I’m confused by this phone. It is opening my eyes to how walled off the Apple system is, to what Android can do and how a phone can do most things without feeling like a computer at all.

I really do like using this phone for WhatsApp, reading, checking Reddit, browsing and even composing because the keyboard works better than the iOS equivalent. I did not expect to write the last part, but the latest iOS has screwed the keyboard for me after so many years of peerless performance.

There is no doubt in my mind that this mid-range specced phone would serve me fine in day to day use and potentially with more flexibility in some areas that my iPhone.

I have two concerns, however, that may stop me from keeping it and I will cover the third concern in part 3.

Security is an issue for me and always has been, but just maybe I am worrying too much. Google knows everything about me, I use gmail and Google search anyway, and in the past I didn’t check the permissions of apps before installing them, which is something I am very particular about now.

I have always been of the view that Apple does not use my data for profit, but this is going to have to change in the future because the company needs help with AI. I am also pretty sure that the adverts I often see could only have come from requests to Siri or conversations with my wife where my phone has merely been in the same room.

The worry in my mind comes from the manufacturers of these devices and the fact that the privacy statements can be vague at times. I went through this with Boox, a company whose products I will never touch again because they are more than a little aloof at answering privacy related questions. I know little of TCL apart from the Chinese heritage and the fact it makes a huge variety of devices from washing machines to televisions. It is a bias, but I don’t feel comfortable. Then again, should I feel more reassured by Apple? I really don’t know.

My seconds concern is the screen. There are no reflections, it works very well indeed and feels sublime to touch and presumably to write on with the stylus you can buy separately. However, there is a problem with brightness and more especially the auto-dimming which is way off in my experience.

It hits you in the eyes immediately in a dim environment and is jarring. Add to this that manually adjusting the brightness is tricky because the very low settings are still bright to my eyes and the adjustment intervals are too small to get accurate.

Also, I’m not convinced at all by the claims of how good this phone is for your eyes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the lack of flicker and other tech does genuinely help, but the feel of the screen feels too much like a normal phone screen to me. If you imagine a Kindle e-ink reader is 100% on the scale of eye comfort and an iPhone is 0%, I would put this phone at 20%- it’s not far off a normal phone.

Put simply, I am not seeing the health benefit I need from this phone despite the claims and so it’s hard to put it above an iPhone. I will explain the killer blow in part 3.

Categories: Android, Product Reviews