TCL 40R5G Review

[billbond4]

Having reviewed the TCL 30 range last year I was looking forward to seeing how the next iteration, the TCL 40 Series compares to it.

The first thing that strikes you about the TCL 40R5G  is its large screen size with its V notch,measuring in at 6.6 inches its a big display but the phone doesn't feel too wide to hold in the hand as the weight is nicely distributed.

In the box you get a Travel Charger (15w) with fast charge, Quick Guide, SIM card pin, USB Type-C cable and a list of Support Contacts.
Its a pity TCL doesn't include a case like they used to do but then again you can pay over 1000€ for a phone and not even get a charger or cable.

Design:-

TCL havent changed the design of the phone from last year's TCL 30 range too much .
The most noticeable difference is the rear whose surface now has more grip due to the metallic type texture on the surface so no fingerprints.
The camera array is raised slightly from the rear surface. (50 MegaPixel Main, 2 MegaPixel Depth,2 MegaPixel Macro and flash)
It measures 164.46 x 75.4 x 8.99 and weighs in at 192g

The headphone jack remains at the bottom of the phone alongside the main microphone and the USB-C port and the speaker.

One the right side of the phone you have the volume rocker and power button with integrated fingerprint scanner

I Iike the arrangement of the fingerprint scanner on the power button as it allows for quick unlock. ( Face Unlock is also supported )
On the left side of the phone is the hybrid dual sim card/sim or Microsd card, (which you can use the provided tool to open).

The top has the second of the microphones

Screen:-

The Screen on the TCL40R5G is a large 6.6" HD+ AMOLED v-notch display its offers a display ratio of 20:9 and a 720x1612 pixels resolution with 269 PPI with a new addition of the 90HZ refresh rate, you have the option to choose 60 Hz ( which uses less battery, 90HZ or Smart refresh)

TCL again brings their TV expertise to their mobile display with their NXTVISION technology.
I didnt mind the notch, and in the display settings you can select how much of the screen real estate you want to use.

You can tweak the display in the Settings with Image enhancement mode gives options to automatically adjust the displayed image to make it clearer and sharper and improve its brightness, Video & Gamer enhancement that uplifts a SDR video to HDR.
You can also tweak the Screen Colour & temperature as well  with modes (Vivid, Natural, Standard or Advanced) 

I found the screen was sharp and provided a very good colour representation while viewing videos from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime .
Brightness is very good at 400 nits, and I found that even in very bright sun conditions the screen was readable.

The Screen uses 30% Less Blue Light when The Reading mode is enabled as it changes the display to be more like an e-reader so the display is easier on your eyes, a good option with the Reading mode is that you can enable it automatically if you goto a certain app i.e. Kindle and it turns off when you leave the app. You can also enable Eye comfort mode which filters out blue light by turning the screen an orange colour, and also modify its intensity and schedule it to be enabled at a certain time of the day so when going to bed at night, it will automatically switch on for you.
Also there is a Darker Display Mode and Sunlight Display mode

Camera:-

The Camera on the TCL 40R5G is really a single 50 MegaPixel ,with this setup 

• 50MP: Main Camera, Sensor size 1/2.76”, pixel size 0.64μm, aperture F1.8, field of view 74.2°

• 2MP Depth Camera , Fixed Focus ,sensor size 1/5”, pixel size 1.75μm, aperture F2.4, field of view 85°
• 2MP Macro Camera, Fixed Focus ,sensor size 1/5”, pixel size 1.75μm, aperture F2.4, field of view 88.8°

The camera does a good job when there is plenty of natural light and captures quite a bit of details but pictures, but it's a pity there isn't a wide angle lens included in the camera 

Outdoor Sample

Outdoor Sample with Full 4x Zoom

Outdoor Samples
Colour is captured quite well and with the HDR there isnt too much darkness in the photos.

The TCL camera app is nice and simple to use it has quick access modes such as  AI Colour Video, One Shot (which takes multi types of photos and video with one press through AI, and will create photos and videos with various type of effects)
Stop Motion, Light Trace, Movie Video, ART effects 12 filters that you can select), Super Macro, Slo-Mo , High Pixel,Portrait, Manual and Panorama.

