the democratization of foldables is now a fact. joining a growing list of bendy-screen models now available outside of china, the tecno phantom v fold presents a value-oriented alternative to the galaxy of a similar name - the de-facto standard for a tablet in a phone's guise.

the phantom has the better proportions of foldables that aren't the galaxy the cover screen is larger and so much more usable than the one on the samsung, and the foldable display on the inside is bigger too. a large battery is then needed to power all that 120hz oled screen area, and you end up with a rather heavy package - a gram shy of 300g.

you do get a pretty capable camera system with a couple of 50mp units for main and tele, plus an autofocusing ultrawide - when are we ever getting af on an uw on a samsung foldable? unlike the bulk of foldables, the tecno has a mediatek chipset at its heart. the dimensity 9000+ is about on par with the snapdragon 8(+) gen 1 though, so the phantom v fold is anything but underpowered.

and with 12gb of ram as standard 512gb of storage, you won't be pressed for memory either. other small niceties include 45w fast charging, stereo speakers, and an fm radio - flagship snapdragons dropped that a while ago. it's a most welcome sight that the v fold runs android 13, so its software is current, too (also quite capable, it turns out).