We have been testing the Tecno Camon 40 Premier 5G and wanted to share our battery life findings.

Tecno switched to Si/C tech for the Camon 40 Premier battery, but that netted a minimal 100mAh increase over the Camon 30 Premier battery capacity – from 5,000mAh to 5,100mAh.

The new model also has an upgraded chipset, a Dimensity 8350 on a more advanced N4P node from TSMC. The 2024 Premier had a Dimensity 8200 Ultimate fabbed on an N4 node and with older CPU cores (A78/A55 vs. A715/A510 on the new model).

Other relevant changes include a slightly smaller display, 6.67” vs. 6.77”, at just about the same pixel density as the resolutions are quite close.

Battery life test

On paper, all of the hardware changes promise better battery life for the Tecno Camon 40 Premier, but its predecessor has it beat. And not by a small margin either, the 2024 Premier has an Active use rating that is 2 hours higher and has higher scores in each individual test. The video playback test isn’t even close as the older phone with a larger screen lasted 4 and a half hours more. Gaming is a surprise too, the Mali G615-MC6 provides a lot of extra oomph in the graphics department over the G610-MC6 (we will look at performance in more detail in the review). Yet the older phone lasted nearly 2 hours more.

The Infinix Note 50 Pro+ has very similar hardware to the Camon 40 Premier – Dimensity 8350 and slightly larger 5,200mAh battery and a larger 6.78” display. Both displays run at 144Hz, but the Tecno has an LTPO panel. The scores are nearly identical, both the Active use rating and the individual tests. The smaller LTPO display didn’t make much of a difference.

Then there is the Oppo Reno13 Pro, another Dimensity 8350 based phone. This one has the advantage of a larger 5,800mAh battery and even though it has to feed a larger 6.83” display (120Hz non-LTPO OLED), the Oppo showed an impressive endurance with great scores across the board.

Charging speed test

The Tecno Camon 40 Premier ships with a 70W fast charger in the box, which is rare to see these days and a perk for anyone who hasn’t bought a fast PD charger yet. However, the Premier doesn’t always charge at 70W – to get that, you have to select the Hyper option from the lock screen after plugging in the phone. Otherwise, it defaults to Smart and you can alternatively pick a Low-Temp mode as well.

While Tecno hasn’t shared an official charge rating for the default Smart mode, the phone matched the Galaxy A56 (5,000mAh), which tops out at 45W, but was behind the Camon 40 Pro (5,200mAh), which also does 45W. This is at the 15 minute mark, anyway.

By 30 minutes, the Premier has pulled ahead of the Galaxy and is well ahead of its Pro sibling. That said, it trails the older Camon 30 Premier, which also came with a 70W charger (yes, its battery is 100mAh smaller, but that’s only a 2% difference in capacity).

Interestingly, the Infinix Note 50 Pro+ (5,200mAh) and Poco X7 Pro (with a large 6,000mAh battery) blazed ahead with their higher-rated chargers, 100W and 90W respectively. The Infinix had its battery nearly full after 30 minutes.

However, the Poco X7 Pro hit a speed bump after reaching 83% in 30 minutes, it needed another 14 minutes to get to 100%. This allowed the Camon 40 Premier to catch up and a full charge was only 3 minutes slower – yes, the battery on the Tecno is 900mAh smaller, but keep in mind that we’re looking at the results in Smart mode, not Hyper mode.

Switching over to Hyper mode, we don’t see a huge difference to start with, but the mode’s extra speed is most noticeable at the 30 minute mark when it’s 75% for Hyper Mode vs. 70% for the default Smart mode. This isn’t enough to catch up to the old Premier or phones with higher charge rates, though. If you plan to charge the battery to full, you may as well not bother with Hyper mode – it only cuts 2 minutes of the total time. This is more suitable for those times when Camon 40 Premier’s battery is dead and you only have 20-30 minutes to charge.

Verdict

The Tecno Camon 40 Premier has average battery life and falls well short of the Camon 40 Pro, which has only 100mAh more in its tank. Worse, the older Camon 30 Premier beats its successor despite having a smaller battery. Tecno really didn’t get the best use of the new Si/C battery technology.

When it comes to charging, the 70W charger is a good match for the 5,100mAh battery. We suspect that most people will use the default Smart mode and that is fast enough – on the flip side, Hyper mode is only marginally faster and will likely be used rarely if you even remember to manually toggle it at all.