Tecno Phantom X2 Review: 4 pros and 4 missing features

Tecno continues to conquer market, and therefore we’ve decided to take a closer look at one of its most recent products, Tecno Phantom X2. This smartphone has a  balanced range of characteristics and comes from the flagship line.

A lot has changed since the release of the first generation, and even if this time all the attention of users is focused mainly on the Phantom X2 Pro, the basic version also has plenty of interesting features. Today we will discuss them and highlight a few features that we are looking forward to seeing in a new generation of the gadget.

Tecno Phantom X2 purchase: 4 Pros

Pioneering design

The smartphone is available in black and silver colors, but shades are not the most important advantage of the design. Tecno decided to create the gadget in such a way that the smartphone looks fresh, unique and stylish. And therefore in this model, just like in the Phantom X2 Pro, a block of cameras is put forward and located in the center. In this case, however, it is gigantic.

I like this design, unlike my colleague Kirill, who for some reason began to have nightmares due to it. Being aesthetically good, let it be considered a subjective opinion, there are obvious reasons to assert the practical benefits of such a design. If you put your smartphone on the table without a case, it will not wobble and will remain lying flat. Moreover, the same goes with a case from the box, which repeats precisely the edges of the camera block.

And this case has a folding ring around the camera. With it, you can put your smartphone horizontally on the surface. With such a stand, it is convenient, for example, to watch videos while having a meal. Furthermore: the case is matte, nice to touch and fingerprints-proof, quite thin, weighs a little more than 200 grams and has rounded edges on the sides. Therefore, it is comfortable to hold the device.

The screen could not have been better

Made using AMOLED technology, the display with an impressive diagonal of 6.8 inches is covered with durable Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, which implies that the strength of the screen is actually the most up to date. The display itself has impressive specifications. The resolution is high, and the aspect ratio, as for me, is quite comfortable for watching videos and even movies. It is also important that the smartphone supports a refresh rate of 120 Hz.

By default, Tecno offers an automatic frequency adjustment function, which has a positive effect on the autonomy of the device. In general, this is a juicy, bright and colorful AMOLED with an expanded DCI-P3 color scheme. And yes — you can't do without Always On Display. The menu has a large number of stunning dials — nature, space, and all sorts of geometric shapes.

The harmful PWM characteristic of this type of screen is low both at maximum brightness and at minimum, so that the vision is not affected by prolonged use, sensitive people may not worry. Another pro is the optical fingerprint scanner, which is located just under the display. It is located comfortably and works with incredible speed (although who is surprised by this now?). However, you can also use a face iD: with your eyes closed or with a photo the device will not unlock.

Pro Software. I mean it

Tecno Phantom X2 comes with an 8-core MediaTek Dimension 9000 5G processor (the same as the Pro version). It is made according to an N4 process technology, and this suggests that it is more perfect and faster than the  older series with a slightly more extended process technology. So, what do we have inside: one high-performance Cortex-X2 core with a frequency of 3.05 GHz, four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores with a frequency of 1.8 GHz and three productive Cortex-A710 cores with a frequency of 2.85 GHz. As a graphics accelerator — Mali-G710 MC10.

Currently, the Dimension 9000 is hardly a leader, but it is not far behind the market. The hardware is aimed at demonstrating a great gaming experience and it also gives more opportunities in photo and video processing scenarios. For example, a smartphone can process more than 9 billion pixels per second when creating a photo. In practice, this power is really tangible. Users feel comfortable in games of any level, there are no unnecessary delays and freezes. At the same time, the heating is not overwhelming. And what else does the user need?

The gadget got almost a million points in the AnTuTu benchmark. Everything is fine in the system, too, and multitasking here, as has already become familiar in the market, is supported by pumping additional RAM from internal storage. And of course, powerful hardware has powerful autonomy: an impressive battery capacity of 5160 mAh is enough for a whole day and a half of work at a non-average load, and there is always a fast recharge from zero to hundreds with a 45-watt charge in an hour.

Cameras are enough

On the one hand, it may seem that the set of main cameras is a little sparse. Here they are: the main 64 MP, ultra-wide-angle 13 MP and macro 2 MP. The main module is distinguished by the presence of additional white subpixels in the RGBW sensor. What does it give him? To put it simply, the camera captures more light rays than conventional sensors. In this case, the light is 160% more. This gives the camera improved photosensitivity, which, in turn, has benefits for pictures taken in poor light.

Tecno Phantom X2 may be far from its "big brother" in this regard, but in live pictures you can see that the shooting level is not so bad. In daylight, of course, everything will be excellent, saturated and with a more or less correct white balance, and at night the camera provides a good picture thanks to ISOCELL technology, which reduces the amount of noise. Everything, of course, depends on AI. In this case, it is better to experiment and try to work both with and without it.

The wide-angle camera is more or less typical and does not differ from competitors in any way, as does not the macro module. Fans of mobile shooting will appreciate the presence of optical stabilization, phase autofocus, blur adjustment and 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. Among other things, the front camera seems to be more important here. Tecno did not skimp to build a module of 32 MP here. The front-facing shots are bright and fresh, and the group selfie mode is useful for a whole bunch of friends.

4 Features that Techno Phantom X2 Lacks

Flat screen

The rounding on the sides is a particularity of this smartphone’s screen, also related to as a "waterfall screen". To be honest, I don't like this format very much. It has obvious disadvantages: firstly, sometimes you can encounter false taps, and secondly, there is an opinion that such a screen is much easier to break if not carried in a case.

Of course, it is impossible to exclude the subjectivity of such disadvantages, and moreover, a lot of users may like this form factor, because the rounded edges of the Tecno Phantom X2 on both sides, both front and back, have a positive effect on usability. Like the latest iPhone models, a smartphone with this design is more ergonomic for the arm.

Metal body

Tecno announced that the limited edition Pro version of this device has a body that consists of 50% recycled plastic collected in the Indian Ocean, only the frame made of aluminum. The base version also has a plastic case, and even though it has a nice structure, it would be a privilege for the flagship to have a fully metal case. Anyways, all this does not negatively affect the user experience.

Optical zoom in the camera

The basic version does not have the zoom feature, it is digital. Although it would seem that competitors have long had models that support optical magnification of at least 2-3 times. Perhaps this cannot be considered an incredibly important option. Fortunately, Tecno has a choice. The Pro version supports an optical 2.5-x zoom, and in addition it is also the world's first extendable portrait lens.

More powerful charging

A 45W adapter is good. However, the new product from Tecno significantly loses in this regard to its closest competitors, who can boast of 60 watts, 85 watts, and even of 100 watts. I don't think this is a big problem, considering that the Tecno Phantom X2 charges from zero to half in 20 minutes, but an hour-long charge up to a hundred is still somewhat annoying.

Price and Conclusions

It has a stylish design, a great screen, good hardware, acceptable autonomy and good cameras. The model is very similar in characteristics to the Pro version, but differs in a weaker set of cameras. This means that the smartphone is more aimed at users who are not so important to the camera, let it do its job well for the money.