The TCL 10 Pro looks and even feels quite a bit like a flagship phone, but a handful of rough edges can’t quite be waved away on the strength of some lower mid-range pricing.
But to be honest, we struggled to notice a huge effect, or to even find an everyday means for putting such a feature through its paces.On the plus side, the phone has full Netflix certification, so you’ll be able to stream Full HD HDR10 content in all its glory.While we’re picking up on the display’s shortcomings, it’s not great in direct sunlight. But we kind of wish TCL had just worked in an old fashioned rear-mounted solution.
But the TCL UI isn’t the worst take on Google’s operating system we’ve ever seen.The menus and icon designs stick close enough to stock Android to feel sufficiently slick and intuitive, and there’s no attempt to replace the Google Feed to the left of the home screen. English What really makes these two TCL phones stand out from others in the cheap end of the Android pool is performance. This one’s slow and unresponsive, with a few too many false reads for comfort.On the flip side, TCL has bucked current flagship expectations by including a 3.5mm headphone jack. It’s generally best to stick with the phone’s ‘natural’ levels of bokeh when shooting any kind of close-up.The TCL 10 Pro’s camera does close up and zoomed right out, with a little Night mode magic stirred in. (FYI, the main camera has a 48-megapixel sensor, but a 12-megapixel resolution is set by default. People and objects were sharp and the colors vivid and I actually enjoyed the macro lens for super close up shots of objects, though details from its 2-megapixel sensor wasn't great. TCL's budget phone goes big on value, but it comes with notable compromises.Power and volume buttons adorn the right side of the plastic-backed device while a customizable "smart key" is on the left that can be programmed to open preferred apps or do tasks, such as a double press to open an app and a long press to summon the Google Assistant. The iPhone SE, of course, runs on Apple’s top-end A13 Bionic CPU.Even when it comes to purpose-built mid-range hardware, though, the Snapdragon 675 isn’t the newest option in Qualcomm’s range. When I turned it on, videos streamed over Netflix, YouTube and The 10L's included case is a nice touch, though its branding isn't subtle.The phone has a preapplied plastic screen protector on the display.
There’s the freshly discounted $499 / £469 Meanwhile, just around the corner we have the imminent arrival of the But we should really address the elephant in the room here. The TCL 10 Pro hits the sweet spot for midrange Android phones. And while the 24MP selfie camera takes reasonably crisp shots, it too seems to struggle with bright spots, like the early evening sky or the sun shining off this writer’s (admittedly pale) head.Close-up indoor food pictures with reasonable natural lighting look quite appetizing at first glance, but there was a tendency to pump up the reds and greens to an unnatural degree.
Eli Blumenthal/CNET While it helps fight scratches, I found that taking it off improves the display's visibility, particularly outdoors. Eli Blumenthal/CNET Swipe up or down one edge of the phone, and a little side overlay will pop out, granting speedy access to your favorite apps.Samsung took a similar approach in the early days of its own curved-screen experiments. Recent graphical showcase Forza Street exhibits the odd stutter, but again is perfectly playable - though the TCL 10 Pro’s dim, unbalanced display doesn’t do the game’s night-time-neon visual style many favors.The TCL 10 Pro’s software utilizes a custom UI on top of Android 10.
But did we mention there’s a headphone jack?On the surface of things, the TCL 10 Pro comes up with the display goods. Let’s set aside the annoying watermark that finds its way onto your shots by default, as this can at least be turned off in the Settings menu.More problematic is the TCL 10 Pro camera’s AI system, which automatically adjusts exposure and color and picks out scene types. There’s no stereo sound provision here.
non-TCL) approach in the Settings menu.We’re glad there’s the option, and indeed this is quite a customizable UI in general. )Taking photos at night without a flash, however, was difficult. Smart Eli Blumenthal/CNET While it’s far from a bad phone, it’s difficult to see where the TCL 10 Pro fits into this picture.The TCL 10 Pro is set to launch on Monday June 1, 2020 in the UK and Australia, and May 19 in the US, costing $449 / £399 / AU$899. Comparing these same night shots to very similar ones taken with the OnePlus 8 - which is hardly a shining example of the camera phone format - shows that the TCL 10 Pro is lagging well behind even the third or fourth tier.But night mode is still quite an advanced feature, and it works here at a basic level. The camera has a special mode called "High Pixel," which can shoot at the full 48 megapixels.
The TCL 10 Pro comes with a few rare extras, too.