TCL unveiled a trio of affordable phones for the European and Asian markets at CES earlier this year, the TCL 40 SE, 408 and 403. All three are 4G-only models that focus on keeping costs down . Now at MWC the company is unveiling more 40-series phones, some of which have 5G and all of which are affordable with price points $200 and below. The new additions include TCL’s cheapest 5G phone to date ($170).
TCL40X5G
That’s not true: At $200, the TCL 40 X 5G costs slightly more, but it also offers better camera hardware. Well, there is the only correct camera on the back with a 50MP sensor, the other two modules are just 2MP helpers.
The phone has a 6.56″ HD+ (20:9) resolution display on the front with 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate. The 8MP front camera can do face unlock, a player Side-mounted fingerprint scanner provides an alternative method for secure unlocking.
The 40 X is powered by the Dimensity 700 chipset – this late 2020 7nm chip isn’t stunning, but it was also used on the pricier ($220) TCL 40R. Here it’s paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (expandable up to 1TB via the microSD slot). More importantly, the 5G modem promises downlink speeds of up to 2.77 Gbps and supports the new type of VoNR voice calls. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery.
The TCL 40 X 5G is the most expensive phone the company announced today, but as mentioned above, that only means a starting price of $200.
TCL40 XE 5G
The TCL 40 XE 5G is similar to the X, but changes things. It drops the price to $170, making it TCL’s cheapest 5G phone. Even so, it uses the same Dimension 700 as the X and has the same 4/64GB memory configuration (complete with a microSD slot).
So where do the savings come from? The main camera on the back only has a 13MP sensor (the pair of 2MP helpers remain). The selfie cam, however, remains unchanged with an 8MP sensor. Security is handled by face unlock or the side-mounted fingerprint reader.
The XE has the same 6.56-inch HD+ display with 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate. This is comparable to last year’s TCL 30 XE. One notable upgrade over the older XE is the 5,000mAh battery (which is bigger than the 500mAh).
TCL 40XL
Note the lack of “5G” in the name: the TCL 40 XL opts for a larger display over next-gen connectivity. Said display has a diagonal of 6.75 inches, although TCL has maintained the HD + resolution (the refresh rate is 60Hz).
This was also the case with last year’s 30 XL, which had a 6.82-inch HD+ display. This is also comparable to the 40 SE announced at CES with a 6.75″ HD+ display (90Hz).
Like the X, this phone has a 50+2+2MP triple camera on the back and a notched 8MP camera on the front. The 5MP ultra-wide-angle camera from last year’s model is gone.
Storage on the XL has increased to 128GB (expandable with microSD cards up to 512GB), though RAM remains at 4GB. The phone is powered by the Helio G37, a 12nm chip with eight Cortex-A53 cores and a PowerVR GE8320, which is quite low-end compared to the 5G models listed above but on par with the 40 SE.
The battery hasn’t been boosted to accommodate the larger display and has the same 5,000mAh capacity as the X/XE. This model also uses face unlock and a side-mounted fingerprint reader.
The TCL 40 XL is $150, making it $20 cheaper than the 40 XE and 40 SE.
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