Tecno Phantom V Fold review

Android 13, HiOS Fold 13 on top

The Phantom V Fold runs Android 13 with a layer of the in-house HiOS on top, that one in version Fold 13. So not only is it the first Tecno we encounter with the latest core OS version, but it also has a foldable-specific implementation of the proprietary software.

Ever a feature-packed Android overlay, HiOS has a fair share of functionality for you to make better use of the form factor - we're talking mostly about its extensive split-screen multi-window implementation.

There are numerous ways to go into split-screen or pop-up window mode. A tap on the three-dot button in the app's status bar will open up a menu with split-screen or pop-up options, and it's in there that you'll find the full-screen button for when you're in either of the other two modes. Alternatively, you can hold that three-dot button and pull down on it, which will move the current app to the left and show you the app drawer on the right to pick a second app.

Various shortcuts for going into split-screen or pop-up view

The task switcher also holds icons for both split-screen and pop-up window modes next to the apps that support them. Or maybe you prefer to use the Smart panel (summoned with a swipe and hold from either side edge) - in that case, tapping on an app icon opens it in a pop-up window, while dragging it to either side of the screen takes it into split-screen.

Multi-tasking shortcuts

It doesn't end there. The currently active fullscreen app can be sent into a sort of a minimized pop-up window by swiping up from the bottom edge of the screen and dragging it to either side. Then there's the pinch gesture - if you pinch in with four or five fingers, you'll shRink the fullscreen app to a pop-up window, but an active large-size one.

More multi-tasking shortcuts

It may all sound like a lot to remember, but the reality is that all the options are more or less natural and don't need a lot of deliberate thought. Plus, you'll likely get accustomed to using one or two of the different methods and stick to them. It's nice to have options.

App pairs are a thing too. You can find them in the task switcher, above the recent apps cards. You can save a new app pair by dragging it from the recent apps area to the row of pairs, or by tapping on the 'save' icon in the pop-up menu on the border between the two apps. We didn't find a way to place an app pair in the Smart panel or right on the homescreen - both options present in Samsung's One UI.

App pairs

We encountered a few other limitations too. For one, you can't really resize the windows when in split-screen - it's either 50/50 or fullscreen.

Then there's the matter that there's no horizontal split capability. Samsung has the best implementation of that, while Oppo and Honor have more limited (but still some) capability for it. Tecno joins Xiaomi and Huawei, which don't support it.

A foldable-specific problem to be solved is the hand-off from the internal screen to the cover when you're closing the device. The menu item on the Tecno is called 'Smart Relay' and offers four options.

Three of them are rather obvious but the fourth one is more of a novelty - once you close the phone, it will remain active on the cover screen for a couple of seconds while the selfie camera looks around for a face and if it doesn't see one, it will send the phone to standby. The wording in the menu implies it will work with 'your' face only, but in fact it works with any face.

Smart Relay

Also available is a Driving mode, which presents an arrangement of large buttons and cards with Google maps for navigation, Boomplay for music playback, a dialer, and a shortcut to the in-house smart assistant Ella. We found no way to customize this Driving mode, however, and while Google Maps would work great for navigation, an option for Spotify as a music player would be much preferred over the Boomplay one.

App pairs

There are no provisions in software for a semi-folded state other than YouTube automatically switching to its own foldable-specific half-screen split interface. The Tecno can't be made to stay in a half-unfolded state anyway, so not having software to benefit from such a use case isn't really an omission.

When it comes to the Phantom V Fold's interface in smartphone mode with this new HiOS 13, it's an ever so slightly touched up version of the HiOS 12 we saw on the Phantom X2 and X2 Pro.

The lockscreen has a couple of shortcuts on the bottom - one for camera, the other for the flashlight. They work with a long press as opposed to the usual swipe, mind you.

Once you're past the lockscreen, you arrive at a standard homescreen interface. The leftmost pane, called the Zero screen, holds cards with suggested news, weather and quotes widgets and an app usage widget. You can disable the Zero screen in the 'Desktop settings'. There's an app drawer by default.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Zero screen • Folder view • App drawer • Task switcher

Entering the Phantom V Fold is no different to any other non-foldable - you get both fingerprint and face recognition. You can have the fingerprint reader unlock with just a tap or require a press as well, and face recognition can be set to bypass the lockscreen directly or require a swipe instead.

Biometrics and security

Tecno has a long-standing selection of advanced features that generally get carried forward from older models. That includes the Game mode with all the settings, statistics and parental controls. There is also the Smart panel with slide-from-the-side shortcuts that we mentioned above.

The Social Turbo toolset is rather interesting (a WhatsApp enhancer of sorts) - it can change your voice, enhance your face during video calls, record your WhatsApp calls, and allow you to read messages without marking them as Read.

MemFusion is Tecno's name for virtual RAM. The Phantom V Fold has 12GB of physical RAM chips on board and can extend that up to a total of 21GB with another 9GB of virtual memory. By default, MemFusion is set to 6GB.

Special function menu • Game mode • Social Turbo • Smart Panel • MemFusion • Phone Master

There are some pre-installed apps and utilities, but it's a pretty restrained package overall, with a lot less bloatware than the X2 and X2 Pro we had last, which in turn were a significant step in the right direction. You get an in-house gallery and video player, but no proprietary app stores and no Hi browser pre-installed. Not even the Hi Themes app is here - there are just a couple of themes pre-installed.

AI Gallery • AI Gallery • Visha Player • File Manager • Themes

Performance and benchmarks

The Phantom V Fold is the only large foldable not to be powered by a Snapdragon chipset - it uses the Dimensity 9000+ instead. It's not the only foldable with that Dimensity though - the clamshell Oppo Find N2 Flip also uses that Mediatek SoC.

