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Mike Sorrentino is Mobile’s editor-in-chief, covering phones, messaging apps and smartwatches — and how we can make the most of them. Mike also deals with the film and game industry, and outside of work he enjoys cycling and pizza making.
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On paper, the TCL Stylus 5G is an amazing value: a large 6.81-inch screen with 1080p resolution, 5G compatibility, a pure version of Android 12, and four rear cameras assisted by a 50-megapixel main camera sensor. There is also a special slot for the built-in magnetic stylus. It’s priced at $258 (about £215 or AU$385), making it a great productivity choice for budget-conscious budgeters.
But during the four months I spent testing this phone, a series of software issues made the TCL Stylus 5G a challenge to use. I had random reboots, bluetooth issues and a fatal crash that required a factory reset.
TCL has reiterated the issues I’ve had and says fixes are in the works. That’s good to know, but my hands-on time with the phone certainly confirmed what I’m willing to compromise (and not be) when buying a phone under $300.
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Overall, the phone is one of the best sub-$300 phones I’ve tested, especially with its large color screen, long battery life, and bundled productivity apps that work with the stylus. But I ran into a software problem that made it difficult — or sometimes impossible — to continue using the phone.
The Stylus 5G is hard to recommend in its current form. At just $258 for T-Mobile (or a slightly higher $270 when you get it from Metro on T-Mobile), availability is severely limited. TCL says the phone will eventually be unlocked, but first it needs to fix the performance issues.
The TCL Stylus 5G is all over the place when it comes to performance, with software issues stopping every bright spot. The MediaTek Dimensity 700 5G chip that powers the device isn’t very powerful, but it handled most of my power-hungry tasks. When I first surfed the web, I had no problems listening to music, playing games like Mario Kart Tour and making video calls, and using media apps like Instagram. But when you do these tasks for long periods of time — such as while traveling — the phone unexpectedly resets itself several times a week. At the time of publication, this issue is still not resolved even after installing the November software update.
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Fortunately, that software update fixed the Bluetooth connectivity issues I also experienced during my time with the TCL Stylus 5G. My wireless headphones were disconnected and reconnected several times before this update. This happened most often when I used Apple Music on Android, but it also affected other third-party apps. But that’s not the case when you stream music on Spotify or YouTube Music. Although there is a wired headset that can alleviate this concern, it is strange that many Bluetooth headsets have the same problem.
TCL says it’s still working on software fixes for these issues, which I experienced on two review units before the November software release. Solving the Bluetooth error makes the phone more usable, but the more serious problem is when the phone’s storage is corrupted and requires a full factory reset to start over. I’m happy to report that this didn’t happen in my second review episode.
The phone’s 5G connection was good. The model I used was locked to T-Mobile and compatible with the carrier’s “5G Ultra Capacity” network — a fancy name for millimeter wave and C-band spectrum. I was able to quickly stream video and load websites on the TCL Stylus 5G, no matter what network the phone was connected to. While I’m not happy that the Stylus 5G is currently locked to T-Mobile, it’s worth noting that even lower-end phones like these are seeing faster speeds as the carrier’s 5G network continues to improve.
The TCL Stylus 5G takes decent photos for a phone in this price range. There are four cameras: a 50-megapixel main camera, a 5-megapixel ultra-wide, a 2-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth-sensing camera.
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During my outdoor day in the Hamptons I photographed the boats and beaches and they all came out great. The cameras don’t capture much detail though.
During the Mets night game, I was able to digitally zoom in on players, but you could easily make out details on their uniforms.
As you’d expect for a phone in this price range, the darker settings were more difficult. I photographed the darkened highway and my friend’s cat, Kai. Both photos suffered from soft details and motion blur.
The 13-megapixel selfie camera offers mixed performance. When the lighting was good and the camera nailed the focus, it looked good. But most of the time selfies and video chats looked muddy and blurry.
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The video footage I recorded with the rear camera was pretty bad. I feel like just sending a quick video to a friend is fine.
These results are in line with most phones under $300, such as the OnePlus N20 5G, which also has a night mode. The Stylus 5G does not have a night mode but includes a portrait mode, which is quite rare in this price range. It was inconsistent when used. For example, during the Mets game, the camera was focused on me, but it didn’t blur some random people sitting behind me.
The 6.8-inch, 1080p screen is the Stylus 5G’s best feature, even if it looks blank at first. Most of the time the display works in SDR mode, which may be to save battery life. But TCL’s NXTVision setting switches the screen to HDR mode while you’re playing videos and games, allowing the phone to show a noticeable bump in color saturation. I especially appreciate when I play Mario Kart Tour, the addition of color helps make the racetracks pop. It’s a smart idea that I’d like to see in more phones in this price range. In a way, it is comparable to expensive phones like the iPhone 14 Pro, which can dynamically adjust their refresh rate.
The phone’s 4,000mAh battery is large, but smaller than what you’ll find on other budget phones, which typically have a 5,000mAh battery. (For example, that’s what you get for the $250 Samsung Galaxy A13 5G.) I’ve never had a problem with the Stylus 5G for a day. Most days it will run down to around 30% battery, but the phone comes with an 18W fast charger. The charging speed isn’t ridiculously fast compared to phones in this price range, but I found it capable of charging from 8% to 50% in 34 minutes. It reached 89% within 90 minutes.
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Despite the various software glitches I encountered, the Stylus 5G runs on Android 12 and has several TCL-specific features such as NXTVision and shortcuts to your latest music or podcast app when connecting headphones. After adding my T-Mobile SIM card, the phone added a large amount of carrier updates, including a dedicated T-Mobile feed (along with Google News Feed) as well as several T-Mobile apps.
The TCL Stylus 5G only gets one more Android software update and two years of security updates. That’s short in this price range, as Samsung promises four years of security updates for its cheaper A-series phones. But it’s on par with the Motorola Moto G series, which only gets one software update but three years of security updates. If you buy a Stylus 5G, you should get it.
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