Tecno Phantom X2 review

A potent triple camera setup

The camera setup is the one significant difference between the Phantom X2 Pro and the regular Phantom X2. The vanilla model doesn't get the 50MP retractable portrait telephoto camera, which is sort of the highlight of the X2 Pro. A bit of a shame, really. On the flip side, however, the Phantom X2 has a higher resolution 64MP main camera equipped with OIS, which is not found on any of the cameras on the Pro model.

Before we go any further, let's go over the cameras and their respective sensors. First, we have the 64MP main cam. It uses a Samsung S5KGWB - 1/1.7", 0.8µm ISOCELL sensor. It is a Quad-Bayer arrangement sensor with RGBW pixels, which offers a boost to low-light performance. If our snooping is correct, this is the exact same camera found in the Tecno Camon 19 Pro.

Then there is the 13MP ultrawide cam. It is based on the Samsung S5K3L6 sensor - 1/3" size and 1.12µm individual pixels. It has PDAF as implemented in the Phantom X2, which is great to see since it can double as a macro camera.

Finally, there is a 2MP supplementary camera on the back. It is based on the GalaxyCore GC02M1 sensor. On the front - a 32MP selfie cam. It uses the Samsung S5KGD2 sensor - 1/2.8", 0.8µm ISOCELL, Tetrapixel RGB Bayer sensor. As far as we can tell, this selfie camera has also been borrowed straight from the Tecno Camon 19 Pro. The sensor has a fixed focus and no other fancy extras to note.

The camera app is straightforward - aside from the full-auto photo mode being called AI Cam, things are mostly as expected. You can swipe down on the viewfinder to bring the top row of icons closer - something Techno calls one-handed mode.

Super Night mode is available across both main cameras and the selfie on the Phantom X2.

Camera UI

Interestingly enough, there is no Pro camera mode, or at least we didn't manage to find one. In Film mode, you have different presets for short videos. Bokeh mode is available in Video mode if that's your thing.

Daylight image quality

The 64MP primary camera uses a Quad-Bayer pixel setup and hence captures 16MP stills by default. These look very clean with plenty of detail and natural-looking if a bit desaturated colors. Though, that might be down to the lighting and weather conditions.

Tecno Phantom X2: 16MP main camera samples

Contrast is also on point, and the dynamic range is solid, if not perfect. Overall, these photos leave us wanting very little.

You can also force the camera to shoot in 64MP mode. These shots have noticeably more detail than the regular ones to the point where we would actually consider shooting in higher res if you don't mind dealing with the larger files.

Tecno Phantom X2: 64MP main camera samples

On the flip side, capturing the 64MP stills doesn't take too long, just a second or two, which is perfectly reasonable.

The main camera does great with portrait shots. Subject detection and separation are excellent, and the background blur is pleasing.

Tecno Phantom X2: 16MP main camera portrait samples

Non-human subjects work really well too.

Tecno Phantom X2: 16MP main camera portrait samples

Before we move on, here are our standard test posters captured by the Phantom X2 and its main camera in 16MP and 64MP modes. Pixel-peep away.

Tecno PHANTOM X2 against the Tecno Camon 19 Pro and the vivo V25 in our Photo compare tool

64MP: Tecno PHANTOM X2 against the Tecno Camon 19 Pro and the vivo V25 in our Photo compare tool

There is no dedicated telephoto camera on the Phantom X2, but it still offers digital zoom from the main 64MP shooter, with a 2x toggle front and center on the camera UI. 2x zoom shots look very comparable to their 1x counterparts, which is definitely a good thing.

Tecno Phantom X2: 16MP main camera 2x zoom samples

You can zoom more, all the way to 10x, on the main camera. The shots expectedly get progressively softer, but never actually too soft to be unusable.

Tecno Phantom X2 zoom samples: 5x • 10x

We have to commend the zooming capabilities of the Phantom X2.

The dedicated portrait telephoto might not have made it over, but the 13MP ultrawide camera on the Phantom X2 is borrowed straight from the Phantom X2 Pro. It captures surprisingly clean and detailed shots. Colors are also nice and natural and consistent with the other two cameras.

Tecno Phantom X2: 13MP ultrawide camera samples

There is a bit of corner softness, but nothing out of the expected.

Thanks to its autofocus, the ultrawide can double as a macro cam. It does a great job as well, with pleasant results.

Tecno Phantom X2: 13MP ultrawide camera macro samples

Selfies

The 32MP selfie camera doesn't fail to impress either. It delivers plenty of detail and great sharpness with pleasing skin tones.

Tecno Phantom X2: 32MP selfie camera samples

Since 32MP is a bit excessive in terms of resolution and file size in our book, you can just as easily shoot selfie portraits without any effect applied to get just as great 8MP stills.

Tecno Phantom X2: 8MP selfie camera portrait samples

While we can't find any particular glaring faults with the selfie cam on the Phantom X2, we just wish it had autofocus. That would have really pushed things to the next level.

