TCL has announced three new affordable tablets at CES 2022 this year. The most intriguing of the trio is the NXTPAPER 10s, followed by the more basic and fairly standard Tab 8 4G and Tab 10L. The 10s is part of the NXTPAPER series, a slowly growing set of tablets with a paper-like notebook display that’s meant to be easy on the eyes and is aimed at those in an educational or work setting. This is a growing category, with devices like the Kobo Elipsa, Sage, and Remarkable 2 all entering the market as combination notebook tablets and e-readers.
Here’s everything you need to know about the new slates.
NXTPAPER 10s
Sporting a 10.1-inch screen with a 1200 x 1920 resolution, the NXTPAPER has a paper-like display and built-in blue light reduction to help with reading and eye comfort. Like its predecessor, it will support color, unlike other e-ink tablets. The tablet weighs about 490 grams and runs on Android 11. There’s no word currently if it will get an Android 12 update, but we’d expect it to get one eventually. It will come with its own passive pen for notetaking or writing.
Internally, the NXTPAPER has a MT8768E 2.0 GHz chipset with 4GB RAM. The 64GB of storage will be expandable with a microSD card for up to 256GB. Its battery is 8,000mAh with 9V2A charging via its USB-C port. The rear camera will be eight megapixels, while the front-facing camera will be a basic 5MP. Both of them will record in 1080 pixels at 30 frames per second (fps).
For connectivity, you’ll be able to get a NXTPAPER that can either use a mobile network connection and Wi-Fi, or a model that can use Wi-Fi only. Both will support use 5.0 Bluetooth.
The tablet will be sold for $249 when it releases sometime later in January 2022. When it does come out, it will first be available in China and Europe, with no mention of any other countries yet.
Tab 8 4G
The Tab 8 is a standard Android slate with an 8-inch display with a resolution of 800 x 1280 pixels. The tablet weighs 295 grams, and comes in at a fairly affordable price point given its specs.
Though it does run on a 2.0 GHz quadcore MT8766B processor, it only has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It can be expanded up to 256GB with a microSD card. And the 4,080mAh battery uses a USB-C charger standard wired charging without any frills. Like most budget tablets, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you won’t have to fumble around with any dongles.
Both the front and back cameras of the Tab 8 are 5MP, and will record in 1080p at 30 fps. The Tab 8 supports 4G network connectivity and has a Wi-Fi-only version. which has a 2MP front-facing camera instead of the 5MP camera of the 4G version, a rather odd disparity.
The Tab 8 is expected to release in the first quarter of 2022, and it will be available for $129 in Europe. The only available color for the Tab 8 will be Prime Black.
Tab 10L
The Tab 10L is an even more basic and cheap tablet. As expected, it has a 10.1-inch display with a 800 x 1280 resolution and weighs 426 grams.
The 1.3 GHz quadcore MTK8167B processor is fairly weak, but it’ll handle the average user fine. It comes with 2GB RAM and 32GB storage — with the latter expandable up to 128GB with a microSD card. Like the Tab 8, the Tab 10L will have a 4,080mAh battery with a USB-C port. The Tab 10L will only have one 2MP camera on the front and one on the back.
Unlike the other tablets in TCL’s lineup, the Tab 10L is only available with Wi-Fi connectivity. It also only supports 4.2 Bluetooth, but it will come with a built-in 3.5mm headphone jack.
The key selling point here is the incredibly low $99 price the Tab 10L will launch at when it releases in the first quarter of 2022. Naturally, there are definitely better tablets out there, but the price point makes it more competitive than the $150 Amazon Fire HD 10, which has generally been a tough spot for Android manufacturers to compete in. Unfortunately, for those interested in the Tab 10L, expect another European release like the Tab 8, with no mention on when it might hit other countries. And again, like the Tab 8, it will only come in the Prime Black color option.