#ad Top 10 reasons why I am glad the TECNO PHANTOM V Flip exists! https://www.mobile-phantom.com/homepage #tecno #smartphone 

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I tried to shift over from my iPhone to a flip phone I loved some parts of it others made me cry till I eventually decided this is not for me There needs to be more competition and more innovation in this market before I flip then techno reached out They said we've got this new flip phone.

We want to sponsor a video so you can tell people about it.

I told them, listen, I've just tested a flip phone.

I still won't be switching to it, I am really glad this Phantom V Flip exists.

You get your nice premium packaging, with every inner box having this faux leather finish.

Your SIM ejector, your USB-C cable, a 45-volt power brick, a pretty nice feeling case that protects both sides of the phone, and obviously, the phone.

And I'm really glad that this is still a thing.

upgraded phones every year and very little changed, then of course, like most big companies say, you could just use the power brick and cable that you already had for the environment.

But the thing is, most people don't upgrade every year.

The vast majority of people now are sitting in the once every 3-4 years bucket, especially in the category of expensive forwarding phones.

the fact that the power brick and cable you already have, are you not probably going to want

to send those off with the old phone, since that's what they were made for?

And so there's no real reason for a company to not give you 1 except for, please spend another $50 on our website and we'll create an entirely different order and shipment that's in no way environmentally friendly.

Foldable phones right now feel like they're in

a bubble, where just because the early starting prices were so high that it set the precedent that this is what a foldable phone

But with the first phones, it made sense, because

to do something experimental, you have to invest a lot in research and development to sell not many units.

But you know, we're at our third to fifth generation

These companies have already recouped those R&D costs.

Credit where due, the flips have come down a bit since gen

with their default starting price at now $1000.

And so part of why I'm so glad that this thing exists is that it's a working example of that.

It has 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a pretty good Dimensity 8050 chip, and it's $699.

And when something like this happens in an industry, it's good for all of us.

So you know how like every phone since the year 2000 has had a flash on the back?

This 1 actually has a really bright quad flash.

But the more interesting thing is that it also

And when I first saw this, I thought, wait, that's pointless.

I mean, most phones nowadays can already brighten their screens up when taking

a dark selfie and that's the same thing, right?

shot taken with no flash to this shot with the screen brightening feature to this shot with the front flash, you can see that while brightness goes up with the bright screen mode, the sharpness doesn't.

And the colour accuracy actually goes down.

And so I have actually found this front flash to be legitimately the best way to take selfies.

Even in already good lighting, it just lets your camera capture that little bit of extra facial detail.

I think Tecno's gestures are really clever.

Like how I've got a pinch out to open chat GPT, a swipe up with 2 fingers to bring up the vault, which is all your stuff that you can lock behind your fingerprint.

rotation to instantly start a voice search.

I want every single company to offer this as an option because it's just 0 fingerprint hassle-free.

The hinge has a little bit more friction than I'm used to, but

the upside of that is that it holds in any position from about 20 degrees onwards.

I'm glad that when it folds, it folds completely flat, but more importantly, the fact that

it can do that while also finding room for the screen to rest without being pressed together, which means that when it's open, it doesn't really have a noticeable crease.

You can see it from some angles, but it's good enough that during most day-to-day use, it's literally as if it's not there, which now that I've experienced it, is

How did Tecno on their first ever flip phone priced at $699 do that?

doing this for years with more expensive phones have not.

an incentive for other manufacturers to get it right going forward.

And then you've got this cover screen, which they call the Planet Design.

Now I gotta say, I'm not used to using circular screens, but 1 thing this does do at least is feel like a very distinct experience to the inner display.

It kind of behaves like a smartwatch with a bunch of these easy to flick through, functional but not too functional widgets.

You've got things like fitness, you've got alarms and a stopwatch and it's all very pleasantly animated.

Plus the music tile is pretty cool because it really does look like you're playing a vinyl.

The customization settings here are absolutely endless and I'm all about it.

There's built-in ones and you can download like a thousand more.

You've got different live wallpapers that sync to how far open or closed your phone is, static wallpapers with the ability to quickly find more and what I've done which is to cycle through them every single time I unlock my phone.

There's cover screen personalisation, where you can either lean in to the fact that, let's be honest, it really does look like a watch face.

a stylized version of yourself, which I don't hate nearly as much as I thought I would.

There's the always on display stuff, which again, lets you do basically anything you can think of, including deciding how much or little information you want to see.

And that's not even touching the deep, deep personalisation, which I could go on about for an entirely separate video.

But what's also really cool is the special functions section of the settings.

you couldn't normally fiddle with on your phone.

All the way from App Booster, which lets you select a few of your favourite apps and the phone will keep them ready for launch at all times, to music gesture, which lets you change the song that's playing by swiping on your screen even when the phone's on standby, to WhatsApp voice changer, which turns this voice

to this voice on a WhatsApp video call to terrorise your entire social circle,

or if you're feeling particularly fruity, you can go to this voice.

