My first e-reader was the Kobo Libra Colour—and after being basically inseparable from it for months, I cannot imagine living without an e-reader. However, an e-reader is an e-reader, and it’s pretty much only good for one thing: read. If I want to browse the Internet in between my reading sessions, it’s—while not impossible—really finicky and plain frustrating.
TCL, it seems, has found its niche in the TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G. It’s not the brand’s first e-ink display smartphone, but in my opinion, it’s the nicest one yet. You can pretty much use it as a regular smartphone for browsing the Internet, and turn it into a long-lasting e-reader with just the flick of a switch.
The TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper has a unique focus on comfort and utility, especially for avid readers. With its e-reader-focused display, this phone has certainly carved out a unique space for itself. But how well does it hold up in everyday use?
Editor
Jennifer chevron_right
Table of Contents
Build & Design
On the outside, the TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G looks just like any other smartphone. With its basalt-style finish, the back offers a little sparkle under the light. However, it’s almost entirely made out of plastic, which does bring down the hand feel a little.
One thing that came as a surprise to me was the inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack—certainly a rarity in recent times. It even comes boxed with a pair of wired, 3.5mm headphones!
Also bundled with the phone is a book-style case with a basic stylus. I like the case, which turns the phone into a true e-reader even if it isn’t the most stylish, but the stylus is practically useless for me. It doesn’t have palm rejection, for one, making writing on the screen incredibly hard.
The TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper has no water resistance or fancy screen protection, which isn’t really reassuring when it comes to durability. Then again, for a smartphone that costs less than my Kobo Libra Colour, I guess that’s a compromise we have to make.
Display & Reader Modes
The Nxtpaper display is undeniably the star of the show. The TCL 50 Pro’s 6.8-inch matt-textured surface is amazingly adept at minimizing reflections, which makes it a delight to use when reading.
Apart from your standard smartphone experience, there’s also a toggle that allows you to switch between three modes: Colour Paper, Ink Paper, and Max Ink. The first gives you a paperlike, colourized smartphone experience, and the second is the same, just in black and white.
Max Ink Mode, though, is my favourite: it simulates a true e-book experience, allowing only a handful of apps to be active. This allows the phone to conserve a lot of energy, which means that the phone can last hundreds of hours in Max Ink Mode!
That said, this is still a standard LCD panel, not an e-ink display. Brightness reaches an impressive 875 nits, but the oversaturated colours and poorly calibrated sRGB mode make it really unsuitable for tasks like photo editing.
For readers, there are plenty of features that take your comfort into consideration, like reminders to take breaks and low-light alerts. However, being that it’s not an actual e-reader, the display doesn’t quite go dim enough to read comfortably at night. For bedtime reading, I often reach for my Kobo instead.
Performance & Camera
The TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper is truly a budget phone when it comes to performance. Putting aside the e-reader modes, everything else on the TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper is pretty lacklustre.
Powered by a modest processor, this phone is only best suited for basic tasks like browsing, streaming, and light multitasking. Don’t even think about gaming on this phone—you can, but you’re going to curse it out pretty quickly. If you’re looking for a powerhouse, this is definitely not the device for you.
The camera setup is, quite frankly, mediocre. In fact, there’s so little to say about it that I can’t even put it in its own section. Photos often appear oversaturated and lack detail, and the colour accuracy leaves much to be desired.
While the specs look good on paper for a smartphone in its price range, it simply just doesn’t perform as well as budget smartphones from the likes of Samsung and OPPO.
Battery
Of course, this is a smartphone, so you can’t reasonably expect it to have an e-reader’s battery life. As mentioned above, the TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper can last hundreds of hours in Max Ink Mode, which is really quite impressive for a smartphone.
During my review, I put it in Max Ink Mode and did not have to charge it for almost a week, all the while reading consistently.
Battery life is also impressive for the regular modes. It can comfortably last a full day with moderate use, and I had no trouble getting through the day without a charger or power bank with me. While not groundbreaking, it’s reliable enough to avoid any battery anxiety.
Verdict
The TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G is a niche device that’s really only suitable as a secondary phone/e-reader and not as your daily driver. The Nxtpaper display and e-reader features certainly cater beautifully to bookworms, but for a general-purpose smartphone, the performance is just not it.
If you value eye comfort and love reading on your phone, this could be a great device. But for everyone else who needs a more robust smartphone, there are definitely better options available in this price range.
Would I recommend it? For the right user, absolutely. But for most people, the TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G might be a bit too niche to replace their current device.