The Tecno Phantom X, officially released on July 06, 2021, is an upgrade of the Phantom 9 released in 2020. This smartphone is the first premium device released by Tecno in 2021. It comes with a premium design, great cameras, premium architecture and a lot more.
The price of the phone made people have mixed feelings about this phone. Some might even say, does Tecno even know the meaning of premium. Trust me, this is the most expensive phone Tecno ever released, and they are saying the phone is “for those who are worth it”. The question now is, is the phone worth buying.
This phone is the best phone ever released by Tecno, but at the same time, it comes with a price tag. Do the features of this phone make up for its price? This Tecno Phantom X Review will reveal that?
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Premium design
- Excellent Cameras with 2X optical zoom
- Fast charging support
- 90Hz refresh rate
- Good Battery Life
- 4K video recording and decent low light photography
Cons
- Average Performance Chipset
- Pricey
- No 5G support
- No wireless charging
- No inclusion of NFC
From the pros and cons outlined above, the Tecno Phantom X is a hit and miss. As you will find out in this review, you will notice that some of the specs and features are great while some are not so good, at least for a premium device.
Price
The starting price of the Tecno Phantom X is about 470, equivalents to US$553 / AU$ 752 / INR 41,027 or NGN 227,455 in Nigeria. This, of course, is a lot of money, do the specs of this phone makes up for the price. Before we go into the full review, let’s quickly look at what this phone has to offer.
Key Specifications
- Released Date – July 06, 2021
- Network – 2G / 3G / 4G
- Display – 6.7 inches Super AMOLED display, 90Hz
- Resolution – 1080 x 2340 pixels
- CPU – MediaTek Helio G95 (12nm)
- GPU – Mali-G76 MC4
- OS – Android 11, HiOS 7.6
- Memory – 8GB RAM, 256GB
- Main Camera – Triple: 50MP + 13MP + 8MP
- Selfie Camera – Dual 48MP + 8MP
- Sound – Loudspeaker, 3.5mm Jack
- Battery – Li-Po 4700 mAh, 33W fast charging
Review
The Phantom X is a significantly improved version of the Tecno Camon 17 Pro, which we previously reviewed. The Phantom ditches the LCD in favour of an AMOLED panel and includes a more capable camera system, although both handsets are powered by the same MediaTek G95 processor.
But don’t judge it purely on the chipset. The Phantom X includes premium-level features that increase the device’s value. The 50MP main sensor (same as in the Vivo X60 Pro+) is the most notable, and it is aided by a real 13MP telephoto camera (2x zoom) and an 8MP ultrawide device with autofocus. The selfie aspect has also not been ignored, as the relatively large punch-hole on the front holds a mammoth 48MP main camera as well as an 8MP one for ultrawide selfies.
Let’s dive into the details.
Unboxing
- What’s inside the box?
- Case
- Smartphone
- 33 watts fast charger
- USB Type C Cable
- Earphone
- Sim Removal Tool
- Warranty Card
Inside the box, the first thing you will see is the smartphone and a case beside it. The case is a plastic case that fit the phone nicely but offers low protection to the sides. Going further into the box, you will find a 33W fast charger, a USB Type-C cable, 3.5mm earphones, a sim remover tool and a warranty card.
Design
Tecno did a great job in the design of this phone. The phone has a premium look and also feels premium when carried around. This smartphone has a glass rear protected by corning Gorilla glass five, which does an excellent job in hiding the fingerprint and smudges. The back has thin lines, and the glass falls to the side of the smartphone.
The front of the Tecno Phantom X is also protected by corning Gorilla glass 5 with a film print protector pre-installed on it. The screen housed the dual rear cameras at the left top side of the phone. The phone is a pleasure to hold thanks to the Curve display that overflows to the side and the sleek glass rear.
The phone has no IP rating, but that does not mean it’s not water-resistant. No smartphone is 100% waterproof, and if you happen to drop your Phantom X into the water for few minutes, it will survive.
At the bottom of the phone, you’ve got a 3.5mm audio jack, a mic, a USB Type-C port and a mono speaker. The mono speaker is loud, but because of its position, it can be easily blocked.
Moving to the top of the device, you’ve got a secondary microphone which is useful for noise cancellation and to improve the audio when recording a video. The dual nano-SIM card tray and micro-SD card slot is also found at the top of the phone.
The volume keys and the power keys are located on the right side of the phone. Nothing is found on the left side of the phone. The device’s rear housed the quad-camera set-up with a 50MP Main Camera, 13MP Portrait camera, 8MP ultrawide Camera, Laser focus and LED flashlight.
The phone’s front housed the dual camera punch hold and tiny bezel at the top and bottom. The phone also features an optical fingerprint scanner which is accurate.
In all, the Design of the Tecno Phantom X is premium, and if your priority in a phone is design, then the Phantom X is a great phone.
Display
The display of the Tecno Phantom X is a speedy display with 6.7-inch super AMOLED, resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels, a 90Hz fast refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate and can be used outdoors. The display has a good viewing angle and the display curves to the edges. One might expect to touch the phone frequently because it curves accidentally, but that does not happen.
