TCL Stylus 5G

                                                            TCL Stylus 5G

TCL's entry-level Pen 5G is a good choice for those on a tight budget who need 5G and a built-in stylus. That's a rather specialized demographic, and I doubt many individuals fit all of the requirements.

T-Mobile sells the TCL Stylus 5G for $258 and Metro by T-Mobile sells it for $269, and they are the only two places in the US where you can get it right now. Along with Motorola's Moto G Stylus and Moto G Stylus 5G, the Stylus 5G is the third major cheap stylus phone to hit shop shelves in the United States this year. Have you memorized all of the product names? It's all right, there'll be a quiz later.

The TCL stylus phone is the cheapest of the three, and its specifications reflect this. It doesn't have as much RAM as the Motorola alternatives or the $282 non-stylus OnePlus Nord N20, its 4,000mAh battery is on the short side for the class, and its 6.81-inch LCD doesn't have the same quick refresh rate or richness as its similarly priced competitors.

All of this puts the TCL Stylus in an uncomfortable position. To be sure, it's cheap, but it's also completely unimpressive. A phone can stand out even for less than $300, yet the TCL's combination of low pricing, 5G, and a pen doesn't add up to a compelling offering.

While I bounce between applications, compose emails, and peruse timelines, the phone's speed is adequate, there is a visible stutter and slowness here and there. The MediaTek Dimensity 700 CPU and 4GB of RAM in the Stylus are sufficient for everyday work, but I wouldn't expect much more. The battery life isn't the finest in the industry, but it will get you through a day of moderate use.

Given TCL's core business of creating TVs, the Stylus' 6.8-inch screen appears to be an area where TCL should have done better. Because it's a 1080p LCD, the resolution is acceptable, and the screen can be used in direct sunlight. TCL, on the other hand, continues to rely on its NXTVISION technology as its major feature, which isn't that stunning.

In principle, this function improves the color and contrast of visuals on screen. In actuality, it's difficult to tell if the function is switched on or off, and even in "natural" mode (which is set to vivid by default), the colors appear oversaturated. This screen has nothing fundamentally wrong with it, and considering the low price, it's a good deal. It's simply that TCL could, and probably should offer a bit more in this area, given its heritage.

The phone's main feature works as expected: take out the pen and you'll get a customized screen with shortcuts to stylus-friendly apps. TCL has teamed with Nebo to create a version of its current notes app that is designed around handwriting recognition, in addition to a stock notes app. It doesn't have all of the advanced capabilities of the subscription edition, but it does include those that aren't available in other notes apps. You may, for example, underline a handwritten word to make it bold text, or create spacing by drawing lines with your handwriting. It's also easier to blend handwritten and typed content in this format.

Individual notes are formatted as either ruled text pages or doodling-friendly grid-lined freeform sheets. As a result, unlike Motorola's tabbed design, the distinctions between notes are more stiff. On a freeform page, you can add a freeform portion to a text-based website, but you can't simply add text or convert handwriting. There's not much you can do to change the background color of your note page, though; you'll have to use TCL's normal notes app for that.

MyScript 2, a handwriting-friendly calculator program from the same firm as Nebo, is also available. It converts written equations to text, solves them, and saves the answers in the app's history for further use. It's a lovely feature that Motorola's stylus phones lack, but it's also a $3 software that anybody can get, so it shouldn't be a deal breaker. Aside from those two programs, the stylus shortcut menu includes a screen magnifier and a GIF creator — none of which are groundbreaking or even need the usage of a stylus, but they do resemble some of the pen functions available on Samsung's pricey S22 Ultra stylus phone.

Because Android 13 is on the way, the Stylus 5G comes with Android 12. Stefan Streit, TCL's marketing director, claims that the phone will get Android 13, but that it will be the phone's last OS upgrade. It'll only get security upgrades for the next two years, which isn't much. For comparable cost phones, both Motorola and OnePlus provide three years of security updates, so TCL's two-year policy is on the low end, even among cheap phones.

There are three back cameras on the Stylus 5G – there are four lenses, but one of them hides a 2-megapixel depth sensor that you may ignore. A 50-megapixel primary camera, a 5-megapixel ultrawide, and a 2-megapixel macro are all included. A 13-megapixel selfie camera is located on the front of the phone.

It has a setup that is extremely similar to the TCL 30 V 5G, and it performs similarly. The camera performs a lot more face-smoothing than I want, and it has some unusual lens flare — it's faint but apparent. Otherwise, images taken in bright or even fairly low light have brilliant (though slightly cold) hues. In low-light situations, the combination of face-smoothing and slow shutter speeds results in a lot of fuzzy people pictures. Even with the system's electronic picture stabilization turned on, video recording is limited to 1080p, and movies appear unsteady.

The TCL Stylus 5G is generally uninteresting, and despite its low price, it's difficult to recommend it. The pen works nicely, and the pre-installed handwriting applications provide a little more than Motorola's typical offerings. However, with a poor screen, mediocre performance, and one year less of software support, it falls well short of Motorola's 5G and non-5G stylus phones as a whole.

If a pen is a must-have for you and your budget allows it, the 2022 Moto G Stylus 5G is definitely worth the extra cash. T-version Mobile features 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which is less than the unlocked version's 8GB / 256GB, but it costs $300 instead of $500. It's $40 more expensive than the TCL Stylus 5G, but it's a far superior gadget that comes with an extra year of security patches.

If a pen isn't a must-have, the OnePlus N20 is a fantastic choice for T-Mobile customers. It has one of the best displays in the class and quick wired charging, and for $282, it's a bargain compared to the Stylus 5G's $260(ish).

 

TCL is most likely attempting to capture part of the inexpensive stylus phone market that LG abandoned when it discontinued its Stylo phones and entered the smartphone sector. The previous Stylo phone I tested (and the first, too) had wonderful stylus features but was ultimately too sluggish to recommend. TCL appears to be wearing LG's shoes a little too loosely here.