We’ve finally got the full details on its first three phones the TCL 10 Pro, 10L, and 10 5G which will all cost under $500 when they’re released in Q2 this year.
The most interesting of the three is the TCL 10 5G, which looks to fill an interesting niche as one of the first midrange 5G smartphones. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G processor, which is the chipmaker’s first chipset that options an built-in 5G modem. The flagship Snapdragon 865 nonetheless requires a separate modem chip. Provided that the overwhelming majority of 5G telephones thus far have been expensive, $1,000-plus flagships, it’s a less expensive entry to 5G than most of what we’ve seen available on the market thus far. Also a 6.53-inch LCD show, 4 rear cameras (at 64 megapixels, Eight megapixels, 5 megapixels, and a couple of megapixels), a 4,500mAh battery, 6GB RAM, 128GB of inside storage, a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Next is the $449 TCL 10 Pro, which is technically the primary flagship of the lineup. It’s got a slightly worse processor than the 10 5G, with a Snapdragon 675, but slightly better specs, with features like a 6.47-inch curved OLED display (at 2340 x 1080 pixels) instead of an LCD panel, and an in-display fingerprint sensor. The camera setup is slightly different, with a 64-megapixel pain camera, a dedicated low-light video camera, a macro lens, and an ultrawide lens.
Otherwise, the 10 Pro largely resembles its cheaper 5G counterpart, with a 4,500mAh battery, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a headphone jack.
Lastly, there’s the $249 10L, the entry-level option, which is effectively a budget version of the 10 Pro. The 6.53-inch display is LCD, instead of OLED (although the 2340 x 1080 resolution is the same). The Snapdragon 665 processor is slightly weaker, the 4,000mAh battery is slightly smaller, and the fingerprint sensor is on the back instead of integrated into the display. There’s still 6GB of RAM, although there’s both a base 64GB storage model as well as a 128GB SKU available.
TCL 10L
Dimensions: 162.2 x 75.6 x 8.4mm
Display: 6.53-inch FHD+ Dotch LCD display
Processor: Snapdragon 665
RAM: 6GB
Storage: 64GB
Front camera: 16MP
Rear camera (quad): 48MP, f/1.8 + 8MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide + 2MP, f/2.4 macro + 2MP, f/2.4 depth
Battery: 4000mAh
TCL 10 Pro
Dimensions: 158.5 X 72.4 X 9.2mm
Display: 6.47-inch Full HD+ AMOLED
Processor: Snapdragon 675
RAM: 6GB
Storage: 128GB
Front camera: 24 MP
Rear camera (quad): 64MP, f/1.8 main + 16MP, f/2.4 ultra-wide + 5MP, f/2.2 + 2MP, f/1.8 low light
Battery: 4500mAh
The new 10-Series phones aren’t the flashy foldable concepts that TCL has been fond of showing off. But the new 10-Series lineup is an important first step for the company to start establishing itself as a player in the midrange phone landscape that’s dominated by brands like Motorola and HMD’s Nokia.
The TCL 10 5G is a very attractive mid-range smartphone with nice specs and an impressive display in a very affordable package. And in a world where thousand-dollar smartphones seem like a luxury fewer people are willing to buy, they just might be the right phones at the right time.
