TCL’s New Phone Line Includes Its Paper-Like Screen Technology – CNET [CNET]

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Two new NxtPaper phones aim to blend the difference between a traditional phone screen and an e-reader.

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Mike Sorrentino Senior Editor

Mike Sorrentino is a Senior Editor for Mobile, covering phones, texting apps and smartwatches — obsessing about how we can make the most of them. Mike also keeps an eye out on the movie and toy industry, and outside of work enjoys biking and pizza making.

Expertise Phones, texting apps, iOS, Android, smartwatches, fitness trackers, mobile accessories, gaming phones, budget phones, toys, Star Wars, Marvel, Power Rangers, DC, mobile accessibility, iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, RCS

TCL is revealing its first phones with NxtPaper screens Tuesday, which the company says will have a paper-like appearance for improved eye comfort.

The TCL 40 NxtPaper and TCL 40 NxtPaper 5G are both releasing globally later this year, first in Europe before moving to other territories. TCL has not yet confirmed if the phone will receive a release in the US.

Both phones include a sensor that adjusts display brightness and color temperature in order to optimize how it looks based on environment and time of the day. When using the phones for reading, TCL says its NxtPaper UI can toggle between full-color or a black-and-white mode when a reader wants a more book-like experience. 

The non-5G model will ship with a 6.78-inch display, 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, dual speakers, a 32-megapixel front-facing camera and a triple camera system that’s anchored by a 50-megapixel main camera. It will cost €199 when it releases in Europe this September, which converts roughly to $215, £170 and AU$330.

The 5G model comes with a 6.6-inch display, 256GB of storage, 6GB of RAM, a 50-megapixel main rear camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. This model will cost €249 and release in October.

This screen technology has previously been released on TCL’s NxtPaper tablets and laptops. Back at CES 2023, TCL showed off a concept NxtPaper phone ahead of today’s official reveal.

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