Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “TECNO Phantom V Flip: A $600 Foldable!”.
Sponsored by surf shark, I think Eminem said it best. Yep techno, the sub brand of trench and holdings doesn’t sell phones in the US, so most folks here have never heard of it, despite it being the brand that brought us a color changing mondry on phone last year and the world’s most affordable, large format. Foldable back in the spring, not content to lay back in the cut techno is kicking off the fall with another foldable, this time, a flip phone, that’s weird Whimsical and what only six hundred dollars this deserves. A look under the hood on into the fold. It’S a quick look and not a review, because the business reality of being a YouTuber in techtember is that at times like these, I’ve got to prioritize the iPhone and the other phones. I can’t tell you about yet that will sell in the US stay tuned.
So I’m sorry this can’t be a deeper dive, but also four years after the official return of flip phones via foldable technology, we’ve reached a state of semi-maturity across the clamshell category, with manufacturers having regrettably settled on a common size and shape, and even Brands like ulaphone Uliphoneophone poised to break into the space, the only major variations we’re seeing in flip phones right now are in three categories: cover display capabilities, style and price. You could also make an argument for cameras, but let’s put a pin in that and return to it after the Oppo Find N3 flip launchers find N3 flip Galaxy Z, flip 5 Razer 40 Ultra, we sure, are back to the bad old days of smartphone’s brand name. Word salad, aren’t we’ve.
Given that backdrop, Phantom V flip is actually kind of simple, doesn’t quite satisfy all three of those differentiators, because it’s not trying to maximize cover display utility. Instead, it’s using that outer screen to lean into the second category Style. Techno took a cue from countless china-based smartphone designs and blew up the camera platform to massive proportions, but here it’s pushed those cameras outward to the perimeter to make room for a small but distinctive cover screen in the center nope. It’S not the first time Huawei beat techno to the punch with a circular display on the p50 pocket last year.
In fact, all you have to do to find more Corner. Free cover screens is reach far enough into the past or the wonderfully weird world of vintage Asia Market phones. This crazy Casio was a gift of friend of the Channel. The Flip Side Story on Instagram, whom you should follow for just the best kind of wcdma weirdness techno’s implementation is notable because of its boldness. The eye already drawn to this monster black hole is rewarded by a screen that follows the same shape. The whole thing resembling nothing so much as an oversized Movado smart watch. You can’t do much of use out here: small email or text previews, I’m sure the expected widgets and toggles a camera preview of sorts. But really this is all about standing out and to that end you get a fairly wide selection of whimsical, wallpapers whale related, and otherwise most of these are too cartoonish for my taste, but I do love the orbital one, which makes clever use of the frame shape To suggest a spacecraft porthole also techno gives you the tools to make your own with an animated gif so track.
Nerds like me, can slap on the communicator transceiver pattern. This desperately calls for sure I wish the screen was bigger, but you’ve got to remember. This. Is the cheapest flip style clamshell the world has yet seen so I’d wager the screen selection was probably based on which panels techno could source.
This identical size and resolution is used by the Huawei watch, GT and neolina smart watches, so it’s likely pretty easy to get in techno’s headquarters. City of Shenzhen. Keep that budget in mind. Techno’S design here impresses too, surrounding the cover crater and wrapping around the back is a pleasant, periwinkle-like, pleather material. That’S exponentially nicer than the wax paper the company used for its v-fold. In fact, it feels very similar to the back plate on Motorola’s, Razer plus and techno added some visual Flair to the backside, with this subtle, dual tone: design and charm-like vanity plate.
I’M dwelling on the design in park because of how much of a win this is versus the category leader in every metric that matters Samsung’s Galaxy flip 5.. The galaxy is unquestionably the more capable product, but this year in order to make room for that huge cover screen Samsung had to abandon its own dual tone, design, something that had helped the flip stand out for two years. So while it might be a bit derivative for techno to use it on the back of its Phantom v-flip, it’s both more visually interesting and more satisfying to hold than Samsung’s hyper minimal. Greasy glossy glass in a world where the novelty of a hinge is no longer enough to set a phone apart. Manufacturers would do well to remember that a phone’s surface is a limitless canvas for expression. The Huawei brought in a famous designer to do the p50 pocket and I still occasionally just hold that phone up to the light and Marvel at its sheer brassy brazenness.
Bravo open her up and the compromises made to hit that price point become more pronounced, we’ll get to the blemishes after the break, as you may have noticed, I’m back on the road this year, and that means my sponsor surf shark is back in my taskbar. It’S not that I don’t trust airport or hotel Wi-Fi, but when I’m rushing around in travel mode, I worry that I might mistake a fraudulent public network for an authentic one. That’S called an evil twin attack by the way well, by using a VPN like surf shark. I can make sure that all the data I’m sending while I’m on the go is encrypted, which keeps me safer.
Also. It keeps me in control by making it harder for a service provider to throttle or limit my connection in order to squeeze me for more money. Speaking of money, save some get surf shark at the link in the description and use code, Mr mobile for 83 off and three extra months, free thanks to surfshark for sponsoring this video inside the v-flip is a pretty typical 6.9 inch folding screen at a stretched full Hd resolution refreshing 120 times a second, it’s perfectly suitable for The Great Indoors, but take it outside, and it’s disappointing Max brightness makes me so thankful that we’re no longer in the doldrums of dim displays when it comes to foldables. Those were bad years.
Also, this screen protector is the most smudge prone surface I’ve encountered in ages. The thing came out of the box smudged. This is gross. Don’T ship a phone like this gang, probably a result of techno flashing, some pre-production software on there before shipping me this review unit, but even with my best chamois.
I can’t get this thing clean. The cover screen protector, too, is misaligned and I think, has some air bubbles underneath I don’t know. Maybe if you stick around to the end I’ll peel it off and we’ll see what the face looks like unadorned now, I don’t think I can blame cost cutting for the state of the Android software skin, because the fact is that iOS just wasn’t made for Western Markets I mean it’s not as bad as it could be any launcher that lets me use a bottom Swipe, app, drawer and swipe down. Notification.
Shortcut is at least livable still as Android police points out. Software updates are a huge question mark at this point and there’s enough here – that’s intrusive or clumsy, or just plain archaic to dim the luster that the hardware set up and while I didn’t have time to test the camera system almost at all. Because again, this isn’t a review. Nothing in techno’s history convinces me that the cameras will surprise or Delight especially when you’ve got companies out there, like Oppo, specifically focused on upping the game in the flip phone camera Department to bring us back to the point. There are 50 000 reasons. Those compromises just don’t give me too much pause today. Those reasons are rupees. The currency used in the launch market of India and, while techno calls that an early bird price, so it’ll probably go up later.
The fact remains, and today this is a 600 phone and that’s significant, no matter how well or poorly it does, because foldables have finally gotten there to the true mid-range now we’ll see if techno cut too many corners to do so. If we start seeing widespread reports of hinge failures or if this time next year, the thing hasn’t gotten a single software update, Philips mirror existence is cause for foldable fans to celebrate, and you know if I were Motorola I’d – be breathing a sigh of relief that this Thing isn’t coming to the states because up against the conservative looking Razer minus well, this could be a real Phantom Menace. Now that’s better! This episode of into the fold was produced following several days with a pre-production phantom v-flip review sample provided by techno. But company did not pay a fee for this coverage, nor did I give it copy approval rights or any other editorial input into my content. Please subscribe to the Mr Mobile on YouTube. If you like videos like this, because folks, it’s gon na be a folding phone fall and to invoke the famous phrase of a former folding phone champion of sorts, I am pumped until next time from Michael Fisher, thanks for watching and stay mobile.
My friends, foreign .