The CES 2020 is starting and a number of consumer electronics brands and companies have already starting teasing and showing off their new products. Some have made official announcements like TCL. The tech giant is known for releasing smartphones from different mobile brands like Alcatel, Blackberry, and before Palm. HubblePhone once teamed up with TCL after Vertu did. TCL definitely has a major part in the mobile market but we’re always interested when it announces its own products. In November, the TCL WQ tablet display with a punch hole was leaked. There’s also that TCL foldable phone prototype shown off in a hands-on video.
At this year’s CES 2020, a foldable phone is being shown off by TCL. It’s only a prototype of a clamshell that opens to a larger 7.2-inch flexible touchscreen display. The prototype is functional so we believe it has the potential to go into production and rival the Samsung Galaxy Fold, Huawei Mate X, and the Motorola RAZR.
This seems to be different from the TCL foldable phone prototype revealed last year. There’s also the TCL foldable smartphone-tablet we thought would be unveiled during the IFA 2019. Foldable or not, the item is an Android device with a touchscreen display.
The TCL foldable phone or tablet offers the usual smartphone features like touchscreen goodness, cameras on the rear, and fold in the middle (clamshell). According to TCL, this is just one of the dozens of designs considered. It’s not perfect. Of course, it’s only a prototype so don’t expect all features to function correctly.
Design-wise, the TCL foldable device is a bit thicker compared to the Motorola RAZR. There is no selfie camera yet. The hinge appears to be better than the Samsung Galaxy Fold as the phone shuts completely. There appears no gap between the two parts. The phone’s screen is at 2K resolution.
Aside from this foldable phone prototype, TCL has also unveiled the TCL 10 phone series. It’s the company’s first 5G phone ever. It will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 series 5G processor. It will also be accompanied by two other variants, the TCL 10 Pro and TCL 10L. The three will be TCL’s core offering to the global market. Pricing is below $500 while availability will be sometime next quarter in the US and Canada.
The TCL 10 5G boasts TCL’s own display tech– the NXTVISION visual technology. It’s also expected to be used on other TCL phones like the foldable device we mentioned a while ago. Hopefully, this tech will make more 5G or foldable phones more affordable compared to big names like Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola.