Tecno Phantom X2 5G First Impressions: Quirky Design and Great Specs

Tecno has been known for its budget and mid-range smartphones in India. Last April, the company launched the Phantom X as its flagship smartphone for India in 2022 and we now have its successor, called the Phantom X2 5G. Here's our first impressions of the device.

The Tecno Phantom X2 5G comes in a black, matte-finished box with the ‘PHANTOM X 2 5G' writing embossed on it. Inside, we're greeted by the smartphone and two additional boxes which contain the 45W power adaptor, a USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable and surprisingly, a wired earphone with a USB Type-C input. Under the smartphone is another box that contains the SIM eject tool and a hard case for the phone that also doubles as a stand.

The Tecno Phantom X2 5G ships with a hard-shell case

The Tecno Phantom X2 5G is available in a single variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It comes in two colour options, Moonlight Silver and Stardust Grey. It is priced at Rs. 39,999 in India and will compete with the likes of the Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G and Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G.

Coming to the design of the smartphone, this is a quirky-looking device for sure. The Tecno Phantom X2 sports a glass-sandwich design with the back featuring a matte-finished AG glass. We have the ‘Phantom' branding on the back but there's no sign of any Tecno branding on the smartphone. The Moonlight Silver colour does not attract any fingerprints and is quite smooth to the touch. The aluminium unibody design looks good with the glossy frame, but this doesn't attract as many fingerprints as I thought it would.

The Tecno Phantom X2 5G has an aluminium frame 

On the right side of the Tecno Phantom X2 5G, we have the power and the volume buttons. The Type-C charging port, speaker grill, microphone and the SIM slot are all located at the bottom, followed by another microphone for noise cancelling on the top of the handset.

The rear camera module on the Tecno Phantom X2 5G is what makes this a unique looking device. The module protrudes quite a bit from the matte-finished glass back and the cameras are aligned diagonally, similar to the iPhone 13. The only difference is that the lenses on the Phantom X2 are simply huge, which gives it a striking look. I personally liked this fresh design language, but I can see how some might be put off by this quirky design choice.

The Tecno Phantom X2 5G has a uniquely designed rear camera setup 

The three rear cameras consist of a 64-megapixel primary camera with optical stabilisation (OIS), 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 2-megapixel depth camera, along with a quad-flash setup. Initial samples from these cameras look decent. The newly added ‘Sky Change' option in the camera interface is unique and can be used to change the look of the sky in landscape shots. The Tecno Phantom X2 sports a 32-megapixel front camera that captures good images given enough light.

The curved-edge display gives the Tecno Phantom X2 a premium look

Coming to the display of this smartphone, the Tecno Phantom X2 is equipped with a 6.8-inch curved-edge AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 360Hz touch sampling rate. The display seems bright enough to be used in most environments and is quite sharp. Viewing 4K 60fps videos on it was a good experience. This display also has an in-display fingerprint sensor.

The Tecno Phantom X2 5G has a dual nano-SIM tray

The Tecno Phantom X2 5G sports a 5160mAh battery and supports 45W fast charging. It is equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 5G SoC. In my limited time using it, I found the phone to be quite fast for browsing the web, streaming videos, and even gaming. I'm not a huge fan of Tecno's custom Android skin called HiOS, but this time it feels a lot smoother. The smartphone still runs on Android 12 though, which is a bummer.

The Tecno Phantom X2 5G is a unique-looking smartphone and is sure to grab anyone's attention, especially looking at the rear camera design. On paper, the smartphone has a good camera setup, great display, and a big enough battery capacity, but is it enough for you to consider it over more established names in this segment? This will most likely be Tecno's biggest challenge with the new Phantom X2 5G.