Tecno Phantom X in Nepal: If only a better design would ensure better sales

Tecno Phantom X is a premium smartphone offered by the smartphone company, Tecno, in Nepal.

Mahalaxmi Mobiles is the authorised distributor of Tecno mobiles in Nepal and is selling different models of the phone. Phantom X is a mid-range smartphone from the new brand. Our review finds the phone has an impressive design although it lags behind its competitors in other specifications. Hence, it faces huge competition as there are likes of OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi and Vivo smartphones and have already set their name on the market in Nepal.

Let’s get into the details of Tecno Phantom X and our review of it.

Specifications

Design and display

Tecno Phantom X has a premium design. The phone has a glass front, a glass back and a metal frame. Both the front and back of the phone are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The phone has a beautiful curved display and has a smooth back. The camera set up is in the middle of the phone and the lenses look amazing and different from the rest of the phone. The Tecno Phantom branding is also done elegantly. The phone has an under-display fingerprint display, which is extremely fast. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

There is a 6.7-inch FHD+ OLED boundless display on the phone that has a refresh rate of 90Hz and a maximum resolution of 1,080*2,340 pixels. There are fewer bezels on the phone and the screen-to-body ratio of the phone is a whopping 91.3%. The curved display looks fantastic and gives you a premium feel.

Camera

Tecno Phantom X has a triple-camera setup on the rear side while it has a dual-camera setup on the front like on Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. There is a 50MP main camera on the rear accompanied by a 13MP telephoto and 8MP ultrawide camera. The main camera does a decent job during the daytime and the 48 MP camera on the front takes good selfies too. The 48MP camera on the phone is accompanied by another 8MP camera.

The phone has no problem taking decent photos during daytime and under good lighting conditions, but it loses its clarity under low lights. There is also a super night mode on the phone to take the photos under low lights and the results are inconsistent. The photos in the super night mode look good, but they lose their sharpness in the process.

The camera on Tecno Phantom X can also record videos in 4K resolution and it looks decent as well. It can record 4K videos up to 60fps.

Performance and battery life

Tecno Phantom X runs on HIOS 7.6 based on Android 11 and is powered by a Mediatek Helio G95 (12 nm) chipset. This is a subpar performing specification for a premium designed smartphone. Though there are no glitches or lags on the phone when switching it through multi apps, the gaming performance is not so good. It does not even support a smooth frame rate in PUBG in the lowest game setting. The HIOS of the phone also seems a bit different and not so premium.

The upside of this phone is it has a liquid cooling technology system that covers the main heat area and even after continuous gaming, there is no heating issue.  

Giving life to the phone is a Li-Po 4700 mAh, non-removable battery that supports 33W fast charging. The phone can get a 70% charge in just 30 minutes. The battery backup is good, and you can enjoy gaming, watching movies or binge-watch your favourite series without worrying about the battery.

Storage, connectivity and other features

Currently, Tecno Phantom X only has a single variant which consists of 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The storage can be further increased with a microSD card for which the phone has a dedicated slot.

For connectivity, the phone uses a dual Wifi band, Bluetooth 5.0 and USB Type-C 2.0. The phone is not NFC-enabled, but supports FM Radio and has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The price of Tecno Phantom X is Rs 64,990.

Verdict

Design-wise, Tecno Phantom X is a great looking smartphone as it has opted for original design choices instead of going what is on the market. There are very few to no smartphones on the market that can provide such elegant designs in this price range. The curve display at the front, the silky-smooth glass design at the back are really admirable. The design on the back also is supposed to provide a better grip and eliminate smudges. The floating chatterbox, peek proof mode and theft alert system are some really handy features on the phone. It even has its own AI voice assistant named Ella.

However, the design only does not appeal to the users these days. The cameras and the performance also matter a lot and this is exactly where Tecno Phantom X falls behind its competitors. The performance of the phone does not justify the price range it comes in. The phone performs badly when used in playing higher graphical games and also you cannot enjoy the maximum setting of the game. Also, it is equipped with a 12nm chipset while others are getting 7nm or even 6nm chipset making them more efficient than Tecno Phantom X.

While Tecno Phantom X can boast of having one of the biggest camera sensors on the phone, the performance lets you down. The main 50MP camera on the phone captures subpar pictures. The colour rendering is very bad and the photos look faded compared to the other smartphones in this price range. The telephoto camera provides a decent photo while the ultrawide camera does not provide much either. The night mode on the camera is good though and captures some good photographs, but it is inconsistent in doing so.

The 90Hz curved display on Tecno Phantom X looks tempting and is able to play a 40k 60fps video, it lacks proper colour coordination. When watching a 4K 60fps video side by side with Samsung S10, the video on Phantom X looked faded and lacked colour enrichment. The difference was huge which was not expected.

While the phone provides a lot of handful and new inbuilt features making the use simple and efficient to the users, there are lots of rooms for improvements like better cameras, better chipset and a better UI. These improvements are a must-have because Phantom X is competing against the likes of Samsung A52 5G, OnePlus Nord 2 5G, Poco F3, Poco F3 GT and Realme GT Neo 2. All these phones provide a far more superior performance than what Phantom X is providing.