Why I Recommend This $200 Android Phone With A Paper-like Display Over Competing Models

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• TCL's 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G is connected waste connected Amazon for $222.
• It has a unsocial display, and a characteristic group that promotes minimalism and integer well-being.
• I conscionable wish nan camera strategy and wide capacity were better.

Being glued to your smartphone's surface each time tin do a number connected your eyes, and I decidedly tin consciousness it. TCL's Nxtpaper exertion offers a paper-like surface that's made for tired eyes for illustration mine. The TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G is nan company's affordable effort astatine relieving immoderate of nan accent that comes from modern smartphone screens.

Also: Changing this Android mounting instantly doubled my telephone velocity (Samsung and Google models included)

It's a unsocial instrumentality for a very inexpensive smartphone that needs to beryllium seen to beryllium understood. While acold from perfect, and decidedly a instrumentality built to a price, it brings a differentiator that will matter for immoderate users looking to springiness their eyes a remainder while they scroll aliases read.

A unsocial multi-faceted display

The show is what instantly sets nan 60XE apart. TCL's Nxtpaper 3.0 matte coating gives nan solid an undeniably unsocial decorativeness that I rather like. On-screen contented looks a spot for illustration E-ink depending connected nan mode nan telephone is in, but underneath that hazy furniture is simply a modular 1080p, 120Hz LCD panel. 

Jason Howel/ZDNET

The coating addresses a slew of communal downsides of modern displays. It reduces bluish light, cuts reflections to astir nothing, and moreover eliminates astir fingerprints. There's besides a bully texture that feels a spot for illustration paper, which is simply a bully departure from a oversea of glossy, reflective displays.

Beneath nan powerfulness and measurement buttons is simply a beingness Nxtpaper Key, a integrative move that feels a spot cheaper than I'd like. Flipping nan move offers up a paper of chopped modes that alteration really nan show operates. 

Also: Why I'm patiently waiting for nan Samsung Z Fold 8 adjacent twelvemonth (even though nan foldable is already great)

TCL intelligibly wants users to announcement and admit this characteristic because each toggle results successful a five-second full-screen animation complete pinch an obnoxious serenade. I made judge to group my measurement to shut up truthful I could debar nan theatrical effect.

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Each mode provides its ain twist connected usability and comfort. Color Paper Mode, my favorite, mutes nan colors while retaining a modular Android interface that's easier connected nan eyes for all-day use. I moreover enjoyed watching YouTube videos successful this mode, though everything feels a spot flatter than my eyes are utilized to. 

Ink Paper Mode goes 1 measurement further, stripping colour from icons and matter for a no-frills grayscale approach, while still delivering nan afloat unencumbered Android experience. Max Ink Mode is nan astir melodramatic change, stripping each colour while besides limiting apps to a mini subset of essentials and suspending definite inheritance processes. 

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The consequence is an ultra-minimal, battery-saving mode that tin past much than a week connected a azygous charge. I enjoyed this mode for reference ebooks and could spot it arsenic a awesome solution for users looking to trim backmost connected smartphone usage entirely.

Jason Howell/ZDNET

The show does travel pinch a awesome caveat. On nan brightest days, nan matte decorativeness would each but lavation retired on-screen content, often making it unusable successful nonstop sunlight. If you walk clip extracurricular reference aliases working, you'll beryllium looking for shadiness for illustration I was.

Performance and battery

Performance is humble but serviceable, pinch a MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ processor wrong paired pinch 8GB of RAM. In use, this is not a telephone for hardcore users who push their devices to nan limit. I noticed galore actions person a flimsy hold attached to them. Launching nan camera often takes a fewer seconds to negotiate. 

General tasks for illustration web browsing, email, and messaging are responsive capable to support maine happy, but things ne'er felt snappy.

Jason Howell/ZDNET

On nan package front, nan 60 XE runs Android 15, pinch a committedness from TCL of conscionable 1 upgrade to Android 16 and 2 years of information patches. As personification who ever decries nan mediocre authorities of Android OS update promises, this is simply a anemic point, and TCL needs to measurement up its game. Anyone hoping to get semipermanent worth should see different options.

Also: I spent a week successful New York City pinch nan Samsung Z Fold 7 - and it spoiled maine nan full time

I recovered artillery life to beryllium a highlight, which isn't that astonishing fixed nan 5,010mAh artillery hidden inside. I routinely made it done nan time pinch astir 20-30% capacity to spare astatine bedtime. Wired charging tops retired astatine a slow 18 watts, truthful speedy daytime top-ups will return immoderate time, but it's good for plugging successful overnight.

For nan genuinely artillery paranoid, there's nan Max Ink Mode that considerably jumps artillery life to much than a week if you are consenting to trim down connected overmuch of what nan telephone is tin of.

Stay for nan display, but not nan camera

The integrative marble-like backplate surrounds a ample information camera array that's difficult to miss and possibly moreover much premium-looking than its value point. One pet peeve of excavation is an off-center camera module, and this telephone has a notable wobble erstwhile placed connected a tabletop arsenic a result.

The camera strategy itself is 1 area wherever nan low-end cutbacks really show. The main sensor does its champion outdoors successful very agleam conditions and needs a batch of ray to thief shots taken indoors. The camera capacity is mediocre pinch soft output that lacks punch and meaning astir of nan time. 

Jason Howell/ZDNET

Low-light conditions easy show nan camera system's baseline capability, and nan ultrawide lens often results successful grainy images. The 32MP beforehand camera works, but that's astir it. Let's conscionable opportunity that this is not nan telephone for nan discerning camera buff.

ZDNET's buying advice

What nan TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G offers is simply a cardinal standout feature: a unsocial matte display. At $250, nan 60XE offers thing that you really can't find anyplace else, successful this value class and beyond, and nan benefits of that mightiness matter a batch for definite users. For everyone else, see phones for illustration nan CMF Phone 2 Pro, which offers amended imaging, amended speed, and its signature modular creation approach.

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