And if you're enjoying this video, then a sub to the channel would be fantastic.

There are honestly few higher pleasures in life than ending a phone call like this.

But what I find really difficult is feeling like I'm sacrificing functionality for the sake of being cool.

And that's what a lot of folding phones have done historically with battery.

It's a 4000 milliamp hour cell you're getting, but that paired with fast 45 watt charging actually feels pretty healthy compared to the 3,700 mAh and 25W combo that I've just come from with the Samsung.

Also, remember, flip phones will last a lot longer than you expect, just because you're spending a large portion of your time on a tiny cover screen.

And speaking of which, number 2, the cameras.

This is the highest resolution overall package of cameras that you can get on a flip phone and obviously we're well past the point where That's the only important metric But the only reason I mention it is that I have multiple times now taken a photo with this phone forgotten about it seen it Again another time while flicking through the gallery and only then realized wait a sec.

The detail can be Insane It has the same caveat as every flip phone in that it's effort every time you want to take a rear photo, but the selfies, which are the default, are really good in almost all lighting conditions with a nice balance of smoothing the skin, but not erasing every last bit of texture.

And importantly for a flip phone like this, it's good that you can activate the camera with gestures like a high 5 or voice commands.

But the thing that I found most interesting is the weird security features.

Just lots of little tricks that no 1 would think to build into their phone, but now they're here, they make a lot

example, how after 2 failed unlock attempts, your phone will start secretly taking photos of whoever's trying, and upload those photos to the cloud, which has resulted in an entire library of shots that look like this.

Or if you stick the phone on charge and someone else unplugs it while it's still locked, it'll ring at full volume.

These are great features to have built into a phone, and I'd love to see others adopting them too.


Speaker 0: So a couple of weeks ago,

Speaker 1: I tried to shift over from my iPhone to a flip phone I loved some parts of it others made me cry till I eventually decided this is not for me There needs to be more competition and more innovation in this market before I flip then techno reached out They said we've got this new flip phone. We want to sponsor a video so you can tell people about it. I told them, listen, I've just tested a flip phone. I'm not ready to move to 1. That includes yours.

Speaker 0: And they said, that's fine. Just try it. So I did. And while

Speaker 1: I still won't be switching to it, I am really glad this Phantom V Flip exists. And here are the 10 reasons why. For starters, the unboxing. You get your nice premium packaging, with every inner box having this faux leather finish. Your SIM ejector, your USB-C cable, a 45-volt power brick, a pretty nice feeling case that protects both sides of the phone, and obviously, the phone.

And I'm really glad that this is still a thing.

Speaker 0: Because yeah, if you

Speaker 1: upgraded phones every year and very little changed, then of course, like most big companies say, you could just use the power brick and cable that you already had for the environment. But the thing is, most people don't upgrade every year. The vast majority of people now are sitting in the once every 3-4 years bucket, especially in the category of expensive forwarding phones. Not to mention

Speaker 0: the fact that the power brick and cable you already have, are you not probably going to want

Speaker 1: to send those off with the old phone, since that's what they were made for? Plus, you'd still need a case.

Speaker 0: 90% of people use 1.

Speaker 1: And so there's no real reason for a company to not give you 1 except for, please spend another $50 on our website and we'll create an entirely different order and shipment that's in no way environmentally friendly.

Speaker 0: Okay, Then we've got the price. Foldable phones right now feel like they're in

Speaker 1: a bubble, where just because the early starting prices were so high that it set the precedent that this is what a foldable phone

Speaker 0: should cost. But with the first phones, it made sense, because

Speaker 1: to do something experimental, you have to invest a lot in research and development to sell not many units.

Speaker 0: But you know, we're at our third to fifth generation

Speaker 1: of foldables with most companies. These companies have already recouped those R&D costs. Credit where due, the flips have come down a bit since gen

Speaker 0: 1,

Speaker 1: with their default starting price at now $1000. But like

Speaker 0: $1800 for 1 of the folds?

Speaker 1: That should not be a thing today. And so part of why I'm so glad that this thing exists is that it's a working example of that. This has a 1-120Hz OLED display. It has 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a pretty good Dimensity 8050 chip, and it's $699. And when something like this happens in an industry, it's good for all of us.

Here's something else really cool. So you know how like every phone since the year 2000 has had a flash on the back? This 1 actually has a really bright quad flash.

Speaker 0: But the more interesting thing is that it also

Speaker 1: has a dual flash on the front.

Speaker 0: And when I first saw this, I thought, wait, that's pointless.

Speaker 1: I mean, most phones nowadays can already brighten their screens up when taking

Speaker 0: a dark selfie and that's the same thing, right? Well, no. If you compare this

Speaker 1: shot taken with no flash to this shot with the screen brightening feature to this shot with the front flash, you can see that while brightness goes up with the bright screen mode, the sharpness doesn't. And the colour accuracy actually goes down. It almost starts to look a little hazy. And so I have actually found this front flash to be legitimately the best way to take selfies. Even in already good lighting, it just lets your camera capture that little bit of extra facial detail.

