Buy any current smartphone and it’ll have AI doing something inside. Most manufacturers integrate AI deep into the operating system, and often you have to either dig to find the associated features, or be in the situation where the phone prompts you to use it. I’ve been using the Tecno Camon 40 Premier which goes in a different direction, and it’s all the better for it.
What’s different?
When exploring Galaxy AI and Apple Intelligence features, there’s often a requirement to search through the software to find something to do. In some cases, newcomers not deeply embedded in mobile tech may not even be aware their phone can do certain things, such as translation from an image or during a conversation, and miss out entirely. Brands are so keen to deeply integrate mobile AI into their phones, it tends to disappear, as they forget how important it is to directly and very obviously show users the value.
What Tecno has done will seem simple when I explain, but it’s an entirely different implementation of mobile AI. When you swipe across the home screen, rather than Google Discover appearing, you get a page dedicated to the mobile AI features available on the phone, along with the virtual assistant, named Ella, welcoming you and providing a Samsung Now Brief-style overview of your day. See? I told you it would sound basic, but in the world of mobile AI, this is out-of-the-box thinking.
The page shows the entire mobile AI toolkit, filled with shortcuts to the features where Tecno has used AI. These include an AI wallpaper generator, translation tools, document summary tools, translation and interpretation, plus an image generator, and its AI photo modes. Ella uses the DeepSeek R1 Large Language Model (LLM) to answer questions, and the screen and side button on the phone gives instant access to the assistant, or a selection of what I assume are often-asked questions.
Why is this so good?
This is a successful method for several reasons. While it’s cool to have AI integrated into our phones, it’s even cooler to have the tools right there for us to think, “I’d love to try that feature out, I wonder how I can do it?” Burying AI in menus or baking it into the operating system is fine, but when something isn’t visible, it’s very easily forgotten or ignored. Tecno’s approach is to let you see what the AI can do and give it a try.
Sensibly, it hasn’t slapped all the AI features over the home screen or cluttered up the quick settings menu, avoiding another pitfall of trying to encourage us to use something new. This is another reason for Tecno’s success. Mobile AI is very new, and although brands are extremely keen for us to use it, I don’t think many non-techy (normal, in other words) people are fully aware of it. Deep AI integration feels like the second stage of mobile AI’s progression, and most brands seem to have forgotten the crucial first step of properly introducing it to normal people in their rush to push AI on us.
Tecno also cleverly introduces us to Ella and AI right from the very beginning, as the assistant replaces a lot of the boring initial set up screens when you activate the phone. Ella guides you through the process in a friendly, conversational way. What could have been annoying, or even worse something that lengthens the process, is instead rather fun, and gave the phone a degree of personality. If AI is going to be a big part of our phones, then I want it to be my virtual friend, and Ella treads the right path.
But does it mean I use the features?
Now all the AI features are right there at my fingertips, and I’m fully aware of what mobile AI can offer me on the Tecno phone, have I been using them? Well, no. Just because Tecno has nailed the presentation of its AI toolkit, doesn’t mean there’s much there that I’d use every day, or even every week. But again, this isn’t as big of a problem as it is on some other phones with masses of AI.
I may not need translation features or something like them all that often, but I absolutely know where to find on the Camon 40 Premier when I do. It’s quite comforting knowing the features the brand tells me are important are easy to locate, and I can try them out before I actually need them.
The AI on the Camon 40 Premier is easier to access, easier to experiment with, and ultimately more likely to be used in the future because of this approach. Brands make a point of saying “look, it can do this” when discussing mobile AI, but with the Tecno phone, it adds the “show” to the “tell” part and within moments of turning the phone on for the very first time, you’re actually being introduced to AI and getting a feel for why it’s supposed to be the future.
Can I buy the Camon 40 Premier?
After all this, you may be wondering if you can pop out and pick up the Tecno Camon 40 Premier and have a go for yourself. Tecno does not sell its smartphones in the U.S. or the U.K., and is a relatively small brand working hard to make a name for itself globally. I’ve been using the phone for a week and it’s not bad, but outside of the AI implementation, the phone isn’t as polished as a device like the Nothing Phone 3a Pro or Samsung Galaxy A56.
On the technical side, it has a MediaTek Dimensity 8350 processor with either 12GB or 24GB of RAM, a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, and a 5,100mAh battery. The camera is made up of a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50MP telephoto with a 3x optical zoom, and a 50MP wide-angle. Even the selfie camera has 50 megapixels. It’s a competent phone with a few issues, such as a slow fingerprint sensor and a poor notification system, which has been a solid phone to use over the last week.
However, it has been the way Tecno has introduced its AI features that stood out the most, and from the moment I started using it too. It’s probably not high-tech enough for Samsung and Apple, and doesn’t show off their technical prowess enough, but for actual people expected to use these features, it’s the best introduction to what mobile AI can actually do I’ve seen yet.
