TECNO PHANTOM A1: FULL REVIEW

I recently walked into a store at the computer village in Ikeja,Lagos and i saw people huddled around a manufacturers cubicle testing out a new phone, i was amazed to find out it was a Tecno phone that drew such a crowd, not just any Tecno "Kpalasa" phone but a nice looking white device that could be easily mistaken for a samsung galaxy device or even HTC.

The Tecno Phantom A1 was released a few weeks ago, it received rave reviews and was being compared to the Samsung Galaxy S3 its critically acclaimed as the best budget Smartphone in the market. I've decided to do this review now as the buzz around the phone has reduced and a review can be done in a cooler atmosphere and without sentiments.

OVERVIEW

Starting with the packaging, Tecno has really improved with the packaging and presentation of this phone. it comes in a glossy box with all the spec details of the phone printed on the back. Out of the box, it comes with a set of earphones,usb cable, USB wall charger, a flip case and a Tecno Powerbank.

slim 9.1mm build

The phone itself has a premium build quality, Tecno did a good job with the design and they managed to keep it at a thickness of 9.1mm the body is made of polycarbonate plastic that feels nice to the touch almost like hyperglaze, it also has faux plastic chamfered edges around it made of plastic but finished to look like metal, the phone was built by Korean engineers but designed in France and its definitely eye catchy. On the top of the phone is the 3.5mm headphone jack and the USB port. At the back of the phone is the primary 8.0mp rear camera which is embossed like the one on the HTC ONE X the flash is beside the camera and the speaker near the bottom edge of the phone.On the front, the phone spots a 1.2mp camera, the 720 X 1280 display and the regular android capacitive touch buttons which have been cleverly placed  close to the bottom edge of the phone.

CAMERA

The Tecno Phantom A1 comes equipped with an 8.0mp primary camera with Autofocus, LED flash and a 1.2 VGA camera in the front. One of the outstanding features of this phone that is not often seen on other phones today is its dedicated camera button located on the left side of the phone beneath the volume rocker which allows users to easily jump into the camera app. The Camera takes good pictures but it doesn't function well in low light situations the Auto focus is too slow and sometimes laggy Tecno can do better in that department.The Camera App is the stock Android Camera application with the photo-sphere, it allows users take pictures in panorama and HDR.

DISPLAY AND UI

Moving on to the display, sadly the screen is not protected in any form either with gorilla glass or otherwise if you mistakenly drop this phone the screen would definitely shatter into millions of pieces because it also has a thin bezel around the edges which makes the screen very close to the edge of the phone. 

293ppi slightly higher than GSIII Mini

however Tecno managed to deliver an impressive 5.0" 720p HD capacitive touch display considering the fact that they haven't been encouraging in this department, the screen has a pixel density of 293 ppi which places it a little higher than the Galaxy SIII Mini. The phone comes preloaded with Android  4.1.1 Jelly Bean OS, Tecno unlike other manufacturers have left the version on this phone as stock as possible, although they have pre-installed apps like Flash-share which allows you to share files between two Tecno phones without the need of Bluetooth, WiFi or NFC, it also has Asphalt 6,  whatsapp, Google maps and Gmail pre-installed.

PROCESSORS/CONNECTIVITY

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.0Ghz dual-core Processor and has 1GB of RAM, it however handles gaming well and we experienced little to no lag while using it, this might change when there are so many apps installed on it considering the fact that it has a very low internal memory which is one of the major flaws with this phone in my opinion. it has a mere 4GB of Internal Storage but Tecno compensated for this by providing a MicroSD expansion Slot expandable up to 32GB and they also provided an 8GB MicroSD Card with it. With the Buzz around this phone we expected it to have atleast a 4G radio embedded in it but alas it comes with a 3.5G radio, hence you only get 3G, EDGE and GPRS connectivity which is manageable considering the fact that 4G/LTE network havent been fully implemented in most parts of the country. it also has wifi and wifi hotspot functionality.the phantom A1 is a dual-sim phone that is compatible with Micro-sims, it allows you to use one sim for data and the other for Voice calls.At this moment we have not compiled radio speed test and other benchmark test for this device but we will update you as soon as possible.

PRO AND CONS

One cool thing about this phone is the fact that Tecno is offering a flip cover to protect the phone and  a power bank  to supplement the 2100mAh battery that comes with it. The battery already delivers up to 120 hours of talk time and about 400 hours of standby time. The power-bank is able to recharge the phone to a 100% and it serves as  a backup for those times when PHCN fails you. The phone offers the best smartphone deal you can get anywhere and it is available at various Tecno dealers Nationwide and also on some online stores between the price range of N31,000 to N34,995 which is not even up to half the price of a Samsung Galaxy S3

The bad part is that this phone is running last years specs and its almost as if Tecno is playing catch up. there is also no form of screen protection from accidental drops, As much as we loathe bloat-ware, we feel as though Tecno has not really put any of thier influence on he stock android experience into this phone. Another disadvantage with this phone is we do not know how Tecno plans to follow it up with after sales Upgrade, the phone currently runs on Android 4.1.1 jellybean and there is no assurance that Tecno will upgrade it to 4.2.2 talk less of supporting it all the way to Android key lime pie. we will have to keep our fingers crossed on that.

VERDICT:7/10

This is a great improvement from the Tecno N7,  however besides the fact that the phone is very budget friendly, there are no outstanding features of this phone that can differentiate it from other phones out there, we like the fact that Tecno did not include a lot of bloat-ware on the phone but have given users the opportunity to install them using the Assistant App but we haven't gotten a Tecno experience while using this phone but the phone is definitely worth the hype because of its current price point for this reasons, we will rate it 7/10 just for the fact that its a budget phone that delivers on the spec sheet. 

CONCLUSION

in Conclusion,  this is an awesome device, though it has last years specs, even at that it is the best budget smartphone you can buy on the Nigerian market at the moment.It is a solid way for Tecno to register their presence in the smartphone market, they have already made a name for themselves in low-end phones its time for them to prove to millions of Nigerians that they can make premium devices at half the prices other manufacturers are offering.


Note: if you are interested in any of  this devices you can call us on 07059925285, email us at technerdng@gmail.com or visit our online retail store TheSmartShopng. be sure to subscribe to our blog so as to get timely updates for more device reviews and tech news in the future.  

Picture credit: Tecno Nigeria

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