There is a catch though
You may have heard of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, Huawei P50 Pocket, or maybe the Oppo Find N Flip. Then there is the Tecno Phantom V Flip which is currently the most affordable flip phone available in the Philippines. Flip phones are getting more common everyday, just like the mid-2000s. Even Motorola, before Oppo and Tecno joined this bandwagon, released a rebooted version of the Motorola Razr, courtesy of the original! However, the first iteration wasn’t the most affordable with decent specs. It’s basically a midrange phone with the Razr branding slapped onto it. Today, there are a slew, with the current self-claimed most affordable foldable phone being the ZTE Nubia Flip, also known as the Libero Flip in Japan.
As technology advances, the novel products of the past become more accessible, and it seems like companies believe that flip phones are the next one in that list. It turns out there is a phone that is MUCH MORE AFFORDABLE than the ZTE Libero Flip! Blackview entered the foldable clamshell phone scene out of nowhere and introduced the world’s most affordable foldable phone to date, the Hero 10! No, it’s surprisingly not from GoPro.
To recall, the Libero Flip, debuting in MWC back in March, was priced at USD 499 while the Blackview will only cost USD 399 or somewhere similar. It will be launched this month but there is no final date yet. Although, there are a few listings of the Hero 10 available already via AliExpress. Because of this, we can expect the phone to be rebranded for use by other local brands nationwide. After all, Blackview is an ODM themselves.
The phone uses vegan leather for its back panel with aluminum for its hinge to ensure its strength and durability. There are two colours available. First is Sakura Purple (which looks more like Pink honestly), and Eclipse Black. There is no word yet for Philippines release so the best you can get it is importing one via AliExpress, making it a grey unit.
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The phone has a 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HM6 at the back with an 8MP ultrawide. Beside it is the small secondary/cover screen which you can use for notifications or for selfies. If, in any case, you don’t want to use the primary and ultrawide for selfies, there is also a 32MP at the main screen.
Speaking of the display, Blackview went for nearly zero compromises with the screen and went all out. See, it’s a FullHD+ (2560x1080px) AMOLED from Samsung measuring 6.9 inches. There is also that waterdrop hinge which can withstand up to 250,000 folds and this hinge can partially open the phone at an angle between 30 to 150 degrees. It’s a flagship display in terms of characteristics. This includes the 1920Hz PWM Dimming, 240Hz touch sampling rate, and 1300nits peak brightness.
Of course, there is some sort of catch to this, is there? Well yes. There is. See, the Blackview Hero 10 is 4G only, the first time this happened on a clamshell phone. Guess what processor they’re using? If you guessed “Helio G99”, then great, you are highly aware of what’s happening in this industry. This has 12GB RAM and 256GB ROM (LPDDR4X+ and UFS 2.2 respectively). This is so far the lowest that a clamshell phone would go.
The Hero 10 will receive three years of OTA updates. The phone currently launches with Android 13 with Blackview’s DokeOS on top. It also comes with their iteration of the Dynamic Island called “Dynamic Live View” which can be used for various notifications, calls, and playback controls. The “three years of OTA updates” refers to the usual 1-year Android upgrade and 2 years of security. This wording is deliberate, as Tecno and Infinix did the same with their phones, specifically the new Camon 30 series and Note 40 series respectively.
Finally, there is the battery and charging. The phone has 4000mAh capacity with 45W fast charging. For comparison, the Nubia/Libero Flip has 4310mAh battery with 33W fast charging, the Tecno Phantom V Flip has the same capacity and charging, and the Oppo Find N3 Flip has a larger 4300mAh battery with 44W fast charging. This means that the Hero 10 is in the “standard” battery category.
You can find the phone via AliExpress. Depending on where you’re from, the price may be different, but in our end, in the Philippines, it is listed for PHP 59,074.37 which is tad more expensive than the Phantom V Flip at PHP 29,999 but that phone only has 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. However, the Tecno Phantom V Flip uses a much more powerful chipset, the MediaTek Dimensity 8050 so you also get 5G connectivity. Do note that the AliExpress listing may not be final and there would still be some price changes once the phone is released officially.
Source: GSMArena, Blackview, AliExpress
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