If you are a photographer or photography enthusiast and you love snapping away and taking selfies, then the Phantom is right for you. We spent a week with the device and now show you some of the things you will enjoy about the camera
Tecno Phantom 8 Official Specs
Announced: 2017, October Available: 2017, November Colors: Galaxy Blue, Champagne Gold, Black SIM: Dual Sim Operating System: HiOS based on Android 7.0 Network: 4G / 3G / 2G 4G LTE Bands: FDD LTE 4G: 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/20/28A. TD LTE 4G: 38/40 Dimensions: 159.95mmx79.4mmx7.9mm Display: 5.7 inch FHD display CPU: 2.6 Ghz Octa-core processor Memory: 64GB+6GB RAM Expandable Micro SD, up to 2TB Camera: 12/13MP dual AF rear cameras, 20MP front Connectivity: WIFI, Bluetooth, USB type-C Sensors: Fingerprint scanner, G-sensor Battery: 3500mAh Battery
Camera + Photography
What’s New? (Features) First of all we have a 20MP selfie camera and a dual rear camera with 12/13MP auto focus cameras. The 12MP camera is said to have a Sony wide angle sensor. Secondly we have a tritone rear flash to balance light for better color and ambiance instead of harsh light. Amazing Selfie Camera The Selfie camera was really impressive capturing photos in well lit and low light situations. This was made better by the front/selfie flash that helped when in total darkness of if you needed more light. The selfie camera was also designed to take brighter selfies but I didn’t like this feature because it over exposed the background making photos appear washed out.
Super Zoom With the Super zoom, we were able to use the camera to zoom in on a subject from a far and still get detail. This comes in handy for travelers on Safari capturing animals or if a subject is just too far away and you don’t want to miss the action. We first took this image and then zoomed in to take the next.
After zooming in, this is what we got.
Refocus This is one of the most interesting features that allow you to focus on a subject and blur the background creating a lovely effect. It uses the two cameras allowing one to focus in the subject and another on the background and then blurring the background by switching focus. Tecno claims that the Phantom 8 camera uses AI(Artificial Intelligence) to achieve this. We tried out the feature and it worked amazing with just a few glitches as seen in the images below.
Phantom 8 Camera Sample Photos
Price and Where to buy
The Phantom 8 is going for the price of Ugx 1,220,000 and may vary slightly depending on where you buy it from. You can purchase the device at multiple stores since tecno now has numerous stores in town. The ones we know are Banana Phone World (Nandos, Kampala Road and Lugogo Mall branch), Hello Mobile (Kampala Road, Forest Mall, William Street), Rock Unlimited (Opp City Square Mapeera House and Luwum Street)
Wrapping it up
A lot of effort has been put into the device and it’s camera is clearly one to reckon with. The Phantom 8 camera takes crisp photos and makes big attempts at low light than any other Tecno device we have seen. We also discovered that it will take better photos if you know the basics of photography and learn how to use the device camera to maximum. To wrap it up, it is one camera I would have any day and is worth your hard earned money. Editors Note: Images were resized for this post but were not retouched.
