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In comparison with a decade in the past, right now’s smartphones are likely to look loads alike. Most of them have eerily comparable designs, use the identical chipsets, price the identical obnoxious costs (and that is solely getting worse), and most of them use shows which can be obscenely brilliant, vibrant, and usually not nice in your eyes.
That is the place TCL’s NXTPAPER line of telephones is available in. Final yr, I used to be impressed with the NXTPAPER 60 Extremely, however North American customers by no means received an opportunity to attempt it, and that telephone was the scale of a pill. Fortunately, TCL is bringing the identical glorious NXTPAPAPER 4.0 expertise to North America in a telephone that is additionally somewhat bit smaller, and it is an actual deal with for anybody in search of one thing totally different to attempt.
NXTPAPER makes the distinction
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TCL places NXTPAPER within the identify for a motive. It is some of the distinctive varieties of shows you’ll find on any telephone, and it is completely price shopping for a telephone for for those who fall into a couple of classes of individuals. In the event you get pleasure from studying, are in search of a show with much less flicker than an OLED, need one thing that is anti-reflective and textured, or simply benefit from the delicate glow of an LCD (vs the harshness of OLED), this can be a show you are going to love.
In the event you’ve by no means used an NXTPAPER show, know that it is not an E Ink alternative, however it’s extra eye-friendly normally than customary LCD or OLED. A part of that is the addition of a number of layers between the pixels and the glass, together with gentle diffusion, a round polarizer, a textured matte layer, and a particular set of software program algorithms.
The result’s a novel look that is neither E Ink nor LCD, nevertheless it usually embodies a few of the greatest qualities of each. It is my favourite kind of show to make use of inside, on a airplane or prepare, or anyplace that is not explicitly in direct daylight. You are going to be blown away by how good issues look, and that is a direct results of the engineering that went into making this a non-reflective show.
(Picture credit score: Android Central)
There are two foremost variations between NXTPAPER and E Ink: refresh price and reflectivity. Each NXTPAPER and E Ink use matte layers to remove reflections, however E Ink truly displays gentle off the “ink” pigments, giving it superior daylight visibility versus every other kind of show. NXTPAPER nonetheless wants a standard backlight to shine by means of its LCD pixels, and since it will possibly’t mirror gentle like E Ink (and would not have a really brilliant backlight), daylight visibility is not nice.
However NXTPAPER has a 120Hz refresh price, one thing E Ink will probably by no means have. Firms like Bigme have pushed E Ink to the subsequent stage with 42Hz shows (and shortly, 52Hz), however as a result of E Ink depends on magnetism to refresh the display, this expertise will finally hit a ceiling. NXTPAPER is smoother than any E Ink show is right now, and that makes it higher for movies and video games, plus typically extra nice to make use of for scrolling and something with movement.
TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional PWM and dithering show consolation evaluate – YouTube
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The lone drawback with this show is its use of temporal dithering, a show approach that will increase colour output however may cause issues for some flicker-sensitive customers. I am delicate to PWM dimming however not dithering, so I had no issues right here, however numerous individuals on-line have complained about NXTPAPER’s use of dithering previously. This one makes use of it lower than the expertise traditionally has, particularly for those who flip NXTVISION settings off, nevertheless it’s nonetheless there on some colours and modes.
Swipe to scroll horizontallyTCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional specs
Class
TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional
Working System
TCL UI 9.0 (Android 16), 2 years of updates
Show
6.9-inch NXTPAPER LCD, 1080×2340, 120Hz, 900 nits peak brightness, matte textured glass
Processor
MediaTek Dimensity 7300
RAM
8GB LPDDR5X
Storage
128GB plus microSD card as much as 2TB
Rear Cameras
50MP autofocus (huge) + 8MP autofocus (ultra-wide)
Entrance Digicam
32MP
Battery
5,200mAh
Charging
33W wired, no wi-fi charging
IP Score
IP68
Safety
Fingerprint sensor (in energy button)
Weight
207g
Dimensions
169.4 x 80.05 x 7.98mm
Colours
Stellar Blue
Nailing the fundamentals
(Picture credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
One among my chief complaints with the TCL NXTPAPER 60 Extremely was that it was simply too dang massive. The telephone is gargantuan, with a 7.2-inch display, however the NXTPAPER 70 Professional fixes this by decreasing the scale all the way down to a extra regular 6.9 inches. That does not sound like an enormous distinction on paper, however the expertise is loads much less awkward due to the change.
The plastic construct is nothing significantly particular, however TCL coated your entire telephone in a beautiful oleophobic layer that resists fingerprints and smudges in a approach virtually no different telephone does. Gone are the times of wiping smudges off your telephone or the display! It is also IP68 water and mud resistant, so you do not have to fret about it getting ruined, even for those who drop it within the sink.
Since that is an official North American launch, it totally works on T-Cell and Metro’s 5 G networks. It is even suitable with T-Cell’s T-Satellite tv for pc expertise, so you may not solely get 5G speeds, but in addition satellite tv for pc connectivity for messaging.
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Efficiency is pretty much as good as I had hoped for, and I did not discover any apparent hitching or longer loading instances than I anticipate from a contemporary telephone. It helps loads that TCL would not skimp on RAM, as most $200 telephones solely have 4GB of RAM (which is not sufficient), whereas the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional has 8GB.
The Mediatek Dimensity 7300 can also be loads highly effective for practically every little thing, and I even discovered that almost all video games ran simply advantageous. A few of the extra graphically intensive cellular video games might want to run on low settings, however video games like Minecraft had been in a position to run advantageous, even with the extra taxing Vibrant Visuals setting enabled. It is also an ideal battery sipper, with all-day battery life and fairly quick 33W charging.
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Surprisingly, given the value and all the opposite nice options right here, the digicam is sort of good. It is a lot, a lot better than anything I’ve examined at this worth and sometimes produces great-looking pictures, even in low gentle. There is no telephoto digicam, nevertheless it’s received an ultrawide one along with the primary digicam, and TCL did not waste cash or area on a ineffective macro digicam like so many telephones on this worth vary do.
(Picture credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
In the event you’re selecting one up from T-Cell, simply remember that it is loaded with tons of preinstalled apps, and T-Cell tries to serve you new ones on a regular basis. Fortunately, this may be simply turned off and the apps eliminated with the assistance of a brief information I wrote.
Aside from that draw back, do not anticipate world-class haptics from a telephone on this worth vary. They don’t seem to be as unhealthy as another telephones I’ve used recently, however they are not as punchy or quality-feeling as one thing from Pixel or OnePlus (that are twice the value, anyway).
A bit of wiggle room in your price range
(Picture credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
TCL did what I believed was not possible in 2026: it delivered an inexpensive telephone that does not really feel like a chunk of junk. The TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional delivers a wonderful all-around expertise, and it does so with out forcing clients to pay exhorbitant quantities of cash.
I do not understand how TCL managed to drag it off, however the debut of NXTPAPER 4.0 in a North American telephone could not have been higher. That is the right approach for the corporate to get its expertise into the palms of numerous individuals, and I hope to see TCL roll it out to extra fashions sooner or later.
In brief, if you’d like an ideal telephone that does not price a lot cash, the NXTPAPER 70 Professional is the appropriate selection.
TCL’s wonderful eye-friendly NXTPAPER 4.0 is lastly obtainable on a North American telephone, and it is one of the best worth product we have seen to date in 2026. Beat the horrible worth will increase plaguing the smartphone trade and get an expertise that is glorious throughout with the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional, a $200 telephone that punches approach above its worth vary.
TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional: Value Comparability
