In South Africa Tecno is known as a budget-focused smartphone maker. The last thing we were expecting to hear from the company is that it’s making a folding smartphone. But hey, everyone else is doing it. Might as well.
The Chinese company’s first folding smartphone is the Phantom V Fold. In terms of form factor, it bears some resemblance to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold series of devices. It’s the same two-screen arrangement with the fold along the long edge. But it will, of course, be a cheaper purchase.
Listen to Tecno
That’s because Tecno is famous for creating phones that don’t quite frighten the likes of Samsung and Apple. Still, the Phantom V Fold won’t have a bad batch of specs when it eventually launches. MediaTek’s Dimensity 9000+ chipset will drive the device when it drops later this year. The company’s left the launch date unspecified for now.
12GB of RAM will be present in both the 256GB and 512GB versions of the phone. The screens are a foldable 7.85in LTPO AMOLED with a 2,000 x 2,296 resolution and a 6.42in LTPO AMOLED (1,080 x 2,550) covered by Gorilla Glass Victus.
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It’ll launch with a heavier camera loadout than your average Tecno device. The rear will carry two 50MP sensors (one wide-angle and one telephoto) and a 13MP ultrawide sensor. There are two front cameras too — a 16MP on the folding screen area and a 32MP sensor on the glass cover. We’re not sure what to expect from the camera tech when the Phantom V Fold launches. The company has fielded high megapixel counts before but hasn’t had the software to back it up.
Still, perhaps the Android 13 OS with Tecno’s HiOS 13 Fold overlay will surprise us. The pricing for the phone should at least be attractive. Current estimates are that the 256GB phone will launch at around R20,000 and the 512GB at around R22,200. Those aren’t final prices but Tecno is probably aiming to keep costs as low as possible in the emerging markets where it’s most active.