we all know Apple, Samsung, Motorola or Xiaomi. More than established brands in our area and certainly others like OPPO (if you love tennis you’ve seen them sponsor Roland Garros) or Vivo (sponsors of LaLiga) sound familiar to you. What about ZTE? Did you know that Asus has one of the best compact phones, the Zenfone 9? Have you stopped confusing Realme with Redmi?

There are many brands that have a presence and are gaining recognition in the West (some, like Realme, are doing very well at the advertising level with features as amazing as the Realme GT3 charger), but there are others that we are not as familiar with. those that do not sell with or directly in our region. This is the case of TECNO.A company that stood out with interesting proposals at the Mobile World Congress and needed to reach the global market.

Nothing showed that you can create “hype” with a simple change in design

When someone asks me for advice on buying a mobile phone like the Galaxy S23 Ultra but not as much as the S23 Ultra, I say, “Take a look at the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra.” I know very well that it cannot be compared in screen, software, camera, but I also know that it will leave my friend completely satisfied. It costs 830 euros and badly speaking, “mobile part”.

The answer is no, it’s a clone and she doesn’t want it (and yes, this sparks a conversation as I explain why this ZTE is worth it and my friend doesn’t care because what she wants is a brand that sounds familiar to her). So I end by saying “if you don’t want to pay for this year’s Galaxy Ultra, go for the S22 Ultra or Note 20”.

However, things change when I recommend Nothing Phone (1). Looks like an iPhone from the back, but has lights. The very cleanness of Android is also convincing, but especially the lights and the rear design. With its first mobile, Nothing managed to attract a lot of attention thanks to a very attractive design and If we talk about TECNO, we need to talk about flashy mobiles..

Image by Mr. Mobile

Image by Mr. Mobile

This mobile phone is TECNO Camon 19 Pro. and the images are screenshots from Michael Fisher’s video showing the main feature of this model: the back reacts to ultraviolet light.

It is the reverse side of a polychromatic material. in different tones that change color as soon as we are exposed to sunlight. If we switch to an interior, it reverts to the “black and white” state. You might think it’s silly, but vivo has a cell phone like it (the eye-catching vivo V23), and the truth is, having a phone with this feature is “great”. Different.

They’re betting big on this because they also have a prototype called ‘TECNO Chameleon’ and it’s basically a technology that allows us to change the color of the back whenever we want.

It’s not a screen, it’s a material submicron prism that changes color when electricity is applied. According to TECNO: Changing colors 100 times is equivalent to watching a five-minute video on YouTube, and 100 changes can be made per day 55 years before the system starts to crash.

This technology shows that there is a company that does different things but also has more traditional cell phones. For example, a few hours ago they announced the TECNO Spark 10 ProA mobile phone with a 6.8 inch screen at 90 Hz, FullHD+, Helio G88 heart and 50 megapixel main camera and a 5,000 mAh battery.

It’s a mid-range mobile and very traditional, but still like the newly introduced Samsung Galaxy M14 5G. And the more choices we have on the market, the better because yes, it’s saturated, but in the end, lcompetition between brands (and not so much in terms of the number of devices of the same brands as always) useful for the user.

Where does TECHNO come from?

I started talking about devices and missed something important. TECNO is not a new company, but this became known relatively recently. It was born in 2006, but in 2016, it started to attract attention by gaining a considerable market share in countries such as Africa, India and the Latin America region.

A few days ago my partner Enrique was able to chat with them and the brand said so in 2021. It grew 55% in India, more than 50% in Latin America and 43% in Africa.. They didn’t answer the question of when they landed in Western Europe, but considering they sponsored Manchester City, it wouldn’t be strange to think that this is something in development.

Phantom X2 Pro camera module.

They didn’t get this market share with just ‘basic’ mobiles, but occasionally high quality. For example in India there is a very interesting Phantom X2 Pro, Dimensity 9000, a high-end mobile with a 6.8 inch 120Hz AMOLED panel and a powerful camera system. One even has a retractable system for enhancing portraits.

In other words, they have good ideas, and whether in terms of design or functionality (that retractable camera), breathe new life into the market.

And beware, they have something to say in the folds.

You may be thinking that the traditional market is saturated and a change in design isn’t enough to hold on. Where there’s not much competitionand in the West where we need terminals, In the folding area.

Samsung rules with an iron fist Thanks to more than two foldable families consolidated – the latest models Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4 – and we have some very interesting models such as Motorola Razr or OPPO Find N2 Flip.

Others like the Honor Magic V, OPPO Find N2 or Xiaomi MIX Fold 2 haven’t arrived in Spain, so there’s room for the fold to grow. And TECNO can play a role here.

At MWC, they showed off a foldable TECNO Phantom V Fold that doesn’t offer anything different, but that’s it, a foldable cell phone. A large 5,000mAh battery, good-looking screens, a solid camera system and the Dimensity 9000+ are the arguments for getting a place in the market at an attractive price.

We’ll see what happens in the medium term and if the company finishes going ashore. In the West, it’s clear that they can only bring freshness to the traditional mobile segment and do more than just an interesting twist in a segment where more established manufacturers have yet to take the first step.