Did Tecno just announce one of 2024’s most promising budget phones?

By Ajay Kumar Published July 31, 2024

Tecno likely isn’t a company most people have heard of; it’s certainly not as big as mobile giants like Samsung, Apple, ZTE, or Huawei. But if you’re looking for a solid midrange or budget phone, Tecno has a capable new device in its lineup with the Tecno Camon 30S Pro. It exists in the same family as the Camon 30 Premier, which Digital Trends’ Andy Boxall went hands-on with, testing out its unique camera tech and coming out with an overall positive impression.

In the case of the Camon 30S Pro, it’s powered by the new Helio G100 chipset from MediaTek. While we don’t have performance numbers just yet, it’s a 6nm platform, and we’re expecting at least 7% better CPU performance. Under the hood, you get 8GB RAM, which can be virtually boosted to 16GB RAM. The phone comes with 256GB of storage.

Now, there are a couple of things to note here. The first and biggest is that the phone doesn’t technically have 5G support, though it does have Carrier-Aggregate 2.0 technology that lets it hit 300Mbps downlink speeds. Tecno calls it 4.5G, but it’s not true 5G, which may be a dealbreaker for some people. This may also be where Tecno has cut costs to make the 30S Pro more affordable.

Other specs and design features are generally very solid for a budget phone. The phone has a 6.78-inch AMOLED Full HD+ screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. There’s a fingerprint sensor under the display, and the phone will come in three color options: Gray, Silver, and Gold. It’s also quite thin at just 7.75mm.

The camera array is also solid, with a 50-megapixel Sony IMX896 sensor with optical image stabilization. There’s also a 2MP depth sensor on the back. On the front, the 50MP selfie camera supports eye-tracking autofocus and has a punch hole cutout rather than a dewdrop, which is a nice touch for a budget phone.

There’s a 5,000mAh battery that supports 45W wired fast charging. This is also the first phone in Tecno’s lineup that supports wireless charging. You can get 20W wireless fast charging, and the phone comes with a special magnetic case that lets you snap the Camon 30S Pro right to the charging pad. Think of it as Camon’s version of MagSafe, but it’ll also work just fine with non-magnetic wireless charging pads from third parties.

There are also three charging modes that are designed for different user scenarios: Hyper Charge (the fastest charging speed), Smart Charge (presumably it’ll manage battery levels to help reduce wear), and Low Temp Charge (lower charging speed, less heat).

The 30S Pro supports NFC and FM radio. It also has an IR blaster built-in, a feature that used to be common on Android phones but was largely scrapped by most mainstream manufacturers. It’ll ship with Android 14, but you’ll likely have to wait and see for future updates.

Pricing and availability aren’t currently known, but if we look at markets where Tecno phones are available, like India, we can get a good sense of the likely pricing. The capable Tecno Camon 30 Premier, which has very similar specs to the 30S Pro, comes to $478 when you convert from Indian rupees, and the more affordable Tecno Camon 30 comes to $275. We expect the Tecno Camon 30S Pro to fall somewhere between these two devices, so expect to shell out between $300 to $350.