In my eyes, it’s the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G that’s worth paying the most attention towards. It’s exclusive to the North American market, and seems to be aiming to deliver a bridge between the budget pricing TCL is used to, and a device AP readers might actually want to check out. As you might expect from the name, the display is the star of the show here. Equipped with TCL’s latest NXTPAPER technology, it’s the sort of panel that blows something like Samsung’s Gorilla Armor technology out of the water — at least when it comes to making things easy on your eyes.
Once again, this year’s panel isn’t actually an E Ink display like what you’ll find on the Light Phone 2. It’s rocking a 6.8-inch FHD+ 120Hz display that looks and feels like traditional paper, but with the level of performance you’d expect from a traditional LCD screen. If you haven’t tried NXTPAPER out — and I’m assuming most of our readers haven’t — there’s really nothing else like it on the market. It’s the sort of technology that you want on practically every device once you’ve seen it, but it’s a market that TCL has completely captured with its own in-house approach.
And, this year, it actually is taking one step closer to matching E Ink devices. A press of the dedicated NXTPAPER Key activates “Max Ink Mode,” which is designed to mimic something like a Kindle for reading books on the go. This isn’t just a black and white mode, either — TCL is quoting up to a week’s worth of reading time when Max Ink Mode is active, and even mutes incoming notifications for a more immersive experience. Frankly, it’s a smarter approach than something like the Boox Palma 2, delivering you a device you can actually use as a traditional smartphone or as a portable e-reader all in one.
Whether you’d want to use TCL’s 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G is, unfortunately, an entirely different question. As has become standard for the company, it’s keeping specs sheets close to the chest during CES. TCL’s press release says the device includes a 50MP main sensor, 256GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM, along with an odd note about the ability to “expand” memory by an additional 8GB. Making things even more confusing, TCL’s in-person specs sheet at its space in CES listed it as just 4GB of RAM, meaning we’ll need to wait for the full specs sheet to know what’s going on.
That should arrive at Mobile World Congress in a few short weeks, but don’t expect it to compete with the upcoming Galaxy S25. TCL makes budget devices first and foremost, and while I’d love to see its NXTPAPER technology eventually land on a device worthy of being a daily driver, I’m not sure this one is it.
The company is also showcasing two additional products during CES. The TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus is, as you might’ve guessed from the name, a NXTPAPER tablet equipped with all sorts of Eye Comfort modes, along with the very same NXTPAPER Key. Not much to go off of on specs or availability outside of its 11.5-inch 120Hz 2.2K display, but keep an eye out for this in the coming months. Meanwhile, the TCL K32 drops any fancy display technology to become as affordable as a 5G smartphone can get. But just like everything else, we’ll have to wait on specs, pricing, and availability details.
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