Review: TCL TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G Tablet

As someone who’s constantly on the go, I’ve been looking for a full-featured tablet that I could take with me, whether to watch TV/movies, play video games, read e-books, listen to music, or surf the web. Connectivity is also important, as Wi-Fi isn’t always readily available, like when I’m hanging out at the beach.

Enter the TCL TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G, a great new tablet from TCL that is big on features but won’t break the bank. A spacious 10.4-inch screen brings your favorite content to life, while their NXTPAPER technology provides a glare-free display, reduces blue light for eye health, all while still maintaining the integrity of the original colors. It really is something else.

When testing it out in the sun (I spend my weekends at the shore), I couldn’t believe how great it was compared to my old tablet. Thanks to the matte screen, dealing with glare was a thing of the past! In addition, the nano-etched display features adaptive brightness to adjust display brightness and color tone automatically to provide a comfortable viewing experience.

Equipped with a powerful 6000mAh battery, I was able to stream video, play games and work for pretty much a whole day without having to recharge. There’s also a built-in Battery Saver mode and TCL Smart manager to help manage power usage effectively, so you don’t get caught running out of juice. Naturally, battery life varies with use, settings and other factors. Standby time is up to 15 days, a claim I didn’t test.

With dual speakers on the TCL TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G, movies I watched and music I listened to all sounded pretty amazing. How they’re able to get such rich audio considering how slim the tablet is beyond me, but they deliver a truly dynamic audio and cinematic experience. So much so that I rarely use my headphones with it unless I’m out in public.

For those of you like me who do most of their reading on a tablet, you’re going to love the TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G’s built-in reading mode, which provides a paper-like experience that is much easier on the eyes, helping to reduce eye fatigue for longer reading sessions. In addition, you can use the paper-like display to sketch out your thoughts or naturally jot down notes with the optional TCL T-Pen stylus ($39.99).

Naturally, one of the biggest selling points for the TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G is its 5G connectivity that allows you to stay connected at all times. It’s available exclusively from Verizon, so that’s something to consider if you’re with another carrier. Thankfully, I’m already with Verizon, so adding this tablet to my plan was quick, easy and affordable. Speeds on 5G were very fast, and video streamed seamlessly. (When I was in an area that only had 4G LTE, not so much)

That said, you’re not always going to have connectivity (eg. in a plane, in a subway, on a cruise ship), so storage space for photos, movies and books is important. The TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G comes with 128GB of storage (which is more than plenty), but you can increase that up to 2TB with a MicroSD card if you want. I’ve got all of my favorite movies queued up and ready to go.

Performance of the TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G was great, the powerful 2.2GHz Octa-core processor and 6GB RAM ensuring fast performance, refresh rates and seamless multitasking. It runs on the latest Android 14, and TCL’s customized version of Android lets you keep a third floating app open in split-screen multitasking modes, which is pretty useful for productivity.

I didn’t really test out the cameras on the tablet (8MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera), because c’mon let’s be honest, who’s really taking pictures with their tablet?! That said, the 8MP front camera is perfect for impromptu video calls and such.

Overall, there’s a whole lot to like about the TCL TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G tablet. It’s powerful, lightweight and stylish for on-the-go entertainment and connectivity. The paper-like reading mode is pretty slick and really useful. And with a retail price of just $239.99 (or $6.66 a month for 36 months at 0% APR through Verizon), it’s a relative bargain.

TCL TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G Specs

What do you think of the TCL TAB 10 NXTPAPER 5G tablet?