TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro Review

TCL announced the NXTPAPER 70 Pro in January 2026, sold it in Europe from February at €299, showed it at MWC, and brought it to the US in April at $199.99 through T-Mobile and Metro. The display is the reason it exists: a 6.9-inch 1080 x 2340 IPS LCD at 120Hz behind TCL's fourth-generation NXTPAPER matte layer, which kills reflections, cuts blue light and makes text look printed.

A physical NXTPAPER key on the side cycles between a color paper mode, a grayscale ink mode and a Max Ink mode that shuts down everything but reading and, by TCL's claim, lasts a week. It takes TCL's T-Pen stylus, sold separately, on a surface that scratches like paper. The rest is a normal budget phone: a MediaTek Dimensity 7300, 8GB of RAM with 256GB and a microSD slot, a 5200 mAh battery on slow 33W charging, USB 2.0, a 50MP main camera with an 8MP ultrawide, and a 32MP selfie camera.

IP68 sealing at this price is unusual. The panel is dimmer outdoors than any OLED and the contrast is LCD contrast, which is the price of the matte finish. Android 16 ships clean, but TCL has published no long support window and its earlier phones got one or two versions. As an e-reader that makes calls, it has no rival at $199.