The foldable smartphone market has a new player and not just across the globe but here in the country as well. An exciting new entrant not just on features but also on price.
The Phantom lineup is TECNO’S premium sub-brand, so the PHANTOM V Fold gets a special luxurious box. You get the phone and a back cover that has a kickstand. You also get a 45-watt power brick in the box and Type-A to C charging cable.
Design
TECNO went with a book-style format for its foldable. The back of the V Fold has a textured finish, making it easy to handle when folded or open. Also, you don’t get smudges on it. The Phantom V Fold comes in white and black colour options.
It has aluminum on the sides, with the power button embedded with a capacitive fingerprint reader. The bottom has a speaker grill, twin sim card slot, a type-c charging port and a primary microphone. The top completes the stereo speaker setup and the secondary microphone.
The hinge is firm, the fold opens in a V style, and it closes flat so there’s no gap. The hinge is made of aerospace-grade material and can survive at least 200,000 folds.
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 2K resolution. Both screens sport 1100 nits in terms of peak brightness and 120hz refresh rate. Both screens are really excellent and will serve all your multimedia needs – from consuming tv shows and movies to scrolling social media and browsing.
Performance
The V Fold comes running Dimensity 9000+ 5G processor. The chipset shares performance stats similar to the Snapdragon 8 plus Gen 1 that’s in the Samsung Z Fold 4 which is its main competitor.
The TECNO Phantom V Fold has 12GB of RAM with an additional 9GB virtual RAM. We also get up to 512GB of onboard storage with no expandable storage support. It comes with Android 13 and HiOS 13 Fold out of the box which supports split-screen multitasking.
TECNO says that it will get Android 14 when Google launches it later this year. If you are a heavy multitasker then you’ll love using the Phantom V Fold. The large screen supports using dual apps so you could be on Twitter on one side and maybe Instagram or replying to email on the other side. The task switcher keeps icons on split-screen mode for quick launching them. App pairs are also supported.
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. The V Fold two front-facing cameras for selfies with the cover display having a 32MP lens while the inner display has a 16MP lens.
Video capture is capped at 4K 60fps and 4K 30fps for ultra steady. Selfie videos are capped at 1080p 30fps. You can also use the main camera for your selfies as well with all the main camera features available on the selfie format.
There are additional modes to play around with as well including film mode, time-lapse, wide selfie, AR shots, slow motion and more. The Phantom V Fold is more than reliable when it comes to photography and videography. The photos and videos are well-detailed, sharp, saturated colours and with a really good dynamic range.
Battery
The V Fold is powered by a 5000mAh battery and supports for 45W wired charging which can juice up the V Fold to full in 55 minutes. Performance is really good as you can go a full day with the phone on heavy use and have some charge left in the tank for late-night browsing. Moderate and light use can pull two days of charge.
Verdict
As a first-generation product from TECNO in the foldable space, the Phantom V Fold gets a lot of things right. Flagship design, flagship performance, quality cameras, fast charging and long-lasting battery. We now have a really good and affordable competitor in the foldable smartphone market in Kenya and globally as well.
Pricing and Availability
TECNO Phantom V Fold recommended retail prices(Exclusive of VAT) start at:
- 12GB RAM + 256GB storage option: Ksh 129,999
- 12GB RAM + 512GB storage option: Ksh 143,999
You can buy at the Phantom V Fold dedicated website here or at select TECNO’s official retail stores countrywide including its flagship store at Sarit Centre. The Phantom V Fold will also be available at official Safaricom shops as well.
