The Tecno Phantom-series is Tecno’s line of flagship smartphones, starting from the Phantom 5, and grew up to the Phantom 8 announced in 2017. Sincerely, Tecno so raised the ‘bars’ of the Phantom 8 that a folk even had to ditch his Apple iPhone 6 Plus in favor of it, that was how serious the Phantom 8 was. And as you would expect, soon enough, we all had our eyes on the road, awaiting the Tecno Phantom 9 against 2018.
But for reasons known to Tecno Mobility, the company decided to skip 2018. As a result, some fellows have even concluded end-of-the-road for the Tecno Phantom series. Well, we might not know the exact reason why the Phantom 9 was deffered into 2019, but the Tecno Phantom series is back, and in this review, I’ll be sharing 3 reasons why the Tecno Phantom 9 is the company’s most innovative smartphone yet.
Tecno Phantom 9 Key Specifications
- Display: 6.4 inch pixels 1080 x 2340 Full-HD+ display
- Back Camera: 16 + 8 + 2 MP Main cameras with quad-LED flash
- Front camera: 32 MP front camera with Uniquely Placed front LED flash.
- Storage: 128 GB
- RAM: 6 GB
- CPU: Octa-core 2.3 GHz Mediatek Helio P35
- OS: HiOS 5.0 based on Android 9.0 (Pie)
- Battery: 3500mAh
- Others: In-display fingerprint scanner
Tecno Phantom 9 Review: 6.4-inch Display is Perfect Only with Full-HD+
As seen in the key specifications above, the Phantom 9 comes with a gorgeous 6.4-inch display. It is the first Tecno device to mount a display that large. But it is not the big screen estate that makes the display gorgeous, it is the choice of the resolution. On a smartphone with such large screen, the higher the pixel resolution, the better. Tecno understand this, and went with the choice of a Full-HD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels) resolution, instead of the HD+ (720 x 1520 pixels) screen seen in recent Tecno devices like the Camon 11s, or even the Camon i4.
Interestingly, the device come in about 84.83% screen-to-body ratio, measuring just 158.46 x 75.3 x 7.85 mm body, so inspite having such a large display, the device still come in a lightweight compact body, thanks to the U-shaped front-facing camera, and the uniquely placed front LED flash, which eliminated further space being assigned to the front LEDs.
KEY FACT: Despite having a larger 6.4-inch display, the Tecno Phantom 9 is still smaller and more compact than the previous Phantom 8 with 5.7-inch display, and of course, the Phantom 6 Plus with 6.0-inch screen: 158.46 x 75.3 x 7.85 mm against 160 x 79.5 x 7.9 mm
Phantom 9 Camera Review: Selfie Flash is the Most Innovative design I’ve seen so far in 2019
For me, this is the most innovative part of the Phantom. So on the Phantom 9, you are getting 4-camera sensors in all; 3-sensors at the back, and one upfront. The rear camera comprises of a 16-megapixel main camera with PDAF and quad-LED , 2-megapixel depth sensor for Bokeh and other AI geeks, and a large 8-megapixel wide angle lense.
The three sensor combinations above are optimized using the artificial intelligence of the CPU and that of Android 9.0 Pie, to give you the best possible camera experience on a device of this price range. But that is not my most innovative part just yet, seen that camera setup so many times already. The device even has a large 32-megapixel front-facing camera, but I’ve seen that before too. But can you see the dual front-mounted LED flash on the top bezels, just above the display? Awesome right! Men, it looks so beautiful and unique. Since the advent of Waterdrop, U-shaped, Dewdrop notch cut-out, most OEM have relied heavily on smartphone screen to illuminate the objects in low-light condition. Tecno have just stepped a little above that, providing a dual LED flash on that thin frame. This is a big thump up guys. Keep it up!
Tecno Phantom 9 Has Octa-core MediaTek MT6765 Helio P35 CPU
The CPU in the Phantom 9 is an Octa-core MediaTek MT6765 Helio P35 SoC clocked at (4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A53). It is pared with PowerVR GE8320 GPU, 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, expandable up to 256GB via microSD. The CPU is a 12nm architecture, fully optimized for AI and Android 9.0 Pie, and that takes us to the most interesting part of the Phantom 9.
Tecno Phantom 9 Fingerprint Sensor is a Screen Away
In-display fingerprint scanner they call it! It a tech seen on high end smartphones only. Perhaps, many other Helio P35 with in display fingerprint sensor should flood the market soon. But before now, the only Mediatek device using in-display fingerprint sensor is the OPPO Reno Z smartphone, which runs Mediatek Helio P90.
Tecno Phantom 9 Operating System and Others
The Phantom 9 is powered by Android 9.0 (Pie) based on HiOS v5.0. It comes with dual Nano-SIM with support for 4G LTE network. The device is available in Aurora of Aurora of Lapland Aurora, Blue and Champagne Gold, and fuelled by a 3500mAh battery out of the box.
