In this comparison review, we’re pitting the TECNO 10 Camon 30 Premier 5G against the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G. Both phones are priced under PHP 25,000 and yet both come with very distinct features.
The Camon 30 Premier 23 appears to be packing more above its weight class while the Galaxy A55 13 seems to maintain its momentum from the success of its predecessor.
Just like we always do, we’re going to find out which one is the better pick. So, without further ado, let’s jump in!
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
Right off the bat, I would say that the TECNO Camon 30 Premier exudes a more unconventional yet premium-looking design.
Our unit is in this Lava Black colorway that features a two-tone finish at the back. Although it’s mostly faux leather — covered in a hydrophobic coating that keeps moisture away from the material used on its back panel.
Located on the upper-right corner is what seems to be a metallic material that is purely decorative.
Taking a closer look, this decorative part actually curves inward to the sides — adding a unique touch to the phone’s overall appearance. They even managed to put this design accent or whatever it’s called onto the phone’s software, specifically the photo watermark in the Camera app that shows a similar shape.
Because of how the back panel is designed, the circular camera island is geared towards more the left. There’s a red dot on the upper left corner, the “smart breathing light” as TECNO calls it which is basically an LED indicator for various operations. It lights up when you’re recording a video, using the phone’s Infrared remote or as basic as charging status.
Adding a premium feel is the phone’s aerospace-grade metal frame that is flat on all sides. And apparently, the same material is used on the camera ring with a knurled edge.
Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy A55 retains the signature look that we see in most of Samsung’s offerings. There are three camera rings aligned vertically on the left, and the minimalist back panel now comes with an iridescent effect as the light hits it.
The flat frame is also metal, made of aluminum — which comes with a brushed, semi-glossy finish. One unique feature here is the protruding volume rocker and power button. This is the so-called ‘key island’ which has a smooth texture that seamlessly blends onto the extreme parts of the frame.
Design-wise, the Camon 30 Premier looks more interesting (and fun) in my opinion whereas the Galaxy A55’s looked… repetitive for the lack of better term. But that’s not to say that carrying over previous design is bad.
Hear me out. Samsung using the signature design from its flagship phones, trickling down to mid-range and even entry-level is honestly great. And they were successful at that: establishing their own iconic Galaxy phone design.
It’s just that seeing the same design over and over makes it a bit boring especially when put side-by-side with a phone that’s trying to be different — such as the Camon 30 Premier in this case.
However, I should not disregard the added protection that the Galaxy A55 provides. It gets an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, and it also uses a Gorilla Glass Victus Plus not only on the display panel but on the back panel as well. So, we can expect it to be more protected against everyday wear and tear.
The Camon 30 Premier sure has a more fascinating design, but I can’t shake the fact that the Galaxy A55 has a stronger build. So, with that said, I’ll give it a tie in this segment.
Display and Multimedia
Moving on to the display, the Galaxy A55 has a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED display with only a Full HD+ resolution. Meanwhile, the Camon 30 Premier boasts a tad bit larger 6.77-inch LTPO AMOLED with a higher 1.5K screen resolution. Both runs at 120Hz refresh rate.
Now, it’s not a lot of a difference but it essentially means that you can see more detail on the Camon 30 Premier’s screen. It also gets a higher peak brightness at up to 1,400 nits. The Galaxy A55 isn’t that far behind at 1,000 nits, so expect both phones to be great outdoors.
Additionally, they both have dual stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support for immersive sound stage.
Like I mentioned already, sandwiched on top of the Galaxy A55’s display is a Gorilla Glass Victus Plus. The Camon 30 Premier also have Gorilla Glass protection, but they didn’t bother to specify which version the phone uses.
IN PHOTO: Camon 30 Premier (top) and Galaxy A55 (bottom)
In terms of display, I should give it to the Camon 30 Premier for better specs.
Performance and Benchmarks
Next category is apparently, a significant win for the TECNO Camon 30 Premier. Underneath its fancy design is a MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate chipset built on a 4-nanometer process node and can reach up to 3.1GHz clock speeds.
On the other hand, the Samsung Exynos 1480 that powers the Galaxy A55 isn’t as bad as most people think about Exynos chips. It’s also a 4-nanometer chip and can reach up to 2.75GHz clock speeds.
