We will not fail to state in this Tecno phantom X review the fact that Tecno is one of the brands that the Chinese phone manufacturer Transsion is using for its overseas markets – and most noticeably, in Africa.
Tecno has taken its Phantom lineup and designated it as their flagship product lineup – meant to even reach new markets such as Turkey. So in its essence, it doesn’t have much to do with previously released Phantom devices by Tecno such as the Phantom 9.
The Phantom X was announced on 24 June and is a slightly upgraded version of the recently released Tecno Camon 17 Pro. The Phantom X replaces the LCD for an AMOLED panel and allows a more expert camera setup, but MediaTek G95 powers up both devices alike.
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Don’t just conclude based on the chipset, though. The Phantom X offers superior-level innovations that increase the value of the device. The most obvious one is the 50MP main sensor ( which is what we’ve seen in the Vivo X60 Pro+), supported by a decent 13MP telephoto camera (2x zoom) and an 8MP ultrawide unit with autofocus. The selfie was not left out as well, so the rather big punch-hole on the front sports a massive 48MP main camera and an 8MP for ultrawide selfies.
KEY SPECIFICATIONS
Display: 6.70″ Super AMOLED, 90Hz, 1080x2340px
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB + microSD slot
Processor: Mediatek Helio G95 (12 nm): Octa-core (2×2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G76 MC4.
Operating System: Android 11, HIOS 7.6. Battery: 4700mAh; Fast charging 33W Dimensions: 163.5×73.8×8.7mm, 0.201kg
Front camera: 48MP + 8MP Rear camera: 50MP + 13MP + 8MP
Tecno Phantom X Design
Tecno definitely did not bypass the outward appearance when it comes to the build quality and did try to differentiate the device from the rest by introducing key design changes to the standard glass sandwich formula.
Perhaps the most obvious design feature would definitely be the back. It has a textured surface and is likely made of Gorilla Glass 5 – Tecno’s sources don’t follow completely on that. Onto the side frame, it’s made of anodized aluminum, going well with the elegant blue color, which, by the way, is called Van Gogh Starry Night Blue.
Another design feature that stands out is the camera module. It has two levels, and the upper one projects out more for its own good. The phone’s body isn’t unusually thin either, measuring 8.7mm of thickness, so it all sums up to a massive camera module. You get the three camera sensors simultaneously with a big LED flash and laser supporting the autofocus.
The front panel is coated with a curved Gorilla Glass 5 sheet, and although the bezels are not the thinnest ones around, they look well-formed. The top and bottom ones look almost alike, while the side ones are a bit on the thick side. Fortunately, the panel is curved, so they don’t look so big.
What appears big is the punch-hole for the front cameras. The distance between the two sensors is unreasonably big and bites away a significant chunk of the display. The cutout is placed a bit far from the side edge too, leaving little room for the icons and clock in the status bar.
The bottom and top sides of the frame are flat with chamfered edges. The top houses the dual SIM card + microSD card tray while the bottom serves the usual purpose – USB-C connector, loudspeaker grille, and the 3.5mm audio jack.
Tecno Phantom X Display
One thing we did find out in this Tecno Phantom X review is that the device has quite the display to boast about in the $356-415 price range. It is elegantly curved and supports a 90Hz refresh rate. It features an OLED panel and sports a tall 19.5:9 aspect ratio (1080 x 2340px resolution). But, there are two main issues we had with the display. The most noticeable one is the rather big cutout for the two front cameras. It takes quite a bit of space and crams up the status bar icons. We feel that the spacing between the two sensors is unnecessarily big.
Arguably, here’s the bigger issue, the maximum brightness. According to the brightness tests carried out, we found out that in manual mode, the display reaches up to 405 nits while a Max Auto mode is not available. This is the maximum brightness the panel could get, and quite frankly, it might not be enough outside on a very sunny day.
