TCL 10L Review: The best cheap smartphone you can buy.

TCL has been making headlines and moving forward in the world of smartphones. This year, the business introduced two phones that received unfavourable reviews. In our recent review of the TCL 10 Pro, we praised it as the company’s outstanding flagship product. The TCL 10L, aimed at budget-conscious buyers, is the other smartphone they unveiled.

Even if some people would argue that the TCL Pro is a flagship, it’s difficult to deny that the TCL 10L is a cheap phone—albeit one at the upper end of the price range. Many affordable smartphone options are available, but the TCL 10L is the best one you can find. For the whole TCL 10L review, keep reading!

Key Features

• Display: 6.53” FHD+ Dot LCD
• Operating system: Android 10
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 665
• Memory size: 6GB RAM256GB ROM
• Camera: (48MP+8MP+2MP+2MP) and 16MP front-facing selfie camera
• Battery: 4000 mAh with 10W fast-charging
• Network 2G, 3G and 4G LTE
• SIM: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Price

TEL 10L can be yours at the rate of $229.99. When you consider the features, you will know it’s a real value for money

What’s In The Box

• TCL 10L
• USB Type-C to USB-A cable
• Charging adapter
• TCL branded clear case
• SIM/SD card tray ejector tool
• Manual and Documentation

Design

Modern smartphones’ physical size and design style have been standardized across the board. Generally speaking, most cellphones are two glass slabs held together by a metal bumper, albeit the majority have a few distinctive design features. The TCL 10L is essentially this in essence.

That’s not necessarily negative, considering this phone seems to be a typical Android smartphone from a distance.

The 3.5mm headphone port and one of the microphones are located at the top of the TCL 10L. The USB-Type C connector and speaker are located at the bottom of the smartphone. The power button and volume rocker are on the right side and feature pleasant tactile feedback. The location of the power button is also almost ideal. The “Smart Key” is located on the left side, and you may give it multiple purposes.

You may utilize the Smart Key by pressing once, twice, or very long. You may assign a different action to each push, such as starting Google Assistant or turning on the camera. There is a lot of room for personalization.

The quad camera array and twin LED flash are located around the TCL 10L’s back. The fact that the two flashes are separated and placed to the left and right of the camera array intrigued me about the flash configuration. The fingerprint sensor is also located on the rear, along with the TCL logo.

An excellent LCD surrounds the front, with thin bezels on the top, right, and left and a bigger bottom bezel. Additionally, the TCL 10L has a transparent cover loudly imprinted with its tagline. The logo is annoying, but the TPU case is acceptable and provides rudimentary protection. The 10L also comes with a screen protector already placed for additional security.

The design is beautiful all around. Although it isn’t revolutionary or cutting-edge, it adheres to the standard perception of what a smartphone should appear and feel like. Even though I still don’t like the provided case, it’s not a deal-breaker.

Display

Remember that this is a cheap phone, so we definitely won’t get the same display you’ll get on higher-end phones before we go into the display. Having said that, the TCL 10L has one of the top smartphone screens in its price range.

I’ll start by mentioning the display’s brightness as my only complaint. Remember, this is a cheap phone. Performance won’t be as good as it would be on a flagship. The TCL 10L’s brightness is only adequate. It’s not the greatest I’ve ever used, and I wish it had a little more brightness. This was particularly important in strong lighting since it made it difficult to see the display.

Aside from the display’s lack of brightness I desire, I’ve had a positive overall experience. Colours stand out, blacks are sufficiently dark, and whites don’t seem to be yellow. The text is clear, and scrolling and pinch-to-zoom movements all worked well. The NXTVision technology doesn’t bring much value since the TCL 10 Pro display is unquestionably superior to this one.

The TCL 10L’s display is a little bit bigger than its big brother, the TCL 10 Pro, which I found fascinating. Although the difference is not significant, it should be noted. Although I’m aware that some people dislike punch holes and notches, the punch hole camera didn’t bother me. I don’t care about them. Therefore it wasn’t a problem.

Overall, the TCL 10L display offers what today’s majority of low-cost smartphones provide. It offers you a very high-performance screen for the price because of its excellent colours, good blacks, crisp whites, and FHD+ technology.

Software & Performance

Android 10 and the TCL UI are both installed on the TCL 10L. In my opinion, the skin of TCL UI wasn’t all that horrible. It’s not too far from standard Android and is quite subtle and simple. The icons are even rather appealing.

No installed programs gave me any trouble, and the system worked without any problems. Everything performed well and just how you would expect it to on an Android device. Overall, utilizing the most recent version of the Android OS, this software experience is normal for Android.

Compared to its bigger sibling, the TCL 10 Pro, the Snapdragon 665 and Adreno 610 in the TCL 10L are one level behind. In my opinion, this is not a negative thing since the 10L could manage almost all of the everyday activities I engaged in. This covers extensive email usage, social media use, sporadic light gaming, online surfing, music playing, and photo/video capturing.

The use of gestures, pinch-to-zoom, and scrolling was all flawless. Since the performance of entry-level and mid-range smartphones is improving so rapidly, the only compelling reason to purchase a flagship model is its superior photography.

Even though it’s a big claim, it’s almost entirely accurate. However, we believe people contemplating a budget phone aren’t playing demanding games. There aren’t many performance concerns while playing this kind of game. However, I disagree since it wasn’t my experience. I’ve seen reviews that state the TCL 10L performs poorly. I believe most reviewers are used to using the top flagship on the market and often contrast these inexpensive models with more costly ones.

In general, for a low-cost smartphone, the TCL 10L works well. With this tool, you may do most of your tasks effortlessly, and all of the fundamentals operate without a hitch.

Camera

The TCL 10L suffers in low light, typical of most low-cost phones, but that is to be expected. Even while I appreciate the cameras of $1100 phones, I can’t put them on par with this camera because of the yawning price difference.

This camera will serve you well in decent lighting, and it performs well in direct sunshine. It’s a good idea to take a few pictures since the portrait mode may sometimes struggle to maintain sharp focus.

Many lenses are available, including the standard, wide-angle, and macro lenses. Good lighting is your buddy, and I’ll repeat it since each has comparable effects. The TCL 10L features many camera settings, many of which I don’t believe you’ll use, like many Android smartphones.

I’d advise just exploring the camera app to see what features are there and discover what you want to utilize. The watermarking issue I encountered has been resolved thanks to a recent software upgrade. The TCL 10L watermark images are right out of the box. However, it seems that TCL has altered this such that images are now without a watermark.

For a low-cost smartphone, the camera works about as anticipated. Even though some features, such as portrait mode, might be tricky, it works well in decent light and shines brilliantly in direct sunshine.

Battery

Battery life might vary greatly depending on how frequently you use the device and the applications you’re using. Screen brightness, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS increase battery consumption. The battery will also be impacted by demanding games, Maps, and other applications.

I could get through the day with approximately 30% of the battery remaining after using it as usual, which consisted of a lot of social media, emails, photographs, video, minimal games, and social media use. I believe this is appropriate as I plug my phone in each night before bed.

More on Smartphones

• TCL 30 SE Specs & Price
• TCL 20 R (5G Smartphone) Specs & Price
• New Android tablets from TCL have been unveiled.

TCL 10L Specifications

The TCL 10L has the following features and specifications: