Tecno is focused on entry-level and mid-range devices for emerging markets, but the company wants to grow into the more upscale segments. To that end it is relaunching Phantom as a separate sub-brand that will create premium devices. And Phantom comes out swinging.
The Phantom X is the first phone by the new brand and it has a fairly impressive camera hardware both on the front and the back. The triple rear camera stars a 50MP main module with a large 1/1.3” sensor with 1.2µm native pixels that grow to 2.4µm with binning. This sensor has Dual Pixel and Laser autofocus and sits behind an f/1.85 lens.
Next up is a 13MP telephoto with a 50mm lens, which is billed as a portrait camera. Besides being good for portrait shots, this focal length is also a 2x magnification over the main lens, so this a telephoto camera as well – okay, 2x isn’t much, but it’s the first tele lens on a Tecno phone.
The third module has a 120º ultrawide-angle lens and an 8MP sensor. These cameras are backed by a quad LED flash. And get this, there are no silly depth sensors or “AI” cameras on board – other brands (including Tecno) can learn a thing or two. We’re not even done talking about cameras yet.
The Phantom X has a 48MP selfie camera on the front, which is joined by an 8MP ultrawide module with a 105º lens. These two are helped by a dual LED flash. On paper, the X has one of the more impressive camera setups to launch this year.
The rest sounds good too, starting with the 6.7” SuperAMOLED display. It is a 90Hz panel with 1080p+ resolution (19.5:9) and curved sides – the mark of a premium device, for better or worse. The company even paid for Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front and back of the device. The fingerprint reader is built into the display and can unlock the phone in 0.4 seconds.
The Phantom is powered by a MediaTek Helio G95 chipset. This 12nm chip with two Cortex-A76 cores and a Mali-G76 MC4 GPU is perhaps the least impressive part of the whole phone. However, it is hooked up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage. Also, a vapor chamber cooling system is attached to the chipset, which promises to keep it 3-5º cooler. The battery has 4,700 mAh capacity and supports 33W fast charging. A 30 minute charge is enough to resuscitate a flat battery and bring it up to 70%.
The last thing to mention about the Phantom X is the price – alas, we don’t know that yet. The phone should become available next month.