And when it comes to HRR control, we think it needs a small fix. Leaving the system to decide when to switch between 60Hz and 90Hz isn’t ideal as it’s too aggressive on power saving. Almost every app we opened resulted in a refresh rate drop to 60Hz. While this is great when watching Netflix or YouTube videos, it’s pointless to have an HRR display and not being able to benefit from the smoothness in Chrome, for example. On the other hand, the refresh rate remains 90Hz for all system menus, even if you are not interacting with the screen.
Opting for the 90Hz preset would ensure smooth operation even in apps, so it’s clear that it’s not a limitation but rather a “feature”. So it’s up to you to decide if you want HRR in your apps or you prefer to save on some juice.
Tecno Phantom X Performance
The Tecno Phantom X houses the MediaTek Helio G95 chip as a processor, which is a 2020 mid-range SoC which means that the G95 is built on the 12nm node. It employs an octa-core CPU with 2x 2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 cores for heavy computational tasks and 6x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 cores for energy efficiency. The Mali-G76 MC4 is used for GPU.
Interestingly, there’s just one memory configuration, and it’s a generous one – 8GB of RAM and 256GB of expandable internal storage. Handing out 256GB of base storage in this price range is admirable.
Tecno uses its own proprietary skin on top of the latest Android 11 OS, but it doesn’t feel too heavy on the eye. In fact, for the most part, the OS feels loaded aside from the app icons, system icons, and the app drawer.
Two highlighted features of the HiOS are the dedicated Kids mode and the smart voice assistant Ella. The former limits the functionality of the phone when handing it to your kid, while the latter aims to replace Google’s default voice assistant. However, we didn’t find Ella to be more intelligent, nor does it offer any substantial advantage over Google Assistant.
A dedicated Gaming mode gives you control over notifications and incoming calls during gameplay. You can even receive information from WhatsApp and Messenger as moving text near the top edge of the phone. This way, you can read the notification without pausing the game or opening up the notification shade.
Some extra features related to WhatsApp are at hand. You can change your voice, record conversation, beauty mode for video calls, and save messages that you’ve missed. Lastly, there’s an option to limit mobile data to just WhatsApp. We can see this helping develop markets where mobile data allowance is still rather limited and WhatsApp is, after all, the main way to communicate.
Tecno Phantom X Battery and charging
Housing a 4,700 mAh battery, the Phantom X tops the list when it comes to endurance. Sure, the handset overtakes most of its competitors by just a couple of hours, but it is worth noting. An overall endurance score of 122H is more than respectable.
However, relating just screen-on results from the web and video playback tests, the Tecno Phantom X is just about average, meaning the standby and call test results are the main driving factors for the excellent score.
We can’t say the fast charging tech is as fast as we had expected from a 33W chunk, but it’s just about average or even competitive. A full charge would take you almost an hour and 30 minutes, while 30 minutes take you from zero to 56%. That’s pretty far from the advertised 70% in 30 minutes.
Tecno Phantom X Price and availability
As at the time of writing the Tecno Phantom X review, the phone was announced on 24 June 2021 is expected to be released in July and later in some other regions according to our source. And for now what we have learned is that the phone will be available in one variant only, which is the 8GB + 256GB only.
This sounds like a fair bargain though, because the phone is expected to cost around $356-415 especially with that amount of storage space.
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what we think about this phone
If you’ve through this Tecno Phantom X review you sure would have noted by now that the Phantom X can deliver excellent battery life, fast charging, sleek and premium design, great selfies, amazing nighttime photography skills, and a generous 8GB/256GB memory combo at a very decent price.
Are we impressed with the Tecno Phantom X? Yes, the display is good, but it lacks brightness. It has a 90Hz refresh rate, but the HRR control needs optimization. The camera setup is competent, but the main camera needs more work to deliver better daylight shots. Strange how the nighttime performance is so good. And lastly, the handset employs the latest generation under-display, optical fingerprint reader but fails to really impress with unlocking accuracy and speed.
| WHAT WE LIKE | WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE |
| Sleek, premium design. | The display’s max brightness is underwhelming. |
| Great battery life and fast charging. | Fingerprint reader performance is sluggish. |
| Massive storage for the price | |
| Unbeatable nighttime performance, great 48MP main selfie camera. |
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