TECNO Phantom V Fold Review: A Cheaper Foldable, But At What Cost?
The TECNO Phantom V Fold shows that it is possible to have well-designed but very cheap foldables, but for unrefined software and cameras, you will need very high performance.
Far from being a new brand in the Android phone landscape, TECNO has been selling low-cost smartphones in Africa and other emerging markets for more than a decade. The Chinese company has tried to move to higher price ranges in recent years and now wants to aim as high as possible with its first foldable phone. But is this proof that TECNO will follow the big manufacturers? Let's find out in our TECNO Phantom V Fold review.
TECNO Phantom V Fold review: I tested the TECNO Phantom V Fold (12GB/256GB) for 13 days. I was running Hios Fold on Android 13 (build number: AD10-H832AB-T-GL-230131V2603) December 2022 security patch. TECNO provided the equipment for this experiment.
What you need to know about the TECNO Phantom V Fold
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- TECNO Phantom V Foldable (12GB/256GB): Rs 89,999 (~US$1,093)
TECNO Phantom V Fold is the company's most advanced smartphone to date and the company's first foldable phone. In fact, a fact sheet on a brochure is often compelling.
Powered by the powerful 2022 Dimensity 9000 Plus processor with dual 120Hz LTPO displays (smartphone display and flip display) and 5000mAh battery with 45W charging cable.
The Phantom V Fold starts at Rs 79,999 (~$979) in India for the 12GB/256GB variant. Otherwise, expect a regular price of Rs 89,999 (~$1,099).
According to TECNO, the phone will be available in other markets when announced, but don't expect a US launch. The TECNO Phantom V Fold is available in black or white with a leatherette back.
what is good
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Perhaps the best thing about the Phantom V Fold is the flexible internal display framed by the pinhole camera on the right side. You're looking at a 7.85-inch 120Hz LTPO (OLED, 8:7) display, but the beauty is that you're getting a lower bezel here.
I found that the finger-width crease was still noticeable when looking at the screen from an angle, and I could still feel it when touching the center of the screen. Still, it's a big improvement over the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
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This panel is also very bright and vibrant, although we'd like to see an anti-reflective coating here. Similar to the Galaxy Z Fold series, the gloss is sometimes hard to miss. At least you get very thin glass here for its durability. Talking about endurance, according to TECNO, the screen is rated at 200,000 times, which is Samsung's best. Some brands like HONOR claim their folds are rated 400,000 times, but they haven't revealed the corresponding number for their foldable display.
The reduced Phantom V Fold can be folded with a so-called teardrop hinge. Although it's not the thinnest hinge we've seen. I noticed a bit of movement when I pressed the folded device onto the hinge and the right side, but the phone was still generally stable. This is a very seamless hinge design, although if you follow the hinge you can see a very small gap. Still, it's a big improvement over the best foldable phones.
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Close the TECNO Phantom V Fold and you get a 6.42-inch FHD+ smartphone screen, with Gorilla Glass 4 protection and a slight curvature to the right. Luckily, it's a 120Hz LTPO display to accommodate the panel's higher dynamic refresh rate.
Overall, I found this screen bright enough outdoors (with auto-brightness enabled, more on that later), reaching 1,100 nits, similar to the main panel. The 21:9 aspect ratio isn't as large as the Galaxy Z Fold 4's mobile screen, but it still makes the device comfortable to hold. This makes accessing the notification shade difficult, but you can adjust the settings so that swiping down opens the shade.
That curved back to the smartphone screen is comfortable when using gestures, though it admittedly doesn't do a good job of rejecting bad input when using the camera app. In particular, I found that sometimes I couldn't switch cameras because the phone recognized that my index finger was resting on the curve. It's a bit boring, but nothing changes the situation.
The Phantom V Fold smartphone screen comes into its own with its ultra-high aspect ratio from the Galaxy Z Fold range.