I think Tecno's gestures are really clever. Like how I've got a pinch out to open chat GPT, a swipe up with 2 fingers to bring up the vault, which is all your stuff that you can lock behind your fingerprint.

Speaker 0: You can even do things like a clockwise

Speaker 1: rotation to instantly start a voice search. Okay, this is also really smart design. I've always liked leather-like finishes. I want every single company to offer this as an option because it's just 0 fingerprint hassle-free.

Speaker 0: The hinge has a little bit more friction than I'm used to, but

Speaker 1: the upside of that is that it holds in any position from about 20 degrees onwards.

Speaker 0: I'm glad that when it folds, it folds completely flat, but more importantly, the fact that

Speaker 1: it can do that while also finding room for the screen to rest without being pressed together, which means that when it's open, it doesn't really have a noticeable crease. You can see it from some angles, but it's good enough that during most day-to-day use, it's literally as if it's not there, which now that I've experienced it, is

Speaker 0: almost confusing. How did Tecno on their first ever flip phone priced at $699 do that? While others who've been

Speaker 1: doing this for years with more expensive phones have not.

Speaker 0: Either way, I do hope this acts as

Speaker 1: an incentive for other manufacturers to get it right going forward. And then you've got this cover screen, which they call the Planet Design. Now I gotta say, I'm not used to using circular screens, but 1 thing this does do at least is feel like a very distinct experience to the inner display. It kind of behaves like a smartwatch with a bunch of these easy to flick through, functional but not too functional widgets. You've got things like fitness, you've got alarms and a stopwatch and it's all very pleasantly animated.

Plus the music tile is pretty cool because it really does look like you're playing a vinyl. And that leads me to the customization. The customization settings here are absolutely endless and I'm all about it. Okay. Deep breath.

So for starters, themes. There's built-in ones and you can download like a thousand more. You've got different live wallpapers that sync to how far open or closed your phone is, static wallpapers with the ability to quickly find more and what I've done which is to cycle through them every single time I unlock my phone. There's cover screen personalisation, where you can either lean in to the fact that, let's be honest, it really does look like a watch face.

Speaker 0: You can go very abstract and artsy

Speaker 1: and stick a whale on there, or you

Speaker 0: can just go all the way and get a pet or

Speaker 1: a stylized version of yourself, which I don't hate nearly as much as I thought I would. There's the always on display stuff, which again, lets you do basically anything you can think of, including deciding how much or little information you want to see. And that's not even touching the deep, deep personalisation, which I could go on about for an entirely separate video. But what's also really cool is the special functions section of the settings. It's an entire subclimate of things that

Speaker 0: you couldn't normally fiddle with on your phone.

Speaker 1: All the way from App Booster, which lets you select a few of your favourite apps and the phone will keep them ready for launch at all times, to music gesture, which lets you change the song that's playing by swiping on your screen even when the phone's on standby, to WhatsApp voice changer, which turns this voice

Speaker 0: to this voice on a WhatsApp video call to terrorise your entire social circle,

Speaker 2: or if you're feeling particularly fruity, you can go to this voice. And if you're enjoying this video, then a sub to the channel would be fantastic.

Speaker 0: Now I've always thought

Speaker 1: that flip phones are cool. There are honestly few higher pleasures in life than ending a phone call like this. But what I find really difficult is feeling like I'm sacrificing functionality for the sake of being cool. And that's what a lot of folding phones have done historically with battery. There's still some compromise here.

It's a 4000 milliamp hour cell you're getting, but that paired with fast 45 watt charging actually feels pretty healthy compared to the 3,700 mAh and 25W combo that I've just come from with the Samsung. Also, remember, flip phones will last a lot longer than you expect, just because you're spending a large portion of your time on a tiny cover screen. And speaking of which, number 2, the cameras. This is the highest resolution overall package of cameras that you can get on a flip phone and obviously we're well past the point where That's the only important metric But the only reason I mention it is that I have multiple times now taken a photo with this phone forgotten about it seen it Again another time while flicking through the gallery and only then realized wait a sec. The detail can be Insane It has the same caveat as every flip phone in that it's effort every time you want to take a rear photo, but the selfies, which are the default, are really good in almost all lighting conditions with a nice balance of smoothing the skin, but not erasing every last bit of texture.

And importantly for a flip phone like this, it's good that you can activate the camera with gestures like a high 5 or voice commands. But the thing that I found most interesting is the weird security features. Just lots of little tricks that no 1 would think to build into their phone, but now they're here, they make a lot

Speaker 0: of sense. Like just for

Speaker 1: example, how after 2 failed unlock attempts, your phone will start secretly taking photos of whoever's trying, and upload those photos to the cloud, which has resulted in an entire library of shots that look like this. Or if you stick the phone on charge and someone else unplugs it while it's still locked, it'll ring at full volume. These are great features to have built into a phone, and I'd love to see others adopting them too.

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HOW is this folding phone so affordable?