How you can configure the One Shot ( below) , so you can define up to 6 ways to capture a photo /(video (5 to 15 seconds long)

Colour is quiet vibrant and good image details are captured due to the 50 Mega Pixel camera

Indoor Sample

Indoors- with very Low Light using Flash

Indoors- with very Low Light without Flash
Again due to the AI and the 50 MegaPixel Camera, a large amount of detail is captured even when taking pictures indoors with very low light.

Video is captured at 1080P, 16:9 @ 30 Fps , when zooming there is a sharp jump between the different magnification levels , so it's better to keep the same zoom for a video and as the zoom is digital there is a loss of sharpness when zooming in
TCL40R5GVideoSample 

Front Camera

The TCL 40R5G  is equipped with a 8MP FF, sensor size 1/4’’, pixel size 1.12μm, aperture F2.0, field of view 80.6°

Video capture 1080P@30fps

Features included Face Beautification, Auto Capture, Gesture to Capture, Touch To Capture. Again there is a loss of detail in the front camera as it is only 8 Mega Pixel , but overall it does a good job of capturing selfies, and as it has a good wide field of view you can get the most out of your group selfies.

Front Camera Selfie Camera Sample

Audio:-

The TCL 40R5G  provides decent sound only though it has one speaker. When I tried different music types they sounded well through the speaker.
But as the speaker is at the bottom of the phone you have to be careful not to block it.
At the bottom of the phone (near USB-C connection) there is a 3.5mm headphone jack as well that supports LRGM headsets

.Phone Performance and UI Tweaks:-

The TCL 40R5G  has 4GB RAM and is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 700 and it's not the fastest phone out there, so you wont be playing too many CPU heavy games on it.
But Performance is decent, once you stay in one app, when you switch between the phone lags a very small bit.
You can quickly clean up memory by using the include Smart Manager

I like the split screen option using 3 fingers so you can view 2 apps at once. i.e scroll through your photos and watch you tube at the same time.
TCL have again included other features, Smart App recommend which would trigger an action when you connect a device to your phone, and One handed mode which shrinks down the phone screen so you can reduce the amount of screen space

There is now a Theme store, so you can download Themes to change the feel of your phone

There is 128 GB onboard storage which can be increased by using a microsd in the hybrid Dual Sim/Microsd tray.
TCL havent included too much bloatware which is good, and what is included can be deleted.

Gamemode is again included so you can select which games can activate it.
I played the included Modern Combat Rebel Guns and it ran very smoothly.
In Gamemode you have options about how you want to deal with notifications while you're playing games, or to use TCL’s NXTVISION gaming enhancement.
If you find the game lagging you could enable the Game Turbo which will increase performance but will also increase battery use or you could enable/disable Cleaning up background apps so your games can use as much memory as available.

I found the fingerprint unlock and the face unlock worked very quickly and without issue.

Connectivity is covered with 2G/3G/4G and as the name of the phone suggests 5G is supported also, 
For WiFi there is support for 2.4GHz and 5GHz i.e 802.11b/g/n , Bluetooth v5.1 and NFC.
The phone is running Android 12 with TCL’s own wrapper TCL UI.

When you Long press on the Power button, you get the below screen which again you can configure shortcuts on.

Battery :- 

Onboard is a large 5000mah capacity battery but if you're watching a lot of content or having apps that do heavy processing it will get used up during the course of the day.
Wireless charging isn't included and it takes around 3 hours to fully charge the phone using the supplied  15W fast charger.
You can also change the phone's performance to increase the battery life, by enabling the Super Saving Mode.
TCL also uses Intelligent Charging which learns your charging habits so during the night time it will pause when it reaches 80%  percentage and then charge up to 100% before you wake up. Doing this increases the lifespan of batteries which is a good thing as we all keep our phones for longer now.

If you're looking for a big phone to watch plenty of videos with a big battery and don't want to break the bank, the TCL 40R5G  is definitely a contender.

More Info  TCL 40 R 5G - Phones | TCL IE

Unboxing and review

https://youtu.be/NIPrzuw2nZ8