Anyway, TECNO offers a good number of options for both panels. You get a blue light filter, two color profiles of your choice, a color temperature slider, and four refresh options (120Hz, 90Hz, 60Hz, and auto change). Use the auto-switch option and you'll get phone screens down to 10Hz in some cases (like when reading e-books or viewing pictures). It's not surprising, but it's reasonable, and we're happy to see a 90Hz option joining the usual refresh rate modes for those looking for something in between.
High refresh rate screens require healthy levels of performance for a smooth experience and the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 Plus chipset delivers the goods. It's not Silicon's latest flagship, but it's still a very powerful processor on paper, and it pairs well with a foldable tablet/phone hybrid that's trying to cut costs to cut costs.
Benchmark tests put the phone on par with the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC on processor metrics, but it falls short of the Dimensional 9200 and the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. However, it falls well below below Silicon 2023 in this category.
It's worth noting that the phone delivers a respectable 89.8% stability up to 6908 points in the 3DMark Wild Life GPU stress test. For comparison, it's still better than the last results we saw for the Galaxy S22 series. However, during this test, the phone gets very hot, especially at the bottom and top.
Fortunately, the artificial performance is proven against real tasks. All of the day-to-day tasks I performed, such as scrolling through fonts, launching apps, and general web browsing, were generally smooth, with rare exceptions (more on that later). I ran a few performance-hungry games like Genshin Impact, which ran at generally smooth speeds with only a few stutters on average graphics and a frame cap of 60fps. The GameCube emulation was also very playable, although I certainly saw some lag with more demanding titles. We can attribute this to app developers who primarily focus on Snapdragon silicon, but it's still an important use case.
Some foldable phones compromise battery life, but that's not the case with the Phantom V Fold. The phone has a 5000mAh battery and I was able to get nearly nine hours of screen time with light usage when I was mostly using the small screen (watching/listening to YouTube and browsing Reddit). Otherwise, I was able to spend nearly seven hours in front of the screen, mostly on the big screen (browsing Reddit, watching YouTube, and gaming).
TECNO Foldable doesn't have the fastest proprietary charging solution on the market, but it still manages a respectable 45W of power. A full charge took less than 55 minutes in my tests, which is in line with claims from the brand. Unfortunately, wireless charging isn't supported, but at least the phone comes standard with a 45W plug and case.
The Phantom V Fold has two stereo speakers, which I found to be slightly louder than the Pixel 7 Pro (not too loud), but reasonably balanced. The laptop is equipped with a relatively fast and accurate side fingerprint scanner. Sometimes it was a bit difficult for me to figure out where the scanner/power button is (especially when it's folded), and sometimes it's hard to unlock the phone. But again, these were minor annoyances rather than deal breakers.
Lastly, the foldable supports Bluetooth 5.3 and WiFi 6. That's about the bare minimum I'd expect from a phone around $1000, and I've never had any connectivity issues with it. .
What's not so good?
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Our biggest issue with the TECNO Phantom V Fold hardware is that the fold isn't self-contained. In other words, the phone is completely open or completely closed.
The hinge sometimes holds the angle for a short time (usually between ~30 and 70~ degrees), but often closes or fully opens after a while. It's a shame considering Samsung and HONOR foldables, to name just two other common examples, offer a free "flex mode" hinge that adjusts the UI and some apps to adjust the screen orientation Ajar . . . The downside is that apps like YouTube and the camera app use a Flex Mode-style UI when trying to partially fold the device.
The Phantom V Fold can be fully opened or closed without a stand so the device is partially open.
Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and its IPX8 waterproof rating, the TECNO Phantom V Fold also doesn't have an official IP rating. Instead, TECNO informed us that the phone has a splash-resistant nano-coating. This lack of an official IP rating is believed to be due to the type of media used, but it's disappointing that it hasn't been tested for accuracy. It doesn't help that the phone weighs 299g, which is heavier than portable foldable devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 4 (263g) and HONOR Magic Vs (267g).
The biggest downside of the TECNO Phantom V Fold, however, is its software, and there are a few areas where the Android 13-based HiOS Fold skin and the brand's overall software strategy fall short.
