TCL is adding the 20 Pro 5G, 20L+, and 20L to its young, midrange-focused smartphone business.
All three devices were announced at its mobile launch event on April 14 and feature a 6.67-inch display, but the 20 Pro 5G, the best of the three, sports a curved AMOLED display instead of the flat LCD displays found on its two siblings. The 20 Pro’s display can hit a peak brightness of 700 nits while the other two are rated for 500 nits.
| Device | 20 Pro 5G | 20L+ (20S in Northh) | 20L |
| Display | 6.67-inch, 1080x2400p, AMOLED | 6.67-inch, 1080x2400p, IPS LCD | 6.67-inch, 1080x2400p, IPS LCD |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G | Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 |
| RAM | 6GB | Â 6GB | 4GB/6GB |
| Storage | 256GB | 256GB | 128GB |
| Battery | 4,500 mAh | 5,000 mAh | 5,000 mAh |
| Camera | Main: 48MP, OIS, f/ 1.79
Ultra-wide: 16MP, f/ 2.2 Macro: 5MP, f/ 2.4 ToF |
Main: 64MP, OIS, f/ 1.79
Ultra-wide: 8MP, f/ 2.2 Macro: 2MP, f/ 2.4 ToF |
Main: 48MP, OIS, f/ 1.79
Ultra-wide: 8MP, f/ 2.2 Macro: 2MP, f/ 2.4 ToF |
| Colors | Marine Blue, Moondust Gray | Milky Way Grey, North Star Blue | Luna Blue, Ellipse Black |
| Price | €549 (~CA$822) | €269 (~CA$395) | €229 (~CA$337) |
All three devices have four cameras as well, each equipped with a main, wide-angle, macro, and a time-of-flight (ToF) camera. While both the 20 Pro and the 20L use a 48MP main sensor, 20 Pro uses a 6P lens, a wider aperture, and features optical image stabilization.
The 20L+ uses a higher resolution 64MP camera. It’s not clear why TCL didn’t install the higher resolution sensor on the higher-end device.
The 20 Pro also boasts a higher resolution 16MP ultra-wide and 5MP macro camera whereas the other two devices use an 8MP and 2MP camera respectively.
Being the best of the three, the 20 Pro uses the midrange Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G system-on-chip (SoC). The other two devices use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC. Additionally, the Qualcomm Snapdragon is the only SoC that supports 5G, making the 20 Pro the baseline for customers who crave 5G speeds.
The 20 Pro and 20L+ carries 6GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS storage. Conversely, TCL offers the 20L with 4GB or 6GB of RAM, with both flavours supporting 128GB of storage. Note that the 4GB variant uses the slower eMMC storage standard and not UFS, meaning that there could be a significant difference in its boot and app load time compared to the other model.
In terms of battery life, both the 20L+ and 20L get a 5,000 mAh battery whereas the 20 Pro 5G settles for a 4,500 mAh unit. All three devices charge through USB-C and support Qualcomm’s 18W QuickCharge 3.0 standard. The 20 Pro gets the added perk of being able to charge wirelessly at 15W.
TCL says all of its 20 series smartphones have been verified by Google as Android Enterprise Recommended devices.
The TCL 20 Pro 5G, TCL 20L+, and the TCL 20L are available in the UK, Italy, and Portugal for €549 (~CA$822), €269 (~CA$395), and €229 (~CA$342) respectively. Availability for North America will be announced soon. TCL also revealed that North America will get a 20S variant based on the 20L+.
All three phones retain the 3.5mm audio jack. Long live wired earphones.
Update on May 6, 2021 at 12:48 pm: Corrected the pricing, macro camera and wide-angle camera values for the 20L+ and 20L in the specs chart. The author regrets the errors.