A high-end chip built on a 4nm process, the Dimensity 9000+ has a very similar CPU configuration (same cores at mostly same frequencies too) to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 that you'd find on a Galaxy Z Fold4 or an Honor Magic Vs. The GPU here is called Mali-G710 MC10.

Two memory configurations are in existence - 12GB/256GB (like our review unit) and 12GB/512GB.

In the single-core GeekBench 5 test, the Tecno was just behind the Galaxy Z Fold4, both comfortably ahead of the Honor Magic Vs. In the multic-core, all three posted virtually the same scores. The Mix Fold 2 was slightly better than all in both tests, while the Find N2 was towards the bottom of the pack.

• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  1537
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  1490
• iQOO 11
  1479
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  1374
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  1337
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  1274
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  1248
• OnePlus 11
  1150
• Oppo Find N2
  1057
• Honor Magic Vs
  1033
• ROG Phone 6D
  1015
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  936
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  884

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  5087
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  4927
• OnePlus 11
  4899
• iQOO 11
  4803
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  4368
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  3984
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  3981
• Honor Magic Vs
  3971
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  3963
• Oppo Find N2
  3670
• ROG Phone 6D
  3531
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  3265
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  3131

The Tecno pulls slightly ahead of the Galaxy in Antutu and the Honor is still lower down the chart. Another win for the Mix, too.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  1281666
• iQOO 11
  1281665
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  1241531
• OnePlus 11
  1140661
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  1050139
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  999348
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  964530
• Oppo Find N2
  962082
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  961576
• ROG Phone 6D
  948594
• Honor Magic Vs
  831175
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  773574
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  641608

In the offscreen tests in GFXBench, rendered at standardized resolutions, the Tecno is on par with the Galaxy and the Honor in the more demanding benchmarks, though it drops a little bit behind in the easier ones.

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• iQOO 11
  62
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  61
• OnePlus 11
  61
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  59
• Oppo Find N2
  46
• Honor Magic Vs
  46
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  45
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  45
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  45
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  44
• ROG Phone 6D
  43
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  42
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  28

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  69
• iQOO 11
  69
• OnePlus 11
  68
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  67
• Oppo Find N2
  51
• Honor Magic Vs
  51
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  50
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  50
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  48
• ROG Phone 6D
  46
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  44
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  37
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  31

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• iQOO 11
  128
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  127
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  126
• OnePlus 11
  126
• Oppo Find N2
  104
• Honor Magic Vs
  103
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  102
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  101
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  89
• ROG Phone 6D
  84
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  82
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  75
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  72

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  222
• iQOO 11
  222
• OnePlus 11
  220
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  212
• Oppo Find N2
  180
• Honor Magic Vs
  180
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  178
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  174
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  158
• ROG Phone 6D
  152
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  147
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  140
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  121

In the onscreen tests, the Tecno is slightly behind the Honor Vs, both of them trailing the Galaxy, which has the lowest resolution display and is thus the easiest on the GPU.

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ROG Phone 6D
  61
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  59
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  58
• Tecno Phantom V Fold (cover display)
  57
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  54
• iQOO 11
  54
• Oppo Find N2
  49
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  49
• OnePlus 11
  49
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  43
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  40
• Honor Magic Vs
  36
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  33
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  19

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ROG Phone 6D
  64
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  62
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  60
• Tecno Phantom V Fold (cover display)
  60
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  56
• iQOO 11
  55
• OnePlus 11
  53
• Oppo Find N2
  52
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  52
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  42
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  41
• Honor Magic Vs
  38
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  36
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  21

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  71
• ROG Phone 6D
  71
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  67
• iQOO 11
  67
• Tecno Phantom V Fold (cover display)
  66
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  64
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  59
• Oppo Find N2
  59
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  59
• OnePlus 11
  57
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  52
• Honor Magic Vs
  50
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  45
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  28

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ROG Phone 6D
  122
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  115
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  112
• iQOO 11
  112
• Tecno Phantom V Fold (cover display)
  110
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  103
• Xiaomi Mix Fold 2
  93
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  93
• Honor Magic Vs
  82
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  72
• Oppo Find N2
  60
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  60
• OnePlus 11
  60
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  45

In 3DMark, on the other hand, the Tecno is a good 20% behind the other large fodables. It does score a narrow victory over the Find N2 Flip that has the same chipset inside, for what that's worth.

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• iQOO 11
  12738
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  12241
• Honor Magic Vs
  10561
• Oppo Find N2
  10517
• Galaxy Z Fold4
  10382
• Xiaomi 13 Pro
  10289
• ROG Phone 6D
  8666
• Tecno Phantom V Fold
  8395
• Oppo Find N2 Flip
  8144
• Tecno Phantom X2 Pro
  7499
• Huawei Mate Xs 2 (Unfolded)
  5830

While we're on the subject of 3DMark, let's mention that the Tecno put up one of the best showings we've seen from a high-end chipset smartphone in the Wild Life Stress test, returning a 95% stability rating. Mind you, at some point during the 20-minute test it dramatically lowered its display brightness, without that showing on the slider and without being excessively hot to the touch. So while the result is impressive, it's not entirely legit.

There were no such shenanigans in the CPU Throttling test, where the Phantom V Fold returned okay results. It dropped to 66% of its max performance, though with more careful tuning to smooth out those largely unnecessary spikes, it may be capable of maintaining performance in the high 70s percent.

CPU throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test