After much teasing, TECNO has finally unveiled its foldable. The Transsion company launched the TECNO Phantom V Fold this evening at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The Phantom V Fold now joins the likes of Samsung’s Z Fold 4, OPPO’s Find N2, Vivo’s X Fold+, Xiaomi’s Mix Fold 2 and Honor’s Magic Vs – so now you’re spoilt for choice if the regular candy bar format of current smartphones bores you.
TECNO went with a book-style format for its foldable packing two screens rocking 120Hz refresh rate. The cover display is a 6.42″ LTPO AMOLED screen at 1080p resolution protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. The inner display is a 7.85″ foldable LTPO AMOLED screen at 2000p(2K) resolution. Both screen sport 1100 nits in terms of peak brightness.
Powering the TECNO Phantom V Fold is the Dimensity 9000+ 5G processor(4nm) coupled with Mali-G710 MC10 GPU. It comes with 12GB of RAM and storage options up to 512GB. Phantom V Fold runs on Android 13 and HiOS 13 tweaked for the fold format. HiOS 13 still doesn’t take advantage of the large screen state when compared to Samsung’s OneUI 4.1.1.
In terms of raw performance, the Dimensity 9000+ chip(which also powers the OPPO Find N2 Flip)goes toe-to-toe with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 found in the Samsung Z Fold 4.
When it comes to cameras, Phantom V Fold sports a triple setup in a circular module featuring a 50MP main, 50Mp telephoto with 2X optical zoom(20x Digital Zoom) and 13MP ultrawide. There are two front-facing cameras for selfies with the cover display having a 32MP lens while the inner display has a 16MP lens.
A 5000mAh battery keeps the lights on with support for 45W wired charging which can juice up the V Fold to full in 55 minutes.
The TECNO Phantom V Fold has a side-mounted fingerprint reader for biometrics and stereo speakers.
During the presentation, TECNO said that the Phantom V’s fold is made of aerospace-grade material and can last with over 200,000 folds. The inner display has no visible crease but it can only be opened or closed – you can’t prop it in a laptop position. However, there’s no gap when its closed.
TECNO Phantom V Fold is coming in Q2 and the price will start at roughly Ksh 140,000 for the base model(12/256) with the maxed-out version with 512GB going for Ksh 153,000.
The company also used its stand at the showroom floor at MWC to showcase its premium smartphone, the TECNO Phantom X2 Series. The flagship device sports the world’s first retractable portrait lens.
You can read our full review below.
