TECNO announces pre-orders for its first foldable smartphone in Kenya

TECNO has announced pre-orders of its first foldable smartphone – the Phantom V Fold – in Kenya.

This move is set to shake up the smartphone market in the country and offer a more affordable option for Kenyans who are interested in foldable smartphones. The device is expected to be launched later this month after its debut at MWC 2023.

The Phantom V Fold is set to compete with Samsung’s Z Fold 4, which is currently the leader in foldable smartphone technology. With the launch of the Phantom V Fold, Kenyan consumers now have access to a second foldable smartphone option at a more affordable price.

In addition to Samsung’s Z Fold 4, the Phantom V Fold will also be competing against other foldable smartphones globally, such as OPPO’s Find N2, Vivo’s X Fold+, Vivo Fold 2, Xiaomi’s Mix Fold 2, and Honor’s Magic Vs.

Customers can pre-order the Phantom V Fold on TECNO’s website, as well as official Safaricom shops and selected TECNO shops. Pre-orders come with free gifts, including a TECNO smartwatch, a TECNO backpack, and 120GB of Safaricom data. The pre-order period runs from April 3rd to April 17th.

The Phantom V Fold features two screens, both with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1100 nits brightness. The cover display is a 6.42″ LTPO AMOLED screen at 1080p resolution, protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. The inner display is a 7.85″ foldable LTPO AMOLED screen at 2000p(2K) resolution. The phone’s fold is made of aerospace-grade material and can withstand over 200,000 folds.

The phone is powered by the Dimensity 9000+ 5G processor(4nm) coupled with Mali-G710 MC10 GPU and comes with 12GB of RAM and storage options up to 512GB. The Phantom V Fold runs on Android 13 and HiOS 13, which has been tweaked for the fold format. The phone’s performance is comparable to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 found in Samsung’s Z Fold 4.

The Phantom V Fold has a 5000mAh battery with support for 45W wired charging, which can fully charge the phone in just 55 minutes. It also sports a triple camera setup in a circular module, featuring a 50MP main camera, 50Mp telephoto with 2X optical zoom(20x Digital Zoom), and a 13MP ultrawide lens. There are also two front-facing cameras for selfies, with a 32MP lens on the cover display and a 16MP lens on the inner display.

The phone’s inner display has no visible crease and can only be opened or closed, but there is no gap when it’s closed thanks to the drop-style hinge. Although the phone cannot be propped in a laptop position, the hinge ensures that the screen stays securely closed when not in use.