TCL is a household name for TVs, a top seller on the market and quite the innovator in the display area. Although they do sell Alcaltel phones, they’ve kept their name off the mobile charts… until IFA 2019. This fall, the company launched TCL Plex, their very first TCL-branded smartphone and we got the chance to test it in Berlin.
Most of the features of TCL Plex are pretty standard for a premium phone, with just one truly surprising us: low light filming.
As TCL said in its own conference, the challenge right now for mobile manufacturers is to achieve decent videos in low-light since photos are easier to obtain in dark environments at least with premium phones.
Therefore, TCL really worked on the Plex so you can get a video of your experiences after sunset where faces, details and colors pop out in the dark.
For that, they used a combination of “an industry-leading 2.9μm big pixel low-light sensor” and algorithms that help it reduce noise. The Super Night Mode for darker environments was their booth highlight and we couldn’t resist doing a comparison with iPhone XS.
The results were extremely impressive – just check our video above!
Before drawing your own conclusions, remember that we tested a product that in no way markets itself as an iPhone rival. TCL’s goal is only to bring premium features to a mid-range device, as the TCL Plex sells for – wait for it – 329 euros! This was definitely the best phone we tested for low light filming at that price during IFA 2019.
Besides the camera capabilities – 48MP triple camera with night mode, 960fps slow motion -, you can count on a next-gen display. Display wizard, TCL has gone the extra mile a dedicated display engine that does real time optimization. This should help you to “not see the difference between the real color and the on the display” through 6-axis color enhancement and 2D edge enhancement to increase contrast.
The phone is also able to do SDR to HDR real-time conversion, all in an effort for users to have the best viewing experience.
Take a look at our hands-on above and for more specs go here:
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