That’s slower than the competition, but when it comes to GPU power, the newer Exynos chip performs better thanks to its AMD-based GPU (AMD RDNA Xclipse 530 GPU).
Let’s see the benchmark results:
| Benchmark | TECNO Camon 30 Premier 5G | Samsung Galaxy A55 5G |
| AnTuTu V10 | 957,924 | 728,872 |
| AnTuTu Storage | 84,621 | 59,639 |
| S.Read Speed | 1976.0 MB/s | 1731.7 MB/s |
| S.Write Speed | 1912.3 MB/s | 1009.3MB/s |
| 3DMark Wild Life | 6482 | 3800 |
| Geekbench 6 Single-Core | 993 | 1143 |
| Geekbench 6 CPU Multi-Core | 3279 | 3340 |
| Geekbench 6 GPU OpenCL | 3379 | 3989 |
| Geekbench 6 GPU Vulkan | 3733 | 4125 |
| PC Mark Work 3.0 performance | 17,694 | 13,174 |
On AnTuTu, the Dimensity 8200 Ultimate outruns the Exynos 1480 by over two-hundred thousand points. However, when it comes to GPU tests, the latter has significantly higher scores.
Genshin Impact on the Camon 30 Premier
For the most part though, the Dimensity 8200 Ultimate is the better chipset in terms of overall performance. Also, the phone deploys a 10-layer vapor chamber cooling system for better thermals.
Asphalt 9 on Galaxy A55
Setting the numbers aside, you can expect both to handle your favorite apps and games with ease. But since these are still mid-range chipsets, so, you may have to adjust in-game settings to achieve stable, high frame rates.
Cameras
Let’s move on to one of the most important aspects of a great phone: the cameras. The Camon 30 Premier sports a triple rear setup that consist of a main sensor, periscopic telephoto, and an ultrawide lens all having 50-megapixel sensor. Even the selfie shooter at the front gets a 50-megapixel count.
The Galaxy A55 also have triple rear cameras: a 50-megapixel main, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 5-megapixel macro. The front sees a 32-megapixel selfie shooter.
I always say that higher megapixel count doesn’t always equate better image quality. But this time, the Camon 30 Premier definitely gets it. The phone uses the new Sony AI image processor (Sony Imaging Chip CXD5622GG) and with a better image processing, it outputs much nicer photos throughout all of its lenses. Colors are more vivid and there’s less apparent noise.
On top of that, the Camon 30 Premier integrates some AI-enabled video capture. For example, night shots are better with the phone’s ‘deep-learning noise reduction algorithms’ and that’s enabled even at 4K at 30 frames per second.
There’s also an ‘AI Motion Snapshot’ that lets you capture fast-moving subjects with precision.
Flip to front, the Camon 30 Premier gets a better selfie shooter thanks to its eye-tracking autofocus. This makes it great for capturing vlog-style videos. You can also make some quirky AI portraits and edit your photos with AI Eraser right through the phone.
In comparison, the Galaxy A55 outputs good enough photos and videos, but it misses out on the flexibility that the competition offers: be it AI-enabled or a mere hardware advantage.
With that, the Camon 30 Premier takes the lead with its more capable camera prowess. You can check out some sample shots from our review articles of the Camon 30 Premier 102 and the Galaxy A55 33.
Battery Life and Charging
When it comes to battery life, both phones are on par with each other, lasting almost the same duration in our benchmark tests.
In PCMark (Work 3.0), the Camon 30 Premier pumped out 11 hours and 52 minutes of battery life while the Galaxy A55 is close at 13 hours and 12 minutes.
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- Camon 30 Premier supports 70W charging
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- Galaxy A55 supports 25W charging
As for our proprietary video loop test, the former lasted 22 hours and 50 minutes and the latter at 22 hours and 46 minutes.
As for charging, the Camon 30 Premier gets a faster 70W wired charging rate and the Galaxy A55 is left with a 25W charging rate. In this case, the former gets another point for faster charging.
Connectivity and Other Features
For me, software is the Galaxy A55’s biggest flex. It runs the latest One UI 6.1 on top of Android 14, and unlike previous iterations, this one has less bloat. I like its cleaner look as well and best of all, Samsung guarantees longer software support with up to four major OS upgrades and up to five years security patches.
