TECNO Phantom 9 review and features

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2021-02-18
Abraham Miller

The TECNO Phantom 9 was a breakthrough for TECNO in 2019. Besides that it's the first phone of the brand to feature an AMOLED display and an on-screen fingerprint sensor, TECNO Phantom 9 features a dual-LED front flash to snap brighter pictures even in low-light conditions. The Phantom series used to be the "flagship phone" of the brand, but it's quite unfortunate TECNO skipped the Phantom series in 2020, making the CAMON 16 Premier TECNO's best phone till date.

Besides the 6.4" FHD AMOLED display and in-display fingerprint, TECNO Phantom 9 comes in a single variant of 128GB ROM and 6GB RAM. It features an AI triple camera setup, a 32MP selfie camera, a beautiful-looking design, a 3500mAh battery, and operates on HiOS 5.0 based on Android 10. Here's our review on the TECNO Phantom 9 launched back in July 2019.

 tecno phantom 9

TECNO Phantom 9 Design

TECNO Phantom 9 is a polycarbonate build that looks colourful and well-polished. With only one color option TECNO described as "Lapland Aurora", we specifically love how the gradient color moves from kind of light blue to purple color, with a darker blue color tone between them. It's no more news that they moved the fingerprint sensor from the back to the screen. The rear looks clean with a noticeable and well-arranged vertical triple camera + flash setup. There's a 'Phantom' branding below the camera module, and a 'TECNO' branding at the lowest left corner.

TECNO Phantom 9 Display

As said earlier, the Phantom display is what makes it stand out from the crowd. It features a 6.4" FHD AMOLED display, which you'll also find in many premium devices made in 2019. The TECNO Phantom 9 screen produces well-saturated and punchy colours, and viewing angles are quite good and sharp at 400 PPI. With a perfect aspect ratio of 19.5:9, you'll enjoy an immersive viewing experience while streaming YouTube videos and any media content.

TECNO Phantom 9 Software and Performance

Powering the TECNO Phantom 9 is a 12nm MediaTek Helio P35 chipset. MediaTek MT6765 is an Octa-Core processor comprises of four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz, and another four Cortex-A53 with a clock speed of 1.8 GHz. TECNO also throw a 6GB of RAM here to enhance multitasking and reduce sluggishness and lagging while using the phone.

For your storage needs, TECNO slapped a huge 128GB internal storage here. It also features expandable storage up to 256GB with a supported micro-SD card. Phantom 9 comes with dual SIM card slots with support for 4G. Other features include Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, accelerometer, gyro, compass, proximity, etc.

The TECNO Phantom 9 runs HiOS 5.0 based on Android 9 Pie. HiOS 5.0, on Phantom 9, opens the world of AI technology on TECNO mobile. It comes with some fascinating and useful features like AI Assistant, AI Battery Lab, AI Beauty, Smart Panel, and many more. It also features the Intelligent Broadcast feature discontinued in newer versions of HiOS. Intelligent Broadcast helps you read aloud new messages, incoming calls, news, and more as soon as they arrive.

TECNO Phantom 9 Camera

The camera department is one place where the Phantom 9 shines out. It features an AI triple rear camera; comprising a 16MP primary sensor, an 8MP camera for 120° wide-angle shots, and a 2MP depth sensor. The camera interface is simple and comes with lots of modes like AI Camera, Beauty Mode, Bokeh/Portrait, AR Shot, Panorama, Wide-Selfie, etc.

The primary camera snaps decent photos and videos. Pictures shot on the Phantom 9 look punchy, clear and realistic. Though it doesn't feature a dedicated Night Mode like the recent CAMON series, it has a quad-LED flash that kicks-in in low lighting conditions to produce brighter and clearer pictures. The 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera works well, as expected. Though not up to the main camera level, it offers a wide range of view and it also doubles as a macro camera for taking close-up shots. You can switch between camera mode right in the camera interface.

For the selfie lovers, Phantom 9 comes with a decent 32MP AI selfie camera. TECNO didn't skip the front-facing flash as seen on most phones with water drop cutouts/notches. In fact, it has a dual-LED front-facing flash to light up your face and give you brighter pictures in dark places.

TECNO Phantom 9 Battery

Unlike what you'd get in 2021, Phantom 9 comes with a good 3500mAh battery. The Phantom 9 battery performs impressively, as it can easily power you for the entire day without worrying about recharging it. Thanks to AI Battery Lab, it comes with some features to help you save more battery juice and prolong screen time.

Official Customer Care Service for TECNO Phantom 9

Phantom 9 remains one of TECNO's best smartphone to date, and many people still have it as their daily driver. If you ever faced any problem or have an issue to fix on your Phantom 9, Carlcare exists to give you the best repair service. Carlcare is the official service provider for TECNO, Infinix, and itel. We can help you fix a broken screen, replace a damaged battery, and any other hardware/software-related issue on your Phantom 9. You can visit any Carlcare service around you to enjoy our top-notch repair service. Also, you can check the nearest service centre below.