This $1,000 foldable is far better than I ever anticipated

The foldable market has grown year over year, and there are more and more players in the space. After conquering most of Africa, Tecno is branching out into more regions, and with the latest Phantom V Fold 2, it’s easy to see why the brand has been successful so far.

“At a glance” is 9to5Google’s mini-review format where we offer quick insights on a product that our team has spent time using, just in a bite-size article that focuses on our favorite parts or the most important things to know.

When you’re accustomed to the retail price of folding or flip phones eclipsing the $1,000 barrier without a second thought, seeing a competent foldable closer to the range of most flagship phones is refreshing. I’m not saying this is a perfect product – far from it, actually.

I didn’t expect to be so impressed with this smartphone. I have spent little to no time with Tecno devices before, so I genuinely had no idea what to expect. Given that most of the brand’s previous offerings have been mostly cheaper alternatives limited to Chinese and African markets, I expected some fairly substantial compromises to accommodate the much lower entry pricing. Trust me, there are compromises, but not as many as I had initially anticipated.

Tecno hasn’t really gone overboard trying to differentiate the Phantom V Fold 2 from other folding phones. It’s a tried-and-tested design. It looks like last year’s Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 – which is a compliment.

The rear panel has an interesting, almost metallic camo finish. It glints and catches the light at various angles. I’ve become very fond of it compared to some of the plain or staid colors we’re seeing from the “businessmanlike” foldable color choices. It reminds me of the green OnePlus 12 in all the right ways.

My only problem is the hinge. While sturdy and clasps tight, the activation point before it closes itself is not as good as some other phones. The phone will snap shut without any touches. It’s fine, but it’s something you have to get used to because you can’t really do all of the cool half-open stuff that the Galaxy Z Fold or Pixel 9 Pro Fold can do, like have interpreter mode running on the outer display and translations on the inner display.

I wouldn’t call the displays on the Tecno Phantom V Fold 2 “exceptional,” but they are pretty darn good. The 120Hz LTPO OLEDs are well-tuned, smooth, and bright, but the inner display has some quirks. Around the crease, you can feel each bump and lump more so than some of the top-tier folding phones. That is a bit of a nitpick, given that this is something not even Samsung has been able to massively diminish on their own top-tier Z Fold lineup.

My biggest gripe with the display is the uneven front screen. It has a curve at the right side, with rounded bezels. Then, the edges are squared off, and the flat section is off the left. Frankly, it looks kind of ridiculous once you notice it.

Right up front I was not confident in how HiOS would accommodate a seasoned Pixel user. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how Tecno has taken ideas from lots of places and pulled together a fairly competent Android skin. Sure, a little more polish is undoubtedly required. It reminds me of early EMUI on older Huawei phones.

Also, Tecno’s update schedule for the Phantom V Fold 2 is very disappointing: just 3 years. It’ll get updated to Android 16, but it’s very frustrating to see just a further year of patches included. For me, this is the biggest sore point, period.

This isn’t the only area where cost savings have been made. The use of a MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ is another dead giveaway. This is one of MediaTek’s older 2022 flagship-level processors, but even today, it sits around the Tensor G4 level. For what it’s worth, that’s more of an indictment of what Google is doing with the Pixel SoC than a dig at Tecno.

To that end, I have found performance pretty solid. It’s above adequate even. Running dual-screen apps like Instagram and Chrome side-by-side is a piece of cake. Throw a YouTube video into the mix and the Tecno Phantom V Fold 2 copes very well.

It also lasts a long time because there’s a sizable 5,750mAh battery tucked away in the svelte frame. However, this didn’t make the Phantom V Fold 2 a battery beast in my own testing. It was good, just not up there with the best of the best. At no point did I worry that I would run out of juice before a day is out. I just thought that I might see higher percentage figures before heading to bed. Although to contradict myself, 6-7 hours screen on time were the norm – something that most people will be very, very happy with.

I’m even impressed with the camera quality. There are definitely areas for improvement, but overall the Phantom V Fold 2 can take great photos. Moving subjects aren’t always easy to capture, but you can get solid photos in various lighting conditions. Is it a camera I am blown away by? Absolutely not, but it’s about what I expected.

Rich saturated images that have lots of processing. What’s interesting is that if you view photos in the pre-installed AI Gallery app they look soft and out of focus. The same images in Google Photos look fine. I put that down to being a quirk in HiOS and not the camera hardware.

To summarize, the Tecno Phantom V Fold 2 is a fine device. Overall, it feels better than it should, given the many compromises made to keep the pricing way below the competition.

That brings about another problem, though. Why should you choose the Tecno device over an older Samsung, Google, OnePlus, or another brand foldable? Well, when the entire market is considered, I would get a Z Fold 5, a discounted OnePlus Open, or even the flawed first-generation Pixel Fold for cheaper.

Credit where it is due, Tecno has made a competent foldable at a price much lower than the competition. By no means is this a cheap phone. To be completely honest, at $1,099, you are much better served with the Pixel 9 Pro XL, Galaxy S24 Ultra, or even the supremely cheap OnePlus 12.

Does that diminish what Tecno has done? I don’t think so. I just hope we see the company start to build on what is a flawed but surprisingly impressive second-generation foldable.