- VERDICT
The TCL 20 Pro 5G is an affordably priced smartphone that looks and acts like a flagship device that’s twice the price. If you’re after a mid-tier smartphone that plays above its grade then give the TCL 20 Pro 5G is well worth your consideration.
TCL has launched its most powerful smartphone to date – the TCL 20 Pro 5G – which includes company’s proprietary NXTVISION 2.0 technology, an improved camera system and superfast 5G connectivity.
The TCL 20 pro 5G is priced at $799 and joins the three other devices in the TCL smartphone family – the TCL 20 5G, TCL 20L+ and TCL 20 SE.
On its own the TCL 20 Pro 5G is a great deal but if a customer purchases the device from Vodafone or Mobileciti before July 29 they’ll receive a 43-inch full HD LED Android smart TV (TCL S625 – valued at $599) as a free gift.
The device has a curved 6.67 inch 20:9 AMOLED display for a truly immersive experience courtesy of TCL’s all-new NXTVISION 2.0 intelligent display technology powered by Pixelworks.
This is TCL’s very own proprietary advanced display optimization technology with the highest colour accuracy in the industry as well as an improved AI visual enhancement and adaptive calibration that can recognise onscreen content and scenes and automatically adjust the colour contrast and sharpness in real-time for even greater accuracy.
It would have been amazing to see a 120Hz refresh rate with the NXTVISION 2.0 display but we had to settle for 60Hz which still looked great. But imagine how much better it would look at 120Hz.
TCL has brought to the table their expertise from the TV display business and adapted it for the new 20 Pro 5G smartphone.
The display is sharp and crisp and a pleasure to look at every time you unlock your phone. And the colours look amazing – vivid and accurate so your content just pops whether you’re using apps, playing games, streaming and watching video content in HDR from Netflix or looking at your photo album.
Users can choose to activate next vision enhancement for images and when watching videos and playing games.
You can also dive in further to the menu and change the display gamut base depending on the content you’re viewing.
You can choose vivid, natural, standard and advanced or choose the adaptive mode which adjusts the colour temperature according to the ambient light.
When you think of the amount content and social media that is mainly visual, having a screen of the same quality as the TCL 20 pro 5G is something you will welcome with open arms.
The NXTVISION 2.0 display also offers eye protection to reduce eyestrain thanks to onboard smart brightness and low blue light certification.
On the design side, the TCL 20 Pro 5G has both a matte and glossy finish which was inspired, according to TCL, by the duality of the sea meeting the sky in either Marine Blue or Moondust Grey.
The device has a pleasing feel thanks to the curved edges and smooth surfaces.
On the rear panel the camera lenses are seamlessly and smoothly embedded in the body of the phone so there is no camera bump. This gives the TCL 20 Pro 5G a luxurious look and feel.
The TCL 20 Pro 5G is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G 5G SOC (system on a chip) so you’re getting snappy performance moving between apps and downloading and uploading content.
There is also a generous 256GB of memory on board which can be expanded even further by up to an additional 1TB thanks to the micro SD card slot.
The TCL 20 Pro 5G is also a dual SIM device so users can also choose to have a second SIM card instead of a microSD card.
The device is running the Android 11 operating system and has a fairly light top layer user interface that doesn’t interfere too much with the true character of Android.
One of the standout features of the TCL 20 Pro 5G is the quad camera system which consists of a 48 megapixel primary module complete with Sony IMX main sensor plus lenses for 16-megapixel ultra-wide, 5-megapixel macro and 2-megapixel depth sensors plus a HDR-enabled 32-megapixel front camera.
The 32-megapixel selfie camera also has portrait mode to make your shots stand out even more.
The onboard camera provides so much versatility and so many options to come up with professional looking photos.
Onboard is optical image stabilisation to ensure smooth and sharp images and plenty of detail.
Users can dive head first into the settings to adjust the look of their images with live filters that can show you various effects and ways to punch up the colour in your pictures.
The Super Night Mode 2.0 mode also used AI to pour a surprising amount of light into a scene that’s in near darkness.
On the video side, the TCL 20 Pro 5G is capable of shooting 4K video in 16:9 at 30 frames per second with HDR (high dynamic range) and that OIS and EIS algorithm combine for Active Super Steady Mode to keep your videos smooth and shake-free.
There is a 4,500mAh battery onboard that runs for a day and half and even when it’s time to recharge, you can get to 50 per cent in just 35 minutes. It has now added wireless charging at up to 15W.
The TCL 20 Pro 5G is available now for $799 from Vodafone and Mobileciti with a bonus TCL S625 TV (valued at $599) thrown in at no additional cost.
VERDICT
The TCL 20 Pro 5G is an affordably priced smartphone that looks and acts like a flagship device that’s twice the price. If you’re after a mid-tier smartphone that plays above its grade then give the TCL 20 Pro 5G is well worth your consideration.
