TECNO has just launched its latest flagship device – The Phantom X.
The Phantom X is the company’s premium device in the Phantom series and succeeds the Phantom 9 from 2019.
With the Phantom X, the series is back with a bang bringing extra-ordinary upgrades in just about every area from its predecessor – big design shift, big battery, big chipset and big cameras.
We delve into all its features in our latest unboxing which you can watch above:
Now Read: TECNO Phantom X Review: New Direction
Let’s get to the Phantom X.
One standout feature that you’ll notice immediately is the curved screen that also has really slim chin and top.
The phone is really slim and light even with the case on.
Phantom X features gorilla glass 5 protection for the front and back.
We have a 6.7″ Super AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate and 1080p resolution.
Just like the Phantom 9, we also have an in-display fingerprint reader that quickly unlocks the smartphone.
The display is interrupted at the top left corner with dual selfie cameras that include a 48MP and an 8MP ultrawide camera with 105 degrees field of view. The top bezel has an LED-flash and earpiece grille.
This is a really gorgeously designed smartphone as we shift to the back. We have easily accessible volume and power buttons – the latter has a textured finish too.
The Phantom X comes in two colours including Van Gogh’s Starry Night Blue and Monet’s Summer Garden. Van Gogh’s Starry Night brings a stellar display of the mysteriously nebulous sky. Monet’s Summer Garden is a display of warm and exuberant colours.
The bottom we have a type-c charging port, speaker grille, microphone and headphone jack. The sim card slot is at the top.
The AMOLED display with the always on display and high refresh rate was a pleasure to use – it offered excellent contrast levels, viewing angles and high brightness – perfect for consuming multimedia content, browsing the web or just lazily scrolling through my social media feed.
Stereo sound is also available with the Phantom X and makes a huge difference when gaming or streaming tv shows or movies.
The always-on display has a couple of customizations for you to tweak according to your preferences.
Phantom series always rocks top of the line specs and the X delivers on that. We get a Helio G95 chip, Mali-G76 MC4 GPU coupled with 8GB of RAM and get this – 256GB of onboard storage which you can expand with an external microSD.
TECNO included a vapor chamber cooling system hooked up to the chipset to keep things cool when you decide to go into heavy gaming.
The hardware made the Phantom X an absolute delight to use for absolutely everything – it handled and met my needs – from gaming graphic intense games like Asphalt, Genshin impact or PUBG at their highest settings to handling work emails, streaming Spotify, and everything else in between without breaking a sweat and I hope it stays that way with a couple more months of use.
On the software side of things, we have the best of both worlds – TECNO’s HiOS 7.6 – the company’s latest user interface and Android 11.
HiOS 7.6 comes with a new modern layout with a minimalist visual experience and new features like Peek Proof, App Twin, Video Assistant, Improved Smart scanner with document correction, Phone cloner, among others.
HiOS 7.6 boasts improved features and is leaner compared to other past versions. It’s refined with new visual tweaks but the user interface is still intrusive.
Android 11 brings new privacy and security features including improved handling of app permissions for the camera, microphone, and location, scoped storage among a host of other useful features.
Not only did the tecno bring the exciting hardware changes and new design but also the cameras get upgraded too.
The main setup at the back features a three cameras that include a 50MP main module with Dual Pixel and Laser autofocus, a 13MP telephoto lens with 2X zoom that’s also good for portrait shots and an 8MP ultrawide lens with 120 degree field of view.
For selfies we have a 48MP main and an 8MP ultrawide.
There’s a lot of modes to play around with including SuperNight mode(for both selfies and regular nighttime shots), Time Lapse, Slow Motion, Film Mode with customizable video templates with themes surrounding travel, sport, party, performance, street, family and more. These templates come together with a variety of transitions, camera movements and music choices in the Film mode.
Now Read: Phantom X Camera Review: A Different Quest
You can shoot video at 4k 30fps, 1080p at either 60fps or 30fps. Other video modes include video bokeh mode(for selfie videos too), video beauty mode(for regular videos too), ultra-steady mode(capped at 1080p at 30fps), slowmotion(capped at 960fps) and Time-lapse at 1080p at 30fps.
The camera interface itself is pretty smooth and shooting modes are easily and quickly accessible – switching between Film, Video, AI cam, Beauty, Portrait, Super Night, and you can swipe up too to access the same features now with AR shot, Ultra HD, Slow Motion, Time Lapse, Panorama and you can easily access all the shooting modes, toggle HDR, AI, flash, access Google Lens, and more.
Our camera performance review coming up soon.
Keeping the lights on with the Phantom X is a 4700mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging. 29 minutes gets you from 4% to 64% and another 15 minutes to 89%.
Also, TECNO has this notification that lets you know how many minutes left for your phone to be fully charged.
The phone itself doesn’t get hot when charging as safe charging ensures it doesn’t overheat.
Battery life is impressive too. I was getting 9 hours of on-screen time when on light use and on heavy use, I was getting 7 hours of on-screen time.
So you definitely in good hands with the Phantom X – it’s an all-day battery powerhouse.
Early Verdict
After 2 years of missing in action, the Phantom X maxes out on its features and nails the fundamentals to deliver the best to consumers – uncompromising and consistent all-round performance – from cameras, battery and general use together with the new and better design and the curved high refresh high-quality SuperAMOLED screen that make for an attractive package for those who have been looking forward to the new Phantom and more.
Pricing and Availability
TECNO Phantom X goes for Ksh 49,999 and is already in TECNO’s official retail stores countrywide(check here).
You can get the Phantom X online too at its new site – here’s the direct link to the Kenyan homepage.
