Fashionable telephone screens, together with one of the best OLEDs, are usually not good. They flicker, often with low pulse-width modulation (PWM) charges, and this may be irritating or downright painful for sure individuals. In addition they aren’t best to be used in direct daylight, as their shiny glass coverings can expertise glare, limiting visibility. If you wish to use your telephone as an e-reader or restrict distractions, most flagships lack the paper-like visible results wanted for one of the best expertise.
There’s one firm making an attempt to handle all of those points, TCL, however the model’s telephones not often make their manner into the U.S. I went out of my manner to purchase the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G, a low-end mannequin that truly was accessible stateside, and needed to take care of gradual speeds, a meager digital camera system, and budget-caliber construct high quality. At MWC 2026, TCL confirmed off the NXTPAPER 70 Professional, which is a a lot stronger providing lastly coming to the U.S. subsequent month.
Most units attempt to preserve your consideration as a lot as attainable, sucking you in with vibrant colours, fixed notifications, and an abundance of distractions. By comparability, TCL’s upcoming telephone has a devoted slider that permits you to minimize out the noise immediately.
An underrated a part of NXTPAPER telephones is their built-in matte glass show overlaying. Most telephones are shiny, and this end attracts fingerprints and provides undesirable glare. You would repair that with a matte display protector, however doing so often means compromising with a plastic movie model, which isn’t best. With this resolution, you get the premium really feel and sturdiness of glass whereas nonetheless receiving the anti-smudge and anti-glare advantages.
TCL had an incredible demo at IFA 2025 that confirmed the distinction between a NXTPAPER matte show and a normal shiny show in difficult lighting circumstances. The issue? The flagship proven there, the NXTPAPER 60 Extremely, by no means got here to the U.S. That is what makes the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional so thrilling.
For the typical person, the standout characteristic is the NXTPAPER key. It cycles via 4 shade modes: full shade, Colour Paper Mode, Ink Paper Mode, and Max Ink Mode. It is necessary to notice that this isn’t an e-ink show, it merely simulates that impact utilizing an LCD. Nevertheless, it does a wonderful job at that. Colour Paper Mode makes your telephone seem like a Kindle Colorsoft, with a paper-like look and muted colours, whereas Ink Paper Mode does the identical in a black-and-white atmosphere.
Max Ink Mode is the actually cool half. This mode not solely permits a paper-like black-and-white viewing expertise, but additionally limits the accessible apps and notifications. The thought is that you need to use your telephone as an e-reader with out being distracted by different apps, like social media or messaging apps. It is like having a minimalist telephone that may flip right into a full-fledged Android flagship with the flip of a swap.
Other than enhancing your focus, Max Ink Mode is unbelievable for battery life. TCL says you will get seven days of battery life out of the NXTPAPER 70 Professional when utilizing Max Ink Mode for studying. On standby mode, the telephone can survive a whopping 26 days. We’ll have to substantiate these claims for ourselves, however based mostly on my time testing Max Ink Mode on different NXTPAPER telephones, I consider it.
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For people who endure from PWM flicker sensitivity, the truth that this telephone affords a very flicker-free expertise will really feel like a breath of contemporary air. The telephone makes use of DC dimming and the brightness might be lowered all the way down to 1 nit. It is also designed to try to block blue mild, and meets just a few eye-friendly requirements:
- Low Visible Fatigue A+2.1 SGS certification
- Dim-Gentle Eye Safety SGS certification
- Flicker Free TÜV Certification
It is every part besides the eye-friendly show that issues right here, as a result of sometimes, shopping for a NXTPAPER telephone within the U.S. meant compromising in each different space. On this case, you get a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor, a 5,200mAh battery, and as much as 512GB of storage. The first digital camera is a stable 50MP sensor, and it is complimented by an 8MP ultrawide lens. On the entrance, you will discover a 32MP selfie digital camera.
The design of the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional can also be glorious, though it form of seems to be just like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge from the again. It seems to be extra premium than outdated U.S. fashions that substituted fancy steel and glass for plastic.
The one factor we’re ready to listen to concerning the NXTPAPER 70 Professional is its U.S. pricing. We all know that it’s going to begin at €299 with an optionally available €359 configuration in Europe, which comes out to $347 and $417 after conversions. Which means we could possibly be taking a look at $399 and $499 worth factors within the U.S., with availability beginning April 2026 stateside.
I nonetheless need TCL to present us extra NXTPAPER telephones
The {hardware} within the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional isn’t any slouch, and between the MediaTek processor and refined construct high quality, it is positively getting into flagship territory. Nevertheless, I wish to see TCL deliver much more higher-end smartphones to the U.S. market. That is the primary “Professional” telephone with NXTPAPER tech to reach, however I might wish to see an “Extremely” mannequin debut someday quickly.
