TECNO’s Phantom smartphones have been the manufacturer’s flagship models, but they were always mid-range devices. Then the Phantom disappeared for a while. This year, the Phantom brand is back, but with a different twist. For the first time, TECNO is positioning it as a sub-brand for premium devices. And the first smartphone in this new line-up is the Phantom X, and we have a unit for review here at MobilityArena.
TECNO Mobile has been on a transition from a budget phone brand to a premium brand over the last few years, so this new move with the Phantom brand shouldn’t be an entire surprise. There is money to be made from the top of the pyramid, and the company wants a slice of that market. So, what does the Phantom X bring to the table?
Before the Phantom X, TECNO Camon 17 Pro, which we reviewed HERE, had the privilege of being TECNO’s most advanced smartphone. In many ways, the Phantom X and Camon 17 Pro are similar, but at the end of the day, the former offers more, and so it is that the Phantom X has risen to become the most advanced smartphone released by TECNO till date.
It shows up with a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with curved edges, 90Hz refresh rate, and Gorilla Glass 5. It is not only the display that is protected with Gorilla Glass 5 though; the back of the phone is as well. That back, TECNO says, has the industry’s first silk glass back cover. Silk glass is a special kind of decorative glass made by printing a layer of ceramic ink on the surface.
For photography, Phantom X features a headlining 50-megapixel camera that uses the Samsung S5KGN1 sensor. For context, the Samsung S5KGN1 is a flagship-grade sensor found in premium flagship devices that cost as much as $1,000 (about N450,000). You will find it in the Vivo X50 Pro+, Vivo X60 pro+, and Meizu 18 Pro.
Also, for the first time, we have a telephoto lens included on a TECNO smartphone. It is a 13MP lens, offering both portrait photography and 2x zoom capabilities. The third lens is an 8MP ultra-wide lens.
For selfies, we have a dual camera at the front of the device, and it combines a 48MP main lens with an 8MP ultra-wide lens for group selfies.
Powering the Phantom X is a MediaTek Helio G95 chipset. It isn’t a flagship grade chipset, but it delivers good performance for devices in the upper mid-range and budget flagship categories. For context, it is in the same class as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 720G, and it is considered a better performer, in some ways, than the Snapdragon chipset.
The Helio G95 is coupled with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage. These are generous provisions and should help deliver good performance. If you need more storage space, you can buy a microSD card for use with it.
Lastly, we have a 4700 mAh Li-Poly battery with 33W fast charging. There is USB-on-the-go and reverse charging, as well as an optical under display fingerprint scanner too. The phone runs HiOS 7.6, which is based on Android 11.
Clearly, the Phantom X is staking its premium claim on its design and materials, display, and cameras. And they all tick the premium boxes.
TECNO has made an interesting gambit with the Phantom X. Not so unexpectedly, since its announcement, the phone has generated quite some buzz – both positive and negative – since its announcement. Critics rage about the Helio G95 chipset and the price tag. Our job here at MobilityArena is to put the phone to use to see how it performs and provide a verdict. Does the Phantom X deliver on premium flagship photography especially, as that is the headlining feature, beside the premium build? Look for the answer in our upcoming review
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