The Phantom 9 hit the Ugandan market recently and we have had a chance to interact with it for the past 2 weeks.
If follows in the footsteps of 2017’s Phantom 8 albeit a new redesign and keeping up with the current trends of 2019, of what we have come to expect of a smartphone.
So expect conversations on the waterdrop notch, long gone are the bezels, in-screen fingerprint reader, face unlock, a whopping 6Gigs of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.
2019 right? That is not all, as the Phantom 9 poses with an array of 3 Cameras in the numerical territory of 16MP+2MP+8MP at the back and 32MP at the front.
So how is to first hold the Phantom 9 out of the box
Well, it felt quite small compared to the 8 before it and this compact nature makes you ignore its gargantuan 6.4” FHD AMOLED screen. We are happy TECNO opted for an AMOLED screen this time around over the LCD.
Advantages of AMOLED are way up there from increased screentime, deep blacks when watching content among others.
Still, on the compact conversation, packaging for the Phantom 9 is minimalistic at best. You will forgive our comparison to last years Phantom 8 but this came in a big box while the Phantom 9 one is only a fraction of the former.
In the box, you’ll find the usual paperwork, the phone itself, wall break (it is not a fast charger), Micro-USB cable, SIM card ejector pin, faux back cover, and the earphones.
The phone feels compact and comfortable to hold and its Lapland Aurora color schemes which are a mixture of blue and purple are a delight. The Triple AI cameras at the back are vertically aligned with a main 16MP shooter, 8MP wider angle and 2MP depth sensor cameras adjacent to the Phantom branding and the word TECNO (also vertically aligned) at the bottom.
The volume rockers and power button are on the right rail while the SIM card plus SD expansion tray on the left.
The surprise omission was the USB-C at the bottom which has since been replaced with Micro-USB port but TECNO managed to include a 3.5mm headphone jack and speakers at the bottom. Apart from the waterdrop notch at the top of the phone’s screen, another surprise was the dual-LED flash whose inclusion is also a nice addition.
What does it feel like to use the phone?
The phone was smooth largely to thank is its 6GB of memory. The Phone is powered by Android 9.0 Pie atop TECNO’s HiOS. We shall discuss more of this in our upcoming review.
The fingerprint scanner works at best, but is noticeably slower but worry not, TECNO allows you to set up the usual 4 pin code and the use of face unlock. This worked pretty well in well-lit conditions even in the night but we advise you to stick to the fingerprint and the pin since its not secure.
Availability
We started off explaining about the phone’s launch in the country. Yes, the Phantom 9 is available at most TECNO branded stores retailing for UGX 919,000. Do we recommend you to buy yourself one? Let’s find that out after our in-depth review of TECNO’s newest flagship.
