TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G hands-on: A phone this cheap shouldn't be this good

TCL’s innovative NXTPAPER feature started on Android tablets and eventually made its way to smartphones. I’ve been covering it since its inception and have frequently praised NXTPAPER as one of the best features of any phone on the market. However, in the United States, we’ve not yet had a NXTPAPER phone with a NXTPAPER Key, which is a physical toggle that instantly switches between standard and e-ink-style display layouts.

Thankfully, at CES 2025, TCL rectified that problem. The mind-numbingly named TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G is here, and it will be the first phone in North America with a NXTPAPER Key. In fact, it will be exclusive to North American markets. It will also land at an astoundingly low price of just $199.

I had the chance to go hands-on with the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G, and I came away scratching my head. How can a phone this cheap be this good?

The NXTPAPER display and a NXTPAPER Key

By now, most people reading this should know what the NXTPAPER feature is. As a quick refresher, it’s an anti-glare coating on the display that severely cuts down on reflections. The TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G comes with NXTPAPER 3.0, which TCL unveiled in 2024.

The anti-glare properties of NXTPAPER displays make reading text much easier. As a trade-off, colors are more muted and less contrasty, but TCL decreases this disparity with every generation.

The star feature of this new phone, though, is the NXTPAPER Key. When you toggle the key, an animation swirls in and turns your display monochrome, giving it an e-ink look (TCL calls this Max Ink Mode). The anti-glare coating combined with Max Ink Mode gives you a Kindle-style experience, complete with that e-reader line’s crazy-long battery life. In fact, TCL claims this phone can provide up to a week of battery life if you use it similarly as you would a Kindle (i.e., turn off notifications, leave it in Max Ink Mode, and mostly use it for reading text).

Clicking the NXTPAPER Key feels great. It’s very similar in construction and build quality to the mute switch on older iPhones or the alert slider on OnePlus phones — notable when you remember this is a $200 device.

It’s crazy to think that these two innovative features are unmatched by any other phone in the US. Even the mighty Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Gorilla Glass Armor display can’t compete with the anti-glare capabilities of the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G. Even if it could, no other US phone has a physical toggle for quickly entering something like Max Ink Mode, putting this device in a league of its own.

A solid design makes it feel more premium than its weak specs

Outside of the hardware toggle and the display, the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G’s design is delightful. It has flat sides (which is quickly becoming the de facto style for most phones) and a matte plastic back panel with a slightly textured feel. The large offset circular camera module isn’t my favorite design ever, but it’s hard not to like what TCL has done here with a distinctly budget-minded phone.

Unfortunately, the company needed to cut corners somewhere, and internal hardware is where it likely made the biggest slashes. Let’s start with what we know. The TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G has 8GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage, and a 5,010mAh battery. It has a 32MP selfie camera and a triple-lens rear camera system headlined by a 50MP primary sensor (the other two lenses are a mystery for now). The display is 6.8 inches and lands with a 120Hz refresh rate and an FHD+ resolution.

Although TCL kept the full spec sheet secret from us, last year’s TCL 50 XE NXTPAPER 5G had a fairly weak MediaTek Dimensity 6100 Plus processor, which was nothing to write home about. We can only assume this year’s model will have something similar under the hood. Last year’s phone also had slow 18W wired charging, a measly 5MP ultrawide lens, and a nigh-useless 2MP depth sensor. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume this year’s model would have similar specs in these areas.

In other words, the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G might look and feel like a more expensive device, but its spec sheet grounds it firmly in the budget sector.

TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G hands-on: Wasted in the budget market

I didn’t have much time with the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G, but I came away from what little time I had thinking about how disappointing it is that TCL doesn’t seem to have any desire to bring the star features of a phone like this to something that’s more powerful. For whatever reason, TCL seems fine with the idea that if you want NXTPAPER, you can’t also have power and performance.

What’s so astonishing about this phone, in particular, is that TCL has all the ingredients it needs for success. The phone’s design is terrific. It could easily compete with the designs of the titans in the Android world (especially Samsung, which hasn’t significantly updated its design ethos in years). The two NXTPAPER features are not only great but have no true equals throughout the rest of the smartphone industry. TCL also already has deep ties with the three biggest US wireless carriers. The only thing it doesn’t have is a phone with specs that could even hope to compete with something like a Google Pixel 9, let alone a Galaxy S24 or OnePlus 12.

In other words, the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G suffers the same problem as the Nothing CMF Phone 1: loaded with truly exciting innovations but trapped in the confines of the budget world.

I really hope TCL takes a swing for the fences someday and launches a NXTPAPER phone with solid specs. Until then, though, we just need to be happy enough that something like the 60 XE exists at all.

Interested in grabbing a TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G? We know it is coming to North America for $200, but we don’t know when. It wouldn’t be surprising to see more information announced at Mobile World Congress, which is only a few weeks away.