TCL 10 Pro, 10 5G and 10L hands-on review

Introduction

Yesterday TCL unveiled its 10 series smartphones, featuring the TLC 10 Pro, the TCL 10 5G and the TCL 10L. They're an interesting mix of specs and features (the Pro has an inferior chipset to the non-Pro), with a release scheduled for Q2 of the year (the release of the TCL 10 5G is still unknown) and a price range of €250-€450.

They're also likely to make it to several carriers in North America, Europe, the UK and Australia.

We had a little time with the three devices and will bring you a brief first look, but first - let's see the TCL 10 series at a glance.

TCL 10 Pro at a glance

• Body:158.5 x 72.4 x 9.2 mm, 177g; Aluminum frame, glass back and front.
• Screen: 6.47" AMOLED, 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio; 60Hz refresh rate; HDR10.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM675 Snapdragon 675 (11 nm): Octa-core CPU (2x2.0 GHz Kryo 460 Gold & 6x1.70 GHz Kryo 460 Silver); Adreno 612 GPU.
• Memory: 6GB RAM, 128GB built-in storage, microSDXC slot.
• OS/Software: Android 10, TCL UI.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 64MP, 1/1.72", 4-in-1 pixel binning, 26mm equiv. focal length, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF. Ultrawide: 16MP, f/2.4, 13mm equiv. focal length. Macro: 5MP, f/2.2; Depth: 2MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 24MP, f/2.0, 26mm equiv. focal length.
• Battery: 4,500mAh, 18W fast charging support.
• Misc: Optical under-display fingerprint reader; NFC; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, Single Nano-SIM or Dual Nano-SIM.

TCL 10 5G at a glance

• Body:163.7 x 76.6 x 9 mm, 210g; Aluminum frame, glass back and front.
• Screen: 6.53" IPS LCD, 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio; 60Hz refresh rate; HDR10.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM765 Snapdragon 765G (7 nm): Octa-core CPU (1x2.4 GHz Kryo 475 Prime & 1x2.2 GHz Kryo 475 Gold Gold & 6x1.80 GHz Kryo 475 Silver); Adreno 620 GPU.
• Memory: 6GB RAM, 128GB built-in storage, microSDXC slot.
• OS/Software: Android 10, TCL UI.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 64MP, 1/1.72", 4-in-1 pixel binning, 26mm equiv. focal length, f/1.9 aperture, PDAF. Ultrawide: 8MP, f/2.2, 13mm equiv. focal length. Macro: 5MP, f/2.2; Depth: 2MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 16MP, f/2.2, 26mm equiv. focal length.
• Battery: 4,500mAh, 18W fast charging support.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted); NFC; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, Single Nano-SIM or Dual Nano-SIM.

TCL 10L at a glance

• Body:163.7 x 76.6 x 9 mm, 210g; Aluminum frame, glass back and front.
• Screen: 6.53" IPS LCD, 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio; 60Hz refresh rate; HDR10.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM665 Snapdragon 665 (11 nm): Octa-core CPU (4x2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver; Adreno 610 GPU.
• Memory: 6GB RAM, 64GB or 128GB built-in storage, microSDXC slot.
• OS/Software: Android 10, TCL UI.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 48MP, 1/2.25", 4-in-1 pixel binning, 26mm equiv. focal length, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF. Ultrawide: 8MP, f/2.2, 13mm equiv. focal length. Macro: 2MP, f/2.2; Depth: 2MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 16MP, f/2.2, 26mm equiv. focal length.
• Battery: 4,000mAh.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted); NFC; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, Single Nano-SIM or Dual Nano-SIM.

Looking at their specs, you'd need to choose wisely between the TCL 10 Pro and TCL 10 5G. The TCL 10 Pro is a bit more expensive in Europe and makes up for that with an AMOLED screen and double the resolution of its ultrawide camera, and a higher-megapixel selfie shooter. However, the TCL 10 5G has a faster Snapdragon 765G chipset, which enables 5G connectivity, a bigger display (if only an LCD) and a standard capacitive fingerprint scanner on the rear for what that's worth.

The TCL 10L is the cheapest of the three, by €150/€200, but it has sacrificed very little to get to this reduced price. Compared to the TCL 10 5G, the 10L has less storage (still expandable), 'only' 48MP main camera, an inferior 2MP dedicated macro, Snapdragon 665 instead of the 675 of the TCL 10 Pro and 765G of the TCL 10 5G.

Perhaps the TCL 10L's biggest shortcoming to its peers is the 4,000mAh battery that's both smaller and slower to charge than the 4,500mAh units of the TCL 10 Pro and 10 5G.

Let's take a closer look at the actual hardware of TCL's 10 series devices.