The first problem is that there is a lot of bloatware out there. It's not the number of apps, but the fact that you've never heard of them before (eg Visha Player, Wolfe, BoomPlay). TECNO should really focus on quality control since the company's TECNO Spot Forum app contains undisclosed NSFW footage. If that's not enough, the drop-down menu prompts you to install various apps while using it (see the third image above).
The Phantom V Fold's software also seems to suffer from a general lack of optimization. Perhaps the most famous example is that opening the notification screen immediately after turning on the device causes a delay of about two seconds before the notification screen opens. I also noticed a lag of about a second when switching cameras. That's okay, but most modern Android phones quickly switch lenses.
Another major disappointment I had with the Phantom V Fold was that the smartphone screen's auto-brightness didn't work. It accidentally lowers the brightness to the absolute minimum, resulting in an incredibly boring experience.
The dropdown doesn't seem to work with Google Wallet either, because trying to link my credit card gives me an error message. "This phone cannot touch to pay," the message reads, adding that the device does not meet security standards for contactless payments. We have consulted TECNO about this but are still awaiting a response. Also, Netflix cannot be downloaded from the Play Store but works well with sideloading. However, there is no need to download such basic apps on a premium phone.
TECNO's HiOS looks like ByeOS due to bloatware, lack of polish and disappointing update outlook.
The bad software problem is compounded by the fact that the Phantom Vfold comes with a bad update policy. The company's representative confirmed that the phone will receive two major OS updates (TECNO did not disclose the promise of security updates). That's pretty low, making it hard to recommend against HONOR (three major OS updates) and Samsung (four major OS updates). Moreover, TECNO did not reveal the number of these updates. Considering that our Phantom Vfold is still running the December 2022 security patch at the time of writing this review, that's another matter.
Hadlee Simons/Android Authority
Not everything is bad; The HiOS Fold phone skin on Android 13 is still packed with features. You get folding options like app pairing, an intuitive gesture to run two apps side-by-side, Windows support, and the customization that happens when you close the fold. These unique folding features are in addition to general additions such as dual app support, privacy feature, PC integration (although only compatible with TECNO laptops), ability to draw letters on the lock screen to open apps, etc. But all of these positives pale in comparison to the negatives of a phone that costs around $1,000. Clearly, if the company wants to be a big global player, it needs to step up its software game.
One feature you won't find on the TECNO Phantom V Fold is SIM compatibility. It's okay if you don't travel, but if you fly several times a year, it can be a deciding factor. However, there is at least dual SIM support.
TECNO Phantom V Fold Camera Review
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The TECNO Phantom V Fold has a pretty solid camera system on paper. The rear camera setup is a 50MP main shooter, a 50MP 2x telephoto shooter, and a 13MP ultra-wide shooter. A 32MP selfie camera is located on the front screen while a 16MP sensor is available when using the foldable screen.
The Phantom V Fold's 50-megapixel main camera offers a respectable level of detail and a sufficiently accurate color profile during the day. Your phone beautifies subjects by default, so unless you want your subjects to look like wax figures, you should turn them off. The main camera can take bright and attractive photos in low light, but the big problem in these situations is the lack of consistency. Some low-light shots suffer from inconsistent noise handling, and it's not uncommon to find strong noise reduction and lots of noise on different parts of the same image.
Shutter lag is usually a bigger issue with this camera, especially in mixed light. A lot of times I take a photo and hold the phone still for a second or two and then close the phone just to take a blurry photo or a landscape.
Want to get a little closer to the action? Then a 2x50MP telephoto lens is at hand. Images captured with this sensor contain a high amount of detail, but generally have a different color profile and sometimes show exaggerated highlights compared to the original camera. However, if you push the optical resolution to 3x or more, you'll see severe depression and motion blur in some scenes. Processing multi-frame images with digital zoomed screenshots seems very slow.
If you want a wider view, we also have a 13 MP ultra wide camera. Unfortunately, this shooter has all the known weaknesses of a cheap ultra-wide sensor, including extremely blurry corners and lots of noise. The camera also sometimes suffers from ghosting, as seen when the plane appears in the background of my beer shot. At least it has autofocus, so you can take macro shots.
It should be noted that TECNO does not list Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) on its website for any of the rear cameras. This omission may help explain some of the blurry photos and the brutality of these shooters. Such an absence would still be a big loss considering the price of the device.
Moreover, TECNO Phantom V Fold offers plenty of selfie options. The smartphone's 32-megapixel in-screen shooter is the obvious choice, but you'll also find a 16-megapixel punch-hole selfie camera inside the foldable display. Both cameras will wash your face, although the 16-megapixel camera seems to take that to another level and eliminate reflections. And unfortunately, we often see ghosting here too. Some shots look like they were taken straight from the smartphone camera manual from 2010.
How fair is it that a phone called Phantom V Fold suffers from ghosting and is it still disappointing?
The TECNO foldable lacks most camera options, but this one is good. There's a portrait mode (including a beauty filter), a 50MP resolution option, a short film mode (record short clips in a chosen style), a super night mode, and the ability to use the screen of reception. Mirror screen for your themes.
The phone offers excellent video options with 4K/60fps recording, as well as an Ultra Steady mode, video bokeh function and an "Ultimate Video Enhancement" mode which adjusts the quality of night scenes. .
It goes without saying that if you want a consistently good or great photography experience, you shouldn't buy the Phantom V Fold. This main camera is the most capable and can sometimes take decent quality photos, but mixed shutter lag, secondary camera ghosting and general inconsistencies prevent it from competing with the best camera phones. And even in the folding space, there are better and more reliable camera systems from Samsung and HONOR.
Specifications of TECNO Phantom V Fold
| Specifications of TECNO Phantom V Fold | |
|---|---|
to sue | out of - 6.42 inch OLED - 120Hz refresh rate - 2550x1080 resolution - 21:9 aspect ratio - Victos Gorilla Glass Internal: |
processor | MediaTek Dimension 9000 Plus |
RAM | 12 GB |
Storage | 256/512 GB |
Performance | 5000mAh battery |
Cameras | outer back - 50MP main, ƒ/1.85 - Ultra wide angle 13 MP, ƒ/2.2 - 50MP telephoto, 2x zoom, ƒ/1.98 outer face Indoor selfie: |
audio | Stereo speakers |
SIM card | Dual Nano SIM tray |
Biometric | Side mount fingerprint scanner |
Software | Android 13 |
Dimensions and weight | Folding sizes: - 159.4 x 72 x 14.5 mm (measured at the hinge) Sizes Explained: Lester: |
Colors | black |
TECNO Phantom V Fold review: the verdict
