Eye-friendly NXTPAPER or an OLED screen? TCL's new US-bound phones don't force you to choose

TCL has been producing NXTPAPER phones for a while now, offering a glare-free display compared to typical Android smartphones. Now, the company has announced the TCL P80 series at IFA 2026.

The P80 Ultra and P80 Pro have plenty of features in common. For one, there’s the 6.83-inch OLED NXTPAPER display (1.5K, 120Hz, 3,200 nits peak brightness). TCL says these are the first phones to feature NXTPAPER paired with an OLED screen instead of an LCD panel. The NXTPAPER tech reduces glare and reflections for a more pleasant viewing experience. There’s also a NXTPAPER button that activates a Max Ink Mode. This mode turns your screen into a monochrome display, akin to an E-Ink panel. In fact, TCL claims up to seven days of reading in this mode.

Other notable shared features include a MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Elite processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB or 512GB of storage, a 5,800mAh battery, and 45W wired charging.

How do the TCL P80 phones differ from each other?

So what makes the TCL P80 Ultra the top dog, then? The Ultra handset has a 50MP (1/1.56-inch) main camera, a 50MP 3x (0.64-micron pixels) periscope camera, and an 8MP ultrawide shooter. The P80 Pro has a dual rear camera system consisting of the same main camera and an unnamed ultrawide shooter. In other words, the Pro phone drops the telephoto camera altogether. The P80 Ultra also has an IP68 design, but there’s no word on the Pro’s IP rating.

This isn’t the only P80 series phone announced today, as TCL also revealed the standard P80. It doesn’t have NXTPAPER technology, although it still offers the same 6.83-inch OLED screen. This extends to the 1.5K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and 3,200 nits of peak brightness.

The standard TCL P80 has a Dimensity 7300 Elite chipset, 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 45W charging. It also has a 50MP main camera (1/1.56-inch) and an unnamed secondary shooter. Simply put, you’re getting a slightly weaker chipset, less base storage, and a smaller battery compared to the Pro.

Otherwise, all three phones have Android 16 and will get seven years of security updates. The Pro and Ultra models are slated to receive four major OS upgrades, while the standard phone will get three major OS updates. That’s not a bad update policy for the price. Speaking of pricing.

Keen on the P80 Ultra? Then TCL says it starts at €549 (~$635) for the 8GB/256GB model. Meanwhile, the P80 Pro has a starting price of €429 (~$496) for the base 8GB/256GB variant. Finally, the vanilla P80 starts at €349 (~$404) for the 8GB/128GB model.

The new phones will be available in Europe today (September 3), with launches in Latin America from October. TCL noted during a media briefing that the P80 series will arrive in the US a “bit later,” with no word on US pricing.