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Tecno is a smartphone company that has fallen under your radar, especially if you live in the United States. However, it’s a company you should keep your eyes on if you live in other countries. The company launched its Camon 20 series of phones, and we were given the opportunity to review and compare two of them. Here’s the Camon 20 Pro vs. the Camon 20 Premier.
These are two phones with several similarities and differences. In all honesty, a lot of the differences between these phones lie in the internals. We’ll dive into those internals along with the outward-facing differences to help you decide between them.
Before we get started
We have the full review of the Camon 20 Pro, and it proved to be a fantastic device. If you’re interested in looking at this phone, then you can see why we gave it a 5-star review. Click here to read the review.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Build and design
When it comes to the build quality of these phones, both of these phones feel pretty similar to one another. Both of them have backs made from soft plastic, so neither of them feels particularly premium in the hand. The Camon 20 Pro feels the least premium of the pair, as it’s the lightest.
The Camon 20 Premier has a bit more weight to it. It’s pretty noticeable, especially if you pick up the Pro after using the Premier for an extended period of time. The Premier just feels more solidly built. While that’s the case, both of these phones have plastic frames, and that subtracts from both phones’ feel in the hand.
All in all, these are both mid-range phones, and they feel like it when you pick them up. The Premier is the more premium of the two, and you’ll feel it.
Design
Both of these phones share an extremely similar design. This makes sense, as they’re both from the same line of phones. They both have soft-touch plastic backs that feel like leather to the touch. There’s a design on the back with lines running throughout; colliding with other lines and running to the edges. It’s a unique design that makes it stand out from the slew of metal and glass sandwiches.
There’s only one major design difference between these phones, and it’s the camera package. The area around the Camon 20 Pro’s camera package is an irregular pentagon that sticks out among the lines. Rather, the area is formed from where the lines aren’t. The Premier has the same pentagonal shape around the camera package, but there’s a piece of metal encompassing the camera lenses. The Pro has its lenses protruding separately.
Basically, it’s obvious that these phones are two very close siblings. If you’re looking for a more premium-feeling phone, then the Premier is the way to go.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Display
This is an easy one; both of these phones are using the exact same panel. The Camon 20 Pro and Premier have breathtaking OLED displays. In fact, the display is one of the best aspects of these phones. Images just pop with pleasantly juicy colors.
There are two color settings for these displays. There’s the Original color mode with more subdued colors. They’re responsibly saturated, and they’re for people who want a more toned-down experience. There’s also a Bright-colored mode. This will pump up the colors and make them pop more.
There’s also a color temperature slider that lets you dial in the color temperature that you want to see. It’s pretty precise. With screens this amazing, you can bet that you’ll have a great time watching content and playing games on either handset.
When it comes to brightness, both phones are equally matched. Both displays get plenty bright; much brighter than you’d need for indoor use. When cranked up to full brightness, they’re easily visible in the bright sun.
It doesn’t matter which model you pick up, you’ll be getting an absolutely amazing viewing experience.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: RAM and storage
The Camon 20 Premier takes the cake in one category. Both phones have the same 8GB of RAM. Also, they both have the option to expand it to a whopping 16GB using storage.
However, speaking of storage, the Camon 20 Pro comes with a handy 256GB of storage. The Premier, on the other hand, comes with 512GB of onboard storage.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Speakers
When it comes to the speaker quality, both of these phones are pretty close, but the Premier edges out the Pro by just a bit. The Premier’s have slightly more depth out of the box than the Pro’s. You’ll have to listen to them at the same time to really tell the difference.
I say “out of the box” because both of these phones have a pretty robust set of options to customize the sound. They both have the same set of controls, so you can tailor your sound on both.
You have an equalizer, four different sound profiles, your choice of stereo width, and which aspects you want to boost. At the end of the day, the Premier’s speakers will sound slightly better, but the difference is negligible to those who aren’t audiophiles.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Performance
On paper, the Camon 20 Premier should be objectively better. It’s running a more powerful processor, the MediaTek Dimensity 8050 while the Pro uses the MediaTek Helio G99. However, as we all know, on-paper specs don’t tell the whole story.