The display of the Tecno Phantom X is fantastic and breathtaking, at least for a phone at its price.
Camera
The 50MP primary camera is the selling point of this smartphone. This camera takes excellent pictures that are well detailed and clear.
There’s also a laser focus to help the camera focus in dim light. The lens has an aperture of f/1.9, which is quite broad.
A 13MP telephoto camera with a 50mm focal length equivalent, or 2x optical zoom, is paired with the primary camera. The EXIF data indicates an aperture of f/2.46.
In terms of ultrawide, Tecno has chosen an 8MP 1/4.0” sensor with 1.12m pixels and an aperture of f/2.25. The viewing angle promised is 120 degrees, which is about average. The autofocus is a plus, as it fills in for the lost macro Camera.
On the front, there’s another 48MP quad-Bayer sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. The sensor is 1/2.0” in size and has 0.8 million pixels. The ultrawide camera at the front has the same 8MP sensor as the ultrawide camera at the back; however, the aperture is wider – f/2.2. Unfortunately, the viewing angle is only 105 degrees, so don’t expect vast photos.
Performance
The Phantom X is powered by the MediaTek Helio G95, a 2020 mid-range SoC based on the 2019 Helio G90T, which implies the G95 is made on the 12nm node. It has an octa-core CPU with two Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.05 GHz for intensive computational tasks and 6x Cortex-A55 cores running at 2.0 GHz for energy efficiency. For the GPU, the Mali-G76 MC4 is employed.
Surprisingly, only one memory configuration is available, and it’s a big one: 8GB of RAM and 256GB of extensible internal storage. At this pricing level, providing 256GB of base storage is commendable.
On the other hand, the Phantom X lags behind the competition in terms of raw performance, with Snapdragon 700-series chipsets that are more powerful and efficient.
Playing Games on this device is very decent, with little or no lag. The phone plays Call of duty and PUBG at the highest graphics setting and frame rate with no lag, and the Gameplay was very smooth. Playing Gechi Impact, the Phantom X can play the game smoothly, but you feel slight lag when playing at the highest frame rate. However, the phone gets hot after playing a game for an hour, hot enough to iron a T-shirt.
The Tecno Phantom X has a GeekBench score of 1670 and 512 on Multi-core and Single-core tests. The Antutu score is 309055. Overall, the performance of the Tecno Phantom X is excellent but not as impressive as some other phones at its price.
Software
On top of the current Android 11 OS, Tecno employs its proprietary skin, which isn’t too intrusive. Apart from the app icons, system icons, and app drawer, the OS feels stock-like for the most part. The latter is organized into categories, beginning with favourites or the most frequently used and proceeding alphabetically.
You can pull up the app drawer, but you cannot slide it back in; instead, you must use the home button/gesture to return to the home screen. By default, pulling down from the home screen opens the quick search, but you can change this to spread the notification shade instead.
The best part of the Software feature is that there are no ads and not so many pre-installed apps found on most Tecno devices. It has an intelligent notification that blocks ad promotion which has never been seen on any Tecno device.
The HiOS 7.6 has a couple of features like
- Pic Film- converts your picture into a movie and beats to match the translation.
- Ella- Ella is a new voice assistant like Google voice assistance. Am not sure why we need this since we already have Google voice assistance which is fantastic.
- Record Calls- On HiOS 7.6, you now can record calls, and it works incredibly.
- Peek Proof- makes it difficult for the person next to you to view your screen.
- Live Transcribe- This transcribes everything you have to say, although you need an internet connection to use.
- Dark Theme- For those that love dark themes
Battery
With a 4,700 mAh battery, the Phantom X appears to be at the top of the list in terms of endurance. Sure, the phone is only a couple of hours faster than most of its competitors, but it’s still progress. A total endurance time of 122 hours is more than respectable.
However, when only screen-on results from the web and video playback tests are compared, the Tecno Phantom X is average, indicating that the standby and call test results are the main driving factors for the excellent score.
Charging time of the Phone
- 10 mins – 23%
- 20 mins – 38%
- 30 mins – 58%
- 40 mins – 80%
- 50 min – 92%
- 60 mins – 96%
- 1hr 18 mins – 100%
We can’t claim the fast-charging technology is as quick as we’d expect from a 33W charger, but it’s close to average, if not competitive. A complete charge would take over an hour and 18 mins, whereas 30 minutes would get you from zero to 58%. That’s close to the advertised 56% in 30 minutes.
Should you buy it?
The Tecno Phantom X is not a bad phone at all, and it is just that there are many phones out there with the same price that outperforms the phone. Examples are the Oneplus Nord CE 5G, Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro and Poco F3, which are of the same price but with more features and better performance.
Buy this phone if
- You want a phone with an excellent design and a curve screen
- Good battery life
- Good Camera
Don’t buy if
- You want a phone of 5G
- Wireless charging phone
- A great gaming phone