Chinese manufacturing giant TCL, which has long made white-label smartphones for carriers, put its hat into the ring this year with its collection of TCL-branded handsets and tablets. Its impressive latest offering, the TCL 10 5G UW ($399.99), is a Verizon exclusive that provides the full 5G experience, long battery life, and excellent performance. It’s missing a few perks, such as wireless charging and a waterproof design, but that’s not surprising for this price—especially since it comes in at $200 less than Verizon’s next full-spectrum 5G phone.
Design and Display: Clean and Bright
The TCL 10 5G UW is not flashy, but it looks good with a traditional glass-over-aluminum body and a distinct horizontal camera stack. The 10 5G UW comes in a mirror gray finish and measures 6.4 by 3.0 by 0.4 inches. The phone weighs 7.4 ounces.
On the front of the phone, you’ll find a 6.53-inch hole punch LCD with a 2,340-by-1,080 display resolution and 395-ppi pixel density. The TCL NXTVISION display engine works well, as the screen is crisp, bright, and immersive.
The back of the phone is glass with a horizontal cutout in the top third for the camera module. The glossy back is attractive, but it’s a magnet for fingerprints and smudges, and TCL and Verizon’s 5G logos are on display. There’s a square fingerprint sensor that sits just below the cameras.
A USB-C charging port and speaker grilles sit on the bottom of the TCL 10 5G UW, and the top is home to a headphone jack. On the left you’ll find a hybrid SIM slot. The volume rocker and power buttons are located on the right. All are easy to reach and provide satisfying tactile feedback when pressed.
For the price, the phone’s durability isn’t bad. Both the front and back of the phone are constructed of Gorilla Glass and should be able to hold up to minor drops and dings without much damage. It’s also splash resistant, but it probably won’t survive a dunk in the pool. As always, you’ll want to pick up a sturdy case.
Clear Calls and Stong Connectivity
The TCL 10 5G UW is a Verizon exclusive that’s optimized to work on the carrier’s network, and that optimization pays off. Call quality is excellent. All of our test calls were perfectly clear, and noise cancellation worked without a problem. The maximum earpiece volume is 86dB, which is loud enough to hear in most situations.
Overall, connectivity is strong. We tested the phone on Verizon’s network across the Northside of Chicago. 5G speeds averaged 88.2Mbps down and 68.8Mbps up. On Verizon’s mmWave network, we averaged speeds of 682Mbps down and 102.2Mbps up when we were within 200 feet of the tower.
The TCL 10 5G UW’s stereo speakers work well. Once you have them cranked all the way up to the maximum volume of 94dB, they’re quite loud, with some distortion in the mid that isn’t apparent at lower levels. At 80dB and below, we found the 10 5G UW’s speakers to be immersive, with smooth timbre and some noticeable bass.
Dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 for wearable connectivity are supported by the 10 5G UW, as well as NFC for mobile payments and boarding passes.
High-Class Performance for a Low Price
The TCL 10 5G UW is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor and 6GB of RAM. That’s the same as you’ll find on the significantly more expensive Google Pixel 4a 5G ($599) and Samsung Galaxy A71 5G ($599.99). There’s also 128GB of storage on board, with about 108GB available out of the box. If you need more, a microSD storage card slot supports up to 256GB.
The TCL 10 5G UW is a strong performer that can hold its own against more expensive phones such as the Pixel 4a 5G. In testing, we were able to multitask without any slowdowns whatsoever. And though it doesn’t have a 90Hz or 120Hz display, we spent over an hour playing Alto’s Odyssey and Asphalt 9 on the phone and never experienced any lag or dropped frames.
In our benchmark tests, the phone performed similarly to other handsets with the Qualcomm 765G chipset. On Geekbench 5, a suite of tests that measures raw computing power, the 5G UW earned a single core (SC) score of 618 and a multi-core (MC) score of 1,911. That surpasses the Pixel 4a 5G’s 588 (SC) and 1,579 (MC) scores, but you’re unlikely to notice any real performance difference with normal use.
The 4,500mAh battery fares quite well for a phone with mmWave antennas and a 6.53-inch display. On our rundown test, which streams HD video over Wi-Fi at full brightness, we were able to squeeze out 9 hours and 47 minutes of power before the phone shut down. With more conservative use, we think you’d have no problem getting a day between charges.
If you do find yourself running low, the TCL 10 5G UW supports 18W fast charging as well as reverse wireless charging for accessories. Wireless charging, however, is not supported.
Quality Photos in Strong Light
TCL 10 5G UW uses a triple camera stack with a 48MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide angle lens, and a 5MP macro lens. There’s a 16MP selfie camera as well.
In good light, the camera performs well. The primary and ultra-wide lenses took crisp shots with excellent depth of field and color accuracy in our tests. The macro lens does an okay job, but most of our test shots came out flat with some noise.
The primary lens also does well in low light, though we noticed some over-aggressive noise cancellation in our test shots. The ultra-wide lens had the same problem and created some edge noise that could be observed in photos at full size. That said, the photos are perfectly acceptable for social media sharing.
Portrait mode is a win if you have enough light. For the most part, our test shots looked decent, though we did notice some minor issues with depth mapping around hats, glasses, and other tricky edges in our test shots at full size. Depth mapping issues became more pronounced with low-light test shots and there was some blurring in the foreground as well.
Test shots from the selfie camera showed accurate colors and managed to capture fine details most of the time. Low-light test shots, however, failed to impress; our photos looked flat and had significant noise in almost every shot.
For most people, the TCL 10 5G UW’s cameras will be just fine, but if you’re a serious smartphone photographer or simply demand the best Instagram shots, you’ll want to go with the Pixel 4a 5G.
Android 10, Minimal Bloat
The TCL 10 5G UW ships comes with Android 10, though the company confirmed an Android 11 upgrade is in the cards. It’s a stock version of Android, though Verizon has added more than a dozen preloaded apps to the phone. Fortunately, most can be uninstalled.
TCL also confirmed the phone will get two years of quarterly security updates and didn’t leave out the possibility of future Android upgrades. That said, it has to work with Verizon, so there’s no timeframe for the Android 11 upgrade and no guarantee of future upgrades.
Value-Conscious Verizon Subscribers, Rejoice
At $400, the TCL 10 5G UW offers multi-band 5G at an affordable price. You also get solid performance, all-day battery life, and a crisp, immersive display.
For the sake of affordability, a few compromises had to be made. There’s no wireless charging, the cameras are just okay, and it’s not waterproof. For the most part, we think these are fair tradeoffs given the phone’s price.
If you want a more capable camera and the promise of long-term Android updates, you should look to the Pixel 4a 5G. It features arguably the best cameras you’ll find on an Android phone and gets day one updates for at least three years. For most other Android fans, especially budget-conscious Verizon customers, the TCL 10 5G UW is a very fine choice.
