Review Verdict: The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G is another home run for the brand in the Philippines, blending great optics, design, and a killer price point. Some will complain about its less-than-stellar processor, but for the price and the tradeoff that you’re getting when it comes to photography, it’s not a bad deal at all.

Pros:

• Punches above its weight in photography
• Good AI features
• Better design than last year
• Incredible price
• IP68/69 certification

Cons:

• Downgraded processor compared to last year
• 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera is meh

Ever since we showed off the TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G two months ago at MWC, lots of people have been complaining about its downgraded chip compared to last year’s model. Well, we finally got to review the phone, and while it is true that the processor took a hit, the phone got a major upgrade with the camera, design, and, more importantly, price.

TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G Review Philippines: Design

I wasn’t a fan of the design of the phone last year, and I’m glad that TECNO has gone with a different approach for the phone this year. Instead of a massive circular module like most phones released this year, the Camon 40 Pro 5G uses a triple camera arrangement that’s similar to what Samsung does for its flagship devices.

There’s a small red notification light on top of the LED flash, and our Galaxy Black review unit had a fantastic finish that changed subtly depending on how the light hit it.

TECNO added a customizable red button on the left side of the phone, which does a bunch of things. You double-tap it to open the camera app, then tap the button to take photos. A long press brings up the AI assistant of the phone, which is powered by DeepSeek.

Another thing that’s remarkable about this phone is that it’s IP68/69 dust and water resistant, so it can survive being dunked in the swimming pool or getting rained on.

The phone is fairly sleek and thin, measuring just 7.29mm thin—which is way thinner than the phones I’m used to carrying. Overall fit and finish for the device feels great, and you suspect that it was a phone that retailed under Php 15K by the way it looks and feels.

 

TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G Review Philippines: Display

The phone uses a curved 6.78-inch AMOLED panel with a 144Hz refresh rate. While I get the curved panel hate that’s been growing lately, the one on the CAMON 40 Pro 5G isn’t bad at all, again, considering the price tag. Color and saturation look great on the panel, and overall brightness is good enough for outdoor use, though I wouldn’t be comfortable using this as your main navigation device on a motorcycle.

There’s also Corning Gorilla Glass 7i on it for shatter and drop resistance, and from our experience, the phone has been pretty good so far in terms of durability despite being accidentally dropped a few times while I was using it.

 

TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G Review Philippines: Camera

The cameras are really where the CAMON 40 Pro 5G shines. Despite there being 3 lenses on the back, there’s only just two cameras: one 50-megapixel main camera with an f/1.9 aperture lens, 1/1.56″ sensor and OIS, and an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera for ultra-wide shots.

Outdoor shots were great, certainly on par with more expensive smartphones being offered today. Colors look bright and poppy without looking over-exposed or over-processed. The phones managed to retain detail even in scenes that have a bright background and a darker foreground.

Contrast and detail are preserved in challenging lighting conditions, and the phones’ HDR capabilities surpass phones that sit in the Php 20K to the Php 25K price range.

Low-light performance is stellar as well, considering the price range. To be fair, there’s visible noise in the photos in more challenging conditions, but it’s not as bad as we expected.

Shooting in portrait mode looks good too–there’s good separation between the foreground and the background, and the result looks natural and not all artificial.

The main camera on the CAMON 40 Pro 5G is a big upgrade from last year, and allows the phone to punch way above its weight in terms of photography.

TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G Review Philippines: Performance, software, battery life

The most contentious part of the new Camon 40 Pro is its processing package. The phone comes with a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultimate processor, which is quite a downgrade considering the CAMON 30 Pro 5G came with a Dimensity 8200. Storage caps out at 256GB, though two RAM variants will be made available – one 8GB and one 12GB.

Obviously, that makes for some lower benchmarks, as well as less graphical number-crunching capabilities when it comes to gaming. While the phone can run most graphically intense games like Genshin Impact, you’re mostly relegated to lower quality settings if you want stable gameplay and solid frames.

One thing that stands out this year is the heavy emphasis on AI. TECNO has included DeepSeek into its HiOS interface and its voice assistant, Ella 2.0, which allows you to call for it whenever you need it. It has fairly decent voice recognition capabilities and has very usable results for queries since it’s pulling from DeepSeek.

Despite being priced the way it is, the Camon 40 Pro 5G has good AI photo-retouching features. I was really surprised to see the results considering what the price point is, but it managed to produce photos that had few, if any, hallucinations and image artifacts after removing people from the scene.

Battery-wise, the Camon 40 Pro 5G has a 5200mAh which is larger than the previous variant, but it charges slower, topping out at just 45W instead of the 70W from last year’s model. The phone recorder has a 15-hour and 7-minute drain time with the PCMark battery benchmark. Overall, battery life is good since the processor doesn’t really consume a lot of power.

TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions

While the TECNO Camon 40 Pro 5G takes a hit in its internals and charging speed, it has a superior camera, design, durability, IP rating, and, more importantly, price, compared to last year’s model. The TECNO CAMON 40 Pro has a price of just Php 12,999 for the 8GB variant and Php 14,999 for the 12GB variant. That’s significantly less than the original Php 19,999 price tag of the Camon 30 Pro.

That’s not all–there will be pre-order price cuts and specials that drop the price of the phone even further to just Php 10,999 and Php 12,499, respectively, which makes the phone even more attractive for buyers.

Considering what you’re getting, the TECNO Camon 40 Pro 5G is a great phone, especially if you’re into mobile photography. While its processor has been downgraded, the upgrades more than make up for this small compromise.

TECNO CAMON 40 Pro 5G Review Philippines: Pre-order details

CAMON 40 Pro 5G 8GB/256GB: less 2,000 during pre-order period, comes with CAMON Premium Gift set (worth Php 1,999) first sale on TikTok price total is Php 10,999

CAMON 40 Pro 5G 12GB/256GB: less Php 2,000 during pre-order period, comes with CAMON Premium Gift set (worth Php 1,999), first sale on Shopee price total is Php 12,999

Pre-order for the TECNO Camon 40 Pro 5G starts on April 24 and ends on April 30.