When it comes to day-to-day performance, neither of these phones slows down. I used both of these phones and, no matter the processor, they gave me consistently smooth performance. It didn’t matter if I was using them for video-watching, work, social media, or photography, these phones just did not want to slow down.
The Pro maybe dropped an animation frame slightly more than the Premier, but instances of dropped frames are extremely few and far apart. Tecno optimized the software excellently to work with the hardware.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Gaming
That’s day-to-day performance; gaming is a different story. This is the area where these phones show their differences. Gaming on the Camon 20 Pro is a decent to good affair. Running 2D games and most 3D games is a breeze. It only starts to slow down when trying to render more graphically intensive games like Genshin Impact or Star Rail.
Running these games at their top settings will make for a pretty stuttery experience, but they’re not unplayable. Knocking the graphics down to below normal will smooth things out. It’s for casual to heavier gaming.
The Camon 20 Premier, on the other hand, is much better at gaming. Of course, it tackles 2D games with no issue. In the case of more graphically intensive games, it’s able to tackle them as well. Moving back to Genshin, cranking the graphics to full didn’t phase this phone at all. It’s even able to run it at a good frame rate. It reaches 60fps at times and above 30fps when rendering a lot of the world. The Premier is much more of a gaming phone.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Camera
The camera is another where these two phones are distinct. In our review of the Camon 20 Pro, we noted that the camera was the weakest part of the experience. The pictures were lacking in the contrast and color departments. Pictures taken under direct sunlight looked as though they were taken on an overcast day.
When it came to video, it looked heavily compressed and the stabilization was just not there. All in all, the camera could have been better in just about every capacity.
However, the camera package of the Premier shows some notable improvements; actually, it’s like night and day. The Premier was able to produce pictures with more pleasing contrast and pleasant colors. Photos taken on an overcast day almost looked like they were taken under direct sunlight. One thing I’d say is that this phone tends to lean more toward the warmer side of the spectrum.
On the video front, videos still look compressed like the Camon 20 Pro’s camera. The 1080p videos didn’t have much detail, and cranking it up to 4K didn’t help much. However, the video stabilization was much better.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Battery
Back to the similarities; these phones have similar battery mileage. They both sport a 5,000mAh battery and they can both last you about a day and a half on a single charge. This goes for moderate to light usage. If you’re a heavy user, then you’re looking at about a day.
When it comes to charging, the Premier takes the prize. The Camon 20 Premier comes with a 45W charger in the box while the Pro has a 33W charger in the box. The Premier charges about 12%, but it won’t lead to a massive cut in overall charging time.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Software
Both of these phones are running the same version of HiOS version 13 running on Android 13. You won’t find a single difference in the software.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Misc features
When it comes to miscellaneous features, the Camon 20 Pro walks away with some wins. The Pro comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack while the Premier doesn’t. Also, while the Premier comes with twice the onboard storage, the Pro has microSD card expansion.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Price
Now comes the price. The price for these phones can vary depending on the vendor you’re looking into. On average, prices for the Camon 20 Pro seem to hover between $180 and $250. In short, it’s a sub-$300 phone that can be had for a steal if you find the right vendor. Just know that this phone isn’t native to the States, so you might have to pay import fees. As for the Camon 20 Premier, this phone’s price is around $360.
Tecno Camon 20 Pro vs. Tecno Camon 20 Premier: Final verdict
Both of these phones are fantastic. It doesn’t matter which phone you choose, you’ll be getting a strong smartphone experience. While this is the case, the Camon 20Premier overtakes the Pro in some key areas.
The Premier has more storage, better gaming prowess, and a much better camera. If you’re more focused on these areas, then the extra $100 or so might be worth it. However, you won’t have a bad experience with any of the phones.