TECNO MOBILE is a premium mobile brand from Transsion Holdings and has for a while been making its way to the top in the Pakistani smartphone market with existing success in more than 40 other countries around the world.
TECNO MOBILE is a premium mobile brand from Transsion Holdings and has for a while been making its way to the top in the Pakistani smartphone market with existing success in more than 40 other countries around the world. It has operated under the slogan ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’ which, for Pakistan, meant its camera-centric Camon series. The most prominent recent addition to this series has been the Camon i Air which has made waves amongst budget phones with an incredibly low price tag for the features provided. But how well can it fair with other similar best sellers from other skilled competitors?
Lying in roughly the same price range with similar specs are the Huawei Y6 Prime (2018), Honor 7A, Samsung J4, OPPO A71 (2018), Vivo Y71, Mi Redmi 5, and the Nokia 5. All of these come from reputable, established brands so competition is sure to be tough.
Price:
The Camon i Air gets a definite win this regard since its price has been the most prominent thing about it; its retail price is a very budget-friendly PKR 14,499. Following it at PKR 17,500 is the Redmi 5 from Xiaomi which is basically considered the Apple of China, the Nokia 5 for PKR 17,650, the OPPO A71 (2018) currently for PKR 17,999, Samsung J4 currently for PKR 18,499, Honor 7A for PKR 18,999, Vivo Y71 for PKR 19,999, and the Huawei Y6 Prime (2018) coming in the priciest at PKR 20,999.
Camera:
Since the Camon i Air is from an essentially camera-centric series, the camera should rightfully be the most important selling point.
The Camon i Air fully satisfies in that department with a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera, both of which match its competitors toe-to-toe if not outshine them entirely. The Huawei Y6 Prime, Honor 7A, and Nokia 5 are able to match it. However, the others fall sadly short with a 5MP front camera on the Samsung J4 and OPPO A71, an 8MP+5MP on the Vivo Y71, and a 12MP+5MP on the Redmi 5.
Display:
When it comes to screen size, the Vivo Y71 emerges the victor with a massive 6.0” display. The Camon i Air offers a 5.7 inch screen and is matched by the Huawei Y6 Prime, Honor 7A, and Redmi 5. The Samsung J4 offers a 5.5” screen and the OPPO A71 and Nokia 5 offer a mere 5.2” screen.
For resolution, the Honor 7A comes out on top with 720 x 1440 pixels with around 295 PPI desnity. Camon i Air offers the same 720 x 1440 pixels but comes in second due to its almost 285 PPI. Huawei, Vivo and Xiaomi offer the same resolution with theirs but with lower PPI. Samsung, OPPO and Nokia offer 720 x 1280 pixels and even lower PPI density.
When it comes to the type of screen offered, Samsung is the only phone in this list offering an AMOLED screen as is typical for them while the rest offer IPS LCD. Neither type can definitively been called better than the other and is all up to personal preference.
Battery:
A phone’s battery is as integral part in the entire decision-making process as any other since what use is a phone that leaves you stranded after every 4-5 hours of usage. Top of the list is Vivo Y71 at 3360 mAh, at second place comes the Redmi 5 at 3300 mAh, Camon i Air third at 3050 mAh, and the rest coming last all at 3000 mAh. All of these however would be fully capable of providing you with a full day’s usage.
Security:
All of these smartphones offer a fingerprint scanner except for the Samsung, OPPO, and Vivo models. Only the Honor 7A and the Vivo Y71 offers Face ID.
Processor:
Processors are a complicated matter since several factors go into them. In this list, Samsung offers its signature Exynos chipset while the Camon i Air and OPPO A71 utilise Mediatek; the rest offer Snapdragon.
Further differences emerge due to number of cores and clock speed. Only the Camon i Air, Samsung J4, and Vivo Y71 offer quad-core processors while the rest house octa-core.
Common:
All these smartphones are 4G enabled and come equipped with 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM and dual SIM slots.
Conclusion:
All in all, the Camon i Air, considering it is by far the most affordable, is certainly great buy at its price range and can give other big companies a major heads up to step up their game when it comes to budget phones as well. It is definitely the best you can get in under 15,000 rupees if you’re looking for a camera phone.
