3,750mAh battery, and has a face unlock feature.

Tecno Camon iClick does come with a decent set of specifications, but its price tag might not work in its favour considering the heavy competition. We've recently seen a surge in budget smartphones like Oppo Realme1 and Honor 7C. These smartphones offer similar configurations, but at lesser prices.