TCL 30 5G phone review

We’re calling it – this is one of the best value-for-money phones you can get. The new $599 TCL 30 5G shows you don’t need to spend $2000 for fast 5G – and it even comes with a bundled set of wireless, noise-cancelling earphones worth $249. DAVE BULLARD takes it for a test.

---

It can be hard to differentiate between smartphones these days because, on the face of it, they’re all really just big rectangular screens that do the same things. So it comes down to how well they do what they’re supposed to do and whether they give you bang for your buck – which is something the TCL 30 5G certainly does.

Design-wise, it’s a sleek, good-looking Android phone with a 6.7-inch screen surrounded by a thin bezel. The sides – just 7.7mm thick – curve in to a square metal band that houses a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB-C connector and volume and power buttons. The latter doubles as a fingerprint sensor.

My review model had the Tech Black colour scheme, with a black polycarbonate back and a side band that I’d describe as gunmetal – dark grey with a touch of blue. The phone also comes in Dreamy Blue. As with other TCL phones we’ve received, this one also comes with a clear case.

Overall, the TCL 30 5G is on the bigger size of current phone design, measuring 165mm high and 75mm wide. It’s similar in size to an iPhone 14 Plus/Pro Max or a Samsung Galaxy S22+.

On the back is a vertical rectangle holding an array of three cameras – a 50-megapixel main camera, a 2-megapixel depth camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. A notch in the top of the front screen houses a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera.

Simple setup

The setup of the 30 5G is simple and easy to follow. It takes you step-by-step through a wide range of tasks – such as Wi-Fi connection and face recognition and fingerprint registration for security – you’d otherwise have to find in the Settings app. Much easier this way. If you don’t have the time or the details to get it all done at first, the phone will prompt you to finish at a later stage.

One of the many features on the setup to-do list is NXTVISION – TCL’s proprietary Intelligent Display engine. It makes your screen brighter, richer, clearer and more colour-accurate by adjusting on the fly to suit the content on the screen.

At this stage, you have the option to turn image and video enhancement on or off, but you can go into the Settings app and fine-tune it at a later stage. I left everything on because I prefer a lighter, brighter and more saturated image. (Fun fact: An executive from the German-made TV brand Loewe once told me that Europeans like more muted images while Asians prefer things dialled up to the max, and the makers adjust their factory settings accordingly.)

Screen and camera

The screen on the TCL 30 5G is one of the best – big, bright and beautiful. The touchscreen is very responsive and responds to the lightest touch, with a pleasing haptic feedback (that physical sensation you feel when you touch it).

I’m a massive fan of NXTVISION, which, combined with the AMOLED 60Hz Display with 1080×2400-pixel FHD+ resolution, gives this phone one of the best pictures I’ve seen.

Watching movies on the TCL 30 5G, in particular, is an absolute pleasure.

The photo quality is very good overall, being sharp with vibrant colours. While the highlights in photos tend to blow out a bit – that is, you lose some detail in the bright areas – the phone’s low-light performance is very good indeed.

TCL 30 5G performance

Do you need high-speed 5G? It’s definitely worth it, with the main benefits to the average consumer being upload and download speeds that are at least about 10 times faster than 4G (meaning better gaming, streaming, et al), plus better reliability and a more uniform service due to massive network capacity.

The TCL 30 5G (which is the T776H model) uses the n1/3/5/7/8/20/28/40/41/78 5G bands, which assures 5G coverage on all Australian networks. The most widely used band by Aussie telcos is 3500MHz (n78).

Speed tests on the 30 5G returned consistently good results, peaking at 566Mbps download and 120Mbps upload speeds. As a comparison, we had an iPhone 12 running 4G at hand during this review, and it returned speeds of 53.7Mbps download and 8.61Mbps upload.

Bundled TCL MOVEAUDIO S600 earphones

“Smooth” is probably the best way to describe the sound from the TCL MOVEAUDIO S600 wireless active noise-cancelling earphones which are bundled with the 30 5G. They have great detail, with a wide sonic range and a decent amount of bass, though, like other TCL earphones we’ve tried, they lack a bit of detail in the treble. The volume level is very good, if you like things loud.

They work with Google Assistant for media playback and phone calls, and automatically start and stop playing your audio when you put them on and take them off.

You can find the earphones by using the phone to ring the left or right earpieces or by seeing the last known location where they were connected to your phone (via Google Find My Device). They come in a small, kind-of-egg-shaped carrying and charging case and have a specified battery life of 32 hours.

The bottom line

The TCL 30 5G is a rare beast. It’s an excellent 5G phone that should sell for at least double its $599 price. When you add the fact that it comes with a set of $249 TCL MOVEAUDIO S600 and a clear silicone case, there’s a compelling case for putting it at the top of your wishlist.

TCL 30 5G phone price

RRP $599

Available from JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks, Target, Southern Phone, Amazon and Dick Smith Online

www.tcl.com