Is this the top foldable phone you can purchase in Nigeria for less than #60,000?
Foldable phones have not yet achieved mainstream status, and for good reasons. They are often considered either too expensive or not durable enough to provide long-term reliability. However, the quality of folding screens has significantly improved in recent years, and foldable phones are gradually becoming more affordable. Earlier this year, Motorola introduced the Razr 40, priced at under Rs. 60,000, and Tecno followed suit with the Phantom V Flip. I’ve had the opportunity to use the Tecno Phantom V Flip for the past few weeks, and I’m here to share my thoughts on this latest clamshell-style folding phone.
Tecno Phantom V Flip Price in Nigeria
Tecno has set the price of the Phantom V Flip in India at Rs. 54,999. The early bird pricing was available for a month after the phone’s launch. For this price, you get 8GB of RAM and 256GB of built-in storage. It’s offered in two color options: Iconic Black and Mystic Dawn.
Tecno Phantom V Flip Design
The Tecno Phantom V Flip is a slim smartphone when unfolded, which is advantageous as it results in a compact form factor when closed. It boasts a vegan leather exterior that provides a secure grip. While the inner screen exhibits a crease that might be slightly noticeable on dark wallpapers and when the screen is off, it becomes hardly perceptible during actual usage. Under specific angles with the screen on, you might detect the crease, and you can certainly feel it when scrolling within apps.
Tecno claims that its drop-shaped hinge, utilized for the foldable display mechanism, features a ‘Hoverlock’ design that allows you to keep the phone open at angles ranging from 30 to 150 degrees. When closed, there is no noticeable gap between the two halves of the display. The Phantom V Flip incorporates a circular cover display resembling a smartwatch screen, flanked by two cameras.
A fingerprint scanner is conveniently positioned on the right side of the phone, easily accessible with one hand. There’s a bit of resistance when trying to unfold the phone, which actually helps in keeping the phone stable at various angles. I found myself using both hands to unfold the phone. It’s important to note that the phone lacks an IP rating, so it requires caution to protect it from splashes and dust.
Tecno Phantom V Flip Specifications and Features
The Phantom V Flip is powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 8050 chip, coupled with an Arm Mali-G77 GPU, and it boasts 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM. This configuration provides ample processing power, allowing you to run multiple applications simultaneously. Additionally, if necessary, the phone can utilize a portion of the spacious 256GB of UFS 2.1 built-in storage (up to 16GB) for more demanding tasks.
Out of the box, the phone comes with HiOS 13.5, Tecno’s custom interface layered on top of Android 13. Tecno has committed to offering two years of OS updates and three years of security updates for the Tecno Phantom V Flip. Preinstalled apps include WPS Office, Phone Master, Facebook, Mobile Cloner, Visha Player, Spotify, Carlcare, and Instagram. It also features a ‘Sharp News’ app that aggregates news stories and internet content.
In daily use, HiOS delivers a smooth experience, and multitasking between apps is made easier by its narrow width, which allows for convenient swiping and navigation throughout the interface. Most of the pre-installed bloatware can be uninstalled, with the exception of the Phone Master app. The quick settings menu may take some time to get used to, but it offers a sufficient array of toggles and settings, reducing the need to access the Settings app for adjustments. However, certain options in the Settings app may be a bit challenging to find, as they are tucked away in sub-menus. For instance, to view per-app battery usage, you must navigate through Battery Lab > Battery Setting > Battery Usage.
Tecno has included multitasking gestures on the phone, allowing you to open a window in floating form from full-screen mode. It also offers an app cloning feature for duplicating specific social media apps, game mode enhancements, and other software optimizations integrated into the operating system.
Tecno Phantom V Flip Performance
In synthetic benchmark tests, the Tecno Phantom V Flip achieved respectable scores, indicating that the Dimensity 8050 chip has sufficient performance capabilities to remain smooth and competitive for the next few years. The phone scored 706,648 points in AnTuTu’s benchmark test, while Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core scores were 1,106 and 3,220 points, respectively. In the PCMark Work 3.0 test, the phone obtained a score of 14,392 points.
