With a paper-like color display, the TCL NXTPAPER 10s tablet is designed to reduce eye strain and enhance both your reading and writing experience on your tablet.
Tablets like Apple’s iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab aim to be jack-of-all-trades devices, but bright backlit screens aren’t always the best for the task at hand. That’s why the sketch-style e-Ink displays found in e-book readers like the Kobo and Amazon’s Kindle remain popular with avid readers looking to avoid eye strain.
TCL’s NXTPAPER technology aims to provide the best of both worlds. The NXTPAPER 10s has a backlit IPS LCD screen and runs Android, but the display has a matte finish to reduce glare. It also uses a few other tricks to reduce eye strain. Additionally, the display’s finish is designed to allow the stylus to glide more smoothly across the screen.
Review: TCL NXTPAPER 10s Tablet
| Australian website | TCL |
| price | $499 MSRP |
| guarantee | 2 years |
| other | Other GadgetGuy TCL News and Reviews |
First impression
Before turning on the TCL NXTPAPER 10s, the difference in display from a regular tablet is obvious. The matte finish minimizes glare, so you won’t see your face on a black screen like most displays do.
Also, the 10.1-inch display is designed for use in landscape mode and has an aspect ratio of 16:10. Hold the tablet sideways so that the front and rear cameras are on top. The rear-facing camera sticks out, making it impossible to lay the tablet completely flat on a table.
Holding it this way, the power and volume buttons are in the top left corner and easily reachable with your thumb and forefinger. There’s a USB-C port on the left side, but no headphone jack.
Finally, there’s a microSD slot on top and a connector on the bottom for connecting to an optional keyboard case. The weight is a little heavy at 490g, but it is easy to hold.
When you boot up the tablet, the display looks a bit flat, dull, and blurry compared to the bright, crisp, ultra-sharp displays found on high-end tablets like the iPad and Galaxy Tab. This is because, for better or worse, TCL was intentionally toned down to look like paper.
Focused on preserving natural color rendition, the display uses 10 layers of protection to reduce blue light output by 73%. This technology won the 2022-23 Best Product In Tablet Innovation award from his Expert Imaging and Sound Association in Europe.
TCL claims NXTPAPER has higher contrast for better viewing compared to traditional e-ink screens and typical LCD screens. It’s also lighter, thinner, and more than 65% more power efficient.
That said, if you don’t understand all of this and just expect a normal tablet screen, the display makes a pretty bad first impression. It depends on what you use.
TCL NXTPAPER 10s Tablet Specifications
| display size | 10.1 inches, 16:10 aspect ratio |
| display resolution | 1920×1200 pixels |
| display technology | TCL NXTPAPER IPS LCD |
| chipset | MediaTek MT8768 |
| GPUs | 650MHz PowerVR GPUs |
| rear camera | 8 MP autofocus |
| front camera | 5 MP fixed focus |
| sheep | 4GB |
| Onboard storage | 64GB |
| microSD slot | yes |
| charging | USB-C 18W |
| battery | 8000mAh |
| Wifi | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz + 5GHz |
| bluetooth | 5.0 A2DP, LE |
| operating system | Android 11 |
| safety | face unlock |
| Size | Height 241mm, Width 158.6mm, Depth 8.3mm |
| weight | 490 grams |
Features
Under the hood of the TCL NXTPAPER 10s is a very discreet MediaTek powerplant with 4 GB of RAM. It’s good enough for everyday tasks and basic content consumption, but can be frustrating for those who tend to push their device to its limits.
Similarly, the quality of the front and rear cameras is adequate, but will disappoint those who pay attention to detail.
Launch Netflix and the sound isn’t too bad thanks to the stereo speakers. But when it comes to photography, dark scenes lose a lot of detail because the images are so dark and dark.
NXTPAPER’s strengths should stand out when reading on the screen, but rather than being impressed by the lack of glare, we tend to be frustrated by the fact that the images are so dark and dark. If you expect it to look like this, you will be disappointed.
Even at maximum brightness, the whites aren’t white enough, so dull images cause contrast problems. This makes it really hard to read, even internally. If you take your tablet out in the sunlight, it’s almost impossible to read what’s on the screen.
Diving into the menu lets you enable a dedicated monochrome reading mode, which is an improvement, but you’ll want to override the auto-brightness option and bump it up to maximum brightness.
As for creating content, the screen works with a passive stylus, but it doesn’t ship with TCL. The stylus slides well across the screen, but the experience of writing with the Apple Pencil on the more capable iPad isn’t much better.
You can also attach an optional keyboard case. At this point, the tablet is in PC mode, making Android feel a little more like a desktop. Unfortunately, it’s a small, clunky plastic keyboard that’s not great for typing on. Additionally, the cover holds the screen at an awkward angle, making it impossible to adjust.
GadgetGuy’s take
NXTPAPER technology is a great idea and the TCL NXTPAPER 10s are a great undertaking, but unfortunately there are no use cases where they are a better option than the alternatives. It may reduce eye strain, but the blurry, washed-out images mean it’s frustrating to use for any task.
If you’re primarily interested in reading books, you’ll find e-Ink devices like the Kindle Paperwhite to be sharper, crisper, and easier to read. It also has the added benefit of easy library access and long battery life.
If you’re primarily concerned with using multimedia, you’ll benefit from better brightness, contrast, and overall image quality than your regular tablet.For $499, you can find a pretty decent Android tablet. but for a few bucks more you get into iPad territory.
If you’re primarily interested in a note-taking device, we recommend using a tablet that supports an active stylus and a better keyboard cover.
