TCL gets serious about making a name for itself in phones with the new Plex


TCL will release a new smartphone called the Plex this year in Europe, and the company has even larger mobile ambitions for 2020 that include foldable phones and 5G. But the Plex — no affiliation with the popular app — is TCL’s starting point to establish its name in phones beyond the Blackberry and Alcatel brands that it owns the rights to. The Plex will be available in black or white for €329.
The Plex is a midrange device through and through, and TCL told me that the company focused on two key areas in designing it: display and camera. Phones like the Pixel 3A XL have set new expectations for devices at this price. TCL isn’t exactly a camera company, but it’s still aiming to be “at par” out of the gate. The Plex has three cameras: a 48-megapixel main sensor from Sony, a 16MP ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP cam that’s meant strictly for low-light shooting. Two megapixels. Not a typo.










TCL claims it has “an industry-leading 2.9μm big pixel low-light sensor” and various algorithms for reducing noise, plus a Super Night Mode for those dark, dark environments. I didn’t get nearly enough time with the Plex to determine whether it has any hope of standing up to the Pixel 3A or similarly priced competitors from Samsung, Motorola, Huawei, and others.
The Plex has a 6.53-inch FHD+ LCD display that TCL has humorously dubbed “Dotch” because of its hole-punch cutout at the upper left. (Seriously, it’s trademarked.) Just as with its TVs, the company manufactures this screen itself. And there’s a mode called NXTVISION that applies a lot of image processing when activated:
Colors on the TCL Plex’s screen are intensified with a 6-axis color enhancement for radiant images. Edges are honed with 2D edge enhancement for sharper pictures and visual contrasts are made more striking without being over-exposed with targeted contrast enhancement. With an SDR to HDR real-time conversion feature, the TCL Plex offers a HDR-like video enhancement with increased contrast, amplified color, brighter highlights and darker shadows.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 675 powers the Plex, which also features 128GB of storage, 6GB RAM, and a 3,820mAh battery. The phone supports microSD storage up to 256GB, and, yes, there’s a headphone jack, too. It’s got Bluetooth 5.0, and TCL says a “Super Bluetooth” option allows for up to four Bluetooth speakers or headphones to connect to the Plex simultaneously.
For TCL, the Plex is just the first phase of a long-term mobile strategy. The company has already shown off foldable phone concepts, and it also let me test out a “waterfall” display prototype similar to what Vivo is pursuing. TCL reps told me that 5G handsets are definitely in the plans, as well, though it’s not in a rush to ship a foldable and is happy to let Samsung and Huawei have that lead. The company best known for its TVs is determined to take the good reputation its earned in the living room and extend that to new categories.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linktree’s free workaround lets you add multiple links to your Instagram bio

Image
Instagram only gives you one opportunity to link to outside resources inside its photo sharing platform. This might not be a problem for a majority of the users, but for those wanting a little more customization and even more options, it leaves much to be desired. Enter  Linktree , a free tool for Instagram designed to improve traffic to your outside link, be it a blog, portfolio, or store. How it works is fairly straightforward. After connecting Linktree to your Instagram profile, you’ll receive a single link to place in your Instagram bio. Once that link in place, you can customize what it’s linked to within your browser, be it a single website, or a collection of sites you’re looking to direct followers to Say you’re a photographer who’s using Instagram as a marketing tool for your wedding photography. Using Linktree, you can direct Instagram followers to your blog, your portfolio site, and even your other social media accounts. Until now, you would’ve been stuck choosing b
Read more

EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT THE PIXEL 4, THE MOST-LEAKED PHONE EVER

Image
Google’s  Pixel 3 might have been the  most-leaked phone in history . Long before its unveiling, we knew practically everything about it from unboxing videos, photo comparisons, even a full review of the device. Surely, for the Pixel 4, Google would clamp down on leaks to leave some surprises for its debut on  October 15th , right? Let’s just say, if that was the plan, it didn’t exactly work out. We’ve now seen the Pixel 4 XL from every angle and in three different colors. At least seven different sources have touched this phone, many of them confirming the same specs. We not only know which cameras it’ll have, but also what they may be capable of, including air gestures (go figure). That doesn’t even count information Google has already shared  on purpose. So if you want to know almost everything about the Pixel 4 nearly a month before it’s announced, buckle up. We’ve sifted through all of the rumors and information we can find to compile everything we know — and everything we
Read more

Our favorite iOS apps for the iPhone and iPad in 2018

Image
As 2018 comes to a close, it’s time to look at some our favorite apps of the year. While not all of these are brand new, many of them popped up onto our radar for the first time in 2018, and are definitely worth the attention. Others are some of our favorites that are still best-in-class despite having been around for some time now. We aim to do things differently at TNW, and as such you’re not going to find the recommendations you’re probably used to seeing: Gmail, Skype, Dropbox, and the like. Instead, we want to focus on the best-of-the-best that you may not have heard of, and others that are just special enough to warrant a mention. As always, we’d encourage you to share some of your favorites in the comments below, or on Facebook. Enlight Pixaloop (Free Pixaloop  is one of my favorite apps on the market. Unlike typical image editors that allow you to remove red eye or apply a filter, Pixaloop allows you to create stunning photo animations with a few clicks on your
Read more