Hands On With the Affordable TCL Stylus 5G
Samsung's S Pen gets a lot of the press, but Americans of all income levels love scribbling on their phones. Today TCL launched the third stylus-style phone on the market, after options from Samsung and Motorola, and this one is the most affordable yet.
The TCL Stylus 5G is a good-looking budget phone with a magnetic stylus that pops right into a slot in the bottom corner. It's on sale today at T-Mobile and MetroPCS.
Basic specs: The phone has a 6.81-inch, 2,460-by-1,080 LCD screen. It has a MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4,000mAh battery with 18W wired charging. There are four main cameras (a 50MP main, 5MP wide, 2MP depth, and 2MP macro) and a 13MP front-facing camera; all record 1080p video. The phone is (for now) designed for T-Mobile's low- and mid-band 5G networks, and it has C-band as well.
The Stylus 5G, like the Moto G Stylus 5G, capitalizes on LG's departure from the US phone market. For years, LG's Stylo line was a best-seller at prepaid carriers like Boost and Metro. LG noped out last year, leaving a gap.
And the TCL Stylus, at $269-ish, undercuts the 2022 Moto G Stylus 5G, which is $299.99 at T-Mobile and it hasn't popped up yet at Metro, but costs a shocking $499.99 up front for the unlocked version.
I got to play with the Stylus 5G a bit. I really like TCL's new flat-back designs, which you also see on its 30 series phones. They're simple and elegant. The matte back has some shimmer to it and is terrific at rejecting fingerprints; I got more fingerprints on the table than on the phone.
Lovers of older hardware features will be overjoyed. There's a physical fingerprint sensor built into the home button on the side, a MicroSD card slot in with the SIM card, and a
Read more on pcmag.com
