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

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• TCL has unveiled a Nxtpaper AMOLED concept phone.
• It promotes more vivid imagery while retaining its eye-comfort elements.
• Key upgrades include a higher polarization rate and reduced blue light.

TCL's Nxtpaper line of phones and tablets has always been a ‘comfort pick' for me, as their displays are treated to effectively promote eye care and digital well-being. That's why the company's latest upgrade left me flailing my arms around upon discovery.

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By building Nxtpaper over AMOLED, TCL says its phones can now achieve more vivid visuals while retaining 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 myself.

Since the beginning, TCL Nxtpaper has been rooted in LCD panels, partly for the ease of light management (to create that natural e-paper appearance) and cost. The downside of LCD backlighting, however, is reduced contrast and color accuracy. That's where AMOLED comes in. 

With a paper-like image sample set, the AMOLED unit and an LCD one (albeit an older TCL model), the former was noticeably more color accurate, portraying the brownish tones no matter if it was dimmer or brighter. In fact, the brightness of the AMOLED unit was just a little past the 50% mark when it matched the LCD one's max. That's another big draw of the panel upgrade.

TCL notes that the new phone can reach a peak brightness of 3,200 nits under outdoor sunlight. That's comparable to today's flagship phones, but hopefully not a sign of where a device like this would be priced.

To my surprise, there's still a matte texture on the glass panel that TCL tells me qualifies this as the first anti-glare AMOLED phone. I've seen variations of the anti-glare treatment on phones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but they are glossy by nature, which makes them more susceptible to fingerprint smudges and oil marks.

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

Being a Nxtpaper phone, TCL is touting the device for its improved polarization rate, or the efficiency of its light emissions, with a 43% improvement over preceding models. Blue light reduction has also dropped to as low as 2.9%, so less of it strains your eyes, especially at night.

While what TCL showed me was a mere concept phone — some functions, like the Nxtpaper Key, weren't working during the demo — the company tells me it's confident the technology will eventually reach the market. Here's to hoping, as this is the kind of thoughtful innovation we didn't know we needed.