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TCL makes its own phone displays and is one of the very few phone makers to do so.
What to consider when choosing a TCL phone
TCL is arguably better known in Australia as a brand of affordable TVs, but the reality is that it has been selling phones in Australia for many years now. It's just that it didn't sell them as "TCL" phones. Its primary phone brand in Australia is Alcatel, but it has also sold phones with Palm and BlackBerry branding in the past. In 2019, it announced its intention to start producing and selling phones with the TCL brand front and centre.
Unlike its highly affordable, budget-centric Alcatel phones, TCL-branded phones are placed and priced in the mid-range, with more features and power than you'd find on an Alcatel phone. Still, TCL hasn't given up that value-focused ideology for its own mid-range devices. With a focus on basic features and value, here's what you need to consider when choosing a TCL phone:
TCL's own-branded phones don't come with particularly high levels of storage, with the norm being either 64GB or 128GB onboard. (A few models do offer up to 256GB, however.) Most models are capable of using microSD cards for storage expansion if you need more space.
TCL makes its own display panels – which is why the brand is also a seller of TVs, among other products – with a mix of its own LCD and AMOLED displays used on the higher-end phone models. That's still higher-end in the mid-range, mind you. TCL phones tend to have slightly larger displays, averaging around 6.5 inches with small front-facing hole-punch cameras that TCL refers to as "Dotch" displays. While you can still often get lower-quality displays in the mid-range, this is an area where TCL tends to stand out, with higher than average resolutions and good colour clarity.
Where its Alcatel phones sit comfortably in the sub-$300 space, TCL's phones are priced in the mid-range, with pricing ranging from $449 to over $900 in Australia. They are sold on an outright basis only. While select Alcatel models have sometimes been offered on a plan by Australian telcos, we're yet to see that strategy emerge for TCL's own-branded handsets.
While some mid-range phones are going without the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, that's not a path that TCL has gone down. The TCL Plex, TCL 10L and TCL 10 Pro all feature standard headphone sockets for your wired headphones. They also feature Bluetooth so that you can still live in a wireless audio world if you prefer it.
TCL's phones use fingerprint sensors for unlocking, with a mix of rear-mounted standard sensors and optical sensors, depending on the model you choose. Outside that, you're looking at the standard array of Android locking options covering PIN codes and passwords.
TCL talks a big game for the camera quality of its own branded phones, and on paper, it certainly seems to have a story to tell. For example, it features quad rear cameras on its flagship 2020 models. In our testing, however, we've found TCL's output to be a little lacking compared to much of what's available in the mid-range right now. Mid-range phone cameras have become quite good quite rapidly, and TCL has some work to do here to catch up. That being said, with multi-lens as standard, there's certainly a lot of scope for photographic creativity with TCL's phones.
TCL's own-branded phones released in Australia are all 4G-capable handsets. You can buy its latest 5G flagship from international sellers, however. There's a quantity of slightly more affordable 5G phones in the market right now, and the TCL 10 5G would fit in well with them in a specifications sense, although that typical ~$900 price point would be a high watermark for TCL to wade into.
While some competitors in the mid-range offer up wireless Qi charging, we're yet to see it on a TCL handset. However, some TCL models support Qualcomm's Fast Charge standard, which tops up their batteries to 50% in just 35 minutes.
TCL's mid-range phones tend to come with decent battery capacities of 4,500mAh or greater, but battery life is something that can be quite subjective depending on usage. In our tests of the TCL 10L, we found that it performed a little below what we'd like to see out of a mid-range phone. Single-day battery life is certainly achievable, but probably not much more than that.
TCL's phones are yet to incorporate any IP-rated level of water resistance, so it's not wise to submerge them. Like most phones, a small quantity of water in the form of rain droplets shouldn't be an issue, but we wouldn't make a habit of it.
TCL has used resolutely mid-range processors in its phones to date, sometimes bolstered with a little more RAM than usual for phones in this price bracket. Still, what we've found with TCL's phones is distinctly mid-range performance; little that's terrible but not much that really pushes the envelope either. That's fine, though, because what you can get out of a mid-range processor these days is generally more than enough for most user's needs.
TCL does load up a few pre-installed apps and its own launcher on top of Android, although you can delete the former, and the latter doesn't appear to have that much of an impact on expected performance.
Looking for a TCL phone on a plan?
So far we haven't seen any telco brands offering TCL phones on contract terms, with all of its models selling on an outright basis. It's worth doing your calculations carefully in this regard, as you can often save serious money by buying a handset outright and pairing it up with either a prepaid or month-to-month SIM-only plan.
Here's what you could get for just $50 per month on a postpaid SIM-only plan to pair up with a TCL Phone:
A multi-award winning journalist, Alex has written about consumer technology for over 20 years. He has written and edited for virtually every Australian tech publication including Gizmodo, CNET, PC Magazine, Kotaku and more. He has also been the Editor of Gizmodo Australia, PC Mag Australia, CNET.com.au and the Tech and Telco section at Finder. Alex has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New England and a serious passion for retro gaming.
The TCL 30+ hits the basics for a mid-range phone, but it never really goes any further than that, lagging well behind the best phones in this price space.
If you're after a low-cost mobile with a quality display, the TCL 20SE is appealing, but you'll otherwise be left wanting for app performance, camera quality and battery life.
The TCL 20 5G brings the essential features that you’d expect in a mid-range 5G handset at a good price, but it’s not a standout phone at this price point.
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