TCL 40 NXTPAPER review – a smartphone with a screen that’s easier on your eyes

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• VERDICT

The TCL 40 NXTPAPER is an interesting and different smartphone offering that uses the company’s display expertise to provide an experience that’s gentler on the eyes and a little gentler on the wallet.

TCL has brought remarkable new screen technology to its latest TCL 40 NXTPAPER smartphone which offers added eye comfort for easier viewing for longer periods.

TCL introduced its NXTPAPER technology a few years ago on its range of tablets and it has now brought that innovation to its smartphone lineup.

It’s called NXTPAPER because the screen offers a paper-like texture and less reflection and glare.

The LCD display is made up of multiple layers and has a low blue light certification from TUVRheinland.

The TCL 40 NXTPAPER has a 6.78-inch FHD+ NXTPAPER display with a 90Hz refresh rate.

It has 450 nits brightness with a resolution of 1080 x 2460 and 369ppi (pixels per inch) so it looks sharp and bright.

If you add all that up, you’re getting a smooth viewing experience with less harmful blue light while still retaining bright natural colours.

The other benefit is reflection-free viewing indoors and out while still being gentle on your eyes.

Late at night we found viewing the phone in low light was a lot easier on the eyes then a regular backlit LCD screen.

There is also NXTPAPER mode that you can toggle on and off and choose between colour paper and ink paper.

There is a cool animation every time you activate this feature, but you do have to find it in the settings or through the shortcut in the pull down menu screen.

This setting did make it look like an e-reader, but it didn’t offer any other power saving or added benefit – it was purely for appearances only.

To be clear TCL 40 NXTPAPER does not have the same type of screen you would find on an e-reader despite its paper-like qualities and appearance – but it does a great job imitating it.

But it has a matte finish and therefore has a glare-free appearance.

Yes, it does reduce the glossiness of what you’re looking but the colours and brightness are still there.

Watching your content and browsing websites is still an enjoyable task with the TCL 40 NXTPAPER.

And the sound is decent thanks to the on board speakers which have a Sound Booster that can increase the volume so your calls on loudspeaker, podcasts audiobooks and movies and TV shows can be clearly heard across the room.

Design-wise the TCL 40 NXTPAPER has a sleek and thin look. It’s available in Midnight Blue.

Under the hood, there is 8GB RAM plus an added 8GB RAM expansion when it needs to offer faster multitasking, improve streaming and web browsing.

The device is running Android 13 with support for Android 14 which is coming in a future update.

Performance was impressive and there was never a time where we were waiting for apps to open thanks to the MediaTek Helio G88 processor and Mali 52 GPU.

It’s not as fast as a flagship phone but there was no lag to speak of.

On the camera side, you have a 50-megapixel wide, 5-megapixel ultra-wide and fun 2-megapixel macro lens on the back panel.

And for those who love taking selfies they will appreciate the 32 megapixel front facing selfie camera. It held its own among other smartphones.

And while the quality is there as a product of its sheer number of megapixels, viewing them on the phone’s display is not going to be as glossy.

But even when we view them off the device on neutral ground like our computer, the pictures did lack that sparkle and detail in low light situations.

On board is a 5010mAh battery which offers 33W ultra-fast charging. That means you could get to 50 per cent charge in about 30 minutes.

For us, the TCL 40 NXTPAPER easily got us through an entire day on a single charge.

If you are conscious about your eye health and eye comfort, then the TCL 40 NXTPAPER should be a solid consideration.

I can’t honestly say it made a difference for me in the 10 days I used it but over a long period those improvements might become more noticeable.

The TCL 40 NXTPAPER is available now and is priced at $349.

VERDICT

The TCL 40 NXTPAPER is an interesting and different smartphone offering that uses the company’s display expertise to provide an experience that’s gentler on the eyes and a little gentler on the wallet.