Can’t have it all with mid-range smartphones! The Tecno Camon 40 Pro is hitting the smartphone market as one of many mid-range Android options, and compared to its predecessor, it seems like a little bit of a step back than an upgrade. Last year, we reviewed the Tecno Camon 30 Pro and found it to be a well-priced phone with excellent performance at the cost of build quality — it was close to ideal for mobile gamers looking to avoid the high prices of flagship smartphones.
As we’ll see in our Tecno Camon 40 Pro review, this year Tecno has reserved many premium features for the more expensive Camon 40 Premier, but it’s not all bad. The Camon 40 Pro is still an exceptionally well priced phone, and it’ll last you a bit longer thanks to a more durable build and longer update guarantees.
Design and build
The Tecno Camon 40 Pro is a 6.78-inch smartphone, the same size as its predecessor — on the large side for a mid-range smartphone, but not too far from the norm. The usual warning should be heeded — a phone this large can be difficult to use with one hand. The display is also curved, which I’m not a fan of on larger phones. Because I often needed to use two hands, I experienced a lot of accidental touches with my off hand in the upper right corner of the device.
The curved front and back does make the phone comfortable to hold, and despite having a slightly larger battery this year, the Camon 40 Pro even weighs a little less than its predecessor at 179 grams, making it comfortable to hold onto for long periods of time.
Even better, this phone is more robust than the Camon 30 Pro. Tecno earned an IP68/69 rating on this year’s phone, making the device fully resistant to dust, water, and high water pressure. Tecno also added protective glass on the front this year, using Corning Gorilla Glass 7i. As we’ve mentioned in other reviews, Gorilla Glass 7i is by no means Corning’s best, and has gotten scratched up on other devices, but it’s certainly a step up from last year.
The curved edges are the main difference in the phone’s build — it’s still made of mostly glass and plastic, although it does have a more sturdy, premium feel to it compared to the Camon 30 Pro, which felt a little cheap. The other notable difference is a new physical button on the left side of the device, which launches Tecno’s Ella assistant. Ella is an AI assistant that can pull from a number of AI models, including Gemini and DeepSeek.
Tecno has added one more color option this year — the Camon 40 Pro comes in three colors, including Emerald Lake Green, Galaxy Black, and Glacier White.
Performance
This will be the most controversial part for folks who have been following Tecno’s smartphones. We were really enthusiastic about last year’s Camon 30 Pro because, for its faults, it was an exceptionally powerful device in the mid-range market, with a MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultra chipset that managed 60fps gaming, even on the highest graphics settings for more demanding mobile games.
The Camon 40 Pro takes a hit here, downgrading to the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultimate chipset. That still ensures the phone has 5G connectivity (note: there is a version of the Camon 40 Pro that does not have 5G), but the step down in product tiers does mean that this year’s model isn’t exceptional in this category. It’s still good — in performance mode and at max settings, I still maintained consistent 50fps gameplay in Genshin Impact — but the Camon 40 Pro no longer stands out from the pack. Cooling seemed to be handled well, with the phone never getting noticeably warm.
It’s worth noting that the Camon 40 Pro can be purchased with 8GB or 12GB of RAM — our review model had 8GB, so it’s possible the 12GB version is a slightly better performer, and might be satisfactory to folks who liked the performance of the Camon 30 Pro. Otherwise, you’ll have to upgrade to the Camon 40 Premier, the top-end device in the Camon line, which uses the Dimensity 8350 chipset.
The Camon 40 Pro has both facial recognition and an optical fingerprint sensor, both of which work quickly and consistently. Like last year, the fingerprint sensor works well even when the display is wet, a feature that’s even more welcome now that the phone is fully waterproof.
Display and audio
The Tecno Camon 40 Pro has a 6.78-inch 1080p AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate — aside from the Corning Gorilla Glass 7i layer protecting it, the display looks to be unchanged from last year’s model. That’s not a bad thing! For the performance and size, this display still looks terrific, and gets bright enough to use outside in direct sunlight. Like last year, the LTPO version of this display is reserved for the more expensive Camon 40 Premier.
