Trendy cellphone screens, together with the most effective OLEDs, usually are not good. They flicker, often with low pulse-width modulation (PWM) charges, and this may be irritating or downright painful for sure individuals. Additionally they aren’t excellent to be used in direct daylight, as their shiny glass coverings can expertise glare, limiting visibility. If you wish to use your cellphone as an e-reader or restrict distractions, most flagships lack the paper-like visible results wanted for the most effective expertise.
There’s one firm attempting to deal with all of those points, TCL, however the model’s telephones not often make their method into the U.S. I went out of my method to purchase the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G, a low-end mannequin that really was obtainable stateside, and needed to cope with sluggish speeds, a meager digicam 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 gadgets attempt to hold your consideration as a lot as potential, sucking you in with vibrant colours, fixed notifications, and an abundance of distractions. By comparability, TCL’s upcoming cellphone has a devoted slider that permits you to minimize out the noise right away.
An underrated a part of NXTPAPER telephones is their built-in matte glass show masking. Most telephones are shiny, and this end attracts fingerprints and provides undesirable glare. You can repair that with a matte display screen protector, however doing so often means compromising with a plastic movie model, which isn’t excellent. With this answer, 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 typical 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 common person, the standout characteristic is the NXTPAPER key. It cycles by way of 4 colour modes: full colour, Colour Paper Mode, Ink Paper Mode, and Max Ink Mode. It is essential to notice that this isn’t an e-ink show, it merely simulates that impact utilizing an LCD. Nevertheless, it does a superb job at that. Colour Paper Mode makes your cellphone appear 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 allows a paper-like black-and-white viewing expertise, but in addition limits the obtainable apps and notifications. The thought is that you need to use your cellphone as an e-reader with out being distracted by different apps, like social media or messaging apps. It is like having a minimalist cellphone 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 unimaginable for battery life. TCL says you may get seven days of battery life out of the NXTPAPER 70 Professional when utilizing Max Ink Mode for studying. On standby mode, the cellphone can survive a whopping 26 days. We’ll have to verify these claims for ourselves, however primarily based 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 cellphone affords a very flicker-free expertise will really feel like a breath of contemporary air. The cellphone makes use of DC dimming and the brightness could be lowered right down to 1 nit. It is also designed to try to block blue gentle, and meets a number of eye-friendly requirements:
- Low Visible Fatigue A+2.1 SGS certification
- Dim-Mild Eye Safety SGS certification
- Flicker Free TÜV Certification
It is every thing besides the eye-friendly show that issues right here, as a result of usually, shopping for a NXTPAPER cellphone 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 digicam is a stable 50MP sensor, and it is complimented by an 8MP ultrawide lens. On the entrance, you may discover a 32MP selfie digicam.
The design of the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional can be glorious, though it form of appears to be like just like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge from the again. It appears to be like extra premium than previous 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 elective €359 configuration in Europe, which comes out to $347 and $417 after conversions. Meaning we could possibly be $399 and $499 value factors within the U.S., with availability beginning April 2026 stateside.
I nonetheless need TCL to provide us extra NXTPAPER telephones
The {hardware} within the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Professional is not any slouch, and between the MediaTek processor and refined construct high quality, it is positively getting into flagship territory. Nevertheless, I want to see TCL convey much more higher-end smartphones to the U.S. market. That is the primary “Professional” cellphone with NXTPAPER tech to reach, however I might wish to see an “Extremely” mannequin debut someday quickly.
