Tecno Camon CX: Hands-on and first impressions

Its been a while since I’ve reviewed a device, gadget or anything at all. For the first review of this year, Tecno has been kind enough to send me their new Camon CX high-end (like it says in the user manual) device, so i’ll get right to it.

My review unit came in a very black matte box that was compact and simplistic (which is a plus). If you look closely enough, there is an embossed, sort of darkened silhouette of the Camon CX on the back of the box which is a subtle, but very nice touch.

Inside are the usual stuff: The Camon CX itself, User manual, Earpiece, USB cable (unfortunately, not Type-C like the Phantom 6 had), a power brick, SIM tray pin, and warranty cards.

The Camon CX I'm reviewing comes in a ‘Champagne Gold’ color. I do not like Champagne Gold or any color that looks like it on ANY device so, understandably, I’m not thrilled about this. There’s a purple version that looks sick though — I’d take that any day over the pink-ish Champagne Gold, but that’s just me.

At this point, I have to give props to Tecno for how much they’ve improved on the form factor of their devices. The Camon CX is supposed to be a replacement for last year’s Camon C9 (not confirmed but ‘X’ is the roman numeral for 10 so…) and, as far as form factor goes, it is indeed a worthy replacement.

Where the Camon C9 feels a little bulky [because of its curved back] and has sharp edges around the screen, the CX has a flatter back, chamfered edges round the back and rounded edges in front and around the screen. This makes it feel a lot smaller and more compact than the C9. It's also easier to hold.

ALSO READ: Tecno Camon C9: Playtime is over

I also like the metal unibody design very much — as opposed to the C9’s plastic carbon-fibre-ish back cover. The plastic antenna lines across the top and bottom of the back of the CX [are very reminiscent of HTC devices, and to an extent, iPhones] but the sort-of matte finish gives the CX an overall premium feel to it.

I haven’t had a chance to play around with the camera (I’ve only used it for two days — changing primary devices is more stressful than it sounds) but I reckon it cannot do worse than the C9’s camera — and that camera is pretty good. The Camon CX sports a dual flash 16MP front shooter and a primary 16MP rear camera with a ring flash so I’m excited to test it out. More on the camera will be in the full review so watch for that.

As nice as the back of the CX looks, the front doesn’t do badly either. The bezels are completely black all-round. I like black bezels because the screen is more prominent from a visual standpoint, and there is less to distract you from whatever you’re trying to see on the screen. This easily makes it a great device for watching videos. The only gripe I have with the CX is the big chin. The CX has on-screen capacitive buttons, so you’d expect that it wouldn’t have such a big lower chin. There’s just this considerable black space at the bottom of the screen doing nothing.

The CX comes with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box and I must say, it is awesome. Google assistant is baked in, the layouts are more user friendly, and the material design is right up there. Tecno’s layered it with its own HiOS offering [which I'm not a fan of] but it doesn’t mess with the base Nougat too much (there are still loads of Tecno’s own apps that you might never use though).

Overall, my first impressions of the Camon CX are positive. It’s well designed, feels premium to hold, it feels well-built, and looks good. I don’t know how that 2GB of RAM its got will hold up but I have downloaded the 35 apps I usually have on my phone (watch out for an article on this) and its holding up so far. Did I mention the fingerprint scanner is really fast too? Anyway, that’s all for now. Watch out for the unboxing video and full review article soon.

For more on my day-today experiences with the Camon CX, follow me on Twitter @TheFolarin.