TCL 10 L & PRO

TCL is set to heat up the competition in Australia's affordable smartphone market with its $449 TCL 10L and $749 TCL 10 Pro.

Running Android 10, the dual-SIM 10 Pro packs in a Snapdragon 675 processor, 6GB of RAM, and a 4,500mAh battery that should last you at least a full day with standard use. A step up from the 10L, the Pro also features 128GB of expandable storage.

The phone's most noticeable feature – as can be expected – is its display, which is made in-house at TCL rather than bought off the shelf. As a TV manufacturer, TCL has proven its mettle with a 6.47-inch FHD+ curved AMOLED display that boasts a 2340 x 1080 resolution, working out to 398 pixels per inch, and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio.

It's a fantastic screen, punching well above its price point, and comparable to the ones you'll get on flagships – so if display quality is one of your sticking points, you won't be missing out if you pick this one up instead.

The 10 Pro – impressively for a midrange phone – packs in five cameras: one 24MP front-facing camera in a teardrop notch at the top of the screen, and a 64MP four-camera array on the back. As an added plus, the array is completely flush with the phone's surface.

The cameras themselves take decent pictures and video, with a variety of modes including auto, super macro, panoramic, and stopmotion – but as a heads up, you'll probably want to turn off the watermark that appears by default on all your shots (thankfully, the option is right there in the camera app's Settings menu, but I question who would actually want it on their photos in the first place).

On the software side, the 10 Pro's user interface is simple and unobtrusive, and the company has opted to use Google's stock apps for most features (such as calendar, contacts, messaging, and phone) as opposed to developing its own proprietary ones.

Conveniently, the phone lets you choose whether to use an app drawer or store all apps on the home screen, which I suspected could help iPhone converts ease into the system. To test this theory out, I handed it over to my fiancée, who has used iPhones all her life and hates Android for being “too confusing”.

She reported that this is one Droid she'd actually be inclined to buy, perhaps over the new iPhone SE: she gave a thumbs-up to the headphone jack, the chance to break free from the closed Apple ecosystem, and the UI, which she described as “the least confusing Android she's ever used”. While she still preferred the iOS layout, she said that, given time, she could see herself growing accustomed to and liking the 10 Pro's UI.

For those of us who do like app drawers, the 10 Pro's offers one more option that I never knew I wanted on my own phone until I saw it: whether to sort apps alphabetically or by category (for example, media, games, news, and so on).

Other handy features include a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the phone (which are lamentably becoming an endangered species among the flagships), as well as an IR blaster, which will allow you to use the 10 Pro as a TV remote. Similarly to many flagships, it also includes an underscreen fingerprint scanner.

Audio quality is decent, with a single speaker on the bottom of the phone providing serviceable sound – sure, it's not top of the line, but it gets the job done in those odd situations where you don't want to just use the headphone jack.

Like its little brother, the 10L, it features ‘super Bluetooth, which can connect it to up to four Bluetooth speakers at once. As an added bonus, the phone ships with a free case – handy if you don't have the time or money to go looking for one separately, and it shows that TCL is a fan of keeping its product safe.

VERDICT

Overall, this phone is a solid choice for an upper-midrange smartphone, with a design that will make you think of a flagship and a screen to match (not to mention some features that are rapidly disappearing from flagships, such as the 3.5mm headphone jack and IR blaster). Its simple UI also makes it a good option for lifelong iPhone users thinking of jumping ship. Perhaps with a bit more convincing, my fiancée might end up being among those taking the plunge

Price: $749

Rating 8.5