Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Review - Very stylish, but lacks 5G support

The under ₹20,000 price segment for smartphones is dome for some healthy competition. We see established brands like Samsung aggressively taking a stand here with the likes of Galaxy M13 5G & the Galaxy F23 5G. Then there is Redmi with its Note series of smartphones. OnePlus also entered this segment recently with the Nord CE 2 Lite 5G. A cluttered market like this requires a smartphone to stand out and offer something unique.

Tecno is the one alternative that shows up with some interesting products. I recently reviewed the Pova 3. And even with its minor drawbacks, the phone did fit well for the target market - Gamers. The Camon 19 Pro Mondrian, however, is a mainstream smartphone, so the benchmark and expectations are of a tall order. So what's good and what's bad about this smartphone? I will tell you in my in-depth review.

Price & Availability
Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian is available in a single specification. Priced at ₹17,999, it packs 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. You can buy the Camon 19 Pro Mondrian from Amazon India.

Design & Build Quality

Tecno is betting big on the Camon 19 Pro Mondrian design, especially around its color scheme. So let’s talk about that first. The smartphone’s back panel is divided into individual squares that can change color under sunlight. We have seen a similar trick in the Vivo V25 Pro, but the execution here is more interesting.

The all-white panel changes into a pattern of interesting purple and white blocks. However, once you put it out of the sunlight, it changes back to the original shade within a minute. Against what we saw in the Vivo V25 Pro, where the color changed unevenly, here it was well controlled. So, if you are interested in the Camon 19 Pro because of this particular feature, you won’t be disappointed. The back panel has a matte finish and doesn’t register fingerprint smudges.

Now, let’s talk about utility and form factor. The Camon 19 Pro Mondrian sports a thin build with flat edges. The phone feels premium when you hold it in your hands. At 200 grams, the weight distribution here is also favorable, and it feels lighter in the hands.

Other design elements include volume rockers on the phone’s right side and the power button. The buttons are tactile and easy to reach as well. The power button here houses the fingerprint scanner. It is snappy and unlocks the device even with a light tap.

We also get to see a 3.5mm headphone jack here. A rare spec these days, it is always good to have the option to use wired headphones. Right next to the headphone jack is a USB Type-C charging port and a speaker grill.

We get a dual SIM card slot on the Camon 19 Pro Mondrian. The smartphone supports 4G connectivity but misses a key ingredient – 5G. To set the record straight here, this is a big downside to the device.

Display

Tecno Camon 19 Pro features a 6.8-inch FHD+ LTPS display with a 1080X2460 pixels resolution. These specs align with the devices we see in the price segment. What makes the display interesting is the 120Hz refresh rate. I have so far seen this spec on the Galaxy F23 and OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G.

The panel is fluid and easy to interact with, and it didn’t miss out on my commands. As one would expect, a 120Hz refresh rate comes in handy when playing games. I had some fun sessions of COD Mobile on the Camon 19 Pro Mondrian, and the display was working fine.

To my surprise, we get an auto-switch refresh rate feature here. This allows the display to switch the refresh rate between 60 & 120Hz according to the content you are watching. This is a bit choppy, though. While switching between web pages and the home page on the smartphone, there was a noticeable lag on the screen. I preferred sticking to 120Hz as my default setting to deal with this struggle. There was some battery drainage but nothing that would harm your productivity.

Watching content on display is also satisfactory. I noticed with the default settings, the color tones were on the cooler side. But once I manually tweaked them in the settings, there wasn’t a problem.

I watched She-Hulk on Disney+ Hotstar on the phone, and the experience was wholesome. The renders in a CGI-heavy show looked fine. Yes, the black levels on the panel are slightly off, but not to the point that it becomes distracting.

The display is also fairly bright, and if you are watching content indoors, you won’t complain. However, outdoors it struggles a bit, and you have to keep it at peak brightness throughout the day.

Complimenting the display is a single loudspeaker set-up. It is fairly loud and delivers decent audio quality. However, as expected, the speaker is blocked by your palm if you hold the phone in landscape orientation. Also, Tecno should have provided a stereo speaker setup, given the price.

Software

Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian runs on Android 12 out of the box with HiOS Skin. I have also interacted with the OS on Spark 9, but the experience here was more stable.

This can be attributed to the superior SoC.

The core of HiOS skin remains the same. The smartphone comes with some bloatware out of the box, which can be uninstalled. But certain apps will stay there forever, like Hi Translate and Carlcare.

Hi Translate is Tecno’s shortcut for Google translate, which can translate speech to text from different languages. It is good in concept, and if the speech is slower, it can detect the words accurately. Otherwise, it is a bit complicated to understand.

Carlcare was another application which is confusing to me. The UI and animation on the application are outdated. It is supposed to help you identify service centers in your locality which it does. But the experience can be better.

