Weekly poll: is the Tecno Phantom V Flip the foldable you've been looking for?

2023-10-04

Earlier this year Tecno’s premium sub-brand released its first foldable phone, the Phantom V Fold. Now the company has unveiled its first flip foldable too, the Phantom V Flip. While it targets the premium market, Phantom still offers attractive pricing – the V Fold was the most affordable entry into its segment and so is the V Flip.

Can the brand democratize flip foldables too? Let’s first have a look at the specs. The phone measures 88.77 x 74.05 x 14.95mm when folded and 171.72 x 74.05 x 6.95mm unfolded. The hinge can hold the display and cameras at any angle in the 30-150° range.

The display is a 6.9” panel with FHD+ resolution (22:9). It is an LTPO AMOLED panel with 10-120hz refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling rate. With flips, the external display is almost as important and here Tecno’s designers made an interesting choice.

The Phantom V Flip features a 1.32” circular display, similar to a smartwatch. It’s called “The Planet” and is an AMOLED panel with 352ppi pixel density and fun features like Tmojis, 3D interactive virtual pets and so on. Crucially, however, the odd shape limits what can run on this display – certainly not full-blown Android apps.

Around The Planet is the “asteroid belt-shaped” camera setup. Tecno is quite proud of this one as it has a 64 MP RGBW sensor in the main module with 0.8µm pixels, compared to the 0.7µm pixels of the 64MP RGB sensor of the Motorola Razr 40. Also on the back is the 13 MP ultrawide camera, which can work in conjunction with the main cam with the Dual-Camera Fusion technology. You can use the main cam for selfies, of course, but the phone also has a 32MP camera inside with the first dual-LED flashlight in a flip phone.

The V Flip is powered by the Dimensity 8050, basically a relaunch of the 1300 and 1200. It’s paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage. The phone has a 4,000mAh battery with 45W Flash Charging (0-50% in 15 minutes, 100% charge in 45 minutes).

Tecno will sell the Phantom V Flip in India at ?50,000. Our sources tell us that in Europe the phone will be €700, in other markets it should cost around $650. For more details, check out our full review.

That’s the Tecno Phantom V Flip, let’s look at the competition. The Motorola Razr 40 has the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip, which lags behind the Dimensity, and a 4,200mAh battery with 30W wired and 5W wireless charging. The camera setup is very similar with 64+13MP modules on the back and a 32MP selfie cam. The inner display is a 6.9” 144Hz LTPO panel (FHD+ again), on the outside there is a 1.5” line display. The Razr 40 sells for €900/?60,000 for an 8/256GB model, which is still significantly higher than the €700/?50,000 of the Tecno.

Then there is the elephant in the room – the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5, which is the most widely available flip foldable and will likely become the best-selling foldable of 2023. This one flexes Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 muscles with a small 3,700mAh battery (25W wired and 15W wireless charging, 50% in 30 minutes). The inner display is a 6.7” 120Hz panel (FHD+), the outer display is the much more functional 3.4” panel that supports all Android apps. In terms of cameras, there is a dual 12MP setup outside and a 10MP selfie camera inside. The Z Flip5 goes for €1,200/?100,000, although it can frequently be found for a lot less. The Samsung is certainly a better phone, but even with a decent deal will set you back significantly more.