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Tecno Phantom 9 Review – Times Now


Tecno Phantom 9

Tecno Phantom 9&nbsp


Key Highlights

  • Tecno Phantom 9 price in India is Rs 14,999
  • It comes in 6GB RAM and 128GB storage model
  • Tecno Phantom 9 will be available via Flipkart

Product Name:Tecno Phantom 9

Brand Name:Tecno Mobile

Price:14,999/-

Transsion Holdings’ smartphone brand Tecno Mobile recently unveiled its premium offering Tecno Phantom 9 in India. The phone comes with rich features, attractive holographic design, triple camera setup, an in-display fingerprint sensor, and face unlock system, which makes it a promising device. But considering the current budget segment scenario which has been entirely disrupted by established brands like Xiaomi, Realme and Redmi — Tecno Phantom 9 will either sit in the shadow or play head to head against the big players like Redmi Note 7 Pro and Realme 3 Pro in the market. 

So we have been using the phone as a daily driver for a couple of weeks now. Here’s what we think about the latest device by Tecno that symbolises the brand philosophy “Expect More”. 

Pros

  1. Visually appealing holographic lines
  2. AMOLED display
  3. Decent camera performance

Cons

  1. Average battery capacity
  2. Lags while running graphic-intensive games

Tecno Phantom 9 Review: Display

Tecno Phantom 9 has a 6.4-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. There is a 600 nit screen brightness, 100000:1 Contrast and 19.5:9 display ratio. The screen on the phone is both tall and sharp that helps in offering an immersive multimedia viewing experience which would surely not disappoint the film freaks. With 19:5:9 ratio, the phone will make you want to indulge in movie marathons or extended gaming sessions. There are features like Reading mode, Bike mode, WhatsApp mode, Eyecare and Do Not Disturb options in the notification panel to suit your daily requirements. The read mode especially comes as a handy feature as it prevents strain in the eyes and makes reading less stressful while the WhatsApp mode seemed almost of no use. 

The large display sports a waterdrop notch design which houses the selfie shooter and leaves enough room for the screen. There are minimal bezels on the sides with little thicker at the bottom.

There is a fingerprint scanner too which is incorporated underneath the display. The green flashy fingerprint mark that automatically appears on the screen makes the sensor easy to reach, but it works not as fast as you would expect. It takes a second to register the fingerprint and another second to unlock the device. The face unlock system, on the other hand, gave better results. It takes only a split second to unlock the phone. You will be better off using facial recognition than the fingerprint sensor.

Tecno Phantom 9 Review: Design

The 3D nano-holographic lines with rain-jazzing up the Lapland Aurora hue and gradient finish makes the Tecno Phantom 9 a crowd-pleaser, even with the cover, the phone feels posh and aesthetically appealing. For some of you, the three-toned colour shade might not be an attractive deal, but it will be a win-win situation for those who like loud and bright colours.

It weighs 164 grams and measures 7.5mm that makes it altogether thin to hold and easy to handle, however, its curved edges might make it prone to accidental slips and falls; but with the sleek back cover you get a better hold of the device. 

The phones come in only one Lapland Aurora colour option and ships with a Black cover case, a charger, a SIM eject tool, a standard set of documentation, and earphones. 

Tecno Phantom 9 Review: Camera

Besides the good looking exterior, the back of the phone is adorned by a triple camera module which comes with an LED Flash. It features a 16-megapixel sensor with f/1.85 aperture, an 8-megapixel 120-degree ultra-wide angle sensor with f/2.4 aperture, and lastly a 2-megapixel depth sensor with f/2.8 aperture. 

The camera produced natural-looking images in an adequate amount of indoor and outdoor lights with a good level of contrast and colour production. Surprisingly, the photos even zoomed in showed exceptional results; they managed to reflect a decent amount of clarity and focus on the entire frame. 

Its camera app offers as many as five options, namely AI cam, Beauty, Bokeh, AR shot and Panorama. Each of them worked well, with impressive results in the Bokeh effect. The clarity of the subject and colour reproduction in Bokeh remained intact as with regular AI camera. 

Tecno Phantom 9 AI camera sample

Tecno Phantom 9 AI camera sample

Tecno Phantom 9 AI camera sample

Tecno Phantom 9 Bokeh mode camera sample

The 32-megapixel selfie camera, on the other side, produced decent looking selfies but you shouldn’t expect a lot from it. On zooming, we could notice that the images were pixelated. 

There’s a lot of grain and distortion in the images taken in low-light conditions. It struggles to process sharp selfies, but you have the patience to adjust the lights and camera angles, you can manage to pull off good pictures. In low light, the camera fared well. It could put together vivid images at night, which is an added advantage over its decent rear camera qualities. 

Tecno Phantom 9 Review: Performance and battery

Phantom 9 comes in only one 6GB RAM+128GB of storage model which seemed sufficient for day to day use. Apps loaded quickly, and we could easily jump between multiple apps simultaneously without having to face lagging issues. 

The phone runs HiOS 5 based on Android 9.0 Pie operating software. Under the hood, it comes with 2.3GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P35 SoC. Though the processor used here is not top of the line, we did not face any issues. It is not super fast, but enough to meet your daily needs. 

If you are one of those who love playing high graphics-intensive games like PUBG or Fortnite, you might be left dissatisfied with the phone; as it lags and heats up quickly which might annoy you while you are enjoying the game. It is not an ideal device for games but works well with light usage.

It can get you through the day smoothly, and with 3500mAh battery capacity, you can easily stretch the entire day with moderate to high usage. We were found looking for charger usually the next morning with 20 per cent battery left in the tank. If you do not use your phone too often, you can at least stretch to one and a half days without having to look for a charger. Although there is no fast charging support, it refuels quickly. 

Tecno Phantom 9 Review Ratings

Design: 8/10

Display: 8/10

Performance: 7/10

Cameras: 7/10

Battery: 8/10

Overall: 8/10

Tecno Phantom 9 Review: Verdict

Indian consumers tend to not trust brands that are relatively new in the market but trust us when we say Tecno Mobile’s latest premium offering Tecno Phantom 9 defies all odds and shines with rich features. It is priced at Rs 14,999 for the 6GB RAM+128GB storage version. It is an impressive looking phone with aesthetically appealing holographic design. You can shoot satisfactory images and enjoy lag-free performance. 

We would say, if you are on a strict budget and are slightly willing to go for a not so famous phone brand rather than going for established brands such as Xiaomi, Samsung, Motorola, Oppo or Vivo then Tecno Phantom 9 can be your option otherwise Realme 3 Pro and Redmi Note 7 Pro can be considered too. 





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