TCL has made a name for itself in the crowded television market but has also been attempting to gain traction with its low-cost smartphones. It recently went retro with the all-new Ion X, which included a microSD card slot and a removable battery, among other throwback features. At MWC 2023, the company will unveil three brandnew smartphones, two new tablets, and a new pair of earbuds.
Overview
The TCL 40 X 5G and 40 XE 5G have 6.56-inch HD+ displays and 90Hz refresh rates, while the TCL 40 XL has a larger 6.75-inch HD+ display. The 5G phones use MediaTek’s Dimensity 700 SoC, while the cheapest phone uses the MediaTek Helio G37 chipset. However, the non-5G phone has 128GB of storage, whereas the other two only get half of that. The good news is that all three come with 4GB of RAM and a microSD card slot.
The 40 X 5G and 40 XL have beefy 50MP primary cameras backed up by two 2MP macro and depth lenses. The 40 XE 5G, on the other hand, gets a 13MP primary sensor with macro and depth cameras. All three phones have an 8MP front camera, so they all have similar looks.
End Note
For authentication, the 40 X 5G and 40 XL get side-mounted fingerprint scanners and face unlock. The 4G-only TCL 40 XL also has dual speakers, a nice touch for a $149 phone.
TCL maintains some battery parity, with all three featuring 5,000mAh units. The company hasn’t released any software details for the three phones, but if last month’s Ion X indicates, we’re expecting Android 12 to be the default operating system.
