Tecno Camon iClick review: 20MP front-facing camera is the highlight

Design and Display: Massive 6-inches 18:9 aspect ratio screen

Let's begin with the display, the Tecno Camon iCLICK ships with a 6-inches 18:9 aspect ratio edge-to-edge display. The device has a screen resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels that accounts to 268 PPI (pixel per inch) density. The display is bright and responsive however under direct sunlight you might experience a hard time using the device. The screen further stretches up to 77.52% screen-to-body ratio along with a 2.5D curved glass on top for added security.

However, the market has now Corning Gorilla Glass 5 which can be spotted on some most of the premium and mid-range smartphones. It would have been appreciated if the company used Corning Gorilla Glass 3 or above for screen protection.

In terms of design, the smartphone has nothing new to offer and looks like a bigger version of the previously available Tecno iSky. Despite a bigger footprint, thinner bezels, and decent screen-to-body ratio makes the device easy to operate with one hand.

The selfie camera, front LED flash along with the speaker grille is placed at the top of the smartphone. The volume rockers along with the power key and 3-in-1 multi card slot are placed on the right, whereas the company as left the bottom and left panel barren. The fingerprint scanner is placed at the rear of the device and is not very consistent in unlocking the handset. The dual-antenna lines along with gold linings make the device distinctive giving it users a sleek profile smartphone.

The Camon iCLICK has thin body profile which measures 7.8mm thickness along with 150g weight which adds to the portability factor of the device. Overall, the best thing about the design is the decent screen-to-body ratio which makes the device apt for single-hand usage.

Camera: 20MP AI enabled Selfie camera

The CAMON iCLICK features an AI-enabled Camera which captures some decent quality images. The device features a 20MP selfie camera with AI beauty feature which adds features like skin brightening, eye brightening, etc.. The camera also features AI Auto Screen Recognition, which allows the device to learn 100,000 scenes that have been already fed to the smartphone. The 20MP front camera has f/2.0 and a dual-LED flash with Face ID support along with its AI capabilities. The front camera captures good quality selfies both under well lit and low light situations. The bokeh effect is also impressive and will not let the shutterbugs down. The front camera records video at 1080p which is also of decent quality however the absence of image stabilization can result in distorted images if you are moving at a fast speed.

Tecno has managed to embed the device with facial recognition which the company is calling ‘Face ID'. The whole process of setup is a bit time consuming but once paired it functions quite well. The device unlocks pretty fast thanks to its 20MP front camera.

Overall the image quality captured by the front camera is of decent quality and will not let the selfie enthusiasts down.

Coming to the rear camera of Tecno CAMON iCLICK, the device boasts a 16MP sensor that works on f/1.8 aperture. I was pretty surprised by the image quality as the 16MP sensor delivered some good quality shots which showed impressive detailing and good contrast levels in daylight. The camera is pretty fast when it comes to focusing subject in well light situations; however, it slows down a bit in the absence of good lighting situations. The rear camera also supports multiple AI modes for auto scene detection along with the beauty and bokeh mode. The features work fairly well and can come handy if you have a knack for photography and love to experiment with a mobile phone.

Hardware and Software:

In terms of hardware, the Tecno CAMON iCLICK is backed by a 2GHz octa-core processor with MediaTek Helio P23 SoC, which matches up to Snapdragon 625 CPU in terms of everyday performance. Helio P23 also makes use of 8 ARM Cortex- A53 CPU cores. The smartphone uses ARM Mali-G71 GPU for gaming and other graphics related tasks, which is not as snappy as Adreno 506 GPU coupled with the Snapdragon 625 SoC. Resultant, gaming performance is not top-notch but as the GPU only has to push graphics on a 720p display, you will not come across any frame drops and lags while playing games.

The Tecno CAMON iCLICK runs on the company's custom UI HiOS v3.3.0 based on Android Oreo 8. The device is up to date with the latest security patch and comes with custom icons along with the customizable themes. The Tecno CAMON iCLICK is packed with 4GB RAM along with 64GB internal storage which can be further expanded via microSD card, hence storage should not be an issue.

Battery and connectivity:

Tecno CAMON iCLICK is powered by a 3,750 mAh non-removable Li-Po battery unit. The device supports fast charging feature and it took approx 1.5 to 2 hours to charge the battery from 0% to 100%. The battery life is pretty decent and the device lasts for one complete day with light to moderate use.

For connectivity, CAMON iCLICK includes Bluetooth 4.1, FM radio. GPS, a notification LED, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, USB port with OTG support, along with some other sensors such as an ambient light sensor, accelerometer, and a proximity sensor.

Pricing and availability:

The Tecno CAMON iCLICK is available at a price range of 13, 999 and is available for sale on all leading online stores like Amazon and Flipkart.

Verdict:

The Tecno Camon iClick is another new name in the budget category smartphones. In this price range, the market also has devices like Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro, Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1, OPPO Realme 1, and others to offer. All of the aforementioned devices provide some better features than the Tecno CAMON iCLICK. It would also have been appreciated if the company provided a higher resolution display and metal body rather than using plastic body. What impressed us is the selfie camera and rear camera performance to some extent. Hence, we would suggest considering all above mentioned factors before investing in the smartphone.