The Samsung Galaxy A50 is one of the best mid-range devices you’ll see in the market today. In the Nigerian/African market, one of its competitors is the Tecno Phantom 9. The device is currently the best smartphone in Tecno’s catalogue. This article will be about the Tecno Phantom 9 vs Galaxy A50. We’ll be comparing both their specs and price.
Let’s find out which is best and offers more value.
TECNO Phantom 9 vs Galaxy A50 Comparisons-Design
The Phantom 9 features an Aurora Lapland design with an aluminium frame. While Samsung kept it simple with Galaxy A50 as it features a front glass with a plastic unibody. Both smartphones sport a triple rear camera which is aligned at the top left corner in a vertical direction. The rear LED flash of the Galaxy A50 is below the camera module.
While on the Phantom9, you can see there is room for the LED flash inside the camera module. The Galaxy A50 measures 158.5 x 74.7 x 7.7 mm in dimensions and weighs 166 grams. The Phantom 9, weighs a heavier 180 grams and measures 158.46 x 75.3 x 7.85 mm in dimensions.
Display
The display design is the same on both phones – a waterdrop notch display which measures 6.4-inch. The display of the Galaxy A50 features a Super AMOLED panel. While the Phantom 9 comes with an AMOLED panel. Their display features 1080 x 2340 pixels resolution, 403 PPI density and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Protecting the display of the Galaxy A50 is Corning Gorilla Glass 3. While that the Phantom 9 is protected by a 2.5D curved glass with an unspecified version of Corning Gorilla Glass.
Camera
At the back, they both have three cameras. But the camera specs of the Galaxy A50 are much better. The Galaxy A50 camera module houses a 25MP f/1.7 main sensor, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide sensor and a 5MP f/2.2 depth sensor. While the camera specs of Phantom 9 are a 16MP f/1.8 main sensor, an 8MP f/2.2 wide-angle sensor and a 2MP depth sensor.
For the front-facing camera, the Phantom 9 emerge as the winner on paper. It comes with a 32MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture and dual-LED flash. Whereas, the Galaxy A50 comes with a 25MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture and “no” flashlight.
Hardware and Software
This is where the Phantom 9 becomes kind of a letdown. Powering the Galaxy A50 is Samsung’s in-house Exynos 9610 chipset built on 10nm manufacturing process technology. Whereas, on the Phantom 9 is MediaTek Helio P35 chipset which is built on 12nm FinFet Process. Obviously, the Galaxy A50 got the better chip.
The Phantom 9 comes in only a 6GB RAM variant with 128GB storage. While the Galaxy A50 has two RAM variants; 4GB and 6GB to go with either 64GB or 128GB storage. Both devices run on Android 9 Pie with their company’s custom user interface skin on top.
Battery
The Phantom 9 packs a 3,500 mAh battery and supports unspecified fast charging. While the Galaxy A50 has a better battery capacity – 4,000 mAh and supports 15W fast charging.
TECNO Phantom 9 vs Galaxy A50-Price
The 4GB/128GB model of the Galaxy A50 costs around N93,000. While the Phantom 9 is available at around N76,500 which is for 6GB/128GB.
Full Specs Comparison
| Phantom 9 | Galaxy A50 | |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 6.39-inch (~84.0% screen-to-body ratio) | 6.4 inch (~84.9% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Design | Polycarbonate unibody design | Polycarbonate unibody design |
| Dimension | 158.5 x 75.3 x 7.9 mm | 158.5 x 74.7 x 7.7 mm |
| Operating System | Android 9.0 Pie with HiOS V5.0 | Android 9.0 pie |
| CPU | 2.0GHz Octa-core Mediatek MT6765 Helio P35 (12nm) | 2.3GHz Octa-core Exynos 9610 (10nm) |
| GPU | PowerVR GE8320 GPU | Mali-G72 MP3 |
| Storage | 128GB expandable to 128GB | 64GB/128GB expandable to 128GB |
| RAM | 6GB | 4GB/6GB |
| Rear Camera | Triple camera 16MP main + 8MP Ultra-wide +2MP depth sensor (Quad-LED) | Triple camera 25MP main + 8MP Ultra-wide +5MP depth sensor (Quad-LED) |
| Front Camera | 32MP (Single-LED) | 25MP (Single-LED) |
| Internet Connection | 2G/3G/4G LTE Connection, support Glo 4G | 2G/3G/4G LTE-4G LTE Connection with support for Glo 4G |
| Battery | 3500mAh battery | 4000mAh battery with Fast battery charging 15W |
| Price | N77,000 | N93,000 |
Verdict
Clearly, the Tecno Phantom 9 is cheaper but there is a reason for that. It comes with a MediaTek chipset that’s kind of outdated and a 3,500 mAh battery.
Its camera spec isn’t also up to what we saw on the Samsung Galaxy A50. A Super AMOLED panel is, of course, better than an AMOLED panel. Assuming money is not a factor, the Galaxy A50 is the easy pick.
