The world of 5G smartphones is being enriched more and more
with devices, a little for all budgets. If, for the moment, the lower end
"trudges" a bit, especially in terms of performance, the devices that
have now reached a certain "maturity" are those sold between 400 and
600 euros. Right here is the TCL 20 Pro 5G, a smartphone that we have had the
opportunity to test properly over the last few weeks. The recommended price is
€ 549.90 , but online it can already be found under € 500. Will TCL be able to
do a good job? Let's analyze how the device performed during our test. bolts.answerhop
A smartphone with curved edges
TCL 20 Pro 5G is a smartphone aimed at lovers of curved
screens . The side edges in fact create small curves that the manufacturer
tries to highlight through particularly "evocative" backgrounds (for
example, relating to Space). On the other hand, TCL is a brand that knows how
to do it in the display field and it is therefore clear that its devices wink
at lovers of multimedia content. A confirmation of this "philosophy"
comes from the presence of a small hole for the camera positioned at the top
center, which does not "cover" the videos too much during playback.
As regards, however, the backcover of the device, we find a quadruple camera
arranged in a "traffic light" at the top left, flanked by LED flash. tc-bolts.dyifo
The Moondust Gray coloringof our sample is not bad: despite
being a dark color, the plays of light offered by the back of the smartphone
are pleasant, thanks also to the presence of a line that highlights the TCL
logo. However, if you appreciate more "lively" colors, remember that
there is also the Marine Blue color on the market. The smartphone weighs 190
grams and has dimensions of 164.2 x 73 x 8.77 mm. It is therefore not a
"compact" device, but we are at least on average values for the
current market. Unfortunately the materials do not give that
"Premium" feeling that many are looking for in this price range, but
it certainly cannot be said that the TCL 20 Pro 5G is poorly built. On the
other hand, the constructive solidity is not lacking, also thanks to the
thickness of the smartphone. Speaking of the latter, the manufacturer has
managed to insert the cameras directly into the body of the device, so there is
essentially no protrusion. A praise to TCL: doing this in a market where the
trend is to have massive camera modules is not at all obvious. techqueer
Another feature that will delight users who are fond of the
wire is the presence of the 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones, positioned at the
top, next to the first microphone and infrared port. On the right, the power
button with a red insert and the volume rocker peek out. On the left we find
the Smart Key button, which can be customized to perform various operations.
There are three "levels": single press, double press and long press.
For example, you can choose to associate the opening of an app with each
"level", but in reality there are also many other options available
(for example, the activation of the IR functionality). At the bottom there are
second microphone, speaker, USB Type-C 2.0 port and tray for the SIM (hybrid
slot, two nanoSIMs or one nanoSIM and one microSD). As for the unlocking
methods, there is neither the fingerprint sensor positioned under the screen
nor facial recognition. We have never had any particular problems with either.
Deepening the contents of the sales package, in addition to
the smartphone there are a convenient transparent cover, various manuals, a USB
Type-C / USB Type-A cable, the pin for extracting the SIM compartment and an
18W charger . There should also be some earphones with cable, but they were no
present in our package. Too bad for the absence of waterproofing. construction-bolts.tockhop
Watchwords for TCL 20 Pro 5G: solid and reliable
TCL 20 Pro 5G is a smartphone that places itself in the
mid-range in terms of hardware sector. In fact, we find a Qualcomm Snapdragon
750G processorwhich is "helped" by an Adreno 619 GPU, 6GB of RAM and
256GB of internals memory. Processor, GPU, memories, autonomy and charging (see
wireless charging). To be clear, it is a configuration very similar to that of
Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, released at the end of 2020. Performance is good in most
contexts, even if we are not at the top of the market. The benchmarks do
nothing but confirm the sensations had on smartphone in hand: TCL 20 Pro 5G
reached 379.701 points on AnTuTu Benchmark v9, as well as 652 points in
single-core and 1963 points in multi-core on GeekBench. The results are
therefore very close to those of Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, which reaches 330,000
points on AnTuTu. Black Shark 4, a smartphone sold at a price similar to that
of TCL 20 Pro 5G, reaches 600,226 points on AnTuTu. In short, we are not in
front of the most powerful device on the market, however to support the
performance there is a 4500 mAh battery. We are not exactly at the top even in
terms of autonomy, as it is almost alway possible to reach the end of the
classic day but sometimes the residual charge is limited. Unfortunately 18W
charging does not help but at least there is no lack of 15W wireless charging
and we are still on average results.
