Tecno may not be a household name, but the brand has made waves in the smartphone world by delivering innovative features at competitive prices, particularly in emerging markets. With the Phantom V Flip2, Tecno continues to challenge industry norms, proving that foldable phones don’t have to come with a sky-high price tag.
A follow up to their V Flip, the Flip2 packs premium features like a vivid 6.9″ AMOLED main screen, a functional 3.64″ cover display, 70W fast charging, and various AI features running on top of Android 14.
Cover Screen
The 3.64″ cover screen is a massive improvement over the original V Flip which lacked a cover display altogether; effectively making the V Flip 2 much more usable. It has most of the familiar features and gestures you’d find on a typical cover screen. You can swipe from the top right to access your toggles, top left to access notifications, up for apps, and left and right for additional features.
The app support on the cover screen is the most appealing feature, however only certain apps are supported. Supported apps runs fully on the cover screen in a normal aspect ratio alongside a usable onscreen keyboard.
Of course, apps are small on the cover screen, but they work when you need them to. You can navigate Google Maps, or watch a video someone shared with you on Instagram. However, it can be frustrating when you get a notification and the app requires you to unfold the phone. Since the cover screen loads the full app, it’s unclear why every app can’t run there.
In any case, the cover screen is beautiful, high-resolution, and as responsive as you’d expect from an inner display. It’s AMOLED with a high 413 pixels-per-inch, and even sports a 120hz refresh rate. It comes with a factory applied screen protector which quickly frays along the edges and scratches easily. The entire face is finished with curved corning gorilla glass so we’d opt to remove the factory protector and rock this naked or find a glass screen protector.
Folding and Main Display
The Tecno Flip is (of course) a flip style phone, so folded it’s a chunky half-phone and unfolded it’s a familiar 6.9″ phone. It’s slightly taller and narrower than average, but otherwise feels normal. It’s about 7mm taller and a few millimeters narrower than an iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. It happens to also be about 1 centimeter thinner and even weighs about 14% less than similar large phones.
Folks are always concerned about the “crease” when it comes to foldables. Unless you’re looking at an extreme angle Fold2’s crease is perfectly invisible. You can, however, feel the indentation of the crease when swiping over it. This isn’t a bother, but one annoyance we has is the raised hinge on either side of the screen — this doesn’t feel so nice, but you get used to it.
The screen is a vivid, high resolution, AMOLED with a high 413 pixels-per-square-inch and a resolution of 1080×2640. It has a 120hz refresh rate and LTPO which seamlessly falls back to a lower refresh rate to conserve energy. In our testing we only noticed 60hz and 120hz.
The screen is beautiful and near perfect, but the factory-applied screen protector is plastic and introduces a hazy quality that detracts from the sharpness of the AMOLED display. Slight grease or smudges can amplify this with rainbowing and subtle distortions, which undermine the premium viewing experience. This screen protector probably can’t (or shouldn’t) be removed.
Another noteworthy difference about the foldable design is that the screen is recessed behind a plastic border, providing some protection for the fold. The recessed screen didn’t bother us, but the worse-than-average 85.9% screen-to-body ratio is noticeable at first.
Specs and Connectivity
The Tecno Phantom V Flip2 offers reasonably competitive specifications for its price point. It features a MediaTek Dimensity 8020 processor, paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. You can add 3GB, 5GB, or 8GB of virtual RAM using the internal storage if multi-tasking becomes a problem. There’s no expandable storage.
On the connectivity front, the Flip2 includes 5G support, dual SIM functionality, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and NFC. There’s no eSIM support, unfortunately.
Usability and Software
As mentioned, the Flip2’s cover screen is large enough annd offers enough functionality and familiarity to keep you from opening your phone every time you need it. There’s a bunch of apps that will open on the cover screen, albiet small, but it’s frustrating every app won’t open. Notifications, calls, music control, and toggles all work flawlessly on the cover screen.
You can quickly tell how durable and tough Flip’s build is because of how tricky it is to open. You can’t pop it open and it’s quite difficult to open with one hand. There’s not an obvious place for you to pry it open. That said, it’s easy and gratifying to snap closed. If you have an app open on the cover screen, it will be open when you unfold, but not vice versa.
Using the fold as a built-in stand is a convenient feature. With the phone laying on a surface and partially folded up, you can easily watch a video, take a photo, or read an article. We also like the camera feature that allows subjects to see themselves on the cover screen prior to snapping the shot.
The Flip2 runs on HiOS 14, built atop Android 14. While this custom skin offers a wealth of features and flexibility, it can feel bloated and overwhelming for users accustomed to a minimalist experience like stock Android. Standout features include built-in AI tools for voice commands and text editing, though others, like Smart Hub and Game Mode, may not resonate with everyone.
Occasional performance hiccups and a steep learning curve might deter those seeking a more streamlined interface. However, with effort spent learning and customizing the skin, HiOS can transform into a visually appealing and functional experience tailored to your needs.
There’s a face unlock and fingerprint unlock feature. Face unlock is sometimes slow or struggles, but the fingerprint lock works well. It’s located on the lock button.
Battery
The Tecno Phantom V Flip2 is equipped with a 4720mAh battery, which is larger than many competitors in the flip phone category. In day-to-day use, the phone comfortably lasts a full day with moderate to heavy usage, but you probably won’t make it to a day and a half.
The 70W fast charging is a standout feature, allowing the battery to reach 50% in around 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the device lacks wireless charging. Overall, the Flip2 offers battery performance is fairly average, but the ultra-fast charging and included 70W charger is a very nice touch.
Camera
The Tecno Phantom V Flip2 is equipped with a dual-camera setup on the front, featuring a 50MP wide camera and a 50MP ultrawide camera. The beauty of the flip design is that this can also function as your selfie camera.
The wide-angle lens (f/1.57, 1.0µm) comes with PDAF and OIS, ensuring sharp focus and steady shots, while the ultrawide lens offers a 114˚ field of view for capturing more in the frame. It supports 4K video recording at 30fps and 1080p at both 30fps and 60fps. There’s also a 32MP selfie camera on the top of the main screen.
We were very happy with the image quality, detail, and color, as well as the camera’s ease-of-use. When going head-to-head against the iPhone, the Flip2 actually kept up and many phones were on-par in well-lit conditions.
Flip2 doesn’t perform as well in low-light environments without the flash. Using the main cameras as your selfie-cameras offers a serious improvement in selfie quality, especially portraits and wide-angles. The camera initially had a couple weird options that are worth disabling: watermarks and AI makeup for portraits.
Final Thoughts
Flip phones appeal to users looking for a more compact and pocket-friendly design, offering the convenience of a full-sized smartphone that folds down to half its size without sacrificing functionality or power.
That said, this form factor isn’t for everyone, as some may prefer a traditional slate phone or be wary of the durability challenges inherent to foldable displays. For those intrigued by the concept, however, the Tecno Phantom V Flip2 delivers an appealing mix of style, performance, and affordability.
The Flip2 is a notable improvement over the original Flip and a strong contender in the foldable market. At around $700 or less, it’s a great value, combining beautiful craftsmanship, solid durability, a practical cover screen, and thoughtful features like 70W fast charging and built-in AI.
Unfortunately, it’s only available in select markets like India, making it unlikely to see a US release. For U.S. buyers, the 2024 Motorola Razr offers a comparable design with slightly better specs at a similar pricepoint. Still, if you can get your hands on it, the Tecno Phantom V Flip2 stands out as a stylish and functional flip foldable phone with a reasonable price tag.