The TCL 30+ is one of its new 2022 models that is tangibly better than the previous 10 and 20 series.
TCL Mobile (website not to be confused with its TV and home appliances division) manages smartphones, tablets and AR glasses. TCL also licenses the Alcatel brand, although the former appears to have virtually disappeared from Australia. In terms of market share, it has only been selling TCL branded phones here for the last three years. As a result, the lack of approved retail distribution (basically Harvey Norman and Officeworks) for certified Australian models slows this mark.
It’s nice to see a mature smartphone maker. It’s a challenging brand, and our tests on the TCL 30+ and TCL 30SE (another review) show generally decent performance and quality. You can compare both TCL does well with TCL 30+ and TCL 30SE.
5-minute review: TCL 30+ 4/128 GB, 4G, hybrid dual sim / microSD Australian model T676K-2BIZAU12
Website Product PagePrice $ 399 From Harvey Norman and OfficeworksWarranty2 years ACLCountry of OriginChinaCompanyTCL Technology (originally an abbreviation for Telephone Communication Limited) is a Chinese electronics company based in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. It designs, develops, manufactures and sells consumer products such as televisions, mobile phones, air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators and small appliances. More CyberShack TCL news and reviews
Deep-Dive review format
It is now in two parts. Because it is a low-cost device, we will make a brief summary and independent specification based on databases of more than 300 lines, which includes more than 70 tests to back up the findings. It also helps us to compare different phones and features.
Most section headings have FAIL (did not meet expected standards), APPROVED (everything you can expect), or EXCEED (better than you might expect).
Don’t buy the gray market
Unfortunately, there is a substantial gray market (see the Don’t Buy a Gray Market Phone guide) and you have to be very careful if you want a guarantee from the Australian Consumer Act.
The “K” model is for Australia and must have the 2BIZAU12 after it and the C-Tick RCM in Settings> System> Regulation and Security. Other versions may not have all Telco AU bands and no NFC. Don’t buy H or J versions.
First impressions – another glass slab – Pass
I’m sorry, but there’s nothing interesting about a typical glass slab smartphone, as this format is the best way to deliver value, not innovation.
It has a flat glass front, a flat PMMA plastic back, a three-camera hump, the important 3.5mm connector on the bottom and a dual sim / microSD hybrid slot. The power button (with fingerprint sensor) and volume control are on the right side.
The most prominent feature is the bright and colorful OLED screen. However, I’m not sure about the Muse Blue back panel. I like PMMA (synthetic glass) that resists fingerprints, but is slippery, so use the bumper cover provided.
Display: 6.7 “2400 × 1080, 8 bits 16.7 m colors, 60 Hz OLED – Exceed
It’s rare to find OLED at this price, but frankly, consider OLED display to be more of an advantage. It is bright, readable in daylight, saturated color and like OLED, has a scrollable Edge screen and a screen always on.
TCL cites 650 nights HBM (high brightness mode), but the reality is that it’s about 400 nights for daily use, and it’s still an SDR (standard, not high dynamic range) display.
TCL includes its NXTVISION tuning app, which basically brings OLED to its limits. We’re not sure if this negatively affects battery life, but it’s good to be able to play it to your liking.
Processor – MediaTek Helio G37 – Pass (only)
This is the same processor as the Moto g22 (Motorola g22: the cheap and cheerful smartphone (review), so we have some benchmarks. In general, it worked in a percentage of these.
Let’s say this is entry level and you have to accept that there will be a load delay, especially with 4GB of RAM and slow storage of the eMMC flash drive. And, as with many MediaTek SoCs, we haven’t been able to run some key GPU performance tests; Suffice it to say that the video speed is too slow for any popular game.
Acceleration was at least 10% for 15 minutes.
Summary: It’s a three-cylinder, no turbo!
Communications: Wi-Fi 4 N (failed), BT 5.0 and NFC: approved
If there’s one area we’re critical of, it’s the 2.4 Ghz single-band 4N Wi-Fi that reaches 79 Mbps. To put it in perspective, a download takes six times longer than Wi-Fi 5 AC. What was TCL thinking about putting this on a $ 399 phone when everyone has Wi-Fi 5 AC at 433 Mbps?
Because it’s not a Qualcomm SoC, it doesn’t have aptX sound codecs, which means you’re limited to SBC and AAC with a latency of 200+ ms, too high for gamers.
GPS performance is adequate and accurate up to <10 meters, but it takes a long time for the phone to find satellites and recalculate routes, limiting its effectiveness for in-car navigation.
