Friends+Design
- Modern design with a waterdrop-style notch screen
- Nice looking mirror-finish back
- The frame of this phone is made out of plastic and is rounded, which makes it easy to hold
- Fingerprint scanner at the back works well
- Face recognition is on the slow side
Display
- Big 6.2-inch display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and good outdoor legibility
Software
- HiOS UI includes lots of add-on features like gesture navigation, raise-to-wake gesture, ability to launch apps by tracing alphabets on the screen, double-click-to-broadcast feature which broadcasts the time and the weather when you double tap the display, flip-to-mute gesture, and music gestures that let you control music by swiping on the display
- There is also a WhatsApp mode in that restricts background data access to WhatsApp alone, and only lets other apps use it when they are active
- There is support for some UI customisation using the Hi Theme app
- Swiping right from the homescreen will take you to a search screen that also shows a list of recently used apps and a news feed
- There is also plenty of bloatware that comes preinstalled
Performance
- Pretty average performance for this price bracket with a Helio A22 inside (similar to Snapdragon 615) - while basic use is alright, start using heavier apps, or multi-tasking, and you will see the phone start to lag - competitors like the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 have much more powerful processors
Camera
- The highlight of the phone is the triple camera setup (13-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture, an 8-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor) which isn't very common on phones in this price bracket
- You will get some good photos in daylight, and macros are surprisingly good
- The wide-angle sensor comes in handy for shooting landscapes
- The AI Cam mode is buggy and tends to detect ‘sport' every time the phone moves even a little
- Low light performance is average - the output tends to have a lot of graininess
- Edge detection is also average when using the bokeh mode
- Selfies are decent enough to go on social media but lack detail when you zoom in
- Video recording maxes out at 1080p for the rear and the selfie cameras - there is no image stabilisation, which means that footage is shaky
- Overall, while the triple camera setup is a rarity for this price bracket and the ultra-wide sensor might offer some versatility, the overall camera quality of the Camon i4 is just about decent, and nothing exceptional
Battery
- Good battery life with a 3500mAH battery - you should comfortably get over a day of use
- Decent (though not great) charging speed with the company's proprietary Rocket charging technology - the supplied 10W charger takes less than two hours to charge this phone completely
Verdict
- Overall, the Tecno Camon i4 will find it difficult to compete with the fierce competition from the likes of Xiaomi, Realme and Asus, that offer more bang for the buck
