Tecno Phantom X2 Pro review: Intriguing design, irksome software

Tecno isn’t a model that will probably be acquainted to could within the west, however the Chinese producer is a serious participant in Africa, the place it edged out Samsung final yr to develop into the biggest telephone model. Tecno is part of Transsion Holdings and follows an analogous construction as BBK, counting different telephone manufacturers Itel and Infinix as siblings. While BBK targeted on key Asian markets and is now making inroads within the west, Tecno turned to Africa to drive momentum exterior its dwelling market. Tecno has a big retail community in key international locations within the African area, and the model is now focusing on different rising markets. It already has a foothold in India and the Middle East, and is trying to achieve market share in these international locations with its newest gadgets.I have never coated Tecno a lot, however that is altering with the Phantom X2 Pro. The Phantom collection covers the high-end class in Tecno’s portfolio, and the newest mannequin has quite a bit to supply: the Phantom X2 Pro is the primary telephone to characteristic a retractable portrait lens, and it has a singular again made out of recycled ocean plastic. With Tecno gearing up for a worldwide launch for the Phantom X2 Pro, let’s check out what you are getting with the gadget, and whether or not it could go up in opposition to extra established manufacturers.Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: Pricing and availability(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)Tecno unveiled the Phantom X2 Pro at a launch occasion in Dubai on December 7, 2022, and the gadget is occurring sale in a number of weeks. There are two variants within the Phantom X2 collection: an ordinary mannequin and a Pro model. The Pro mannequin will get the retractable lens and makes use of the Dimensity 9000, and also you get a again made out of ocean plastic, 50MP Samsung digicam, and 5160mAh battery. The customary Phantom X2 has the identical inside {hardware} however comes with a 64MP digicam as a substitute of the 50MP lens.The Phantom X2 is available in Stardust Grey and Moonlight Silver shade variants, and consists of 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage as customary, with Tecno following within the heels of Xiaomi and different Chinese manufacturers in rolling out 256GB as the bottom storage tier. The Pro mannequin is accessible in Stardust Grey and Mars Orange variants, and options 12GB of RAM together with the identical 256GB of storage. The Phantom X2 collection is launching in over 60 international locations, nevertheless it won’t be coming to Europe or North America. As said earlier, Tecno’s key focus is rising markets, and the Phantom X2 Pro will probably be out there beginning in India, Nigeria, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Turkey, and the Philippines.In Saudi Arabia, the usual Phantom X2 will begin off at 2,699 Saudi Riyal ($717), with the Phantom X2 Pro happening sale for 3,499 Saudi Riyal ($930). Tecno says these figures are according to what the gadgets will price in different markets. Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: Design and display(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)The apparent speaking level with the design is the digicam housing on the again. I’ve seen quite a lot of attention-grabbing designs over the course of 2022, and Tecno’s ridiculously massive rings for the digicam modules is likely one of the most placing but. It is just like what ASUS did with the Zenfone 9, however the modules are even bigger right here. That mentioned, the outsized design works very well right here, and it provides the gadget a bit extra of a particular design.The daring styling mixed with the colourful orange hue provides the Phantom X2 Pro quite a lot of character — the perfect half is using recycled supplies. Tecno goes up in opposition to the likes of Xiaomi, Vivo, and Samsung, so it must do one thing just a little totally different to face out. The digicam housing is a good place to begin, and the model adopted that up with a singular Mars Orange shade variant that is made out of recycled ocean plastic sourced within the Indian Ocean. This is not an everyday plastic end just like the Galaxy S21 FE, however has a gritty texture that is extra according to the vegan leather-based again of the Find X2 Pro.This texture provides the telephone quite a lot of character, and having used quite a lot of gadgets with glass and polycarbonate backs this yr, the Phantom X2 Pro stands out due to the colourful hue and the supplies used. Tecno says it was in a position to reduce down on carbon emissions by 38% by utilizing recycled supplies, with particular person again covers producing 2.4g fewer emissions on common. That’s a pittance once you issue within the world manufacturing business, however each little bit makes a distinction, and I like the truth that Tecno went this route for the Phantom X2 Pro.Image 1 of 6(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)The remainder of the design is simply as attention-grabbing: the aluminum mid-frame has the identical orange hue because the again, and the refined curves at the back and front make holding and utilizing the telephone a delight. The construct high quality and match and end are on par with the perfect Android telephones, and there are completely no points on this space. Coming in at 195g, it is not too heavy both.Like most manufacturers, Tecno has forgotten in regards to the 3.5mm jack and MicroSD slot, however you do get a dual-SIM tray right here, and the package deal features a charger and USB-C earbuds. What’s a extra egregious omission is ingress safety; with different gadgets providing this characteristic as customary these days, the Phantom X2 Pro is on the backfoot.Overall, Tecno did a fantastic job reusing plastic waste for the again cowl, and the brilliant orange hue makes the Phantom X2 Pro that rather more attention-grabbing. I’d have preferred to see ingress safety of some type, however aside from that, the Phantom X2 Pro  nails the fundamentals. (Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)The Phantom X2 Pro has a big 6.8-inch AMOLED panel with FHD+ (2400 x 1080) decision and 120Hz refresh, and there’s a lot to love right here. The panel has good colours and is vibrant in open air use, and there’s a respectable quantity of customizability in tweaking the colour stability.You additionally get an always-on mode, and just like ColorOS and MIUI, you may have a wide selection of clock kinds out there. Tecno makes use of good refresh charge switching out of the field, nevertheless it’s straightforward sufficient to pick out the 120Hz mode as default within the settings. The interface feels clean to navigate, and the excessive refresh works nicely in Chrome and social media.Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: Hardware and battery(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)The Phantom X2 Pro is powered by MediaTek’s 4nm Dimensity 9000. With the Dimensity 9200 now official, it might have been good to see the telephone characteristic MediaTek’s newest platform, however the Dimensity 9000 has quite a bit to supply as we head into 2023. I used a number of telephones with the Dimensity 9000 in current months, and it does a fantastic job at intensive workloads whereas nonetheless managing to ship good effectivity figures.Thanks to the Dimensity 9000, you will not discover any slowdowns right here. I’m not going to speak in regards to the {hardware} an excessive amount of because the Dimensity 9000 is a recognized amount at this level. I did not see any slowdowns by any means within the week that I used the X2 Pro, and the 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is greater than enough for many customers. The telephone has Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, and I did not see any points on this space. There’s a good collection of 5G bands as nicely — 1/3/8/28/38/40/41/77/78/79 — together with world 4G connectivity.The telephone is fluid in each day use, and does job with visually-intensive titles. The one problem I’ve is with the vibration motor; it would not ship good suggestions and comes throughout a bit flat when utilizing gesture navigation and the keyboard. I have never run into this specific drawback with most gadgets in 2022, and that is an space that Tecno wants to deal with with subsequent launches.Switching over to the battery facet of issues, the Phantom X2 Pro has a big 5160mAh battery that lasts all day with none points. Even with heavy use, you should not have any points getting the telephone to the top of the day. Tecno would not use the USB PD customary, as a substitute relying by itself 45W charging tech. The bundled charger does job charging the gadget totally in over an hour, however you miss out on wi-fi charging.Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: Cameras(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)Tecno is not significantly well-known for its digicam tuning, however the model is aiming to alter that with the Phantom X2 Pro. place to begin in doing that’s the {hardware}, and the gadget has lots to supply on this space. There’s a 50MP Samsung GNV 1/1.3-inch module with massive 1.2 micron pixels — the identical because the Vivo X80 Pro — and that is joined by a 13MP wide-angle lens that additionally doubles up for macro pictures, and a brand new 50MP portrait module with a retractable lens.The 50MP module is highlighted with an orange accent, and it’s fairly cool to see the lens jut out of the chassis when portrait mode is activated. You can manually retract the lens, and the digicam will shut consequently. The lens switches to 2.5x mode when prolonged, and in the usual 1x mode it stays contained in the chassis.Using a telephone with a retractable lens is simply as attention-grabbing as gadgets from three years in the past that had motorized entrance digicam modules, and the novelty would not put on off. That mentioned, I’m undecided the retractable motor is as sturdy right here. The digicam interface itself is customary fare, with the capturing modes specified by a ribbon and the filters for AI scene recognition, timer, full-res 50MP mode, and settings simply accessible.Image 1 of 7(Image credit score: hj)(Image credit score: hj)(Image credit score: hj)(Image credit score: hj)(Image credit score: hj)(Image credit score: hj)(Image credit score: hj)Having by no means used a Tecno telephone earlier than, I wasn’t certain in regards to the high quality of the photographs. I used to be pleasantly astonished on this regard; the Phantom X2 Pro delivers vibrant photographs with nice dynamic vary and shade accuracy in daylight situations, and whereas the {hardware} on supply is among the many finest out there, there’s quite a lot of tuning work wanted to get constant photographs.The telephone did a fantastic job in low-light conditions as nicely, producing pictures with good colours and little to no seen noise. Highlights are managed nicely, and whereas the telephone tends to shoot at decrease ISO ranges to attenuate noise, you do not miss out on an excessive amount of element. The portrait lens is implausible as nicely, providing creamy bokeh and doing a fantastic job with background segmentation. The default capturing mode makes use of AI for scene recognition, and it did a good job locking in on topics and figuring out numerous scenes.The wide-angle lens is not fairly up to speed, nevertheless it manages to ship usable pictures more often than not. The devoted night time mode makes an enormous distinction for low-light pictures, and it routinely kicks in if the digicam detects the ambient lighting to be too low.Overall, the Phantom X2 Pro does a fantastic job on this space. You get good photographs in any lighting scenario, and the retractable lens on the again is a enjoyable inclusion that makes a distinction.Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: Software(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)This is the primary time I’ve used a Tecno telephone, and I used to be concerned about seeing what the software program has to supply. The Phantom X2 Pro runs HiOS 12 based mostly on Android 12, and it’s a closely personalized pores and skin that appears very totally different to different manufacturers. Setting up the telephone is easy; Google mandates all producers to make use of an analogous move, so transferring information to the gadget was acquainted.Tecno’s HiOS 12 is unrefined and closely skinned — it is clear that the model must do quite a lot of work on this space. That mentioned, there are a number of translation errors when configuring the in-screen reader, and it feels just like the interface is designed for a Chinese viewers with the worldwide model getting direct translations to English. The dwelling display seems to be acquainted, however the notification shade is cut up right into a Control Center-esque toggles part and a pane that solely surfaces notifications.I’m not a fan of this structure, and whereas different interfaces observe an analogous construction — MIUI involves thoughts — there’s a option to swap again to the usual Android notification pane with each toggles and notifications in the identical view. That is not attainable right here.What’s extra annoying is that there isn’t any option to customise the pull-down gesture to floor the notification pane. I take advantage of this gesture a number of dozen instances a day to see incoming notifications, however in HiOS 12 the gesture pulls up the search bar. There’s no option to change this habits, and the interface makes it more durable than essential to entry notifications. Other frustrations embody not having the ability to prepare the house display simply; you’ll be able to’t delete icons en masse. There’s no Google dialer both, with Tecno bundling its personal various. (Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)There’s quite a lot of stuff baked into HiOS, together with floating home windows just like MIUI, edge panels, and the flexibility to run two situations of a service (restricted to messaging companies). The app drawer seems to be cluttered due to the alphabetized itemizing, and it is not attainable to change this structure. You’ll discover quite a lot of bloatware put in out of the field right here, and whereas most of it may be disabled, that is not the case for Tecno’s personal utilities.The Phantom X2 Pro will solely get the Android 13 replace within the second or third quarter of 2023. The most egregious of those is a digital assistant referred to as Ella. It’s restricted in its usability and is irritating to make use of, and the truth that you can’t disable it’s irksome — even Samsung allows you to disable Bixby on its gadgets.Using the interface jogged my memory quite a lot of the preliminary days of MIUI, ColorOS, and EMUI, when these interfaces lacked polish and have been tailor-made for the Chinese market. HiOS has some option to go on this space, and whereas it will get a number of issues proper, it is clear that Tecno has a protracted option to go. And on that topic, there isn’t any point out of what number of platform updates the Phantom X2 Pro will get. The telephone is launching with Android 12 in December 2022 — three months after Google formally launched the newest model of Android — and Tecno’s historical past, it seems to be like a protracted wait earlier than Android 13 makes its option to the gadget. While Tecno did not reveal a timeline for when the Phantom X2 Pro will get Android 13, the model said that the rollout will probably be someday within the second or third quarter of 2023, and that simply would not reduce it for a tool on this class.Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: The competitors(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)There’s no scarcity of alternative in the event you’re searching for a tool with high-end {hardware}. I’m a giant fan of the Xiaomi 12 collection; Xiaomi nailed the design and in-hand really feel with this era, and the gadget has thrilling {hardware} mixed with a stellar digicam, helpful software program options, and quick wired and wi-fi charging tech. Realme’s GT 2 Pro can be an underrated gadget that will get quite a bit proper. It has an attention-grabbing design on the again, dependable {hardware}, identical nice display as the remainder of BBK’s high-end portfolio, and set of software program options. The GT 2 Pro is now promoting in India for ₹49,999 ($605), and that is a fantastic worth for what you are getting. Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: Should you purchase it?(Image credit score: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)You should purchase this if:You’re searching for a telephone with a singular againYou need dependable {hardware}You want cameras that take good photographsYou desire a telephone that lasts all day with heavy useYou should not purchase this if:You desire a telephone with uncluttered software programYou want ingress safety or wi-fi chargingYou’re searching for well timed software program updatesTecno obtained quite a lot of issues proper on the {hardware} entrance with the Phantom X2 Pro, however that’s the case with most telephones lately. It’s the software program that’s the greater differentiator, and Tecno is considerably lagging behind its Chinese rivals on this space. HiOS 12 is closely personalized, has quite a lot of pointless options that do not have quite a lot of utility, and the interface lacks refinement. Combine that with a lackadaisical perspective towards updates and you’ve got a telephone that does not measure as much as the likes of the Xiaomi 12, Find X5, and Vivo X90.Ultimately, it would not make a lot sense to choose up the Phantom X2 Pro contemplating different manufacturers ship refined software program with a greater feature-set and well timed updates. Countries like India and Saudi Arabia have a different collection of gadgets from main producers, however in different markets — African and South American international locations — there’s considerably much less alternative, and the Phantom X2 Pro is more likely to do higher in these areas.As it stands, the Phantom X2 Pro has quite a lot of {hardware} potential due to the colourful display, MediaTek Dimensity 9000 platform, 50MP digicam, and huge 5160mAh battery. But the software program wants an overhaul if Tecno needs to play within the huge leagues.