Blue_London
OG
A major appeal of the pixels is premium android experience at an excellent price. This isn't going to off that
You know that foldable phones have really hit mainstream when even relatively lesser-known brands start launching one. Although it has been serving markets like Africa for years now, TECNO has only recently started to spread its wings globally. This year, it made its most ambitious move yet, launching a phone in a market that is still considered niche and a luxury that few could afford. The TECNO PHANTOM V Fold, however, has a trump card that almost no other of its kind dares to use: a significantly lower price tag. But at what cost does that price cut come, and is it enough to give the PHANTOM V Fold the upper hand? We give the latest foldable phone a spin to find out.A beautiful phone with shockingly good performance, the TECNO PHANTOM V Fold's aggressive pricing is enough to make you overlook its minor flaws.
If I were to be about to get one, it would be able to run on our networks right?The internal front-facing camera uses a 13MP sensor and is easily outclassed by the 32MP selfie shooter on the outer display. Just like with most smartphones coming from the region, the PHANTOM V Fold applies aggressive “beautification” post-processing to the point of becoming a tad unrealistic. That’s especially true for Portrait Mode, which may misidentify people and start embellishing facial features and tones.
For its first-ever foldable phone, TECNO modified its custom Android experience with plenty of multi-window and multitasking features. Unfortunately, the HiOS 13 Fold user experience also comes with plenty of bloatware, some of which might be completely unfamiliar to most people. There are also some areas that feel rough around the edges, unoptimized, or even downright buggy. This is, fortunately, also the easiest part of the experience to fix, presuming TECNO puts in the work to push out updates quickly and regularly.
This entire experience runs on a 5,000mAh battery, which is admittedly one of, if not the largest for a foldable phone. Given its specs and its two 120Hz displays, however, the uptime practically evens out at the end of the day. The PHANTOM V Fold’s 45W charging speed isn’t exactly the fastest, but it’s almost twice what Samsung has to offer. There’s no wireless charging, though, but that’s also something that only the Galaxy Z Fold has anyway.
Sustainability
Just like any other smartphone these days, the TECNO PHANTOM V Fold doesn’t really score that high in this category. It deserves props for using recycled plastics for its back cover, but that’s a comparatively small part of the whole. The phone, however, takes the biggest hit when it comes to its longevity because it almost feels as if this phone isn’t built to last.
For example, there is no IP rating, not even an assurance beyond something along the lines of using a “splash-proof” coating. The hinge type might be at fault here, but anything that would give consumers some confidence is definitely welcome. Official IP certification definitely costs a lot, but given how fragile these foldable phones already are, it could be something buyers will be willing to pay for.
TECNO also doesn’t have a track record of software updates, at least not yet, and it’s only offering the barest of bare minimum for the PHANTOM V Fold, just two years, in this case. That can and will hopefully change now that the company is trying to play in the big leagues, where Google’s three-year commitment was almost laughed out of the room.
Value
If it hasn’t been apparent yet, the TECNO PHANTOM V Fold seems to have many of these small nitpicks and paper cuts, minor flaws that keep it from getting a perfect score. Granted, no phone is really perfect, even those from much bigger brands than TECNO, but are these drawbacks enough to ruin the overall value of this foldable phone? Fortunately, no.
When looking at the bigger picture, the PHANTOM V Fold offers what market watchers and fans have been asking for for years, an affordable foldable phone that doesn’t come in a clamshell form factor. The $1,100 price tag alone, which is nearly half that of the Galaxy Z Fold 4, is enough to turn heads, but that figure doesn’t mean that the product isn’t up to snuff. It’s less about cutting corners and more about providing the best set of features for that cost. From that perspective, TECNO managed to pull off a miracle and might be the first one to really come out with a flagship foldable phone for the masses. Unfortunately, only those in India will be able to get their hands on this wonder device, at least for now.
Verdict
A lot of smartphone manufacturers are trying to make foldable phones more normal, but filling the market with such devices solves only one part of the problem. By now, many people are already aware of the benefits of such a device, and almost everyone definitely wants to have a larger screen to watch or play on. The only problem left is an affordable option that lowers the risk when buying a comparatively less durable phone.
The TECNO PHANTOM V Fold is the first to really take a step in that direction. In some ways, it is better than the standard that Samsung set, and in other ways, it is at least on par. It is far from being perfect, and there’s a laundry list of flaws to nitpick. In the grand scheme of things, however, the PHANTOM V Fold delivers a solid foldable phone experience that’s well worth the $1,100, presuming you can get your hands on one.
The market for foldables is still marginal, but the demand for foldable phones is steady, backed by the number of sales. 2023 seems to be a year for foldables phones, with iterations of foldable phones from familiar brands and inaugural foldables from big and not-so-big brands. Vivo released its first clamshell foldable Vivo X Flip in China along with the second generation of book-style foldable Vivo X Fold2. We checked out the Vivo’s first attempt at a flip phone.The Vivo X Flip checks most of the right boxes but now faces even stiffer competition even in its home market.
Pixel for life over herethinking about upgrading soon.
My only real requirements are that it's got a good ass camera, is unlocked, supports dual sim and has wireless charging.
Last two phones been pixels but im considering maybe trying another brand