Video quality

The Phantom X2 can capture up to 4K@60fps video from its main 64MP camera. The ultrawide and selfie cams are both limited to 1080p, but the selfie can do 1080p@60fps if that is your cup of tea. These videos get saved in a standard AVC video stream at 50 Mbps in 4K and a pretty stable frame count, plus a stereo 48kHz AAC audio track, wrapped inside an MP4 container. There is no option for h.256 (HEVC) video capture on the Phantom X2.

The main cam captures solid 4K video. Though, nothing to phone home about. Detail is good, though it's a bit hard to tell since contrast is quite high, effectively masking actual detail. We find the contrast level a bit excessive, but it might be appealing to some.

Colors are good, though not exactly true to life. Dynamic range could be wider, but it holds up in this challenging lighting.

Here is how the main and portrait cameras stack up against the competition in our extensive video compare database.

Tecno PHANTOM X2 against the Xiaomi 12T and the vivo V25 in our Video compare tool

1080p videos from the ultrawide camera are good, but not spectacular in any way. Detail is decent. Colors are a bit more vibrant here, but they still look good. Contrast is a bit on the higher end once again, and dynamic range could be better.

The same is generally true about the selfie camera. The 32MP snapper clearly has the detail to impress, but contrast and saturation have both been brought up quite a bit to the detriment of overall quality. Still, it's not like these videos are bad. They are just a bit overprocessed.

As we mentioned, there is no autofocus on the selfie cam, but a pretty liberal and forgiving depth of focus generally means your face will be in focus most of the time at arm's length. Plus, the lack of focus hinting is a bonus when it comes to how stable the footage is.

Speaking of stabilization, the Phantom X2 has EIS available on its main and ultrawide cameras and the selfie. It works well across the board, but it tends to introduce a tiny amount of focus hunting in the main and ultrawide cameras under certain conditions.

However, the results are nearly perfect if you're not too aggressive in your movement. You can see it for yourself in the playlist.

Low-light camera quality

The main camera on the Phantom X2 has decent but mostly unremarkable low-light performance. The level of detail is good, though a noticeable amount of sharpening is applied throughout the frame.

Tecno Phantom X2: 16MP main camera low-light samples

Dynamic range is good, and so are colors, which are mostly true to life. The Phantom X2 really struggles with light sources, which are almost always blown out and feature artifacts like shimmering along the edges.

This is where night mode would typically step in to clean up the issues. The Phantom X2 has an automatic night mode that triggers on its own. Beyond that, there is also Super Night mode, which extends capture times noticeably up to three to four seconds, which is on the slow side. Surprisingly, despite the much slower capture time, these photos don't look noticeably different from regular Ai mode ones.

Tecno Phantom X2: 16MP main camera night mode samples

If we really pixel-peep, we can notice a bit less aggressive sharpening with fewer artifacts in the frame and also softer, though still very much blown-out light sources. The differences are so minuscule, however, that the extra slow capture time is really not worth it in our book.

2x zoom shots from the main cam look almost identical to 1x ones, just like in daylight, which is great to see.

Tecno Phantom X2: 16MP main camera 2x zoom low-light samples

The effects of artificial sharpening are a bit more noticeable, but other than that - a good showing.

The ultrawide camera expectedly struggles a bit in low light. The photos it produces are pretty soft and a bit noisy. Still, the detail is there, and light sources, though blown out, don't look too bad.

Tecno Phantom X2: 13MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Just like on the main cam, night mode has very little effect on the ultrawide. It manages to clean up the noise a bit better and if we really pixel-peep we can perhaps see less sharpening applied to these Super Night mode shots.

Tecno Phantom X2: 13MP ultrawide camera night mode samples

Though, once again, the differences are minuscule and not worth the extra trouble of waiting around a few seconds for Super Night to capture a photo.

The selfie camera has a slightly peculiar behavior in low light. Just like the main and ultrawide cams, it triggers night mode on its own when it deems it necessary. This results in 8MP stills instead of 32MP ones, which we can only assume is a deliberate choice to ease the algorithms' work. If there is enough light, shots still come out in 32MP, like the final selfie from the set.

Tecno Phantom X2: 8MP and 32MP selfie camera low-light samples

Quality-wise, these look good, with plenty of detail and pleasant skin tones. It should be noted that the fixed focal plane of the selfie cam is fairly narrow, so you have to be careful and take a few shots to ensure your face is in focus.

While testing the Phantom X2, we also found that portrait mode with no effects applied seems to, for whatever reason, produce slightly sharper and more detailed low-light shots. These are also consistently saved in 8MP, making them easier to work with. Just like in daylight, we recommend switching to portrait mode for your selfie needs.

Tecno Phantom X2: 8MP selfie camera low-light portrait samples

The Phantom X2 captures decent 4K low-light videos with its man cam, but nothing to phone home about. There is plenty of detail and colors are nice. On the flip side, the clips are noisy and grainy, and light sources are blown out.

The ultrawide camera struggles badly in low light. Its recordings are very dark and noisy, and light sources look worse still.