First look at the Tecno Phantom V Fold, a surprisingly affordable foldable smartphone.

Tecno Phantom V Fold is a fairly affordable smartphone with a folding screen. However, I’m not sure that we will see it arrive in our regions.

Tecno, a mobile brand almost unknown in our region, surprised the world with a retractable portrait lens on the Phantom X2 Pro last December. For the big MWC event, a Chinese company is bringing us the Phantom V Fold, the very first horizontally folding smartphone that runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ processor rather than a Qualcomm chip. This often means more affordable prices, which is a good thing.

The Tecno Phantom V Fold is a fairly affordable foldable smartphone.

Like the Honor Magic VS and Xiaomi Mix Fold 2, the Phantom V Fold offers a wider chassis than the Samsung models, but not as strong as the Oppo models. The wrinkle-free foldable screen has a diagonal of 7.85 inches for a resolution of 2296 x 2000 pixels, and on the other side a 6.42-inch screen for a resolution of 2550 x 1080 pixels. The two AMOLED panels refresh to 120Hz. In terms of durability, Tecno claims “the device is capable of withstanding 200,000 bends”to match the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, but that’s hardly half of what Chinese competitors are doing today.

The Phantom V Fold is very well equipped for photography and video. On the back, there is a 50MP main sensor, a 50MP telephoto lens (2x optical zoom), and a 13MP ultra-wide lens. All in an eco-design white or black body made from recycled plastic. There are also two punch-hole front cameras, one 16MP on the foldable display, the other 32MP on the outer display. The latter fully lets you make video calls on that smaller screen, but you’ll certainly prefer to turn the phone around to take advantage of the main camera.

However, I’m not sure that we will see it in our regions.

Tecno does not skimp on the battery either: 5000 mAh with 45 W charging capability allows you to charge the device by 40% in 15 minutes or 100% in 55 minutes. The Chinese champions are still far away, but better than the Galaxy Z Fold 4 – if you can do without wireless charging.

In terms of software, the Phantom V Fold runs its own HiOS 13 Fold overlay based on Android 13 for a personalized and convenient experience with the 1000 most downloaded apps. And 90% of them have also been optimized for split screen and multiple windows.

What is the price of this Phantom V Fold? The base model with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage is $1,099, while the 512GB is $1,222. Very competitive prices compared to Samsung or Honor outside of China. But these prices vary greatly from one country to another, especially in India or in Africa and Latin America where Tecno is very active.