TCL quietly did something clever with its Nxtpaper phone and AMOLED at MWC

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ZDNET Highlights

• TCL has unveiled the Nxtpaper AMOLED concept phone.
• This promotes more vivid imagination while maintaining elements that are comfortable for the eyes.
• Key upgrades include higher polarization rates and less blue light.

TCL’s Nextpaper line of phones and tablets has always been a ‘comfort pick’ for me, as their displays are supposed to effectively promote eye care and digital wellness. That’s why I was thrilled when I learned about the company’s latest upgrade.

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By building Nxtpaper on AMOLED, TCL says its phones can now achieve more vivid visuals while maintaining the level of eye comfort we’ve come to expect. In a warm, naturally lit room, I picked up a working model and saw the difference for myself.

From the beginning, TCL NextPaper has been rooted in LCD panels, partly for ease of light management (to create a natural e-paper appearance) and cost. However, the downside of LCD backlighting is reduced contrast and color accuracy. This is where AMOLED comes in.

With a paper-like image sample set, an AMOLED unit, and an LCD (albeit an older TCL model), the former was more color accurate, portraying gray tones regardless of whether it was dim or bright. In fact, when the brightness of the AMOLED unit matched the LCD’s maximum brightness, it was just past the 50% mark. This panel is another big highlight of the upgrade.

TCL says the new phone can reach a maximum brightness of 3,200 nits in outdoor sunlight. It may be compared to today’s flagship phones, but hopefully not an indication of what such a device would cost.

I was surprised that there is still matte texture on the glass panel which TCL told me is the first anti-glare AMOLED phone. I’ve seen variations of anti-glare treatments on phones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but they’re glossy by nature, which makes them more susceptible to fingerprint smudges and oil marks.

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Considering how many restless media members, analysts and business partners were on the phone throughout the morning, it looked mostly spotless when it was my turn.

Being an Nxtpaper phone, TCL is promoting the device for its improved polarization rate, or the efficiency of its light emission, which has an improvement of 43% compared to previous models. Blue light reduction is also reduced to 2.9%, so it causes less strain on your eyes, especially at night.

While what TCL showed me was merely a concept phone — some functions, like the Nxtpaper key, weren’t working during the demo — the company told me it’s confident the technology will eventually reach the market. There’s reason to hope here, because this is the thoughtful innovation we didn’t know we needed.