Hadlee Simons/Android Authority
TECNO's first foldable phone is a milestone in this segment purely because of its price. Normally priced at Rs 90,000 (~$1,099), this is the cheapest flipbook phone you can get at the time of writing, and the starting price of Rs 79,999 (~$979) makes the point even more impressive. ነገር ግን ፋንተም ቪ ፎልድ ፎልድ ምርጥ ፣ ጥሩ ጥሩ የአፈጻጸም እና ትልቅ ባትሪ ከሚስብ ከሚስብ በላይ ይሰጣል ይሰጣል ይሰጣል ይሰጣል ይሰጣል። ይሰጣል። ይሰጣል ይሰጣል። ይሰጣል።። ይሰጣል ይሰጣል ይሰጣል ይሰጣል ይሰጣል ይሰጣል ይሰጣል ይሰጣል።።። ይሰጣል።
እንደ አለመታደል ሆኖ ፣ ፣ እዚህ የ የ Tecno ትልቁ ውድቀት ነው ፣ የፖላንድ ፣ ደካማ ደካማ የማሻሻያ ፖሊሲ አጠያያቂ ፖሊሲ Bloatware ከባድ ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነፃ የማቆሚያ ማንጠልጠያ እና አሰልቺ ካሜራዎች አለመኖራቸው የሚታጠፍ የሚታጠፍ የሚታጠፍ ባንዲራ ባንዲራ ገዳይ ባንዲራ ባንዲራ ለመግዛት ለሚፈልግ የማይረባ የማይረባ ሊሆን የበለጠ አጉልቶ።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።
የ Tecno Phantom v Fold ከጠንካራ ሃርድዌር በጣም በጣም ተወዳዳሪ ዋጋ ጋር ፣ ፣ ነገር ግን ሶፍትዌሩ ሶፍትዌሩ እና ከፍተኛ የሆነ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ። ይፈልጋሉ። ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ። ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ ይፈልጋሉ
ፋንተም ቪ ቪ ፎልድ ባለው ባለው ተጣጣፊ የስልክ ገበያ ገበያ ይገባል ይገባል እና ዜድ ዜድ ፎልድ 4 (በሳምሰንግ 1799.99 ዶላር) የጥቅሉ መሪ ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው ነው የሳምሰንግ ስልክ በ Tecno ስልክ ላይ እንደ ውሃ ፣ ፣ ባትሪ ገመድ መሙላት መሙላት ፣ ተስፋዎች ተስፋዎች ተስፋዎች ፣ ካሜራዎች ካሜራዎች ካሜራዎች flex ሁነታ ያሉ ያደርገዋል።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።። በጣም ከፍ ያለ ዋጋ ፣ ፣ ባትሪ በገመድ ቀርፋፋ ባትሪ መሙላት መሙላት በአንፃራዊነት ጥልቅ ጥልቅ ክሬም እና ስክሪን ስክሪን የማይመች ረጅም ረጅም አለቦት ነገር ነገር ግን ፖሊሽ ከማንም ሁለተኛ ሁለተኛ ነው
እንዲሁም ከHONOR Magic Vs ($1458.22 በ eBay) በኋላ ይጀምራል። ከቅንጭ-ነጻ የሆነ ማንጠልጠያ፣ Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC፣ eSIM
የኪስ መጠን ታጣፊዎች ታጣፊዎች አድናቂዎች ጋላክሲ ዜድ ፍሊፕ ዜድ 4 (999.99 በ Samsung) እና Oppo find n2 flip (£ 849 በአማዞን) ማጤን አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው አለባቸው ሁለቱም ስልኮች ባለፈው አመት ከፍተኛው እና የረጅም ጊዜ ተስፋ የተደረገባቸው ማሻሻያዎችን መልክ ያቀርባሉ።። የሳምሰንግ ስልክ የውሃ መቋቋም እና አልባ አልባ ባትሪ ያቀርባል ፣ የኦፒኦ ስልክ ደግሞ ትልቅ ስክሪን ያቀርባል እና በሚታጠፍ ላይ ከመጨማደድ።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።
ስለ TECNO Phantom V Fold በጣም አስፈላጊዎቹ ጥያቄዎች እና መልሶች
አይ፣ Phantom V Fold የአይፒ ደረጃ አልተሰጠውም።
ፋንተም ቪ ፎልድ ከ 6 GHz በታች 5 ጂን ይደግፋል ግን ግን ግን mmwave 5g ን አይደግፍም ምክንያቱም በአሜሪካ ውስጥ አቅርቦት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት እጥረት
አይ፣ Phantom V Fold የማይክሮ ኤስዲ ማስገቢያ የለውም። ግን ቢያንስ 256 ጊባ ማከማቻ ያቀርባል።
አዎ ፣ የ Phantom v Fold መታጠፊያ ስክሪን በላይኛው ሽፋን ሽፋን ስር በጣም ቀጭን ቀጭን የሆነ የመስታወት አለው።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።።
አዎ፣ Phantom V Fold የGoogle ውህደትን ያቀርባል። እንደ ፕሌይ ስቶር ጎግል ጎግል ካርታዎች ሌሎች የ google አገልግሎቶች ያሉ ያካትታል።።
አይ ፣ ፋንተም ቪ ፎልድ በአሜሪካ አይገኝም።የኩባንያው አይገኝም።የኩባንያው የቀድሞ አንዳቸውም በገበያ ላይ።።