TCL Communication is officially debuting the TCL 10 Series – its first series of TCL-branded smartphones.
The TCL 10 series include the 10L, a $499 mass-market, the 10 Pro, an $899 premium mid-market and the 10 5G (price/availability to be announced but expect around $1K).
Now GadgetGuy has heard that these phones have been coming for a very long time – in fact since mid-last year and that is OK – a new brand takes a proper time to gestate. TCL (GadgetGuy article here) also makes Alcatel, Palm and until recently BlackBerry. It also makes TVs, appliances and it’s TV and smartphone panels via sister company TCL CSOT.
TCL/CSOT claims it has created NXTVISION, a proprietary advanced display and camera visual technology.
We are keen to see it as claims include
- Cutting-edge colour accuracy so users cannot see a perceivable difference between real life and the images on the screen
- Truer real-time colour, clarity and contrast enhancements.
- SDR to HDR real-time conversion feature, providing HDR-like video enhancement with brighter highlights, darker shadows, increased contrast and amplified colour.
- Netflix-certified to stream HDR10 videos
- Delta E <1
The 10 Pro touts a ‘TCL-made 6.47-inch FHD+ curved AMOLED display’ (and we are confused as AMOLED, and its variants are a heavily guarded trademark of Samsung). No matter China is catching up on producing OLED displays and another Chinese company BOE now supplies about 70 million phone screens to BBK (OPPO, vivo, realme, OnePlus), Huawei and other Chinese makers. Its all part of Made In China 2025.
We have put together a comparison table (‘same’ refers to the left adjacent column) and apologies if your screen concatenates the 10 5G column.
TCL 10 series
| Item | TCL 10L | TCL 10 Pro | TCL 10 5G |
| Price Availability | $499 Q2 2020 | $899 Same | TBA TBA |
| Size Weight Colours | 162.2×75.6×8.4mm 180g Arctic White, Mariana Blue | 158.5×72.4x~9.2mm 177g Forest Mist Green, Ember Gray | 163.65 x 76.56 x ~9.05mm 210g Chrome Blue, Mercury Gray |
Screen Ratio Type Protection Gamma Brightness Contrast | 6.53”, 2340×1080, 395ppi, 1 9.5:9, 91% STBR Dotch, LCD Gorilla Glass 3 82%NTSC 450nits typical 1500:1 contrast | 6.47”, 2340X1080, 398PPI, 19.5:9, 93% STBR AOD, AMOLED Not stated 99.8% DCI-P3/96% NTSC 600nits typICAL 2,000,000:1 contrast | Same as 10L |
Camera – Rear
| Sensor Pixel Aperture FOV Lens Zoom Flash Focus Video (max) Features | 48MP (bin 12) + 8 + 2 + 2 S5KGM1, GC8034, GC2385, GC2385 0.8 (bin 1.6), 1.12, 1.65, 1.65 F1.8, F2.2, F2.4, F2.4, 79°, 118°, 79°, 86.6°, 6P, 5P, 3P, 3P 10X digital zoom dual, single-tone LED flash not stated 4K@30FPS Google Lens, HDR, in-recording snapshots, Light Trace Mode, Macro Mode, Panorama Mode, Portrait Mode, Pro Mode, real-time bokeh, scene detection, Slow-Mo Video Mode, Stop-Motion Video Mode, Wide-Angle Mode | 64MP (bin 16) + 16 + 5 + 2 GW1, 3P9, GC5035, OV02K10 0.8 (bin 1.6), 1.0, 1.12, 2.9 F1.79, F2.4, F2.2, F1.8 79 °+ 123° + 83° + 77° 6P, 5P, 3P, 5P 10X hybrid digital zoom Same Contrast detection autofocus (CDAF) Laser detection autofocus (LDAF), Phase-detection autofocus (PDAF) Same As per 10L plus Auto zoom, photo filters, Super Macro Mode, Super Night Mode, Super Wide-Angle Mode | 64MP (bin 16) + 8 + 5 + 2 not stated 0.8 (bin 1.6), 1.12, 1.12, 1.75 F1.89, F2.2, F2.2, F2.4 79.8°, 118°, 83.2°, 83° 6P + 5P + 3P + 3P 10X digital zoom LED flash not stated Same As per 10 Pro plus in-recording snapshots, scene detection, Stop-Motion Video Mode, Super Macro video, Super Night Mode, Slo-mo Mode |
