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Tecno stays a comparatively small participant within the broader Android ecosystem, however the firm continues to push the boundaries of know-how in rising markets whereas conserving costs properly under these of its rivals. It is this experience that has made the corporate embrace “sensible AI” that may be really helpful for its customers, and far of this may be seen within the fairly glorious Tecno Camon 50 Extremely.
The most recent entry within the Camon sequence has a heavy give attention to AI, greater than I keep in mind seeing from earlier Tecno gadgets, and whereas it might appear overwhelming to some, I believe the telephone does an important job pushing its chipset by offering as many AI options as it may well in a package deal that appears nice and performs properly at an accessible worth.
Swipe to scroll horizontallySpecs
Class
Tecno Camon 50 Extremely
OS
HiOS 16 (Android 16)
Chipset
MediaTek 7400 Final
RAM
8GB, 12GB
Storage
256GB, 512GB (non expandable)
Show
6.68-inches, OLED, 1.5K (1208 x 2644), 144Hz
Rear Digicam 1
50MP large LYTIA 700C
Rear Digicam 2
8MP ultrawide
Rear Digicam 3
50MP periscope, 3X
Entrance Digicam
50MP large
Battery
6,500mAh
Charging
45W wired
Safety
Gorilla Glass 7i, IP69/IP69K + IP68
Dimensions
162.4 x 77 x 7.6mm
Weight
178g
Colours
Moonshadow Black, Cypress Inexperienced, Nebula Titanium, Luminous Orange, Misty Purple
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(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
While you first maintain the Camon 50 Extremely, it feels thinner than its gigantic 6,500mAh battery would counsel. A part of that’s because of the slight curve of the show and the extra outstanding curve of the again panel. The impact is definitely fairly good, and the telephone seems and feels surprisingly premium. It is also gentle at simply 178g, weighing not far more than the Galaxy S25 Edge, which is frankly spectacular.
The truth is, a number of individuals have mistaken the Camon 50 Extremely for the Galaxy S26 Extremely as a result of its rear digital camera design is strikingly much like Samsung’s.
On the entrance, the 6.78-inch AMOLED show is beautiful and brilliant, with a 1.5K decision and a 144Hz refresh charge that makes the whole lot extremely fluid. The bezels are pretty minimal as properly and seem even smaller because of the barely curved show. And whereas curved screens are sometimes fairly troublesome for me, I discover I have not been bothered by any unintended touches.
(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
While you first activate the Camon 50 Extremely, you are launched to Ella, Tecno’s AI assistant, who guides you thru setup, making a often monotonous job considerably fulfilling. It is also a precursor to only how AI-focused this telephone is, which turns into pretty evident as you go additional into the method.
After organising the telephone, I used to be instantly stunned by how fluid and responsive the whole lot felt. The house display icons virtually float onto the display, apps stack upwards when sliding as much as open the app drawer, and the short settings menu appears to inflate open.
(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
The UI itself looks like a mixture of Samsung’s One UI and Apple’s iOS. Many UI components, such because the aforementioned fast settings menu, are visually much like liquid glass with a really translucent impact. Nonetheless, the impact is not fairly as in-your-face as Apple’s divisive UI, which I fairly like. In the meantime, Tecno’s HiOS 16 takes after Samsung’s One UI in different methods, reminiscent of how notification bubbles stack over one another till tapped to disclose all the stack.
Even the settings menu resembles Samsung’s, with choices grouped collectively, colourful icons, and a persistent search bar on the backside.
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(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
One other means the Camon 50 Extremely jogs my memory of Samsung is in its strategy to creating its AI options accessible. While you’re typing someplace, you may simply entry AI writing instruments by deciding on a bit of textual content, which helps you to rewrite, proofread, generate textual content, or summarize. In case you press and maintain two fingers on the show, you may activate Ella Good Contact, which has similarities to Circle to Search or Samsung’s AI Choose, and Ella can describe no matter you spotlight or extract textual content from the display.
The AI Gallery app can also be full of enjoyable AI options. Much like Samsung’s Gallery app, these could be simply accessed by tapping the floating sparkle icon, which can intelligently counsel AI actions based mostly on the picture. As an example, in case your topic is just too far-off, it would counsel AI Auto Zoom, or if it notices a glare within the photograph, it is going to floor the AI Flare Remover to make the picture clearer.
The complete suite of AI enhancing choices can also be accessible within the Edit area, together with AI Artwork Studio, a enjoyable technique to change the model of your images to seem like Picasso, Van Gogh, and even anime.