The Phantom V Flip is capable of handling most graphics-intensive games, including Fortnite and Genshin Impact. Even with the higher-resolution “HD textures” feature enabled in Fortnite and the highest settings selected, the phone only became slightly warm around the camera module after 30 minutes of gameplay, without significant impact on gaming performance. In Genshin Impact, the phone ran the game smoothly on ‘Medium’ settings, even during intense in-game scenarios.
The phone is equipped with a 4,000mAh battery that supports 45W fast charging using the included charging brick. Within 30 minutes, the phone can be charged from zero to 63 percent, and it reaches nearly full charge at 95 percent after another 30 minutes. It provides reliable battery life, lasting for 14 hours and 27 minutes in a video loop test. In daily use, I was able to get through the day with about 30 percent of battery remaining, which included 30 minutes of gaming, watching videos on YouTube, texting on WhatsApp, and browsing through social media.
On the inside, the Phantom V Flip features a 6.9-inch flexible AMOLED inner display with full-HD+ resolution and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The display is notably smooth and provides excellent brightness, especially when using the High Brightness Mode in the display settings, making it suitable for outdoor use. The inner display renders content effectively in various apps and supports HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG codecs. Split-screen mode works well for multitasking with built-in apps and YouTube.
On the outside, there is a circular 1.32-inch cover panel that resembles a round smartwatch screen. It is not as bright as the inner display but offers access to apps downloaded from the Play Store. The cover panel displays event notifications, a preview of the rear cameras positioned around the circular display, fitness tracking data, upcoming alarms, weather information, a sound recorder, a timer, and a stopwatch. Swiping down reveals quick toggles, while swiping up provides a list of notifications.
The Tecno Phantom V Flip features innovative flip cameras
offering impressive photography capabilities. It boasts a 64-megapixel primary camera and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera. For selfies, there’s a 32-megapixel front-facing camera that appears when the device is unfolded, located within a centrally-aligned hole-punch cutout.
Images taken with the primary camera exhibit remarkable clarity and sharpness, particularly when you enable the “64MP” mode, which employs pixel-binning for shots, though it slightly increases the image-saving time. In daylight conditions, you’ll enjoy abundant details and true-to-life colors. However, when switching to the wide-angle camera in daylight, there’s a noticeable drop in quality, particularly concerning exposure and color accuracy.
The smartphone continues to deliver good photo quality in low-light conditions, capturing ample details with minimal noise. For improved results, you might find it beneficial to disable the AI features on the camera, though your experience may vary. In dark settings, the Super Night mode performs admirably with the primary camera, swiftly capturing sufficient detail.
What’s unique about the Phantom V Flip is its dual-display design, allowing you to take selfies with the 32-megapixel camera on the inner display or employ the 64-megapixel rear camera when using the cover display to preview your shot. The external camera produces sharper images and offers features like Super Night mode for well-lit selfies in dim environments.
For video recording, the primary camera on the Tecno Phantom V Flip supports up to 4K at 30fps, making it the preferred choice. However, in low-light situations, it’s advisable to switch to 1080p at 60fps, as recording in 4K can result in darker and noisier footage, falling short of the impressive performance seen in Super Night mode for still photos.
In summary
the Tecno Phantom V Flip introduces foldable phones to a more budget-friendly range but makes certain compromises. Notably, it lacks a larger external display for running apps or games, as found in pricier alternatives like the Moto Razr 40 Ultra. Additionally, the primary camera stands out, and it’s the camera of choice for selfies as well.
The device’s display offers smooth performance, thanks to the responsive 120Hz refresh rate and a capable MediaTek processor. Battery life proves reliable, and the 45W wired charging is a valuable feature, outperforming the 25W charging of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 with PPS charger support. If you can overlook the mentioned limitations, the Tecno Phantom V Flip is worth considering if you’re in the market for a foldable phone priced under Rs. 60,000.