Phantom V Fold 2 Has Giant Battery but Also a Two-Year Old Processor

As more phonemakers release their own foldable phones, it becomes harder to stand out from the pack, but the Phantom V Fold 2 boasts its own signature feature: what may be the largest battery on a foldable that opens and closes like a book. Within its chassis lies a 5,750 mAh battery, and its maker Tecno promising a full charge in 49 minutes. That capacity is significantly larger than the 4,400-mAh battery inside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the 4,600-mAh battery powering the Pixel Fold 9 Pro and even the Honor Magic V3's 5,150-mAh battery. 

However, battery capacity alone doesn't determine how long a phone will last on a single charge. The processor, screen and software also play an important role in this equation. Tecno made an unusual choice for the V Fold 2's chipset, opting for the now two-year old Mediatek Dimensity 9000+, the same one that powered last year's Phantom V Fold.

Apart from that headline feature, the V Fold 2 has four cameras in total, three on its rear and one on the inner display. Most book-style foldables come with five cameras: three on the rear and two front-facing ones, meaning you won't be able to take a selfie when the V Fold 2 is closed. It also lacks an IP rating for water and dust resistance and offers just three years of Android OS upgrades, compared to four years for the Magic V3 and seven years on the Z Fold 6 and the Pixel Fold 9 Pro. But Tecno made sure to stuff this phone with AI-enabled features, most (if not all) of which are underpinned by Google's Cloud AI. It also included stylus support.

Tecno hasn't revealed the price of the V Fold 2 as of this writing, but it seems the Chinese company is seeking to create a more wallet-friendly breed of foldable phones. The V Fold was probably the most affordable on the market for a book-style folding phone. The V Fold cost 69,999 - 79,999 Indian rupees which is around a $1,000, making it far cheaper than rivals such as the Galaxy Fold 6 (from which it presumably took inspiration from for its name). I expect similar pricing given Tecno's track record and considering some missing flagship-level specs. 

Tecno may not be a household name like Apple, Samsung or even Huawei, but the Chinese company has broken through to the top ten to be among the world's largest phone makers.  In recent years, Tecno has been building a brand around innovation. Case in point: This monthTecno unveiled a concept trifoldable phone that fits a 10.2-inch screen in your pocket,

Tecno sent me the Phantom V Fold 2 ahead of its international launch on Friday at the IFA. Here are my initial thoughts after using the Phantom V Fold 2.

Design

Immediately I noticed the refreshed design of the camera bump. Tecno switched away from a circular camera module to a rectangular one, perhaps as a result of its design collaboration with Spanish luxury brand Loewe. Additionally, Tecno managed to shave off 50 grams to bring the V Fold 2's weight down to 249 grams, which is slightly heavier than the Z Fold 6's 239 grams, and also lighter than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, which weighs 258 grams. Despite its lightweight design, the V Fold feels large in hand, especially compared to the Z Fold 6, which has a narrower cover screen. But using just the cover screen when the V Fold 2 is closed offers an experience that is more similar to holding and navigating a regular candybar phone, an approach that I prefer on book-style phones over narrower foldables.

Camera

Among the trio of rear cameras, the Phantom V Fold 2 has a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera capable of 2x optical zoom. In my time so far, the main camera takes mostly color accurate and crisp photos in a variety of lighting conditions, although it did struggle with detail and shadows at times in lower light environments.

However, the bigger concern was the selfie camera, even in the short time I spent testing it. The 32-megapixel front-facing camera was unable to take accurate or sharp enough images of my skin even in well-lit environments. The camera tended to whiten my skin and lacked detail such as the fine lines on my forehand (not that I necessarily want to see it). I tended to look paler than I actually am and the image simply wasn't true to life. Take a look at the cameras in action.

Foldable phones aren't known for their camera prowess because there's less space to house larger image sensors and lenses in the thinner halves than the body of a conventional smartphone. Compared to other available book-style phones such as the Magic V3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 6, this device also has noticeably fewer cameras in total (four vs. the typical five) and more limited zoom capabilities. Tecno lacks a second selfie camera, which rival phones have, but that may be a smart tradeoff to bring the price down. However, I'd love to see Tecno improve the image quality of the V Fold 2's selfie camera given it has just one. Its main camera also isn't on par with the performance from flagship bar-style phones such as the Google Pixel 9 Pro or the iPhone 15 Pro Max – however this is common across foldable ones, even the luxurious ones like the Z Fold 6 and the Magic V3.

Battery & performance

The Phantom V Fold 2 runs on a 5,750 mAh battery, just barely one-upping the capacity of the 5,700 mAh battery on Xiaomi's Mix Fold 4. This battery is not only one of the largest found in a folding phone but one of the largest found in any phone. I ran a 45-minute battery drain test during which I watched YouTube videos, read emails on a split screen, and downloaded some graphic-intensive games. During that time, the battery drained from 18% to 3%, or a drop of 15%. When this test was conducted on Honor's Magic V3 that phone lost 8%. I'll have more conclusive insights on battery life once I spend more time using this device.

Apart from that, the V Fold 2 runs on Mediatek's Dimensity 9000+ chipset from 2022. It's a flagship-level mobile chipset designed to rival Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Plus 1 processor from 2022, and is the same processor used in the preceding Phantom V Fold. It also has 12GB RAM, compared to the 12GB of RAM in the Z Fold 6 and 16GB of RAM in the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. In two benchmark performance tests I ran, the Phantom V Fold 2 underperformed compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Pixel Fold 9 Pro, showing that the two-year old chipset seemingly cannot keep up with the newer silicon powering the foldable's rivals.

Early thoughts

Tecno hasn't revealed the price of the Phantom V Fold 2, which makes it tricky to offer an overall assessment of the device. But the headline feature is that large battery, which sets a record for its capacity but isn't backed up by a top-end processor.

Changes aside, the Phantom V Fold strikes me more like a mid-range foldable given its lack of finishing touches such as an IP rating and the choice of an outdated processor. Perhaps Tecno is working to capture more global market share with the Phantom V Fold 2, and it believed choosing a now two-year old processor and only including one selfie camera were necessary trade-offs to keep a lid on prices -- and tempt buyers who just can't stomach paying the sky-high prices of today's premium foldables.