Tecno Phantom 9 Review

What do you expect from a 15k smartphone to offer? The competition in the segment is quite high, every brand has some offering within 15k, but Tecno flame-up the price range with Phantom 9. It is a feature-rich smartphone – triple camera, 6GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage etc. are a few.

The phone looks good and has promising features, but what about the performance, let’s find out.

Design

Nowadays, most of the devices come with glossy back, Tecno also used glossy back panel. Beneath the glass, it added a 3D print that adds more beauty to the phone. According to the company, the bottom layer is superimposed with Kevlar's technical sense, which adds to its overall value.

The Tecno Phantom 9 boasts a curved glass-like panel with aurora reflective gradient design on the back that gives it premium looks. The thin phone, 7.75mm thick, is comfortable to hold.

The front looks similar to many, with a dot-notch screen that holds 32 MP front-facing camera and two hidden LED flash. The 6.4-inch FHD+ AMOLED dot-notch display has 600 nit brightness and 403-pixel intensity index. The screen produces vibrant colors with balanced contrast. Colour temperature can be managed using the Eye Care Mode transforms your whole experience of streaming videos and playing games.

The phone has in-display fingerprint to offer a seamless unlocking experience. A symbol of in-display fingerprint appears when you pick up or press the power button. Place your finger at the right spot to access your device securely.

Camera

Tecno Phantom 9 has 16MP + 8MP + 2MP rear AI camera setup at the back. It has F1.8 Night Algorithm 2.0 and quad flash along with AI camera. The combination enables you to capture beautiful images even in low light.

The sunlight images come with a decent amount of details and popping colours. The AI camera takes care of the shooting needs and switches to the required mode. The three lenses capture a good amount of colours and depth in a snap. The bokeh mode takes really good shots, but troubles with focus.

The front 32 MP shooter captures beautiful images. It comes with AR emojis, that comes with high-end devices, enabling you to click images with emoji filters to your face.

Tecno has smartly managed to hide two front-facing flashes on the dew-drop notch, which is somehow almost invisible. This enhances the usability of front shooter for video calls and selfies even in dark.

Performance

Tecno Phantom 9 is powered by a 2.3GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P35 SoC, paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. It comes in the only combination, which seems promising. The phone runs HiOS 5 based on Android 9.0 Pie operating system. The UI is stuffed with bloatware, which can irritate you with loads of notifications.

The phone runs smoothly and loads app quickly, though the processor used here is not top of the line. But screen disappointed us, we experienced glitches sometimes when opening a new app or trying to access the top shortcut drawer.

Phantom 9 can easily handle basic operations including internet browsing, multimedia streaming and social media without any hiccups. For high-graphics intensive apps and games, it won't be able to sustain the top-notch performance. Gamers who prefer PUBG or other high graphics-intensive games would be disappointed with its performance.

Battery

The phone is backed by a 3500mAh battery that let you enjoy have fun for the entire day or more with moderate usage. In one full charge, it was capable to provide power for one and a half day. While watching videos, it can last for more than 4 hours and 27 minutes.