| Selfie Sensor Pixel Size Aperture Lens Focus Flash FOV Features Video | 16MP S5K3P9SP04 1.0μm, F2.2 5P Fixed Focus Display flash 76.3° Face Beautification (photos), Portrait Mode Video: 1080p@30fps | 24MP (bin to 8) OV24B 0.9µm (bin 1.8) F2.0 5P Fixed focus display flash 79.6° Same plus photo filters same | 16MP not stated 1um F2.2 5P Fixed focus Display flash 79.1° Same Same |
Processor
| Processor GPU GPS Accelerometer E-Compass Gyro Proximity RGB Light Face unlock fingerprint | Qualcomm SD665 Adreno 610 GPS, A-GPS Yes not stated not stated Yes Yes Yes Rear | Qualcomm SD675 Adreno 612 GPS, A-GPS Same Same Yes Same Same Same In-display | Qualcomm SD765G Adreno 620 GPS (GPS L1+L5) Same Yes Same Same Same Same not stated |
| RAM Storage micro-SD | 6GB 64GB EMMC OR 6GB/128GB UFS up to 256GB | 6GB 128GB UFS 2.1 Same | 6GB 128GB not stated micro SDXC card up to 1TB |
Comms
| 4G LTE Cat VoLTE VoWi-FI Sim Hotspot | T770H:1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41 Cat 6 (400Mbit/s DL,75Mbit/s UL) Yes optional SIM: T770H: + MicroSD 4G Mobile Hotspot | T799H: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41 Cat 6 (400 Mbps DL; 75 Mbps UL) same same T799H: Dual SIM + 1 Micro SD same | T790Y: B1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 32, 38, 40, 41 Cat16: 1Gbps DL, 150Mbps UL Same Not stated Single SIM + 1 Micro SDXC same |
| 5G | N/A | N/A | T790Y: n1, 3, 8, 28, 77, 78 5G hotspot 2.3Gbps DL 200Mbps UL |
| Wi-Fi Direct Wi-Di BT 5.0 FM NFC USB-C | Wi-Fi 5 AC dual-band 1×1 MIMO Yes Yes aptX/HD, AAC, LDAC Super Bluetooth – four devices optional Yes USB-C 2.0 and OTG | Same | Wi-Fi 5 AC dual-band 2×2 MIMO Same |
| 3.5 Speaker Mic HD Voice HD record | 3.5mm audio jack mono Dual-mic noise cancellation; audio zoom Yes Yes | Same | Same Speaker: not stated Dual-mic noise cancellation not stated not stated |
Battery
| Battery Charger Charge time OTG reverse chrge Talk time: Standby time: | 4000mAh 5V/2A 145min No 27 hrs 4G 559 hrs | 4500mAh QC 3.0, 18W 121 mins 50% 35 mins 5V1.5A Not stated 18 hrs 4G 600 hrs | 4500mAh Same 121 min Not stated 33.6 hrs 4G 529 hrs 4G |
| OS Upgrade 11 TCL UI Accessories: | Android 10 Google apps not stated Yes TP Protect Film TPU case USB-A to USB-C | same same Yes to Android 11 same same | same same not stated same same |
TCL Australian TV website is here, but as yet there is no Australian smartphone site. The global one is here.
GadgetGuy’s take – The TCL 10 series looks a worthy contender
Until we review these, we can’t comment on things like build quality, camera efficacy, battery life and more but on specs they look quite good.
And TCL’s ownership of Alcatel means that it already has distribution covered (often the hardest thing is to get retail ‘shelf-space’ and into Telcos).
We wish TCL all the best in a very tough market.
Grey