TCL NXTPAPER 10s review: Master of none

The key selling point of the TCL NXTPAPER 10s is its paper-like (TCL’s words) display that imitates the look and feel of an ereader, in a more complete tablet experience. It’s an interesting idea– combining two devices into one– but the result is a product that suffers for its efforts to be too much.

The NXTPAPER 10s is a nice-looking mid-range tablet. It's slim, reasonably lightweight and comes in a matte white or fun Teal finish. But its design betrays its loftier ambitions. For one, the camera bump on the rear gives it a noticeable wobble when laid flat, which makes using the included stylus a little frustrating when sitting at a workstation.

Ereaders for the most part remain scant on features for two reasons: maintaining long-lasting battery life and keeping the device as light as possible. The TCL NXTPAPER 10s admirably tries to pack in all the features of a modern tablet but all that tech ends up weighing a bit too much. The size and weight of the NXTPAPER 10s might be typical for a tablet at this price range, but as an ereader, it’s just too hefty and precious; a one-handed reading session always feels like a dance with the display’s integrity.

Then there’s the “paper-like” display (essentially a grainy matte finish). It plays the part well and feels nice to draw on with the stylus but the graininess ultimately dulls the 10.1-inch IPS display. The matte coating also doubles as an anti-glare, anti-blue light solution and while it claims it achieves this without sacrificing colour reproduction, there is unquestionably a degree of fidelity that’s lost.

Consider the tablet competition for a second. For around the same price, you can pick up a 2021 iPad or a Galaxy Tab S8. The 9th Gen iPad will get you a gorgeous 10.2-inch LCD Retina Display and an A13 Bionic Chip, whereas Samsung will give you 4G connectivity and a bigger (better) 10.5-inch display for about $50 more.

And if you like the feel of the paper-like display, you can easily find a screen protector on Amazon that will deliver the same experience without impacting the screen’s image quality.

At $499, you can’t expect the world from the NXTPAPER 10s MediaTek Helio P23 processor. Still, it’s impossible to avoid comparisons to the aforementioned 9th Gen iPad, which gets you a formidable A13 Bionic Chip for around the same price. There’s a bit of hang when switching between apps and games such as Marvel Snap struggle to maintain a steady frame rate. In all fairness, Marvel Snap is surprisingly resource intensive for a digital card game, but if the NXTPAPER 10s struggles to run it, you can imagine more demanding multiplayer shooters will suffer too.

The NXTPAPER 10s’ 8,000mAh battery is no slouch for a tablet of this price and calibre and in our experience, it easily delivers on its promise of 10-hour battery life. This is about the same as you’d get out of the 9th gen iPad and even a little more promising than the Galaxy Tab A8, which only manages around eight to nine hours of battery.

Once again, though, we’re compelled to point out that 10 hours of battery life is peanuts in the world of ereaders. Some of the best ereaders can last as long as 10 weeks on a single charge. That’s a huge selling point for ereaders in general.