Editorial: Should you buy the 23,999 TECNO Phantom V Flip 5G? How is it so affordable? What to know?

TECNO Mobile Philippines officially announces the Phantom V Flip 5G at a ridiculous sale price of Php23,999 coming from an SRP of Php29,999 or a 6,000 discount. This is very very far from the earlier estimated price of around 40k

Exclusive via Shopee the Phantom V Flip 5G will drop on November 9 12MN to become the most affordable flip phone in history.But you might ask yourself these questions.

• Why is it so affordable?!
• What did TECNO do to produce a flip phone at this price point?
• Did they cut corners?

We did some deep digging behind of things along with my experience in the mobile industry before and here are the things we found out. Plus adding to the question, “What to expect if I buy one?”

While the specifications of the Phantom V Flip 5G is mostly a mid-range performance, the concept of having a foldable phone is more than enough to tempt a lot of consumers. Overall the specifications below is decent already as you will prioritize oh having a foldable device for less than 30k if based on SRP. But if you get it on November 9, then that even comes more appealing with even a Phantom smartwatch as a freebie.

TECNO Phantom V Flip 5G Specifications

You might be asking yourself this question as other foldable nearest is already at the 45k price range, so where did TECNO adjust to reach this new price band. Primarily this would be in the SOC where it’s a mid-range performance due to the Dimensity 8050 same as the one they are using with the TECNO Camon 20 Pro 5G.

Do they have after sales service? 

For a fast growing brand since the pandemic, TECNO apparently has 24 service centers in the country. We checked the service centers of TECNO which is Carlcare Service in the Philippines, it looks like Transsion the parent company of TECNO that also owns Infinix and itel has a consortium for Carlcare to be the official after sales company even in other countries.

So the anxiety of buying a foldable from TECNO has some less stress on the thinking especially if you are located near in these service centers. Initially we thought that Transsion doesn’t have any service centers as its a separate company unlike other brands we know of.

How much to replace the screen? 

Having a foldable phone until to this day hesitates a lot of consumers due to then scare of the display being easy to break, even Samsung isn’t safe from this. Just check facebook marketplace and you will see tons of broken screen foldables at dirt cheap prices as the owner couldn’t afford the expensive screen replacement. Remember that foldables are less than 5 years in the market, so the technology is not yet perfect but its the concept of owning a foldable phone what is tempting.

We appreciate the transparent pricing of repair in the webiste of Carlcare similar how OPPO and realme implements in their service centers. Here we saw already the cost of repair for their foldables compared to the cost of ownership based on the SRP.

The TECNO Phantom V Fold 5G is TECNO’s first foldable turning heads for a horizontal foldable being affordable at Php59,999 versus competition reaching already at 100k. Here you can see the pricing of parts should the display break would cost you Php29,116 or almost 50% cost of the device already.

Here you can see the Phantom V Flip having tons of parts, but upon checking the “expensive module” is the name of the display pertaining as the module for the display area. The cost to replace the screen of the Phantom V Flip is Php12,412 which is again the 50% of the phones promotional price.

Though you can see the “phone only” item showing the full cost of the device for Php41,994 which means that TECNO is technically selling this phone at a loss to consumers to drive marketing momentum.

Why sell at a a loss?

Doing a backwards computation from the retail price from Carlcare Service, each unit’s SRP is indicated based from the country’s price. Now given the variables that takes place, we deducted the promo price and Shopee platform voucher as this is an exclusive campaign with the online shopping app. Which totals to the price difference where TECNO should cover to provide the unit to sell the unit to the market.

Why you may ask? Mobile brands usually provide exclusive models to platforms to entice the e-commerce platform back to support the campaign of the brand resulting to a win-win execution. Very noisy initial sales = strong momentum for succeding sales.

Given the -11,995 price difference per unit, TECNO can’t afford to keep on selling this unit for long as every unit is a loss for them. So we think based from experience this will just be a short burst in time for the holiday season. But in exchange they are banking on a marketing stunt to become a highlight in the foldable market, attracting new target audiences for their Phantom series and increase awareness for consumers who haven’t consider TECNO before as a smartphone brand.

While the TECNO Phantom V Flip 5G is rather tempting at Php23,999 this captures all consumers who are been wanting to have a trendy flip phone at an attainable price point. But you should also consider your capacity in an event where if the display breaks by 1-2 years. Again, coming from the trends from other brands who are older in making foldables, no one is safe from this concern yet. Even myself had a broken AMOLED display with my Samsing Galaxy Z Fold 2 back in 2021.

Remember that it comes with a risk that the display might break and you will risk to spend 12.4k to repair it. Though other brands like Samsung provide free premium care for the first year which is like an insurance to cover the cost of the expensive AMOLED display and labor service. Here with TECNO they don’t provide any coverage perks as they prioritize the price to make it affordable as much as possible.

Conclusion: Think of the total cost of ownership 

So looking at the bigger picture the Techno Phantom V Flip 5G, clearly there is a risk to shell out 12k should the display of the Phantom V Flip 5G breaks. That would cost you a total cost of ownership of Php42,500 (SRP+Screen Repair) and we think you should clearly ask yourself if you have this capacity financially as this is a risk of having a foldable. If you don’t check or ask yourself this, you might end up like other users who are selling their broken foldables just to recuperate some cost back.

TECNO is indeed disruptive

Just to be clear, we aren’t discriminating foldables as we love it. But of course, every  disruptor especially in price you won’t help but check and ask “Why is it so affordable?” or “What’s the catch?”. But we hope that we answer your curiosity as much as we did.

We still want to give TECNO around of applause for breaking some barriers as it’s time for more consumers that can be enabled of having a foldable experience. If you look at this perspective alone TECNO is being innovative and disruptive as they sacrifice profit to gain momentum in the very saturated smartphone industry.

UPDATE: Added Shopee complete breakdown offer based on item posting

So if you are decided to get the TECNO Phantom V Flip 5G on November 9 via the Exclusive Shopee sale, be sure to get ready and take the 800 Shop voucher + 30% OFF Bigtating Voucher (1,200 OFF Platform Voucher) and put the item listing into your cart already as this phone will get sold out really fast.

But just in case you don’t have the funds right now to shell out and still want to get the phone, Shopee Later is offering a sweet 0% installmet of Php1999/mo for 12 months which is the best option in our opinion to take for the TECNO Phantom V Flip 5G.