The Camon 30 Premier also runs Android 14-based skin, the HiOS 14. Bloatware on this thing is bearable, but I find the UI to be less sleek. In our review, we even noticed that there’s no option to add a toggle for Dolby Atmos, but this is just us nitpicking.
When it comes to software support, Tecno did mention “three years” of Android upgrades and three years of security patches which I find an improvement since they almost always don’t mention any update policy for their devices.
For connectivity, both phones cover all the essentials: 5G, NFC, et cetera, but with a couple of differences. Only the Galaxy A55 supports the faster Wi-Fi 6 standard and eSIM capability. Meanwhile, the Camon 30 Premier gets additional utility with an IR blaster that lets you use it as a convenient universal remote.
Now for configuration, the Camon 30 Premier offers 512GB storage by default. That’s double the storage against the competition (at 256GB), however, only the Galaxy A55 supports expandable storage via microSD.
Which one should you get?
Now, let’s wrap this up by answering the question, “Which one should you get?”
The Camon 30 Premier clearly dominated this matchup, thanks to its more powerful chipset, and a more capable camera system that leverages AI for impressive results. It even throws in a massive 512GB storage. But its software feels a bit less polished and update commitments are shorter.
For just PHP 23,999, the TECNO Camon 30 Premier 5G surely packs more above its weight class at a relatively lower cost than the competition. This is definitely the better pick based on all the aspects we’ve gone through.
On the contrary, the Galaxy A55 sticks to a familiar, iconic design language. Its performance might be a step behind, and the cameras lack the AI magic of the Camon 30 Premier.
However, it counters with a sleeker user interface backed by Samsung’s promise of longer software support. Plus, it offers expandable storage and even a stronger build. The Samsung Galaxy A55 5G sets you back PHP 24,990 and for the price, it still offers itself as a solid mid-ranger carrying a proven formula.
TECNO Camon 30 Premier 5G vs Samsung Galaxy A55 5G specs:
| TECNO Camon 30 Premier 5G | Samsung Galaxy A55 5G |
|---|---|
| 6.77-inch 1.5K LTPO AMOLED display | 6.6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display |
| 1264 x 2780 pixels, 120Hz, 1,400 nits (peak) brightness | 1080 x 2340 pixels, 120Hz, 1000 nits (peak) |
| Corning Gorilla Glass (unspecified) | Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ |
| MediaTek Dimensity 8200-Ultimate | Samsung Exynos 1480 |
| 4nm, octa-core, up to 3.1GHz | 4nm, octa-core, up to 2.75GHz |
| 12GB RAM (+12GB extended memory) | 8GB RAM (+8GB extended memory) |
| 512GB storage | 256GB storage |
| Expandable up to 1TB via microSD (hybrid slot) | |
| Triple rear cameras: | Triple rear cameras: |
| - 50MP f/1.88 Sony IMX890 main, OIS | - 50MP f/1.8 main, OIS |
| - 50MP f/1.9 periscope telephoto, 3x optical zoom | - 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide |
| - 50MP f/2.2 ultrawide | - 5MP f/2.4 macro |
| 50MP selfie shooter (hole punch notch), AF | 32MP selfie shooter (hole punch notch) |
| Dual nano-SIM | Dual nano-SIM + eSIM |
| 5G, 4G LTE | 5G, 4G LTE |
| Wi-Fi 5, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ | Wi-Fi 6 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax |
| Bluetooth 5.3 | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| GPS, GNSS | GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| USB Type-C | USB Type-C (USB 2.0) |
| NFC | NFC |
| In-screen fingerprint sensor, face unlock | In-screen fingerprint sensor, face unlock |
| IP67 dust and water resistance | |
| IR blaster, Dual speakers, Dolby Atmos | Dual speakers, Dolby Atmos |
| HiOS 14 (Android 14) | OneUI 6.1 (Android 14) |
| 5000mAh battery | 5000mAh battery |
| 70W charging (wired) | 25W charging (wired) |
| 162.66 x 76.23 x 7.907 mm | 161.1 x 77.4 x 8.2 mm |
| 210g | 213g |
| Hawaii Lava Black, Alps Snowy Silver, LOEWE. Design Edition | Awesome Iceblue, Awesome Navy, Awesome Lilac, Awesome Lemon |
| PHP 23,999 | 12GB+512GB | PHP 24,990 | 8GB+256GB |
