This might come as a shock, but there are whole epic lineups of smartphone
flagships out there in the world that never see the light of day in the USA.
Like this Phantom X2 Pro with a motorized main camera unit, sitting right around
45,000 rupees which is about $550 US dollars. You gotta admit, it does look pretty stunning.
Nobody's ever going to misplace this traffic cone of a phone. Oh. Oh no.
No. I hope the rest of this phone holds together better than the sticker. Let's get started.
[Intro]
There's actually one thing left in the box. It's a pretty sweet looking case with a kickstand. A
metal border around the camera lens folds out to prop up the phone horizontally,
and probably even vertically if you don't mind the phone being upside down. It's pretty solid
for a free case. This is the Phantom X2 Pro in Mars Orange - orange being an understatement.
Designed for the candy corn connoisseurs. S tier treat by the way. It has the subtle decorum of
a crossing guard eating a carrot stick. The back panel isn't even glass. It's a semi-waxy
feeling blend of plastic fiber from recycled bottles that have been pulled out of the Indian
Ocean. And I'm not going to lie, it is incredibly pleasing in a make-your-eyes-bleed kind of way.
Flipping the phone over, we get our first look at the motorized main camera. We have
seen moving cameras before. They've flipped up, elevated up, or had variable apertures.
But we've never seen one that does whatever this is. There is zero strength behind the
protrusion. If something is blocking the lens with even the smallest amount of pressure,
the lens just stays in its little hole. And if it's raised up with even the smallest disturbance
like a finger tap, it gets sent back into hiding and triggers an on-screen warning. I have some
doubts about the extra millimeter of space between the lens and camera sensor actually providing any
significant improvement to portrait photography, especially when it literally says on screen that
portrait mode is a dual lens operation. With two lenses, depth is easier to ascertain and
add digital blur to, but it's also something that smartphones have been doing for at least
the past 6 years. The X2 Pro claims to be able to provide physical, real, professional bokeh with
hardware. And to their credit it does look like the inner curved lens element is sliding with
the exterior glass. It'll be interesting to see how it works from the inside during the teardown.
But yeah, the X2 Pro might have just told on itself with the dual camera warning message.
Software is probably very much involved. It is the world's first retractable main camera,
but maybe the reason nobody else is doing it is because it might not actually be doing anything.
Let's continue on with the durability test.
The X2 Pro does have a rather nicely installed included screen protector – always great to see.
We've been systematically durability testing smartphones since smartphones arrived on the
planet. Plastic screens would start scratching at level 2 or 3. Sapphire would start scratching at
an 8 or 9. Tempered glass however, which is what supposedly we have here on the X2 Pro,
starts scratching at a level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7. The X2 Pro is using
Gorilla Glass Victus. Not bad. We have a 32 megapixel hole punch camera at the top of
the phone next to the razor thin earpiece slit. Making our way past the extremely curved screen
glass to the Dorito-colored frame of the phone we find it is indeed made from metal, along with the
fishy cracker color power button and volume rocker – both metal, and both not removable.
The top of the phone is surprisingly made from plastic. I assume this is where they put the
5G antenna since 5G doesn't work through metal too good. The piece of plastic is very strongly
adhered though and won't be falling off on its own. There are no features on the left side of
the rectangular cheese ball. However, the bottom has our lower loudspeaker,
a 45 watt USB-C port, and our SIM card tray with no expandable storage. But since the ring
inside is green I'll let it slide. The design team on this phone definitely needs a raise.
As far as the cameras on the Phantom X2 Pro go, we have the main motorized 50 megapixel camera,
which may or may not help with portrait mode. A 13 megapixel ultra wide camera to the right.
And another 50 megapixel camera down at the bottom that also probably participates with the portrait
mode. All protected with glass and looking like some kind of three-eyed jack-o-lantern. You all
know I'm already a fan of this color. But it's also nice not having a glass flagship for once.
The plastic fibers on the back feel a bit waxy and textured. Definitely still soft
and I'm just going to say it...it feels and now looks like an orange peel. Probably my
easiest drawing of all time. Feel free to subscribe for more Art Class with Jerry. It
doesn't smell like an orange peel though, which is unfortunate. Always room for improvement I guess.
The X2 Pro does have the standard array of security measures, like pattern, face,
and fingerprint unlock. I had a few issues setting up my fingerprint, but once it was established,
even with a bunch of level 7 deeper grooves over the top of the optical sensor, it had no problem
reading and unlocking the phone every single time. Thumbs up for that. For $550 bucks, the X2 Pro
does come with a rather nice display. 6.8 inches, 120 hertz, and a 20x9 screen ratio. And judging
by the pixels going white after about 20 seconds from the lighter, we are dealing with AMOLED. It
does recover. So far the X2 Pro has proven itself worthy. Yeah, the Finding Nemo vibe might not work
for everyone, but personally I kind of like that movie. When it comes to analyzing the structural
integrity, we have the bend test. My first time bending a techno phone shows that it does have
some flex when bending from the back. And again, when flipping the phone over to bend the screen,
we see even more flex but no pops, kinks, or cracks. And no catastrophic damage,
which means the Phantom X2 Pro does pass my durability test. We'll find out exactly how
that retractable camera works from the inside when we take it apart. Subscribe so you don't
miss that video. I'm extremely curious. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.