Tecno has gained a reputation among emerging markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as a reliable yet somewhat unremarkable phone manufacturer. Their phones are good daily drivers but nothing outstanding.
However, in recent years, Tecno has slowly been creeping up towards midrange devices. This is true with the Phantom X series of phones.
The Phantom X2 and X2 Pro phones were launched late in 2022 and have been making waves across the world due to their design, camera layout and pricing. While both the X2 and X 2 Pro are similar, they only difference in the camera department.
Specs
As we have come to expect, specs will often not matter much the higher you go. The Tecno X2 Pro comes with a 6.82-inch AMOLED FHD 1080 x 2400. It comes with a MediaTek Chipset, the MediaTek Dimensity 9000, comes in 64 GB 4GB RAM, 128 GB 4 GB RAM and 256 GB 8 GB RAM variants and runs on Android 12 OS.
It has a 64 MP main camera lens, a 13 MP ultra wide angle lens, a 2 MP depth camera sensor and a 32 MP wide front camera; it also has a 5160mAh battery capacity advertised to fill up to 100% from 0 in 1 hour.
Where it gets interesting: The design of the Phantom X 2 and X 2 Pro is interesting. Tecno went for a central camera layout, but the huge camera bumps appear a little odd in its soft edges against the phone’s sharp edges. It also is worth noting that the cameras are large and oversized, but this makes the Phantom X2 and X2 Pro easy to spot. The main camera lens features a retractable lens, which is pretty interesting.
On how the cameras work, the wide and ultra-wide cameras take good photographs with a respectable dynamic range with much sharpening done by the software. The selfie camera also works great, though suffers a little when it comes to adding bokeh to selfie videos.
Software and UI
As said, the X2 and X2 Pro runs Android 12, and much more specifically, the HiOS 12 flavor. The HiOS has a lot of feature such as edge panels, which take advantage of the Phantoms’ curved screen.
However, a major downside is that the software comes with a lot of pre-installed bloatware. While most can be disabled or even uninstalled, the Tecno apps, most of which you may never even use, cannot be uninstalled.
Battery life
As we have come to expect, Tecno are masters in optimizing their phone batteries. The Phantom X line works well as a full charge can see it last a full day on moderate to heavy usage.
Verdict
The Phantom X2 and X2 Pro sell in some regions for between $700 and $800, which is much closer to the price of well-known flagships such as Samsung S22. Therefore, the Phantom X2 and X2 Pro are a hard sell for anyone looking to spend that much as they will get better hardware and software on the S22.
So, while good phones on their own, the pricing means that they are competing with well-established flagships in some regions – a tough sell.
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