We all know Apple, Samsung, Motorola or Xiaomi. They are more than established brands in our territory and surely others like OPPO (if you like tennis you will have seen them as sponsors of Roland Garros) or Vivo (sponsors of LaLiga) seem familiar to you. But… what about ZTE? Did you know that Asus has the Zenfone 9 which is one of the best compact phones? Have you stopped confusing Realme with Redmi?
There are many brands that are present in the West and are starting to make themselves known (some, like Realme, are doing very well in terms of advertising with such spectacular features as the Realme GT3 recharge), but there are has others that we don’t know as well with or who directly don’t sell in our territory. This is the case of TECNOa company that was planted at Mobile World Congress with interesting proposals and which should reach the global market.
Nothing has shown that with a simple twist in the design you can create a “hype”
When someone asks me for advice on buying a phone that looks like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but doesn’t cost as much as the S23 Ultra, I say “take a look at the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra”. I know very well that it is not comparable in screen, software or cameras, but I also know that it will leave my friend completely satisfied. It costs 830 dollars and is a, badly speaking, “mobile piece”
The answer is no, it’s a clone and he doesn’t want it (and yes, it leads to a conversation where I explain why this ZTE is worth it and my friend doesn’t care because what he wants it’s a brand that sounds familiar. of something). So I end with “well, if you don’t want to pay for this year’s Galaxy Ultra, go for the S22 Ultra or the Note 20”.
However, things change when I recommend the Nothing Phone (1). It looks like an iPhone from the back, but it has the lights. That Android is so clean is also convincing, but especially when it comes to the lights and the design of the back. With its first mobile, Nothing has managed to attract a lot of attention thanks to a very attractive design and, precisely, If we talk about TECNO, we have to talk about flashy mobiles.
Image from Mr. Mobile
Image from Mr. Mobile
This mobile is the TECNO Camon 19 Pro and the images are screenshots from Michael Fisher’s video in which he shows the main feature of this model: the back reacts to ultraviolet light.
It is a back of a polychrome material with different shades that, as soon as we expose it to the sun, change color. If we switch to an interior, it reverts to its “black and white” state. You may think it’s silly, but vivo also has a mobile like this (the eye-catching vivo V23) and the truth is that it’s “cool” to have a phone with this feature. It’s different.
They bet big on it because they also have a prototype called ‘TECNO Chameleon’ which basically is a technology that allows us to change the color of the back at will.
It is not a screen, but a material of submicron prism that changes color when electricity is applied. According to TECNO: changing color 100 times would be equivalent to energy consumption like watching a five-minute video on YouTube and 100 changes a day can be made for 55 years before the system starts to fail.
This technology shows that this is a company that does different things, but also has more conventional cell phones. For example, a few hours ago they announced the TECNO Spark 10 Proa mobile with a 6.8-inch screen at 90 Hz, FullHD+, a Helio G88 core and a 5000 mAh battery with a 50 megapixel main camera.
It is a mid-range mobile and it is very conventional, but as can be the Samsung Galaxy M14 5G which has also just been presented. And, the more options we have on the market, the better because yes, it’s saturated, but in the end thecompetition between brands (and not so much in terms of the number of devices of the same brands as always) is beneficial for the user.
Where does TECHNO come from?
I started talking about devices and I missed something important. TECNO is a company that is not new, but it began to be known relatively recently. It was born in 2006, but in 2016 it started to attract attention by gaining considerable market share in countries like Africa, India and Latin American territory.
A few days ago my partner Enrique was able to chat with them and the brand commented that in 2021 increased by 55% in India, more than 50% in Latin America and 43% in Africa. They haven’t answered the question of when to land in Western Europe, but given they are sponsoring Manchester City, it wouldn’t be strange to think it’s something in the works.
Phantom X2 Pro camera module.
They did not reach this market share only with “basic” mobiles, but with the occasional high end. In India, for example, they have the very interesting Phantom X2 Pro, a high-end mobile with Dimensity 9000, a 6.8-inch 120Hz AMOLED panel and a powerful camera system. Indeed, one of them has a retractable system to improve portraits.
In other words, they have good ideas and, whether in terms of design or functionality (that pop-up camera), they can bring a breath of fresh air to the market.
And beware, that in the folders they also have things to say
You may think that the traditional market is saturated and a design change is not enough to gain a foothold. Where there is not so much competitionand where we need terminals in the West, It’s in the business of folding.
Samsung rules with an iron fist thanks to its two more than consolidated families of foldables -with the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 as the latest representatives- and we have very interesting models such as the Motorola Razr or the OPPO Find N2 Flip.
Others, such as the Honor Magic V, the OPPO Find N2 or the Xiaomi MIX Fold 2 have not arrived in Europe, so there is room for the folding to grow. And TECNO could play a role here.
At MWC they showed off the TECNO Phantom V Fold, a foldable that doesn’t offer anything different, but it is what it is, a foldable mobile. Big 5000 mAh battery, screens that look good, a solid camera system and the Dimensity 9000+ all add up to a foothold in the market at an attractive price.
We will see what happens in the medium term and if the company ends up landing in the West, but it is clear that they can bring freshness to the traditional mobile segment and have a more than interesting fallback in a segment where the more established manufacturers have not yet taken the first step.
