I am just fresh from penning my review of the OPPO F5, the most affordable quality smartphone with a display with an 18:9 aspect ratio in the Kenyan market. That distinction, however, may not last long if what we’re hearing is anything to go by. This is because Chinese device maker Tecno, the leading smartphone vendor on the continent last year, is slated to launch its own budget smartphone with an 18:9 display soon.
How soon? We don’t know at this point (but we’ll be back with more details, soon – LOL) but it’s this January (maybe that will help January to move faster?).
Devices with 18:9 aspect ratio displays were all the rage last year thanks to the popularization of the feature by Samsung and others when it made it a big part of its premium 2017 smartphone lineup. Going into 2018, just like the dual-camera craze before it, the rush to release 18:9 display mobile devices is still on and everyone’s invited.
For those not in the know, the aspect ratio refers to the ratio of the width of a particular image or screen to its height, simple. In the case of mobile devices, this has meant that a device’s display area tends to be a bit taller than normal so as to accommodate more content. Sadly, there’s not much content optimized to take full advantage of 18:9 displays. So far, it’s either apps look a bit off or videos on YouTube don’t take advantage of all that screen real estate.
The device that will house the 18:9 display is the successor to last year’s Camon lineup: the Camon CX and Camon CX Air. Or so we think since details about the Tecno Camon CM are not complete at this point. As per what we know right now, the CM stands for C-More, perhaps alluding to what we expect it to rock i.e. more screen real estate.
It will be interesting to see what cameras Tecno packs into the Camon CM since the Camon series, traditionally, makes up the brand’s camera-centred devices. Still, it doesn’t look like Tecno will be taking the dual-camera craze to the budget conscious user since this is what the Camon CM is expected to look like:
