Tecno Phantom 9 Review: Feature Loaded Mid-Ranger
"Transsion Holdings" smartphone brand Tecno is developing its presence in smaller cities and towns in India rapidly. Tecno Phantom 9 is the offering from the brand which offers a lot at less price. The budget segment is the battleground for lots of brands to position their brand in it. Indian Consumer wants value and features and Mobile Phone Maker Tecno is trying to catch the pulse of consumers with Tecno Phantom 9. The Phantom 9 brings with it a lot of premium features at just INR 14,999. We’ve tested the potential of the device and here is what we think about it.
Design: The Tecno phantom 9 comes with a sleek design and premium looks. Dual-Gradient color with Glass-like finish adds a feather in its cap. At the front, it sports a 6.4-inch Full HD+ AMOLED Display with a thick bezel at the bottom. The Top bezel is thinner than the bottom and comes with a water-drop style notch, which houses 32-MP selfie shooter. One very interesting thing is that when we looked at the phone, we did not see any dedicated front flash, but when we fired up the camera app expecting the screen to be used a flash, the two dedicated LED flashes fired up. An interesting and quite useful addition for low light selfies and video calls. Over to the rear, there is vertically aligned Triple camera setup with LED flash. Speaker grill, USB-2.0 port and 3.5 mm jack sit at the bottom side of the smartphone. SIM tray is situated at the left side while the power button and volume rockers at the right side of the smartphone. For security, it comes equipped with In-Display fingerprint sensor as well as face unlock feature and both perform their duties quite well. The Techno Phantom 9 comes with a Soft TPU case in the box, this case is quite well made and will protect the Phantom 9 right out of the box.
Display: Tecno Phantom 9 offers 6.4-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels and screen ratio of 19.5:9. Being an AMOLED panel, the screen is bright enough to maintain its legibility under direct sunlight. We watched lots of videos on it and believe us; it didn't disappoint us even for a second. The color production of the display panel is accurate and it offers great viewing angles. It lacks Widevine L1 certification, so don’t expect Full-HD streaming on NETFLIX and Prime Video. Overall, the smartphone offers a crisp and vivid display and it won’t disappoint you.
Camera: Tecno Phantom 9 equipped with a triple camera setup at the back. It features a 16 MP primary sensor, 2 MP depth sensor, and 8 MP wide-angle lens. It can capture decent pictures in daylight conditions but struggles in low light conditions. Zooming the captured pictures will not resulting in Pixilation. The smartphone offers 32 MP selfie shooter with LED flash on each side. The performance of the selfie camera is really good, considering its price. Apart from this, the Camera app offers lots of features such as AI mode, Beauty Mode, Bokeh Mode, and Panorama Mode. The camera is able to record Full HD video at 30 frames per second offering decent stabilization and of course, there is no 4k which is fine considering the price bracket.
Performance: The Phantom 9 is powered by Octa-core MediaTek MT6765 Helio P35 processor which is paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, expandable up to 256GB via microSD. The smartphone won’t disappoint you on when it comes to performance. We played a lot of high-end games like PubG, FreeFire and Wrestling Revolution to name a few. The processor and RAM can easily take care of your gaming experience. Daily tasks and switching between apps are very smooth. We enjoyed playing games, watching videos, calling and navigating from one place to another throughout the day but the phone didn’t leave us in the middle, Thanks to the power-efficient AMOLED screen and the 3500mAh battery.
Verdict: Tecno Phantom 9 looks premium and Packs with lots of premium features too. People think of brand before the features and Tecno has evolved over a period of time significantly. The smartphone has potential and it is nicely priced at INR 14,999. So, If you are looking for a device with higher specification such as 6.4 inch AMOLED display, 6GB RAM, 128GB ROM, and 32 MP Selfie Camera, Tecno Phantom 9 is worth considering. If you want to look elsewhere, Samsung M30( Read Our Review) and Redmi Note 7 Pro are worth mentioning.