Audio is also unchanged from last year — no complaints here. The stereo speakers still sound great, even at high volumes, and the addition of Dolby Atmos processing helps get the most out of movies and games. I’m always impressed when a mid-range phone manages to avoid distortion at high volumes with on-device speakers. The phone doesn’t come with a set of wireless earbuds this time around, so hopefully you’ve got your own wireless headphones or earbuds.
Battery
The Tecno Camon 40 Pro has a 5,200mAh battery, up from 5,000mAh last year. With a less powerful chipset this time around, battery life shines even more so than last year. An hour of video at max brightness took off 7% of battery capacity, and an hour of Genshin Impact at max settings, on performance mode, and at max brightness took off 22% of battery capacity, both of which represent slight improvements over the Camon 30 Pro.
During daily use, I always made it a full day on a single charge, even on transit-heavy days when I was using the phone more. It’s very efficient when idle — I left the phone alone for five days, and it still had plenty of life left when I picked it back up again. Charging speeds are great, but Tecno did take a little step back here. Rather than last year’s 70W charging, the Camon 40 Pro maxes out at 45W charging — that’s still powerful enough to get the phone fully charged from zero in an hour or two, but it’s another premium feature that has now been made exclusive to the Premier model.
The Camon 40 Pro still lacks wireless charging, so folks who have already stocked up on wireless charging gear still need to look elsewhere.
Camera
Unfortunately, it’s not just the processor that got a downgrade this year. The main 50MP camera and depth sensor are unchanged, as is the 50MP selfie camera, but the Camon 40 Pro now has a less impressive 8MP ultrawide camera, as opposed to the 50MP sensor from the Camon 30 Pro. It’s a little bit of a disappointment, as the camera quality was another big selling point from last year, but at the very least the results from the main and selfie cameras are unchanged. There is no dedicated zoom camera, which, as with last year, is exclusive to the Premier model.
The main rear camera has a 50MP sensor with a f/1.9 23mm lens, phase-detect autofocus, and optical image stabilization. This camera can take 4K video at 30fps in HDR and 1080p video at 60fps and 30fps. Like last year, pictures at 1x come out pleasant, with clear and distinct details and overall nice balance. Colors don’t pop as much as you’d like, but it’s a solid camera at this price. Some clarity is lost at 2x zoom, especially in the background, but the results are still well-balanced.
For the 8MP ultrawide camera, I was expecting pictures to be a bit of a step down from those of the Camon 30 Pro, and while that’s true, it’s not too far off. You take a bit of a hit to clarity in the finer details, but balance and color reproduction are still good — I suspect a lot of that is due to the AI-powered image processing the phone does in the main AI cam shooting mode.
Flash Snap mode takes the best shot out of 15 frames, using AI to make that decision. This mode can be launched quickly from the new physical button on the side of the phone, making this mode well suited to taking shots of unexpected moments quickly, especially where there’s a lot of motion involved.
Portrait mode wasn’t bad — object detection isn’t perfect, so sometimes you don’t get quite as much depth on your subject as you’d like, but they’ll do in a pinch. Like last year, I liked that the blur in the background doesn’t look artificial.
Night shots come out OK as well, with surprisingly good color reproduction. The shots aren’t all that sharp, and a night or low-light shot can come out looking like the scene was well-lit, which isn’t always what you want. I think it’ll probably work best for night and low-light shots of people.
The selfie camera features a 50MP sensor with a f/2.5 24mm lens and phase-detect autofocus, but no optical image stabilization. Like the main camera, it can take video at 4K in 30fps and 1080p in 30fps and 60fps. For selfies, the camera uses eye tracking to guide the autofocus, keeping faces in focus across all shots. That feature works as well as it did last year, and is another nice little selling point.