Apart from this, the OS is quite intuitive. The animations differ from what we are accustomed to seeing in the competition. You also get plenty of customization options here. From changing themes, wallpapers, and text color separately. I preferred the stock skin, but you can do that here if you like to give it your own flavor.

I also liked the swipe-up app drawer, which organizes the apps alphabetically. It is different from what we usually see on smartphones.

Google features like Assistant and Chromecast also work perfectly well on the device. And it uses Android 12 OS to the best of its ability.

Overall, the user experience on the 19 Pro Mondrian is fun, with minor drawbacks. It won’t disappoint you if you are open to adjusting to a new UI. However, if you like the conventional look, you can skip this one.

Performance
Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian is powered by MediaTek Helio G96 SoC. A processor that is now available in smartphones priced under ₹15,000. Like the Realme Narzo 50 and Poco M4 Pro. At this price point, Tecno could have provided a more efficient chipset. Perhaps one which was 5G ready.

As I write this review, 5G technology is available across multiple cities by major carriers in India. And if the projections are right, we might see full 5G coverage by the end of 2023. This is perhaps my strongest gripe with Tecno, making the Camon 19 Pro Mondrian very difficult to recommend. Irrespective of its potential and performance. Either way, let me point out what works in favor of the device.

Although a 4G SoC can deliver more than basic computing on a device. I tried gaming on Camon 19 Pro Mondrian. In COD Mobile, the phone provided me with HD graphic settings and minimal lag. It takes its sweet time to start performing in terms of connectivity, but once ready, the experience is wholesome.

The phone, however, does heat up quite a bit after half an hour-long gaming session. And you might have to put it aside for a few minutes before jumping on to the next bout. I experienced this only with COD Mobile, though, and not less-demanding games like Temple Run.

The 8GB RAM on the phone can efficiently hold lighter apps without hiccups for prolonged periods. However, when it comes to apps like instagram or COD Mobile, it refreshes the feed altogether.

General tasks like emailing, web surfing, and calling seems smooth.

I also ran a Geekbench performance score test on the device. The results were decent, with a single-core score of 514 and a multi-core score of 1726.

It has 128GB of storage. While it might be ample for some, users who like to keep heavy games on their phones or like to shoot videos or click a lot of images have no other option. An alternative is popping in an SD card that can expand the storage up to 512GB. However, I feel 256GB should be a standard at this price point, especially if there’s only one storage variant..

It packs a huge 5000mAh battery. In a week of usage, I charged the device every alternate day. This is after some long sessions of Youtube and an hour of gaming. If you are a light user, chances are you can stretch the battery to over 24 hours.

The phone supports 33W of fast charging, which can be done with the bundled brick in the box. It takes about one and a half hours to charge from 0 to 100 %, which is acceptable given the performance.

Camera

Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian features a triple camera set-up and I was quite surprised with its day light performance.

The primary camera is a 64MP sensor with phase detection autofocus, optical image stabilization, and laser autofocus. These specs, put together, can deliver some great pictures.

The color tones from the camera are closer to the source, and the images turn out crisp with ample detail.

I clicked some pictures from a moving vehicle, and the shutter speed was impressive, capturing images quickly.

The 2MP depth sensor camera falters a bit with portrait shots. With the edge detection being off, especially in low lighting conditions. However, the images can turn out well if you consciously try it. There are also special filters for portrait shots in the camera app. They aren’t as extensive as seen onpremium smartphones, but you can be creative with them.

I preferred clicking pictures without AI since the image results looked artificial and unnatural.

Then there is a 50MP telephoto sensor. It does its job well, and you can capture far-off subjects. However, in this endeavor, the camera does lose out on details and we see a color shift as well.

The camera records 1080P videos at 30FPS, which is decent for casual shooting and Instagram stories. However, if you are a content creator, there are more choices than this.

The selfie situation here is favorable. The 32MP sensor can click some decent images. This is again applicable when the AI is turned off.

The AI filter here is quite advanced; you can tweak your entire face, from cheeks to jawline. However, I mention in all my reviews that it’s not something I like. But if you do, you won’t be disappointed.

The videos from the selfie camera are also recorded in 1080P resolution at 30fps. I tried shooting some videos with it. While they are good for sharing with your peers but it’s not of the best quality for social media.

Verdict
Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian packs in all the necessary elements we look for in a smartphone. It looks good, performs decently, and the camera setup will satisfy many buyers. What makes it very difficult to recommend is the absence of 5G compatibility.

This is a major tradeoff for most of the young and aware user base willing to buy a new device. So, who should go for it? The answer is simple. Folks in our family need a long-lasting device with wholesome features. The ones who can do away with 5G just need a stylish phone.