The Tecno Phantom eight is here and I will take you through some of the awesome features that this latest smartphone from Tecno has to offer. It is a 5.7 Inch smartphone with a metallic finish edge with off screen navigation buttons and a lot of other features that we are going to have a look at.
First of all let’s check the type of accessories that come with the packaging. This is one of the most unique packaging that I have unboxed this year. Check my unboxing video here.
Okay now this here is the Champagne Gold version Tecno Phantom eight that I am holding. As you can see it has two cameras at the back in what is known as the dual camera set up. I will talk about the dual camera set up later in the video. Right from the box this Phantom 8 has a screen protector already installed.
Tecno has been generous enough to offer these free accessories with the Phantom 8. The back cover scratch protector, a very unique phone case that makes the phantom eight look like a gadget from the transformers movie and the fact that we have a SIM ejector tool means that the back cover is non removable.
On the right side of the packaging we have a Fast charging charger with a USB type C cable. The advantage with the Type C cable if you have never handled it is that you can plug it in both ways and it will work perfectly. The earphones also look elegant and come with an inbuilt microphone for hands free operation.
Ports and Connectors
When it comes to ports and connectors the Tecno Phantom eight comes with a USB type C connector that can allow for faster charging and high data transfer speeds as compared to the micro USB port too.
At the bottom we have the mic and speaker openings and from what I can observe, the Tecno Phantom eight does not have a secondary mic for noise cancellation or better audio for video recording.
The Phantom 8 is a 4G enabled smartphone and you can enjoy 4G speeds with the appropriate 4G SIM card. The SIM tray is on the right hand side of the Phantom 8 and can hold one two SIM cards or One SIM card and an SD card. But I bet that you won’t need any SD card.
Battery
The non-removable battery inside has a capacity of 3500mAh which is a great improvement from the 2700mAh battery that the Phantom 6 had. And this big capacity comes in a slim body. Coupled with a fast charging charger, this will sure give users value for their money.
Storage
Why? Because the Phantom eight comes with 64 GB internal storage. That’s right 64 gigabytes! As for now I only have 47 GB left but that is still a lot. If needed the storage can be expanded to 2TB. That’s right again two terabytes of expandable storage!
Memory
It’s only fair that the Phantom eight has 6GB of RAM and a 2.6 GHz Octacore processor so as to match the big storage specifications.
Camera
The Tecno Phantom 6 comes with a dual back camera set up. At the back there are two cameras one being a 12MP camera and the other being a 13MP camera. One camera is used in normal mode while the other is activated when the 10X optical zoom is set. The same also works foe videos except that the optical zoom goes to only 6X in video shooting mode.
The front camera is an amazing 20MP and comes with Dual Flash and upto 8 levels of beauty mode for better looking selfies. I would require another whole article or video just to explain the Phantom 8 camera features. And that video is also coming soon.
Software
The Phantom eight runs on Tecno’s own HiOS 3.0 version based on Android’s 7.0 Nougat. I guess we will have to wait and see if it will be upgradeable to Android Oreo in the near future.
There is also this small point that you have notices all along in this video. Well it’s called a T- Point and it can be used to launch apps, launck the multi-tasking window and going to the home screen much faster without the need for pressing the home key at the bottom. You can set the Apps that can be opened via T point from its settings shortcut. Only 5 apps can be added to T point and changing any app is done by touching and thus replacing any app.
Now these are the features that I hope Tecno will improve when it comes to the next version. First is the fingerprint smudges on the back cover. I don’t have to suffer from these because I am and will always be a fan of any phone case that is provided.
I would also like to have 3 independent ports, two for the Dual SIM and an SD card one. We all know that data exists to fill up available space.
I don’t mean that the 64GB internal storage is not enough but its better for the user to utilize all the available resources. That is without giving him/her the choice of either using a second SIM or an SD card.
Get a taste of the Tecno Phantom 8 user interface by watching this video of the screen recording.