The MediaTek Helio G95 was a darling of various smartphone brands last year and for at least the first half of 2021 thanks to its support for various features. Like fast 4G LTE, for instance. And 64-megapixel cameras. Not forgetting its end-to-end optimization for smooth gameplay thereby eliminating the annoying stuttering and dropped frames. In short, the G95 was the force behind the smooth performance we enjoyed on devices like the Tecno Camon 17 Pro, the flagship member of the last generation of the Tecno Camon series.
For the next generation of Tecno’s camera-centric smartphone series, the new (launched just in July) Helio G96 will be the driving force, according to a statement from the company. That will make Tecno the first smartphone brand to introduce the new chipset to the African market.
While we don’t have any leads as to what the next generation of Tecno’s Camon series smartphones, which we should be able to safely assume will be sold and marketed under the Camon 18 series banner, will pack, the specifications of the Helio G96 could be key pointers in what to expect.
For starters, it looks like it will be another year before we can start anticipating 5G on Tecno’s popular budget devices as the MediaTek Helio G96 chipset still doesn’t support it. However, what it does support is superfast 4G thanks to the inclusion of the Cat-13 4G LTE WorldMode modem in the chipset. This ensures high-speed connectivity to users regardless of where they are – even in highly congested areas where network performance degradation would normally be expected.
Some features that some of us will be crossing our fingers for in the next generation of Camon smartphones from Tecno, especially now that we expect it to play the role of the Phantom series, which is now a standalone brand, include the cameras and the display technology.
On the camera front, the Helio G96 allows support for up to 108-megapixel cameras.
“The Helio G96 chipset will allow the Tecno Camon series to further enhance its position and provide cutting edge display and photography capabilities,” reads part of the statement from Tecno.
On the display front, device makers that make use of the chipset can fit displays with Full HD+ resolution (up to 2520 x 1080 pixels) that have a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. So far, the most that we have seen from Tecno and many other brands is 90Hz with 120Hz territory being the preserve of very pricey devices like Apple’s iPad Pro and the latest foldable smartphones from Samsung.
Performance-wise, the Helio G96 chipset supports eMMC 5.1 and UFS 2.2. For the avoidance of going into so many words to explain the same, this means very high read and write speeds when copying and moving stuff as well as when doing anything as apps and content is loaded from the device’s primary and secondary memory for your “enjoyment”.
The chipset features the mid-range Mali G57 GPU that was announced in 2019.
Tecno is set to announce the Camon 18 series next month.