Now that the phone is fully waterproof, Tecno has also added an underwater shooting mode, which we’ve seen on other IP68 phones lately. Pretty handy for pool parties or snorkeling!
Software
The Tecno Camon 40 Pro runs Android 15 out of the box with the HiOS 15 overlay. There’s still no good reason to like the overlay over stock Android, but I’ll give Tecno this — of all the mid-range options out there, they’re the best when it comes to bloatware. It’s not totally lacking in unasked-for apps, but the Camon 40 Pro easily has the smallest amount of bloatware in its price range. There are a few HiOS system apps and some media player apps, but no noxious folders of recommended downloads and no preloaded games. It was refreshing to have a home screen and app drawer looking this clean right from the start.
Tecno has its own AI assistant, Ella, which can pull from a number of AI models. It defaulted to DeepSeek on my review device. Ella doesn’t do much that any other model wouldn’t be capable of — it’s the ability to have one assistant pull from whatever model you want that provides the appeal.
In practice, the features on offer are familiar — AI-generated summaries of notes and articles, AI-generated images, translation and interpretation, and photo editing (most notably removing unwanted people or objects or improving faces, like fixing an ill-timed blink). And, in practice, it’s the same feedback you’re used to hearing about AI — occasionally useful, but too mistake-prone to completely rely on.
Sustainability
By far the biggest upgrade on the Camon 40 Pro is that you can get way more life out of the phone for the money. Last year’s model was not waterproof or dust proof, had no protective glass, and had minimal upgrade and OS update guarantees. Tecno course corrected in a big way this year, achieving an IP68/9 rating for dust, water, and water pressure and adding Corning Gorilla Glass 7i to the display. They’re also guaranteeing 5 years of security upgrades and 3 OS version updates.
That adds a lot to the phone’s value. One phone that’s $50 less than another isn’t a better deal if the cheaper option goes bust after a year while the more expensive phone would’ve lasted for three. With the more robust build and the much better security upgrade guarantee, the Camon 40 Pro seems like a phone that can last as many as five years with a reasonable amount of care, which arguably makes it a better value than its predecessor despite the downgrades.
Pricing and availability
We think it’s probably going to be a mixed bag here. The Tecno Camon 40 Pro is starting to launch in some markets now, including the Philippines, where the 256GB/12GB RAM version recently went on presale for the equivalent of about $230. Pricing is likely going to vary considerably by market, and we’re not yet sure where it’ll launch and where it won’t. The previous model came out in several countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and we figure it’ll be the same story with the Camon 40 Pro.
One last thing to note — the Camon 40 Pro looks like it will not have a 512GB storage option. You’ll only be able to get it in 256GB/8GB RAM and 256GB/12GB RAM configurations, in Emerald Lake Green, Galaxy Black, or Glacier White.
Bottom line
If the Philippines launch is any indication, the Camon 40 Pro is going to be priced very competitively in the mid-range market. That’s crucial, because the Camon 40 Pro is, in some ways a downgrade from its predecessor. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad phone — given the decent camera, excellent display and audio, and much more durable build, the phone looks like it’ll be a terrific value choice, especially if you can get four to five years of use out of it.
That said, the many downgrades are a bit of a bummer, but in daily use the drop in processing power is only noticeable when playing graphics-intensive games at high settings.
Whether or not the phone’s value proposition is strong enough to win you over ultimately depends on how much the asking price is in your market, but early indicators point to Tecno once again having a formidable mid-range phone on its hands. Getting such a great value without getting bombarded by bloatware is just icing on the cake.
Ultimately, the Tecno Camon 40 Pro takes a step back in performance and camera capabilities compared to its predecessor, but makes up for it with significantly improved durability, longer software support, and an excellent value proposition at its competitive price point. Despite its compromises, this mid-range smartphone offers a well-balanced package that should last for years, making it a practical choice for budget-conscious consumers who prioritize longevity over cutting-edge performance.