Last year, TCL began to flex its industrial strength when it launched its first line of TCL-branded phones, and now for CES 2021, the new TCL 20 5G is trying to push the price of 5G phones down.
For 2021, the TCL 20 Series (at least at the beginning) will consist of two phones: the TCL 20 5G, which should be on sale for less than 300 euros, and the even cheaper TCL 20 SE, for only 150 euros.
With its 10 and now 20 series phones, TCL is looking for combine the experience and resources you’ve developed when making TVs, and phones marketed under other brands, such as Alcatel, Blackberry and Palm, to create affordable devices that still have some features normally reserved for more expensive premium devices. In a way, TCL is sort of copying Samsung’s manual, which is capable of using its vast technological empire to obtain parts such as monitors, memory, storage and even internal processors.
Priced at 300 euros (about $ 365 directly converted), the TCL 20 5G is even cheaper than the recently announced Moto One 5G Ace offering similar specifications, including a 6.67-inch FHD + LCD screen, Snapdragon 69o 5G chip, 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB or 256 GB of storage, microSD card slot and a 4,500 mAh battery.
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At the rear, the TCL 20 5G also comes with three rear cameras, including a 48-MP main camera, an 8 MP ultra-wide camera and a 2 MP macro camera. TCL says the 20 series cameras come with AI adjustment to help users take better pictures, while much like Samsung, TCL is using its TVs knowledge to add support for HDR 10 video and a conversion feature SDR to integrated HDR to help increase the quality of everything you’re watching.
The main disadvantage of the TCL 20 5G is that, while it is quite affordable, like the Moto One 5G Ace, the TCL 20 5G supports only 5G sub-6GHz, but not mmWave 5G. This means that if the TCL 20 5G arrives in the United States, it will have limited 5G functionality, especially on operators like Verizon.
As for the TCL 20 SE, TCL made a fairly decent-looking low-cost phone for just 150 euros, with components that include a large 6.82-inch touchscreen, a rear fingerprint reader, Snapdragon 460 chip, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB or 128 GB of storage, microSD card reader and even bigger battery of 5,000 mAh. And on the back you actually have four cameras instead of three, with the 20 SE receiving a 48 MP main camera, 5 MP ultra-wide camera, 2 MP macro camera and a 2 MP depth camera.
Although the TCL 20 SE is quite basic and does not support 5G, it has two notable special features which are a Smart Floating window which is basically a picture-in-picture function that allows you to browse the web or respond to texts in a small window while watching videos and the ability to use the TCL 20 SE’s large 5,000 mAh battery to reverse charge other nearby devices using a USB-C cable.
However, the big provocation is that TCL’s first two phones in the 20 series may be just a preview, as TCL says it is planning to reveal at least three new phones sometime “in the coming weeks”.
The TCL 20 SE should go on sale this month for 150 euros, while the TCL 20 5G should be available next month.