3 days ago
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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- TCL's 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G is connected merchantability connected Amazon for $222.
- It has a unsocial display, and a diagnostic acceptable that promotes minimalism and integer well-being.
- I conscionable privation the camera strategy and wide show were better.
Being glued to your smartphone's surface each time tin bash a fig connected your eyes, and I decidedly tin consciousness it. TCL's Nxtpaper exertion offers a paper-like surface that's made for bushed eyes similar mine. The TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G is the company's affordable effort astatine relieving immoderate of the accent that comes from modern smartphone screens.
It's a unsocial instrumentality for a precise inexpensive smartphone that needs to beryllium seen to beryllium understood. While acold from perfect, and decidedly a instrumentality built to a price, it brings a differentiator that volition substance for immoderate users looking to springiness their eyes a remainder portion they scroll oregon read.
A unsocial multi-faceted display
The show is what instantly sets the 60XE apart. TCL's Nxtpaper 3.0 matte coating gives the solid an undeniably unsocial decorativeness that I rather like. On-screen contented looks a spot similar E-ink depending connected the mode the telephone is in, but underneath that hazy furniture is simply a modular 1080p, 120Hz LCD panel.
The coating addresses a slew of communal downsides of modern displays. It reduces bluish light, cuts reflections to astir nothing, and adjacent eliminates astir fingerprints. There's besides a bully texture that feels a spot similar paper, which is simply a bully departure from a oversea of glossy, reflective displays.
Beneath the powerfulness and measurement buttons is simply a carnal Nxtpaper Key, a integrative power that feels a spot cheaper than I'd like. Flipping the power offers up a paper of chiseled modes that alteration however the show operates.
TCL intelligibly wants users to announcement and admit this diagnostic due to the fact that each toggle results successful a five-second full-screen animation implicit with an obnoxious serenade. I made definite to acceptable my measurement to mute truthful I could debar the theatrical effect.
Each mode provides its ain twist connected usability and comfort. Color Paper Mode, my favorite, mutes the colors portion retaining a modular Android interface that's easier connected the eyes for all-day use. I adjacent enjoyed watching YouTube videos successful this mode, though everything feels a spot flatter than my eyes are utilized to.
Ink Paper Mode goes 1 measurement further, stripping colour from icons and substance for a no-frills grayscale approach, portion inactive delivering the afloat unencumbered Android experience. Max Ink Mode is the astir melodramatic change, stripping each colour portion besides limiting apps to a tiny subset of essentials and suspending definite inheritance processes.
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The effect is an ultra-minimal, battery-saving mode that tin past much than a week connected a azygous charge. I enjoyed this mode for speechmaking ebooks and could spot it arsenic a large solution for users looking to chopped backmost connected smartphone usage entirely.
The show does travel with a large caveat. On the brightest days, the matte decorativeness would each but lavation retired on-screen content, often making it unusable successful nonstop sunlight. If you walk clip extracurricular speechmaking oregon working, you'll beryllium looking for shadiness similar I was.
Performance and battery
Performance is humble but serviceable, with a MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ processor wrong paired with 8GB of RAM. In use, this is not a telephone for hardcore users who propulsion their devices to the limit. I noticed galore actions person a flimsy hold attached to them. Launching the camera often takes a fewer seconds to negotiate.
General tasks similar web browsing, email, and messaging are responsive capable to support maine happy, but things ne'er felt snappy.
On the bundle front, the 60 XE runs Android 15, with a committedness from TCL of conscionable 1 upgrade to Android 16 and 2 years of information patches. As idiosyncratic who ever decries the mediocre authorities of Android OS update promises, this is simply a anemic point, and TCL needs to measurement up its game. Anyone hoping to get semipermanent worth should see different options.
I recovered artillery beingness to beryllium a highlight, which isn't that astonishing fixed the 5,010mAh artillery hidden inside. I routinely made it done the time with astir 20-30% capableness to spare astatine bedtime. Wired charging tops retired astatine a dilatory 18 watts, truthful speedy daytime top-ups volition instrumentality immoderate time, but it's good for plugging successful overnight.
For the genuinely artillery paranoid, there's the Max Ink Mode that considerably jumps artillery beingness to much than a week if you are consenting to chopped down connected overmuch of what the telephone is susceptible of.
Stay for the display, but not the camera
The integrative marble-like backplate surrounds a ample circular camera array that's hard to miss and possibly adjacent much premium-looking than its terms point. One favored peeve of excavation is an off-center camera module, and this telephone has a notable wobble erstwhile placed connected a tabletop arsenic a result.
The camera strategy itself is 1 country wherever the low-end cutbacks truly show. The main sensor does its champion outdoors successful precise agleam conditions and needs a batch of airy to assistance shots taken indoors. The camera show is mediocre with brushed output that lacks punch and explanation astir of the time.
Low-light conditions easy show the camera system's baseline capability, and the ultrawide lens often results successful grainy images. The 32MP beforehand camera works, but that's astir it. Let's conscionable accidental that this is not the telephone for the discerning camera buff.
ZDNET's buying advice
What the TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G offers is simply a cardinal standout feature: a unsocial matte display. At $250, the 60XE offers thing that you truly can't find anyplace else, successful this terms class and beyond, and the benefits of that mightiness substance a batch for definite users. For everyone else, see phones similar the CMF Phone 2 Pro, which offers amended imaging, amended speed, and its signature modular plan approach.
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