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(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
The Camon 50 Extremely additionally integrates lots of its AI options into the digital camera app, and I really feel like that is the place Tecno takes issues a step additional than Samsung. As an alternative of ready till after I seize a picture so as to add any AI aptitude, I can allow Auto Zoom immediately within the viewfinder or swipe to the AI Artwork Studio to preview how a picture would look in a particular model earlier than I seize it.
FlashSnap is likely one of the digital camera options I can see myself utilizing very often if I had a pet or youngsters, because it makes use of a high-speed shutter to seize 15 frames per second and makes use of AI to pick out the clearest picture of the lot. It is insanely good at capturing fast-moving objects, a lot better than I’ve seen from different producers.
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(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
However past the additional modes and options, the common digital camera expertise is surprisingly ample. Photographs taken in the course of the day are fairly good, and whereas some AI enhancements happen within the background, it does a superb job of cleansing up the pictures and balancing the lighting. That is additionally the case at evening, the place the digital camera does a good job lowering noise and retaining fairly a little bit of element.
Tecno additionally highlights the capabilities of the 3x telephoto zoom lens, which helps as much as 60x digital zoom. The outcomes aren’t too unhealthy at numerous zoom ranges as much as 10x, though issues can begin to look somewhat muddy at 20x. Nonetheless, the AI does a superb job of cleansing issues up at this degree and even makes 60x-zoom photos legible, although AI upscaling seems to do fairly a little bit of heavy lifting, particularly when textual content is concerned.
Nonetheless, for a telephone beneath $600, I am fairly happy with the standard of photos.
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(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
Now, Tecno has squeezed a lot AI into this telephone that it virtually appears overwhelming, however fortunately, there’s Zero Display, a bit to the left of the house display, usually reserved for Google Uncover. Right here, you get an simply accessible hub of all of the AI options you want, from picture technology instruments to translation and extra basic instruments like problem-solving and doc summarization.
That is additionally the place you may discuss to Ella, which has acquired a bit extra of a Gemini-like rework. You possibly can kind, discuss, and even add information to the dialog. There’s additionally a Gemini Dwell-like button that allows you to begin a extra seamless dialog with the assistant or observe your English in the event you’re attempting to enhance.
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(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
The Camon 50 Extremely really takes an attention-grabbing strategy with its AI, which you will discover while you begin utilizing Ella. Tapping the highest of the display, you are really in a position to change which AI mannequin you need to chat with, together with ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, and Grok. You possibly can simply change between them and even examine how they deal with queries, selecting whichever you favor for any explicit occasion. It is much like Motorola’s strategy of stuffing as many AI fashions right into a telephone as potential, and I respect the selection right here.
This theme of selection extends to the One Faucet button, which is actually an AI button on the facet that, when pressed, permits Ella to research your display. You possibly can simply view the outcomes of those in MindHub, which shops choose AI interactions and dialogue.
The One Faucet button may also be custom-made, which is my favourite half. It defaults to the Ella Assistant, so you may press and maintain it to talk to it, or you may change it to one thing like Gemini, although the mixing is not as seamless, and it’ll merely open the app fairly than begin a dialog.
Nonetheless, I adore it when an OEM provides us an AI key that we will really change to our liking (taking a look at you, Motorola).
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(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
Powering all of it is a mid-range MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Final, which does not sound all that highly effective, however I’ve but to essentially discover a lot of a restrict to this chip in day-to-day use past gaming. You will get away with enjoying some heavier video games like Honkai: Star Rail or The place Winds Meet, however do not count on a clean expertise on the very best settings. In any other case, the telephone performs exceptionally properly, together with by way of battery life.
Moreover, the huge 6,500mAh battery simply lasts all day after which some. I usually go to mattress with out charging the telephone after a full day of use, and I’ve averaged about 6-8 hours of screen-on time or extra.
The one draw back of such a giant battery is that the 45W charging pace cannot fairly sustain; it takes about an hour and a half to go from empty to 100% (or simply 33 minutes to succeed in 50%).
(Picture credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
Fortuitously, I could not discover many downsides to the Camon 50 Extremely. It is a smooth telephone with unimaginable battery life, nice efficiency, and a strong trio of cameras. It is a telephone that is all about selection and making AI accessible to the lots. As an alternative of spending $1,300 on a Galaxy S26 Extremely, for instance, you may spend lower than half that on this mid-range doppleganger, and also you would not miss a beat.
