TECNO recently launched the TECNO Phantom 9 which is a very big upgrade from 2017’s TECNO Phantom 8.
The company has shown inconsistency with the launch of their flagship devices and hopefully, this means that TECNO is back on the flagship bandwagon. TECNO launched the Phantom 8 in late 2017 after skipping Phantom 7 bu the company didn’t launch a follow-up flagship in 2018.
The fresh and new Phantom device features head-turning flagship-grade specifications as it brings brand new features that make the long wait for the series return worthwhile.
A new major feature on the Phantom 9 is the in-display fingerprint reader. As we have seen with most of the recently launched smartphones, many phone makers have now started moving the physical fingerprint sensor, from the front or the back to under the screen. TECNO has also joined the party and touts to have developed a stacking solution for AMOLED screens and an optical sensor.
TECNO Phantom 9 is a Smartphone Powered by HiOS 5 based on Android 9.0 Pie. The Helio P35 is a great processor, no doubt. Coupled with 6GB of RAM, the Phantom 9 would definitely handle regular usage pretty well. But you shouldn’t expect to play heavy graphics-intensive games smoothly on the device.
Although, we don’t mean to throw any shade, the Phantom 9’s chipset isn’t exactly mediocre but MediaTek Helio P35 and “flagship” shouldn’t be in the same sentence in 2019 where there are more powerful chipsets.
It also features a 16MP rear camera with Quad-LED flash, f/1.85 aperture, 8MP 120° ultra-wide camera with f/2.4 aperture, 2.5cm macro photography, 2MP depth sensor with f/2.8 aperture, and a 32MP Front Camera with dual-LED flash. The camera department has been completely reworked when compared to its predecessor to give an amazing photo experience.
A point to note is that TECNO is the first company to break the limitations of a waterdrop notch by including dual-LED flashlight for the front camera.
When it comes to the display, the Phantom 9 features a large 6.4-inch full HD+ AMOLED screen with a waterdrop notch. TECNO has been pushing the bezel out of the door and the Phantom 9 is a big step in this direction as the Screen-to-body ratio is only 84.0%.
The TECNO Phantom 9 is powered by a 3,500mAh battery, which is the same battery size that the Phantom 8 had. We’d say that this battery size is rather small as compared to the big battery devices on the market today like the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019. But the phone promises a full day of usage.
Tecno Mobile launched the Phantom 9 earlier this month, but the phone isn’t available for purchase in the country yet. The Kenyan branch of the company hasn’t revealed any specific date to its availability as well, but at least we now know the phone will be here next week.
Below is a list of the TECNO Phantom 9’s full specifications.
Tecno Phantom 9 Specifications
| Network | |
| Technology / Frequency Bands | GSM : 850/900/1800/1900 MHz HSPA+ : 850/900/1900/2100 MHz |
| Battery | |
| Type | Li – Po |
| Capacity | 3500 mAh |
| Build | |
| Dimensions | 158.46×75.3×7.85 mm |
| Colors | Lapland Aurora |
| Display | |
| Size | 2340 x 1080 pixels |
| Type | color : |
| Colors | 16000000 colors |
| Secondary Display | no |
| Camera / Imaging / Video | |
| Camera | 16MP |
| Resolution | 4640 x 3480 pixels |
| Zoom | yes |
| Flash | yes |
| Secondary Camera | yes |
| Secondary Camera | |
| Resolution | 6528 x 4896 pixels |
| Flash | yes |
| Connectivity | |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Irda | No |
| Wlan/Wi-fi | Yes |
| USB | yes |
| GPS | yes |
| Data | |
| GPRS | Yes |
| EDGE | Yes |
| 3G | Yes |
| Media | |
| Audio Playback | Yes |
| Video Playback | Yes |
| Ringtones | MP3/AAC/ASF |
| FM Radio | Yes |
| 3.5mm Headphone Jack | yes |
| Memory | |
| Inbuilt | 128 GB |
| Memory Slot | Yes microSD/TransFlash |
| Messaging | |
| SMS | Yes |
| MMS | Yes |
| Yes | |
| Software | |
| Operating System | Android 9.0 Pie |
| Price | Expected Kes. 30,000/- |