A convincing aspect of the smartphone is its screen. In
fact, we find a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel with Full HD + resolution (2400 x 1080
pixels), hole for the camera at the top center, HDR10 support, 700 nit
brightness and 93% screen-to-body ratio. about. It is a bright and
well-calibrated display, which allows the user to watch the multimedia content
of his interest properly, perhaps in Full HD on platforms such as Netflix and
Amazon Prime video (given the presence of Widevine L1 DRMs). The classic
NXTVISION technology, now well known, is also inevitable. Too bad for the lack
of an Always On feature. The multimedia sector is excellent as a whole, also
considering the presence of a decent quality audio department. bacobolts.yictic
As for the photographic department, we find a 32MP front
camera (f / 2.45), as well as a quadruple rear camera48MP (Sony IMX582, f /
1.79) + 16MP (f / 2.4, ultra-wide, 123 degrees) + 2MP (f / 2.2, for macros) +
5MP (f / 2.4, for depth of field). Videos can be recorded up to 4K / 30fps and
stabilization is average. The photos are good during the day, but they struggle
a little in very bright settings. In addition, some further imperfections are
noticed at night. The Super Night mode comes to the user's aid but the results
are not always perfect. The maximum zoom that can be reached digitally is 10x,
although for use for social networks it is probably better to stop at 2x. We
can then discuss the quality of macro and wide-angle photos, which is average.
The shots of the front camera for selfies are not bad,
however, which manages to convince even in contexts that are not exactly
simple. Obviously we are not in front of a cameraphone, on the contrary: the
photographic sector does what it has to do and the average user could be satisfied,
but we have seen better and expected more, also given the price range. If you
wants to learn more, you can take a look at the Drive folder dedicated to TCL
20 Pro 5G , which contains some uncompressed photos.
On the other hand, nothing can be said to the smartphone in
terms of connectivity: there are in fact 5G, Dual SIM, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC and
Wi-Fi a / b / g / n / ac . The smartphone focuses a lot on this sector and it
shows.
The customization of the manufacturer
The operating system is Android 11 with TCL UI 3
customization, which at the time of writing has the security patches of April
5, 2021. Speaking of security, the manufacturer has promised that it will
support this device with updates until June 2023. For the rest, the
customization of TCL by now we know it well. There are several interesting
additional features: from the side panel that allows you to quickly open
applications to the Smart Manager that optimizes the system. We have always
liked TCL's software and it proved to be an excellent confirmation in this case
as well. It must be said that not all user appreciate solutions of this type
but personal tastes come into play here. In any case, the Android Enterprise
Recommended certification is not missing, which aims at the business world.
Although it is not a gaming smartphone, we still wanted to
put TCL 20 Pro 5G to the test with some particularly popular titles, namely
Call of Duty Mobile, Fortnite and ARK: Survival Evolved. In the first case it
is a well optimized title with which you can play well with details and FPS on
"Very High"(you can also focus on "Max" in terms of FPS,
but going down to "High" with the details), while for what concerns
Fortnite you have to settle for the "Medium" preset at 30 FPS (even
if it is better to "play" a bit with the settings to get smoother).
As for ARK: Survival Evolved, however, the latter guarantees a satisfying
experience with the "Low" preset. It must also be said that the
smartphone tends to heat up following some prolonged gaming sessions. Despite
everything, the smartphone can satisfy that type of player who has no
particular pretensions.