Telephone: subscription with warnings, only for the capital and the suburbs
As is typical of MediaTek Helio SoCs, it could only find the nearest tower, albeit with a reasonable signal strength of 1-3pW. It is a subscription only for users of the capital.
Battery – 5010 mAh – Exceed with warnings
We’ve had previous issues with MediaTek SoCs with GFX Bench and Geekbench 5 performance testing software. We managed to run the Manhattan and T-Rex battery tests, but we got very different results in three runs.
We can confirm that it takes more than 3.5 hours to load (claim 2.1 hours) and that the video will play for 18 hours (excellent), but this is at odds with the GFX Bench test results. , which are about 9-10 hours.
We expect it to last two days, but that depends largely on your usage.
Sound: Stereo Pass (only)
It’s stereo – a headset and a speakerphone. But the sound is skewed at the bottom speaker and fails the white noise generator test by trimming (compressing or trimming) well above 4 kHz. Add below average volume (72 dB), no bass and treble interlocks, and it’s not good for music. It’s good for the voice.
Hands-free volume is below average. While dual microphones provide some noise cancellation, you need to hold the microphone less than 60 cm from your mouth if you want to be heard.
The SBC and AAC codec means that Bluetooth headphones have a medium volume and stereo sound.
There are no low or medium bass and not enough high bass (100-200 Hz) to make a difference. Note the dashed line from 1 kHz onwards to 20 kHz: the white noise test failed (golden line), but it cut, compressed, or simply cut the sound.
Build – Pass
TCL offers a 2 year warranty, so we would normally assign Exceed here. But the chrome-plated plastic frame looks cheap, is quite slippery in the hand and the lack of IP rating (when the competition has IP54 or X4) leaves it behind.
A reader who bought one was unable to purchase a wallet-style case and a tempered glass protector from Harvey Norman or Officeworks. You need to go online to Alibaba or eBay to find them.
Android 12: Approved
While TCL will update its security patches until December 2023, it won’t offer an Android 13 update, and that’s okay, as phones at this price are sold out and forgotten.
I’m not a fan of TCL UI 4.0X yet. It’s a relatively light touch on Android and there’s no learning curve. But it has a set of TCL applications that are duplicated in Google Apps, and the launcher keeps asking for them to have system permissions. Saying “no” doesn’t stop it from working, but you can’t delete these built-in apps either.
There are a lot of bloatware: remove: Amazon Shopping, Booking.com, Facebook, LinkedIn, an Office suite (not Microsoft), and non-Google apps to clean up your storage.
Missing – all right
Aside from Wi-Fi 5 AC, it has everything you need.
Camera – TCL 30+ – Passable. TCL should work with the camera firmware
It really is a single 0 and 50 MP camera that does all the work
In theory, it should be a decent 50 + 2 + 2MP camera setup. We know the Samsung S5KJN1 50 MP sensor and what to expect. It is used in over 100 smartphones, including the TCL 30 series, some g series from Motorola, Samsung Galaxy A13 / 23, realme 8 / 9i, Vivo 21T, OPPO A96 and several other 2022 models coming here.
What we don’t know until we test it is the level of AI offered by the MediaTek SoC (well, yes, since we just completed the Motorola g22 review with the same SoC and 50MP sensor). In short, lower AI levels mean you need reasonable light levels to get the most out of it.
Camera summary
Pictures
- 50MP without AI and HDR daylight has good colors and details.
- 12.5 MP binned (normal shooting mode) with AI has no precise colors or details
- 2x zoom is acceptable in the foreground, but it loses definition in the background
- 4x zoom, forget it, little detail and noisy
- No UW lens, so it makes a 50MP cut
- Macro: should be 4 cm or blurred. Good features otherwise
- Office Light 400 lumens: colors are off, focus is soft and a little noisy
- Bokeh: The depth camera did not focus properly
- <40 lumens: camera problems
- Night mode: Still fighting, but captures more detail
- Selfie: Okay, in good light, but wide angle means there’s a lot of background image
- Video: Poor dynamic range causes washed colors and lack of detail in light and dark areas
1X 50MP without AI – natural colors and good detail – slight background noise 1X 12.5MP packaged with AI applied – AI was wrong! Compare the sky and water with 50MP photography above 2X – 12.5MP with AI and the colors match the 1X 12.5MP image above, but the background is very noisy 4X – 12.5MP is reasonable, but worse the background definition and noise The macro is good although he made several attempts to get the sharp focus of the office light. The focus is very soft and the colors are off Office Light – Bokeh and barely blurs the background …