TCL has taken its NxtPaper display technology to OLED for the first time with the new P80 Ultra, bringing the company’s paper-like screen technology to a 6.83-inch AMOLED panel.
The P80 Ultra is the flagship of TCL’s new P80 range, while the P80 Pro offers much of the same hardware for less. There’s also a standard P80, which keeps the AMOLED panel but drops the NxtPaper technology to bring the price down further.
Previous NxtPaper phones used LCD panels, but TCL says the new P80 Ultra’s 1.5K AMOLED display can reach 3,200 nits peak brightness, supports a 120Hz refresh rate and covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space.
TCL has also made several changes to make the screen easier on the eyes. It uses circular rather than linear polarisation, which the company says should also avoid the compatibility problems some displays have with polarised sunglasses. A homogenising film mixes the red, green and blue sub-pixels to create white light, while TCL claims blue light has been reduced to 2.9% without affecting image quality.
The company also says its Nano Crystal Shield Glass provides its best anti-glare solution yet.
The P80 Ultra is powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 7400 Elite, paired with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. There’s also a 5,800mAh battery with 45W wired charging.
Camera hardware is another area where the Ultra pulls ahead. It gets a 50MP main camera with OIS, a 50MP 3x periscope camera with OIS and an 8MP ultra-wide, alongside a 32MP selfie camera.
Like other NxtPaper phones, the P80 Ultra has a dedicated NxtPaper slider that can activate different reading modes, including Max Ink. This mode limits notifications and puts background apps to sleep, with TCL claiming up to seven days of battery life for immersive reading. The phone also comes with more than 500 books pre-loaded.
TCL has added AI-powered Reading too, which can convert ebooks into spoken audio and even make them feel more like podcasts.
The P80 Pro keeps the same 6.83-inch NxtPaper AMOLED display, Dimensity 7400 Elite chipset, 8GB RAM, storage options and 5,800mAh battery, but drops the periscope camera. Its setup consists of a 50MP main camera with OIS and an 8MP ultra-wide.
The standard P80 goes further in cutting costs by removing NxtPaper altogether. It retains the 6.83-inch 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED display and 3,200-nit peak brightness, but starts with 128GB of storage and tops out at 256GB.
The P80 Ultra starts at €550 for 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The P80 Pro is more than €100 cheaper while retaining the same NxtPaper AMOLED display, while the standard P80 is cheaper still.
