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Tecno Phantom 9

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Price in Kenya Ksh 24,500
Display 6.39 inch
Camera 16MP + 8MP + 2MP
RAM 6 GB
Storage 128 GB
Chipset Mediatek Helio P35
O.S Android 9.0 Pie
Battery 3,500 mAh

KSh 24,500 KSh 25,000

Out of stock

Tecno Phantom 9

Tecno, by and large, is not known to produce any high spec phone, let alone flagships. The best they go to is the midrange space and this where our journey takes us. The Tecno Phantom series, though very inconsistent, has been one the most spec’d phone within the Tecno lineup while still being an average midrange, which says a lot about the brand. The focus of our review today is the Tecno Phantom 9, an extremely mixed bag of good and bad that leaves someone a little confused. Come along.

Tecno Phantom 9 specs and price in Kenya

Price Ksh 24,500
Display 6.39 inch
Camera 16MP + 8MP + 2MP
RAM 6 GB
Storage 128 GB
Chipset Mediatek Helio P35
O.S Android 9.0 Pie
Battery 3,500 mAh

Display and design

The Tecno Phantom 9 has quite the highlights. It comes with an AMOLED screen, one of the very few devices from the Tecno stable to have one. The 6.39-inch infinity u teardrop notch houses the selfie camera, getting a screen to body ratio of 84.0%. it has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and is quite vivid, even in direct sunlight, which is a very welcome upgrade. Being an AMOLED panel, the media consumption is unrivaled in the whole of the Tecno segment and it is a welcome development to see that they no longer over-rely on LCD displays.

The build is polycarbonate plastic, both front and back, here we have a vertical triple camera module. In a change of tradition, we now have an under-display optical fingerprint scanner, although it’s largely for optics. We get to keep the 3.5mm jack but what a disappointment to find it is still using micro USB!

Performance and storage

Truth be told, Tecno has never really been about powerful chipsets, and the Tecno Phantom 9 is no different. It carries the Mediatek MTK6765 Helio P35 chipset, alongside an octa-core 2.3GHz Cortex A53 CPU and a PowerVR GE8320 which in all circumstances considered in regular midrange performance. It will certainly not impress the power user, but it handles regular tasks with ease although it steps down the graphics once you start on serious gaming.

The storage configuration on board is 6GB for RAM and 128GB for internal storage, with an option for additional mass storage expansion through a dedicated microSDXC card. It’s great with multitasking and regular use is a breeze. Visit the official website to learn more.

Camera

Tecnos main selling point has always been the camera, and in this case, the Tecno Phantom 9 is studded with a triple camera array, a 16mp wide-angle lens, an 8mp ultrawide, and a 2mp depth sensor. as with many budget phones, the camera performance is average at best. It takes decent photos at optimal lighting conditions, but once those start to deteriorate, so does the quality. It struggles with low light and the bokeh and portrait photos are hardly accurate, but still usable. The camera can record 1080p video at 30fps. Upfront, we have a generous 32mp sensor that can record 1080p at 30fps.

Battery

The Tecno Phantom 9 has a 3500 mAh non-removable Li-Po battery which easily takes you the day. It is however very disappointing that e get a power-draining screen while at the same time a downgrade in battery capacity. Over and above, we don’t get fast charging because the phone comes with a micro-USB connector, which leaves us 10W standard charging which fills up in a sluggish 3 hours. It would have been interesting to see a fast charging implementation on a Tecno but I guess we are not there yet.

Software

Straight out of the box, the Tecno Phantom 9 gets the Android 9 Pie-based HIOS 5.5 with a probable upgrade to Android 10. But the moment you jump into the interface, your excitement drops. The whole system is ridden with bloatware, from the home screen to the apps tray and pretty much throughout the phones. There are random apps that pop up pretty much everywhere without warning. This is unlike most custom skins from every other OEM in the market. You can toggle off some of these pleasantries, but the fact that they come as default is annoying enough. Besides that though, it should be smooth and fast.

The Tecno Phantom 9 is supposed to be a strong midrange contender, but it feels like an anticlimax. The specifications are basic at best, and even the fingerprint scanner is unreliable, in addition to the face unlock. The AMOLED is nice, but that’s about it. It is a hard sell in this particular segment but I guess there is always something for everyone.

Buy more Tecno phones in Kenya.

LAUNCHSeptember, 2019
SUPPORTED NETWORKS
2GGSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
3GHSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
4GLTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800), 28(700), 38(2600), 40(2300), 41(2500)
BODY
Weight164.4g
Dimensions158.5mm x 75.3mm x 7.9mm
Body Material-
SIMDual SIM (Nano-SIM)
DISPLAY
Size6.39 inches (84.0% screen-to-body ratio)
TypeAMOLED capacitive touchscreen, with 16M colors
Resolution1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio, (403PPI)
ProtectionCorning Gorilla Glass 3
PLATFORM
Operating SystemAndroid 9.0 (Pie)
ChipsetMediatek MT6765 Helio P35 (12nm)
ProcessorOcta-core (4x2.3 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4x1.8 GHz Cortex-A53)
GPUPowerVR GE8320
MEMORY
RAM6GB
Internal Storage128GB
Micro SD SlotYes, up to 1TB - dedicated slot
CAMERA
BackTriple: 16MP, f/1.8, PDAF + 8MP, f/2.4, 13mm (ultrawide) + 2MP, f/2.8, depth sensor
FeaturesLED flash, HDR, panorama, 1080p@30fps
FrontSingle: 32MP, f/2.0
FeaturesHDR, 1080p@30fps
SOUND
LoudspeakerYes
3.5mm jackYes
Alert typesVibration, ringtones
CONNECTIVITY
WLANWi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth5.0, A2DP,LE
GPSYes, with A-GPS
USBmicroUSB 2.0
NFCNo
RadioYes
SENSORS
FingerprintYes, (under-display, optical)
Face IDNo
AccelerometerYes
GyroscopeYes
ProximityYes
CompassYes
BarometerNo
BATTERY
Capacity3500mAh
TypeLi-Ion, non-removable
COLORSLapland Aurora

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