Tecno Phantom 9 Review, Specs and Price in Nigeria

TECNO Phantom 9 – Figment of UNREAL Imagination

TECNO PHANTOM is back and only continues the journey on its quest to redefine consumer photography experience but this time packs a whole lot of outstanding features partly engineered but the ever-changing smartphone industry innovation and competition.

The Tecno Phantom 9 sports a 6.4-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, rocks triple rear cameras and packs a 3,500mAh battery

The Hong-Kong based sub-brand company which has seen numerous other smartphones like; Camon 11, Pouvoir 3, Spark 3, Smart 3 Plus all released to the public in the first quarter of the tech year doesn’t seem to be resting on its laurels and with reported news of other brands making moves, it can only get better for the Nigerian mobile market.

Phantom 9 Pros

Android 9 Pie with HIOS 5.0

In-display Fingerprint scanner

128GB built-in storage space and 6GB RAM

Triple AI camera lenses

Fast Charge

Phantom 9 Cons

FM Radio Absence – Whole time in the world to remove this?

Poor Battery Capacity

No wireless charging capability

Tecno Phantom 9 Overview

The Phantom series is seen as the pinnacle of Tecno’s smartphone prowess and in fact, holds the flagship position represented by the most specs you can find on a Tecno smartphone. Tecno Phantom 9 which is the latest in this series was just launched, and yes it packs quite a punch fitted into a well-crafted aurora design body.

Some of the highlights of the smartphone include a first-time in-display fingerprint scanner on a Tecno smartphone…first of its kind, triple AI rear camera to get the photography job and a massive 6.4-inch Full HD AMOLED display. If that is not interesting just yet, then I don’t know what is! Put in the budget-hugging pricing at ₦77,000 and we are all partying hard at Cubana Lounge, Owerri.

Tecno Phantom 9 Design

TECNO got the entire design thing in check thanks to Samsung AMOLED screen, the display on the Phantom 9 is super sharp and crisp, and despite being 6.4-inch, the Phantom 9 is still much compact and smaller than the previous Phantom 8 with a 5.7-inch display.

Apart from the stack of triple camera lens and flash, the back of the smartphone is all plain and smooth with nothing but the brand tag in sight with Tecno moving the fingerprint sensor to a built-in on-screen fingerprint sensor, which places your security right in front of you; the first of its kind from Tecno Mobility.

The TECNO Phantom 9 has a U-shaped water-drop notch cut-out housing the 32-megapixel single-lens front camera, making the display a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and giving the device about 83.4% screen-to-body ratio.

More akin to the Samsung Galaxy A70 smartphone design…

The volume rockers and textured power button are housed on the right edge with the micro USB port, headphone jack and microphone occupy the bottom edge – well-played BOYS!

Tecno Phantom 9 Display

The Phantom 9 offering of aforementioned 6.4-inch AMOLED display with 1080×2340 pixels resolution and supported multi-touch functionality(up to 10) just about allows the smartphone to lie comfortably in the hand.

The viewing angles are great all the same thanks to the 19.5:9 aspect ratio, providing a full view true theatre-like experience great for your social media and streaming activities.

Tecno Phantom 9 Camera

On the camera department, TECNO continued with their recent trend of triple (3) camera sensors at the back, just like on the Camon 11s or the Camon i4. Of the three sensors, there’s the 16-megapixel main sensor with quad-LED and PDAF, a 2-megapixel depth of field lens, and a large 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens.

The 16MP camera focuses on offering much more intelligent photography, as it owns newly upgraded AI Auto Scene Detection and AI HDR with the 2MP providing support for Bokeh effect.

There is also the 120° wide-angle lens capture with the 8MP for more contents, just like what you are seeing from your own eyes and extreme Macro Photography tech with TECNO of the claim that the Phantom 9 could possibly take extreme close-up shots from even 2.5cm without missing any small detail.

On the front, you are getting a single 32-megapixel selfie camera with a uniquely placed dual-LED flash just on the bezels above the display.

Tecno Phantom 9 Software and UI

The Tecno Phantom 9 boots the Android 9.0 Pie OS with an Octa-core MediaTek MT6765 Helio P35 processor clocked at 2.35 GHz sitting comfortably at the top. This is a power-efficient CPU built on a 12nm architecture, and optimized for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology

There is also a case to be made of the latest HiOS v5.0 which pretty much packs crazy tweaks but then the unavailability of upgrades for their custom skin on their old smartphones continues to put them at war with consumers.

The Tecno Phantom 8 still ships with Android 7.0 Nougat sporting HiOS 3.0 skin. Disappointing!

Tecno Phantom 9 Storage and Performance

A 3,500mAh battery will only raise the best possible negative eyebrows but it sure keeps everything working and should last you a day if heavy usage is not involved.

Also, you will be having 128GB of storage space from the get-go on your smartphone to keep all your music, files, pictures and movies with an option for expansion with an SD card up to 500GB.

The MediaTek MT6765 Helio P35 processor with integrated PowerVR GE8322 GPU wouldn’t come out the most efficient neither would it tick the entire boxes for your gaming sessions but sure would keep everything covered for you.

Pricing and Availability in Nigeria

The Phantom 9 is available in the Nigerian market and has already gone up for sale on different store outlets and TECNO shopping stores but the major thing that has left consumers in awe has to do with the pricing attached to the device.

At just ₦77,000 for a unit, this can be seen as a considerable steal. COuld have been due to the wave caused by Xiaomi with their Redmi Note 7 which has already sold thousands of units already or Oppo F11 and F11 Pro another powerful device with a low price point.

Thing is TECNO might have come to terms with the competition provided by the new guys in town and what better way to make a statement. We won’t forget them in a hurry for aking every Nigerian a smartphone user though!

The TECNO Phantom 9 comes with a single colour option – the Aura Blue.