Tecno Camon 17 Pro together with the Tecno Camon 17 are this year’s flagship devices that come from the mid to low-budget king of smartphones, Tecno. The two smartphones replace last year’s flagship Tecno Camon 16. Since it’s over a month since Tecno released the smartphone to the market, it’s now time to give you the full review of the device, touching on its usability, functionality, core specs, and pricing.
Sideway placed fingerprint sensor
The dominant place to place the fingerprint sensor is at the backside, towards the top, of a smartphone device. That’s the place Tecno has typically placed its fingerprint sensors. Placing the fingerprint sensor at the backside is something Samsung has tried to shy away from, where they instead place the sensor at the screen, or at least behind the pixels. I haven’t used any of those Samsung devices to know whether it is more intuitive to press on the screen to unlock the device (probably it is when you do not want to live up a device before unlocking it), but here comes Tecno Camon 17 P – where Tecno decided to shift the fingerprint sensor from the backside to the power button.
Yeah, it’s true, we tend to reach to the power button frequently enough, but after using the Tecno Camon 17 Pro for about a month, I’m not sure that’s where the button ought to be placed – but this might just be a matter of personal preference. I personally prefer my fingerprint sensor at the backside of a smartphone.
Other quick features
Above the power button that has a fingerprint sensor embedded in it are the volume rockers. On the other side of the device are the SIM and micro SD tray that handles two nano sims and one micro SD card. At the top, there is a microphone (a secondary one) and at the bottom of the device, we get the micro USB type C that doubles up as a charging port and a data transfer port. Beside the micro USB type C port is the primary microphone and at both ends are the headphone jack and speakers. At the back of the camera, we have the quad-camera setup (more on the camera below) and the quad flash.
Display and Core Specs
Tecno Camon 17 Pro features 6.8 inches 1080p display at a time when most mid-range smartphones do not feature 1080p resolution, even those that still get released in 2021. Examples are the smartphones by Nokia such as the Nokia G20 or even the Huawei mid-range devices. Although for Tecno the Tecno Camon 17 Pro is supposed to be their flagship device, it’s the price range of shs 27 thousand to shs 30 thousand still makes it a mid-range device – or rather it’s at the cut-point for low mid-range devices that sell for below shs 30 thousand but above shs 20 thousand. Typically today true high-end devices sell for more than shs 100 thousand.
In addition to the display being a 1080p resolution, it also features IPS LCD technology, 90Hz refresh rate, and 500 nits brightness. According to digitaltrends, “the nit is the standard unit of luminance used to describe various sources of light. A higher rating means a brighter display. Displays for laptops and mobile devices are usually between 200 and 300 nits on average. A rating over 300 nits is solid and a rating above 500 nits is extremely good.”
The display of the Camon 17 Pro is placed on a body measuring 168.9 mm by 77 mm and 9 mm. The body is of polycarbonate plastic with a decent stripe to give it a premium look. To protect the stripes and the general durability of the casing, the device is shipped with a plastic case protector that fits well, although the protection may hinder smooth use of the fingerprint sensor that has been weirdly placed on the power button.
On core specs, Tecno Camon 17 Pro rocks a solid Octa-core processor that comes in two parts; duo core 2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 and the hexacore 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55. Alongside the processor there is the Mali G76 MC4 GPU that comes in handy when playing games and watching high graphic content. The phone comes with 8 GB RAM and an internal storage of 128 GB or if you’d like to add some dollars you may get yourself the 256 GB version which still features 8 GB RAM.
Powering the device is Android 11 together with HIOS 7.6, both latest versions of the two base softwares.
Cameras and Battery
Snapping photos with either the rear camera or the selfie camera on Tecno Camon 17 Pro has the totality of 2021 camera experience. Actually, at the launch of the device back in May, Tecno showcased a selfie documentary because Tecno had boasted of how Tecno Camon 17 and Tecno Camon 17 Pro feature “the best selfie cameras so far”.
The rear Camera of Tecno Camon 17 Pro is a 64 MP quad setup camera system with the main shooter being the 64 MP sensor, then there is the 8 MP sensor fitted with an ultrawide lens, and two 2 MP cameras one for depth detection and the other a monochrome for sharpness enhancement. The cameras also have a Quad-LED flash system.
The selfie camera is a single camera setup but fitted with a 48 MP sensor. The lens on the selfie is a wide angle f/2.2 lens that’s been powered by a Dual-LED flash.
To power the entire device and to offer more than 12 hours of usage before recharge, the smartphone comes with a 5000mAh battery, fast charging technology.
