BARCELONA—TCL debuted three new low-cost phones for the US market today at Mobile World Congress. The three phones share design cues and much of their spec sheets. TCL says they were designed for "entertainment and immersive streaming," and with starting prices as low as $149, they're meant to round out US carriers' affordable offerings.
TCL 40 X 5G
The priciest entry in this trio of TCLs is the 40 X 5G. Costing $199, the 40 X 5G has a 6.56-inch HD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate and a 180Hz touch sampling rate. The higher speeds should allow for smoother scrolling and quicker response times to touch input when gaming. It's powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 700 processor, which has eight cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz. It comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and it supports microSD memory cards up to 1TB.
This phone has the best camera of the bunch, with a 50MP main shooter assisted by a 2MP depth camera and a 2MP macro camera. The selfie camera shoots 8MP pictures. There's a 5,000mAh battery for those extra-long days, and a side-mounted fingerprint reader for biometric security.
TCL 40 XE 5G
The TCL 40 XE 5G is mostly the same as the pricer X model. The big difference is the camera, which has a 13MP main shooter, but the same 2MP depth and 2MP macro cameras. It costs a bit less at $169.
TCL 40 XL
The TCL 40 XL is the most affordable phone of the lot at $149. It increases the screen size to 6.75 inches, though it doesn't share the same refresh rates as the other two models. It also uses a different processor, the MediaTek G37, which is an octa-core SoC. TCL paired the G37 with 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage, and the phone supports microSD cards up to 1TB. It has the same 50MP, 2MP, 2MP, 8MP camera configuration of the 40 X 5G, but the XL loses 5G connectivity in favor of LTE 4G.
The 40 XL will reach stores in May, while the 40 X 5G and 40 XE 5G will go on sale starting in June. TCL didn't name a carrier partner, but the units on hand in Barcelona were preloaded with Verizon-branded applications.
We took the phones for a quick spin and were impressed by their overall build quality, design, and performance. The screens looked bright and sharp, the user interfaces were fluid, and the conservative gray coloring means they will fit with most lifestyles.