TCL has priced up its 10 Series smartphones, with US release details for the unexpectedly compelling - and affordable - handsets. While the company has already wowed us with its foldable prototypes - including a tri-fold tablet and a rolling smartphone - the reality is that it's more mainstream devices which will be its biggest contribution to 2020.
Rollable, foldable, flexible phones and tablets aren't going to catapult TCL into the number one smartphone spot any time soon, but that doesn't mean the company's ambitions aren't that way inclined. As it pulls back the curtain on just three of a whole portfolio of next-generation concepts, TCL is throwing down the gauntlet to jaded mobile mainstays... and it's borrowing a familiar playbook to do it.
A double-folding 10-inch tablet, a rollable smartphone that slides out to roughly double in screen size, and a wallet-like clamshell that closes with no gap: TCL is bringing its foldable concepts out to play, and it's clear the company has been busy. First teased at CES 2020 in January, the foldables are the handiwork of TCL's phone and display divisions, channeling some of the vertical-integration strategy that has proved so successful for Samsung.
Today a leak of a TCL smartphone prototype shows a bit of what was apparently going to appear at MWC 2020. That's the tech conference that generally happens every year around this time, but was cancelled this year due to concerns over nCoV-2019 / COVID-19 (AKA novel coronavirus). The device you see here was leaked from what CNET's Jessica Dolcourt describes as a "trusted source" - aka this isn't just some fan-made device based on a concept, it's quite likely from a source within TCL (or a TCL-adjacent group).
MWC 2020 is coming up at the end of the month, but citing concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, a number of companies have decided to sit the show out. Today, Sony and Amazon added their names to the list of companies that will skip MWC, joining the likes of LG, Ericsson, and NVIDIA. Nevertheless, MWC's organizers say that the show will go on, albeit with some enhanced health measures in place.
For a number of years now, Blackberry and TCL Communication have been working together to release new phones with BlackBerry branding that run on Android. It looks like that partnership is coming to an end, as TCL has announced that it will stop offering BlackBerry-branded devices later this year.
TCL isn't just bringing affordable Android phones and a foldable prototype to CES 2020: the company also has another concept device that aims to deliver your video and gaming content more privately. TCL Project Archery was previewed back at IFA 2019, a wearable display promising the equivalent of a 100-inch TV viewed from across the room.
TCL has revealed a new foldable phone prototype at CES 2020, a clamshell that opens up to reveal a 7.2-inch flexible touchscreen, and one which already has a few advantages over the Samsung Galaxy Fold. While the device is still at the "functional prototype" stage, and won't launch quite as you see here, there are already good reasons why what TCL has achieved should get Android fans excited.
TCL has a new family of smartphones, the TCL 10-Series, and if you thought 5G would be priced out of your pocket then thing again. The TCL 10 5G, TCL 10 Pro, and TCL 10L are all making their debut at CES 2020 this week, and all three will be priced at under $500 when they go on sale later this year.
TCL may be trying to revive its name in the smartphone market but its brand is perhaps better known for display panels, especially those used on its own TVs. The company might be trying to raise its profile and merge those two worlds together with a new display that's clearly aimed at a mobile gaming market. Strangely enough, it has one feature that could irk some gamers instead.
As much as foldable phones are a hot topic, they're also almost impossible to get perfect. Even without considering the fragility of the foldable screens themselves, two (or three) of the existing implementations have their respective drawbacks, like the Galaxy Fold's need for a smaller external screen or both its and the Huawei Mate X's square-ish unfolded shape. TCL is aiming to solve exactly those problems by adding one more hinge that could, of course, also be one more point for failure.
The television company best known for its Roku Smart TVs has just launched its 8-Series models at Best Buy. TLC has packed a number of notable features into its latest series, including Quantum Dot and Quantum contrast tech and Mini-LED backlights. The company is offering its new series in two large sizes, 65-inch and 75-inch, both with 4K resolutions and Roku OS built-in. The models went up for pre-order today.