And to achieve that snappy performance, the TCL 10 Pro doesn’t include any extraordinary hardware. The device has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor accompanied by 6GB of RAM, which is slightly better than the Google Pixel 3a XL‘s Snapdragon 670. I’m pleased to report that it works well, with the app having lots of presets for popular UK and US brands. You definitely aren't buying the TCL 10 Series phones for their cameras. If photography is your main priority (or really any priority) and you're looking to spend as little as possible, the Pixel 3a will take you far further for your money — and of course, we're also expecting its sequel, the Pixel 4a, to be announced some time soon. But the TCL 10 Pro has a far more premium design than Google's budget range, with matte glass that feels just as great as it looks, and the Smart Key is a genuinely useful and convenient feature. As the world’s second largest television manufacturer, TCL knows how to make a good display, and you can really see that here. Colors are lush, highlights pop, and shadows are rich and inky, thanks to the custom Nxtvision display engine. Next to the 5.6-inch Google Pixel 3a, which has a higher pixel density (441ppi), the 10 Pro looks more vivid (yet accurate), while the Pixel comes off as cool.

There’s an optional real-time HDR enhancement mode that will supposedly ‘upscale’ streaming SDR (standard dynamic range) video and photo content to HDR. But to be honest, we struggled to notice a huge effect, or to even find an everyday means for putting such a feature through its paces. One hour of Netflix streaming, with the brightness set to full, lost us 8%. That’s pretty similar to the Realme X2’s 7%, and significantly better than we got with the Huawei Nova 5T. However, the TCL 10 Pro does have a lovely glass and metal build, plus an excellent curved OLED screen whose appearance isn’t too far away from phones in our best phone list. The 10 Pro is a high-class, lower cost phone of the type we mostly only see from Chinese brands these days. Its exposure metering leans slightly too much towards making your images bright and vivid. As a result, there are often small areas of overexposure even after the dynamic range processing has done its thing. The TCL 10 Pro comes with a 4,500mAh battery. That's pretty large when you consider that The OnePlus 8’s is 4,300mAh and the Realme X2 Pro’s is a mere 4,000mAh. Those are two higher-end devices.

Software

Play a game such as Ark: Survival Evolved and you’ll have to drop the graphics down from the top Epic setting to Medium to make it comfortably playable.

Video capture tops out at 4K resolution, 30 frames a second. And, unusually, there are no 60fps capture modes, even at 1080p or below. I’d expect this area of TCL phones to improve if the company continues in its attempts to become a bigger player in own-brand phones. And it may even get better with software updates. Here are some comparisons, with a test scene:Still, the phone’s setup is led by a 64MP f/1.8 camera with a 1/1.7-inch sensor, and that's accompanied by a 16MP ultra-wide camera. Which isn’t too shabby at all. Indeed, the TCL 10 Pro is capable of capturing some really good, detailed shots in good lighting, and even some serviceable night time shots. This is TCL’s own display, and it’s good to see competition in any marketplace. But when flanked by the AMOLED displays of the more expensive OnePlus 8 and the cheaper Realme X2, the comparison isn’t particularly flattering. Another fresh hardware inclusion is an additional hardware button on the left hand edge, which will bring up Google Assistant. This could be handy if you don’t fancy barking ‘Hey Google’ , or don't want to accidentally wake up your Google Home. The Google Pixel 3a XL has a far better night mode than any of these phones. TCL’s 10 Pro brings up the rear, with a dim shot that features less detail than the rest, although it’s similar to the Galaxy A51, but darker. The TCL 10 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 chipset with a healthy 6GB of RAM. There’s 128GB of storage, of which 113GB is available out of the box, along with a microSD slot.

In addition to the standard array of Google Apps, you’ll also find a handful of TCL’s own productivity apps, which are fine, but unnecessary. Facebook and Netflix are also preloaded but can easily be uninstalled. The phone has a dedicated night mode, but it doesn’t come close to the Google Pixel 3a’s Night Sight offering. Night mode focuses on bringing out more shadow detail rather than using advanced computational photography techniques to improve detail and clarity. You can use it during the day, too, but this results in flat-looking images. TCL has clearly worked very hard to give the 10 Pro the basic look and feel of a flagship. It’s got the whole glass and metal sandwich thing down, just like all the top flagships.Elsewhere, the AI seemed wholly unable to balance brighter elements, such as the pure white petals of some lilies, making them look like weird garden lamps. And while the 24MP selfie camera takes reasonably crisp shots, it too seems to struggle with bright spots, like the early evening sky or the sun shining off this writer’s (admittedly pale) head. Those willing to spend a little more might also want to consider the PocoPhone F2. It comes with a Snapdragon 865, plus a far more powerful processor than either the TCL 10 Pro’s or Xiaomi Mi Note 10’s. Unlike with the Exynos-powered Galaxy A51 I recently reviewed, the TCL 10 Pro opens apps in a snap, even if they’re not already loaded into memory. It boots fast and responds instantaneously to gestures, too. With a multicore Geekbench 5 score of 1,604, the TCL 10 Pro outpaces the Galaxy A51 (1,293), Pixel 3a (1,336) and Moto G Power (1,387), indicating superior system-wide performance. But is it actually better? The TCL 10 Pro scores 1573 in Geekbench 5, compared to the Xiaomi Mi Note 10’s 1714. There’s also a little shutter lag to the TCL 10 Pro camera. It’s only around a third of a second, but this is noticeable when comparing directly to phones from some of the better-known names.