TECNO Phantom X Camera Review: A Different Quest

TECNO launched the Phantom X in the country early this month. We’ve been taking it through its paces – unboxed it and had our first look review.

In this article, we check out how its cameras perform.

TECNO Phantom X has five cameras – three at the back and two front-facing.

The triple setup includes a 50MP main camera with Dual Pixel and Laser Autofocus together with a 13MP telephoto lens with 2X zoom that’s also a portrait lens and an 8MP ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view.

The curved AMOLED display is interrupted by dual punch-hole selfie cameras that comprise a 48MP main and an 8MP ultrawide camera with 105 degrees field of view.

Aside from the hardware upgrades in the camera department, TECNO included new photography modes to shoot with such as 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.

These pre-made templates come in handy when shooting content for your YouTube Shorts, Insta Stories, Fleets or WhatsApp Status videos.

Now Read: TECNO Phantom X Review: New Direction

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.

If you are a content creator or shutterbug, then you’ll love shooting video content on the Phantom X – I shot a couple of TikTok videos myself and I was pretty impressed with how they turned out.

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.

Here are some samples:

Selfies and Portraits

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Regular Shots

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Lowlight and Super Night Mode shots – including lowlight selfies and portraits

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View the photos here.

Early Verdict

You are bound to get really amazing shots both in daylight and lowlight scenarios including selfies and portraits with the Phantom X. Most of the shots are generally respectable for sharing with friends and family and on social media with rich details, natural blur, colours that pop and strong dynamic range on par with the best phones available in the market.

Its lowlight performance was surprisingly good and on most shots, I didn’t even need to use its SuperNight mode.

The Phantom X delivers on the promise that you’ll be able to effortlessly take great photos and videos in any lighting conditions as seen from the samples. The Phantom X’s cameras hold their own when compared to other Android midrange smartphones.

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.

Stay tuned for our full review and related reviews