Tecno Phantom 9 Review

I’ve said a lot of things about techno phones and why I don’t recommend most of them. Well, this phone might just change that perception, and here’s why…

I’ve said a lot of things about techno phones and why I don’t recommend most of them. Well, this phone might just change that perception, and here’s why…

So first things first, this is an all-plastic phone. So we have a plastic back and a plastic frame with the screen being the only glass here. The phone also weighs 164.4g (5.78 oz) and is fairly slim on the edges.
It has a familiar design that we’re very used to. There appears to be a second microphone on the top for stereo audio recording. The volume and power buttons on the right. The speaker grill, micro USB, bottom microphone, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Then finally, the sim tray and micro SD slot on the left.

On the back is the triple camera setup with quad-LED flash.
I love this royal blue and purple gradient look which it kinda reminds me of the Techno Spark 4 I reviewed quite recently. Regardless, you may want to put a case on it or have a wipe on you at all times cos this is a fingerprint magnet.
For the screen, we have a 60Hz screen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Not the latest version of glass, but some amount of protection is better than no protection at all.
It􀍛s also an AMOLED screen at 6.39 inches diagonally and 1080 x 2340 px with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio.
Finally, a 1080p display. What this means is, you can now watch Netflix shows and YouTube videos in 1080p resolution without needing to downscale it first.
If 6.39 inches is not enough for you, you can also turn on two-button navigation to get rid of all the on-screen navigation buttons

Spec-wise, it has 4G LTE, with a lot of bands support
It is running on Android 9.0 (Pi) with the HiOS v5.0
Mediatek MT6765 Helio P35 (12 nanometre) chipset for the CPU and the PowerVR GE8320 GPU
With 128GB of internal storage with 6GB of ram across board. Then finally, a manageable 3500 mAh non-removable battery, which surprisingly, can last a whole day of light to medium phone usage.
Opening and closing apps had no issues. And the phone was even able to hold up some apps in the background.

For security, we have the usual android pattern and pin unlock features and a Face ID.
In case you didn’t notice, there isn’t a fingerprint sensor on the phone. Well, that’s because the fingerprint sensor is an optical under-display sensor, which works just fine.
It isn’t as fast as the Samsung A50’s own, more on that review up here. But it works, just as well.
Painfully, setting up alone can take up a whole 2 minutes to completely scan your finger. There’s the animation around the fingerprint sensor anytime you have your thumb against it. It fails about 40% of the time.

Techno included a dedicated game mode for heavy gamers, who would want to have the best performance out of their smartphone. I don’t see myself using this feature a lot cos I hardly play games on my phone lately but its there if you want it. And it simply allows you to select whichever apps you would want to optimize for gaming, so if you also do some intense work with certain apps on your device you can also use this feature.
Playing games on this shouldn’t be an issue. Although I couldn’t test out most games on this, I’m sure it could run PubG mobile and Fortnite under low settings.

For the rear-mounted cameras, we’re looking at a 16MP, f1.8 main lens, an 8MP, f2.4, 13mm (ultrawide) lens, and a 2MP, f2.8 lens for depth.
The camera has HDR support which helps get better low light shots.
In the camera app are so many features to choose from. From AI CAM, Beauty mode, Bokeh mode and AR shot.
The images are just OK for the main lens, but in my opinion, the ultrawide is unusable in most cases. Colours appear pale, a bad dynamic range that heavily blows out the highlights in the skies. And when you set your focus on the skies, the rest of the images are darkened up. There’s 2x zoom, but it’s digital only.
The macro lens works fine, but misses the subject a lot and the bokeh in live focus mode isn’t the prettiest I’ve seen so far. Recording video is at 1080p@30fps.

For front-facing images and videos, we get a 32MP camera with a 26mm wide view and HDR support. Overall, you should expect decent photos and videos with this. Just don’t use the beauty feature. It comes with some funny filters too, if you’re into that. Live focus work better with the front-facing camera.
Also records at 1080p@30fps