TECNO Phantom 6s Full Review

The Phantom 6s is completely similar to the Phantom 6. Only difference is it comes with only one SIM card slot. The “S” could mean Single SIM or Safaricom Model (hahaha). 

There’s was some sort of confusion last year when TECNO launched their latest flagship. They launched 2 devices:

• The Phantom 6
• The Phantom 6 Plus – full in-depth review here

In Kenya, there was also the Phantom 6s. You can get the Phantom 6s in Safaricom Shops.

This is basically a Phantom 6 review:

The first time I held the Phantom 6, I was surprised. The device is so light. I had, by then, been using the Phantom 6 Plus for a while. And it shocked me just how different in terms of weight the two are. The Phantom 6 is thin and light, very light.

The light weight comes from the fact that it is very thin. I remember TECNO calling it the thinnest dual camera phone when they launched. How true that is, I cannot say.

But the thinness doesn’t mean this phone features crap specs.

Here are the TECNO Phantom 6s Specifications:

A couple of things stand out for me in the Phantom 6. I’ve interacted with it for quite some while and I am loving it.

Display:

Put the Phantom 6+ next to the Phantom 6 and you’ll straight away notice the difference. The Phantom 6 has a much better display. Like way better than the 6+. And that should have been expected as they have the same resolution (1080p) but different screen sizes with the 6+ being 6.0 inches.

They also seem to have different panels. The Phantom 6 has better colour saturation, shows true black and is overall more pleasing to the eye. The Phantom 6+ has a warmer feel to it and sometimes produces inaccurate colours.

The problem with the Phantom 6 display is that some times you’ll see it showing a false green tint especially when you’re outdoors.

Cameras:

The Phantom 6 comes with two back cameras. One 13MP autofocus camera. And one 5MP fixed focus camera.

At first I was pretty confused about how they work. But it is actually a neat feature. And to use both lenses you need to use the “REFOCUS” option in the camera interface.

The 13MP shooter teams up with the 5MP lens to capture depths and help you to shift focus your images after taking them.

This helps you edit your image later on so that you can get the image to show what you want. Meaning you can focus on any angle or object and blur the rest after taking the image.

Here are some samples:

Original:

Re-focused:

Performance:

I have tried a couple of heavy games like I did on the Phantom 6 Plus review and they all work alright. It is a snappy device.

When switching between heavy apps, there’s only a little lag then it picks up very well. And that’s good. The 3GB RAM ensures I don’t have to always wait for the app to reload or refresh to where I was previously. Information is availed as I need it.

Speakers:

Yes these speakers are good. Very good. Really good. They’re deep and loud and amazing. They’re exactly the same speakers used on the Phantom 6 Plus. You don’t need mini bluetooth speakers for personal listening of music or podcasts with these speakers. The only issue is that only one of the grills is a speaker. Hio nyingine ni maridadi. Plus, you’ll find yourself frequently blocking the sound when watching YouTube or when playing a game.

TECNO also include the same amazing earphones that came with the 6 Plus.

Battery:

The 2770mAh battery was TECNO’s biggest sacrifice in order to attain that slimness. And sure you feel the pain when using the device.

Not that it is really bad. You can, on Wi-Fi, low brightness and normal use last the whole day. But on 4G with a lot of browsing, gaming, and music you can do between 4 and 5 hours.

Best screen-on time has been 5hrs and 32mins.

Design:

It is beautiful, light and feels premium with the brushed metal feel. My only wish is that TECNO would have made more colours available. Like I tend to imagine how cool the device would look if it were pure black.

The thinness and lightness of the device can make you, and quite a couple of times this will happen, forget that it is in your pocket.

What I dislike:

• The colour of the device
• The display is good, but it doesn’t pop like that of the Infinix Zero 4
• The battery can be bettered
• The HiOS UI is very very annoying. But the settings UI is pretty cool. Let it always remain black.
• The default case that comes with the phone. I hate that case so much. And the same design of the case comes with other TECNO products. Just change it. Try something like this:

Conclusion:

TECNO have here a very beautiful device. The price is also agreeable. What they should do next time with the Phantom 7 is:

• Make the battery bigger
• Change HiOS (Which reminds me I’ve seen HiOS 2.0 on Camon CX and I hope the Phantom 7 will have that with the option of making things dark).
• Have variety of phone colours
• Make better phone cases TECNO.

What are your thoughts on the TECNO Phantom 6? Do you have one? Have you interacted with one? Would you get one?

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