The Tecno Phantom V Flip is one of the bravest flip-style foldable designs we've seen

Remember the flip-up foldable Huawei P50 Pocket? It launched at the end of 2021, with the aim of taking down Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip line and specifically – the Galaxy Z Flip 3. Whether or not it succeeded is another matter. We’re bringing up the Huawei P50 Pocket solely for a design reason that will lead us to the phone from the title: the Tecno Phantom V Flip.

If you’re not a hardcore Huawei connoisseur, you’ve probably forgotten that there were two circles, about the size of a smartwatch, on the back of the P50 Pocket clamshell. One was used for housing the camera setup, while the other was a circular mini-screen with a 1.04-inch display and a resolution of 340x340 pixels. It showed notifications, incoming calls, date/time, and some more widgets.

Let’s play some Tecno

The same philosophy – a flip-up clamshell with a circular mini-display on the back – has inspired the designers of the Tecno Phantom V Flip. We get to see render leaks and some actual photos of the phone thanks to tipster PassionateGeekz and Newzonly, plus some color variants and a solid specification list.

Tecno is a Chinese brand that has focused its business mainly on markets in Africa, the Middle East, South-Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, but based on the source, this new clamshell will be launched globally in October 2023. It could be named Tecno Phantom V Flip or Phantom V Yoga.

That’s not the first time Tecno shoots for a foldable phone. Back in March, it presented the Tecno Phantom V Fold – not a direct competitor to the Galaxy Z Fold 4 (and certainly not to the Fold 5), but instead an affordable mid-ranger with a release price that’s hard to ignore (around $1000).

Circle in a square

Now, let’s get back to the Tecno Phantom V Flip. As far as connectivity goes, the model listed as AD11 will support 5G networks. As this is a clamshell foldable phone, a dual-battery system is to be found under the hood – an 1165 mAh one, plus another that’s 2745 mAh, for a total of 3910 mAh. That’s a tad more than the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s 3700 mAh and the Motorola Razr+’s 3800 mAh.

The outer, circular screen is listed as a 1.32-inch AMOLED display that boasts a resolution of 466x466 pixels. The main display is a respectable 6.9-inch AMOLED screen, 1080x2640 pixels in resolution. The physical dimensions of the phone are listed too: 172.35 mm, 74mm x 7.05mm when unfolded and 15.1mm when folded.

15.1mm equals 0.59 inches, exactly the same as the Galaxy Z Flip 5 when closed.

The Tecno Phantom V Flip is to be powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 8050 chipset, paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage. This device is no exception to the rest of the current foldable phones, as it would not support external storage like a microSD card. There’s to be a dual rear camera with 64 MP + 13MP, and on the front, you will get a 32 MP selfie camera. Android 13 is expected out of the box. There are three alleged color options: Minimal Black, Film White and Periwinkle Purple. Cheers to Google’s Pixel color naming, I guess…

The source claims there’s to be a “first teaser” next month and then, “likely to launch in the month of the festive season October 2023”.