You ought to be living under a rock if you haven’t heard of the latest smartphone rave in Nigeria. I’m talking about the Tecno Phantom also known as Tecno F7 or A1 in some quarters. Touted as a stunning cheaper version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 (abi na S4), the reviews from users in general have been quite positive. So positive that, I had made up my mind to dump my THL W6 this week for the F7 until I read this piece by Odumu Oghenetega >>>>>>>>>> Quick Thoughts On Tecno.
At the moment, Tecno lacks OTA updates for their Android phones and suffer from an inability to upgrade the inbuilt operating system. I admit that this is a major deficiency and believe that these will be sorted soon.
Those lines above shocked me out of buying mode immediately.
Here’s what the above line implies:
- If there are major bugs in the Operating system, Tecno most probably has no way of fixing that for the masses ’cause it can’t deploy OTA fix updates.
- One is stuck on Android 4.1 Jellybean and thus shouldn’t dream of ever getting version 4.2 or 5 (Key Lime Pie) on the device
- For folks like us who are fond of rooting, flashing and tweaking our gadgets, we run the risk of bricking our device and having to pay Tecno to fix it for us. (Rooting a device in almost 100% of cases voids your warranty with that manufacturer)
The third implication is the major reason why I’m staying clear of Tecno for now until when that issue is resolved. Lord knows I’ve bricked all of my devices at one point or another ’cause of over-tweaking and having the appropriate flashing tools and the right firmwares really came in handy without having to pay no one for repairs.
If you’re not a geek and can’t be bothered with geeky stuff like rooting and tweaking, I say go for Tecno android phones as the reviews from trusted quarters have mainly been favorable otherwise hold on to your cash for now.
Click here for more details on the Tecno Phantom A – F7
To all those that were expecting a concise review from me, sorry to disappoint you …… for now.
Feel free to leave a comment and air your views. Those of you who own Tecno android phones should please share with us what their experience has been like so far.
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Hi,
I have the most terrible experience from my phantom A+ which I bought almost a month ago. I bought 2 units the same day(one for me and one for my wife). I need to let you know that I’ve never enjoyed the phone for complete 24 hrs. The major problems I encountered is that the phone hangs incessantly and also it keeps rebooting itself and this can be so annoying. You can imagine being in the middle of something serious and before you know, the phone is off and trying to on itself again, the process which can take several minutes before it comes up. I took the phone back to computer village and i was directed to carlcare, unfortunately, they could not fix the problem. I got tired and went back there, all i was told to drop the phone after listening to my complains. I was asked to come back for it after 1 week but to my surprise it got worse. I am so frustrated as i write this to you and will be very happy if anyone can help out. I am damm sure that the problems is from the factory being a software engineer myself. My wife has dumbed her own and had gone back to her BB.
Please, I will be very grateful if something urgent could be done to fix this phone.
Thank you.
@adebisi in times like this it may be best to seek assistance from another carlcare center.
No real geek uses a blackberry, you my friend are an imposter
When you buy a cheap android phone, be it Tecno, Samsung, or L.G., you already “signed the no update agreement”. You don’t expect any update. That is one of the reasons why the manufacturers can give you such awesome phones at such a price. So I really don’t see any reason to whine and shout foul. I think it’s a fair exchange for the high cost. Personally, as a matter of policy, I don’t root or tweet my phones unless it is absolutely necessary with the iOS being the only exception because of Apple’s lockdown. So the Tecno Fanthom F7 is well in my alley. And I encourage all that want to enjoy the beauty of android Jelly Bean to go for it. It will not break your bank and you will still get some cash left over to buy the next android version Key Lime Pie from Tecno because you will have money left after buying the F7. :D
@Deoladoctor: Key Lime Pie from Tecno would be something to look forward to I must confess. I understand that cheap devices shouldn’t expect software updates but what if the preinstalled software is faulty. Even dumb phone Nokia Asha 200 get update sef. Haba
Lmao….@Dumb Asha
Sir, I think you can run online nandroid backup to get your phone’s firmware. The only faults is that Tecno doesn’t release updates for her phones. But I’ve seen boys in Nairaland cook up some custom roms for Tecno phones.
@Elroy: Hmmmmm, online nandroid backup. Haven’t heard of that before oh. Make I research am small see if it helps my situation. Thanks for the tip man :)
@Elroy: No offense to the Naija community of custom rom developers but are they are as good as awon boys overseas?
Oga na true u talk o. But come to think of it:not all Nigerians would know anything about updating their OS. All they want is just”using a big smartphone”
@Chukwuka: Lol. I guess the Nigerians never geek reach that level of worrying about updates. As long as the basic functions dey work
I really don’t understand why we should be talking about stolen clones for Android operating system that we already know is open source and being a Chinese company means they shouldn’t be liable to any legal trouble as the foo their business mostly in Africa and maybe China too.
On the firmware update issue, I think it would be a little unfair to really judge them or compare them against the likes of Samsung, HTC, LG etc, after all even Samsung only recently started fulfilling its update obligations much like many other Android device manufacturers and even at that, Samsung do not even offer OTA updates or any form at all for their devices within the price range Tecno phones are offered. The truth is that, though I will very much appreciate update on those device, I’m never really hoping on updates when buying Tecno phones because of their death cheap princess.
One Naija company gave me the same excuse too when I asked for their firmware so I could flash my phone. I guess it’s something that actually happens a lot.
Personally I can over look lack of over the air updates but not availability of firmware download for possible flashing. Like I told Andy, most chinko phones which are cheap by the way, readily offer that without qualms.
Anyway sha, I guess this is just the burden that comes with knowing three much about gadgets and how to work them into the ground. Lol
Well, @Dr that is why you are a geek. You people can go to any length to get whatever you want for your phones. Remember I once asked you for a link on how to root my then “viscera” phone. I got it but fear won’t allow me do it. To many, unavailability of OTA update as as good as no update. Most people don’t even know how to update phone software even if the update is there OTA. At least I have seen more than 3guys with N8 running Symbian S^3.in the year 2013. Since S^3 Nokia has pushed out Anna, belle and belle refresh, but these guys don’t know. They don’t even know that there is a store for apps and that apps too get updates.
like you rightly titled the article, only geeks like you worry about all these things.
Lol. People dey try oh. Can’t imagine myself lugging about a high end smartphone with outdated software when there’s one available. I guess they are quite comfortable with the way the device works and don’t care for improvements and what have you
The lack of update for tecno F7 just like most China phone is the price one has to pay for the cheap price for that gorgeous device. Apart from geeks who are mostly minority when it comes to those who actually buy these phones, ordinary people who of course are the majority don’t care/know what updates are and careless about it. In life one can’t always get everything. If you want a phone that is future proved in terms of update or when bricked, pls go for known brands and of course be ready to pay them in advance for updates you may never see or even be able to tell what difference it brings to your phone even if you eventually get it.
I like the title of this article. Like the writer rightly said, geeks/wanabe geeks, pls don’t go near. As for non geeks the inability to update is a genuine trade off they have to pay for IMHO.
@Andy: You sure so? THL, Ainol and Aoson have downloadable firmwares and updates oh! In fact if you look around the web carefully, you’d find that firmwares for most Chinese brands are readily available with the appropriate flashing tool. My Aoson M33 has already received like 4 updates since it launched in April 2013.
They might not offer OTA updates but at least they release their firmwares to the public for download. I once heard some companies don’t release their firmwares as it could be stolen/cloned.That’s probably the case with Tecno.