Features of TCL 20 PRO 5G
Screen
Its premium look is due to its curved 6.67-inch 1080p OLED screen with slim bezels. It offers a standard 60Hz refresh rate, bucking the trend toward faster 90Hz and 120Hz displays, a little flaw in the screen’s color temperature jumping between warm and cool, especially after using the camera app, but overall it’s a pleasure to look at. Its second-generation Nxtvision 2 technology aims to make standard images and video look more like high dynamic range content, with deeper blacks and brighter whites.
Big, curved-edge display Excellent build quality Wireless charging
Performance
TCL has equipped the 20 Pro 5G with a Snapdragon 750G 5G processor and 6GB of RAM. It’s certainly up to day-to-day tasks, and gets slow only occasionally with heavier tasks. The smart key makes an appearance again here as it did in its earlier model and there are a lot of functions it can assist in, from opening a particular app to launching the camera in a specific mode, like night or portrait. The optical in-display fingerprint sensor is also among one of the faster and more accurate that are offered in the midrange class. The TCL seems to be doubling down on this SDR-to-HDR conversion tech rather than focusing faster refresh rates. A faster refresh rate screen is an obvious benefit that many more users will see and appreciate. The advantages of viewing HDR content on an HDR screen are real, but the effect is hard to mimic.
Headphone Jack
A 3.5mm headphone jack is present at the top edge of the device, which is great! The phone’s mono speaker isn’t very good, but at this price not much can be expected.
Battery
The TCL 20 Pro 5G is equipped with a 4,500mAh battery, which is enough for a day of moderate use. Another premium feature is on board here: wireless charging at up to 15W. This feature is something that’s still hard to come by in the $500.
Software
The 20 Pro 5G ships with Android 11 and TCL has promised it two OS upgrades. It will get just two years of security updates, which lags behind Samsung and Google smartphones.
Camera
The TCL 20Pro is equipped with a 48-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with optical image stabilization (which cannot be guaranteed at this price) and is a real benefit in dim lighting conditions. There’s also a 16-megapixel ultrawide, 2-megapixel macro, and 2-megapixel depth sensor as well as a 32-megapixel selfie camera around front.
The camera hardware is clearly capable of good things. The level of detail in photos in good light. Still, there’s room for improvement. Colors like greens and blues look a little unnatural and bright. Photos can look flat and washed out. Portrait mode does a decent job of separating subjects from a blurred background. “Super Night” mode is a bit of a miss. It seems to retain more detail in very low-light images compared to standard auto mode, but it also employs some heavy noise-reduction. Images show some unnatural smoothing and can skew a little too warm.
Some Issues with TCL 20Pro
The network compatibility in the US is not impressive.
Agree to Continue
A series of terms and conditions are to be agreed with in every smart device now. It’s practically impossible for anyone to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. Counting exactly how many times the user have to click “agree” to use the device are:
TCL privacy policy TCL Terms of service Google Terms of Services Google Play Terms of Service Google Privacy Policy Install updates and apps: “You agree this device may also automatically download and install updates and apps from Google, your carrier, and your device’s manufacturer, possibly using cellular data. Some of these apps may offer in-app purchases.”
The optional agreements are:
TCL User Experience Improvement Program Back up to Google Drive: “Backup includes apps, app data, all history, contacts, device settings (including Wi-Fi passwords and permissions), and SMS.” Use location: “Google may collect location data periodically and use this data in any anonymous way to improve location accuracy and location-based services.” Allow scanning: “Allow apps and services to scan for Wi-Fi networks and nearby devices at any time, even when Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is off.” Send usage and diagnostic data: “Help improve your Android device experience by automatically sending diagnostic, device and app usage data to Google.” Carrier location access: “Your carrier occasionally requires location data to improve its services and analytics.” For Google Assistant, there’s an option to agree to use Voice Match: “Allows your Assistant to identify you and tell you apart from others. The Assistant takes clips of your voice to form a unique voice model, which is only stored on your device(s). Your voice model may be sent temporarily to Google to better identify your voice.”
Concluding Remarks of TCL 20 Pro
Some important improvements are made over the first generation. There are less chance of accidental touches with the new curved sides of the screen. The wireless charging is a nice upgrade. In competition with Pixels and Galaxy A-series, the 20 Pro 5G’s network compatibility and security support policy just aren’t as strong. Its software is supported for just two OS upgrades. It also lacks network compatibility with AT&T’s 5G, also it isn’t certified to use C-band frequencies. The Smart Key is still easy to press accidentally, the camera is basic, and Nxtvision is underwhelming. All in all, there are some real positives but as a total package it’s not quite on par with the likes of the Pixel 4A 5G and Galaxy A52 5G. Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A series offers premium budgeted phones
Incomplete 5G network compatibility in the US Only two years of security updates Camera performance could be better
