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The Tecno Phantom Z being a quality product may be a bit pricey for some people but if you still want to experience more for a lesser price, the new Tecno Phantom Z Mini is made just for you. I’ve been using this device for close to a week and I must confess I love it. I’ve used the original Phantom Z but there are things about this miniature version of that device you just gotta love.
The first attraction is the beautiful physical appearance. It’s much slimmer than Tecno Phantom Z and a lot lighter.
What’s in the box
Before we go into the full review, you might want to know we did the unboxing last week immediately we received the review copy and you can take a full look at that here.
The phone comes with:
- A free flip cover
- A charger
- A USB cable
- A pair of earphones
However, unlike Tecno Phantom Z, a power bank wasn’t included but sincerely, it wasn’t even needed that much because the battery performance was great.
Physical Appearance
The phone may not exactly be a beast like its big brother but one thing it’s got is beauty. If Tecno Phantom Z equals class, Tecno Phantom Z Mini equals style. At 6.6mm, the phone is slim, even slimmer than Apple iPhone 6.
The phone has a 5.0″ Super AMOLED screen and just beside the earpiece on the right sits the 8MP front camera, a few millimeters away from the flash. Unlike Tecno Phantom Z that has on-screen navigation keys, the three navigation soft keys (menu, home & back) are placed just below the screen.
The reflective back cover is made of glass and it’s non-removable. At the top-left is the 13MP primary camera and flash.
The SIM card slot (regular SIM and micro) is on the right just above the power button and the volume controls is on the left.
The USB port is placed at the bottom.
Display and UI
The device has a 5″ Super AMOLED dislay with a resolution of 720×1280 pixels. It doesn’t measure up to that of Tecno Phantom Z but it’s still brilliant with a pixel density of 320dpi.
The default launcher is sufficient and unless you’re the adventurous type, a 3rd party launcher isn’t really needed. The Holo theme is dark and clean.
OS, Speed & Performance
Tecno Phantom Z mini runs Android 4.4.2 Kitkat and has a 1.3GHz octa-core processor (MT6592). The phone runs very smoothly and it’s quite fast. It has a 450-Mali MP graphic processing unit and a 2GB RAM. Multi-task works fine as well.
If you’re a gamer like me, you won’t have problems running your favorite games.
I’ve been playing FIFA 14 on this device over the last few days and I noticed that the temperature sort of stays normal even after playing it for a long time. It doesn’t rise like that of some devices I used recently.
Storage
Tecno Phantom Z Mini has a 16GB ROM but unfortunately, not all of it is available for the user as the operating system shares the same storage. Only about 10GB is left for the user and there’s no memory card slot. To use this device, you must learn to optimize your storage and get rid of files you don’t really use.
A 10GB storage may be enough for a regular user but for someone like me that exhausts even a 32Gb storage, it’s gonna take a lot of getting used to.
However, the 2GB RAM makes the phone super efficient at multi-tasking.
Connectivity
It’s a 3G dual-SIM phone and both SIM cards can work simultaneously. The slot has a house for a regular SIM and a micro-SIM.
As expected, the device is WiFi enabled, has bluetooth and of course, can be used as WiFi hotspot.
Camera
Tecno Phantom Z Mini camera is awesome, both front and back. If you’re a selfie-freak, you can snap yourself even in the dark with the front flash turned on. The back camera has a resolution of 13MP and here’s a shot taken with it outdoor:
And a selfie taken with the front camera outside:
Battery
I mentioned ealier that the power bank not included may not even be needed since the battery performance is quite good. Although the battery capacity (2420mAh) is lower than than that of Tecno Phantom Z (3030mAh) the lower processing power needed and slightly smaller display makes the lower battery power justified.
It’s the kind of phone you can use the whole day and carry over to the next (if used moderately) and if you’re taking extra efforts to save power, you can use uncharged for two days.
Price & Availability
The estimated price is between 27,000-30,000 but we will update this article as soon as we confirm the retail price from Tecno. Mean while, you can check on Konga here though it’s not yet on sale there as we speak.
Final Words
The only dislike I have for the device is the relatively small ROM with no external SD card slot. Every other thing is great… from design, battery life, camera to general performance.
If you couldn’t buy Tecno Phanotom Z because of your budget, Tecno Phantom Z Mini delivers its core features for a lower price.