It has been fairly some time since we have seen a brand new show expertise that actually catches on. OLED debuted on cell units 15 years in the past with the discharge of the unique Samsung Galaxy, ultimately usurping LCD because the de facto commonplace show sort.
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Nonetheless, the tides are shifting, and clients need one thing extra user-friendly than OLED, a expertise that appears nice however causes complications and eye pressure in a notable share of individuals. Enter TCL’s NXTPAPER expertise, a customized sort of LCD that features a number of consolation layers and customized tuning, together with a matte anti-glare layer and black ranges beforehand thought unachievable for the tech.
The TCL NXTPAPER 60 Extremely is the primary smartphone geared up with the newest model of NXTPAPER, and it simply is perhaps my favourite smartphone show of all time. As somebody who commonly seeks out various forms of shows with higher consolation rankings, NXTPAPER vastly appeals to me. Now, with NXTPAPER 4.0, I am lastly seeing the fruits of TCL’s labor and might absolutely suggest it as a legit various to OLED. Listed here are all the main points.
Consolation above all
As I stated in my Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely show assessment, all fashionable flagship telephone shows look good. Any score assigned to 1 over the opposite is mostly nitpicking between traits that the typical individual merely would not see or care about.
That is why consolation is the brand new benchmark of show high quality. A excessive consolation score ensures all customers can see and revel in content material on a show, regardless of in the event that they’re taking a look at it for five minutes or 5 hours.
Within the fashionable digital age, the place a smartphone is virtually important for on a regular basis life, it is changing into more and more extra essential for corporations to make units that work for everybody, together with these of us with visible disabilities or limitations.
Reflectivity and brightness
An up-and-coming development in smartphone shows is glare discount. All NXTPAPER units characteristic a matte anti-reflective layer, however NXTPAPER 4.0 incorporates a redesigned substrate and nano-matrix lithography utility to reinforce brightness and coloration accuracy.
This up to date anti-glare layer is extremely efficient, lowering reflections a lot that the show seems virtually equivalent to full-color paper printing. It is truly wild wanting on the display all through the day and seeing such a stunning, flat-lit show that does not drive me to squint or pressure to see.
The impact is greatest in any indoor situation or when outdoors in partial shade. Inside, the anti-glare layer is ideal for lowering these annoying reflections from adjoining lights or any brightly lit object. On this setting, zero reflection of any form is seen, and it makes the telephone a pleasure to make use of versus some other show expertise I’ve used to this point.
Considered one of my favourite issues about NXTPAPER 4.0 is its skill to create an outstanding image with out following regular show expectations. Take daylight viewability, for instance. At 850 nits, you’d count on this to be tough to see within the daylight. The Pixel 10 collection hits 3300 nits to make sure it is good and vibrant, for example, however you may shortly be taught that the issue wasn’t brightness all alongside. It was glare.
Outside visibility comes with an attention-grabbing caveat, although. It is tremendous straightforward to see in direct daylight, however provided that the solar is not immediately reflecting off the matte floor. I am penning this at 3 pm, sitting in my automotive whereas I wait to choose my son up from college, and it is extremely straightforward to see. It is also wonderful for dashboard navigation. But when I have been attempting to sort this up on my again deck with the solar overhead, I might have to carry it at an angle.
That angle is the one actually bizarre factor about this show, because the matte layer will utterly occlude the show if the solar is shining straight into your imaginative and prescient. It is not an enormous deal because you solely must barely regulate the angle — you’d by no means preserve the solar immediately on some other show, both — but it surely does look totally different from a traditional reflective show. I might suggest utilizing the scheduled gentle/darkish theme choice to preserve gentle mode on through the day should you spend a number of time outdoors, as that additionally makes an enormous distinction for visibility.
Elsewhere, the brightness degree is solely good and at all times feels snug. It may well even get right down to 2 nits when further dim show is enabled, one thing that was an issue with earlier generations of NXTPAPER. I’ve at all times discovered these shows to be too vibrant to learn in mattress at night time, however the TCL NXTPAPER 60 Extremely fixes all that.
The very best half is that it achieves this with zero flicker, not like OLED. That is as a result of OLED usually has to modify to PWM dimming once you get to decrease dimming ranges, creating an uncomfortable flicker that may trigger complications and eye ache. Not one thing you need proper earlier than mattress.
This telephone is totally flicker-free and by no means makes use of PWM dimming at any time. It is true voltage-adjusted DC dimming, and it is one of many strengths of this show tech.
Eye consolation settings
NXTPAPER 4.0 incorporates a built-in blue gentle filter that performs exceptionally properly. Moreover, the telephone options two automated modes that regulate the show’s coloration temperature to match the time of day or routinely primarily based on ambient gentle temperature. You may allow each modes on the identical time, should you like.
For the reason that display would not use PWM dimming, there is not any have to have any form of flicker discount choice. By default, nevertheless, the telephone makes use of temporal dithering to regulate show colours and to create extra correct gray colours. Turning off all three choices below NXTVISION show settings reduces the quantity of dithering system-wide.
Sticking to regular and black & white ink modes ensures the least quantity of dithering, and utilizing sRGB or Pure coloration house choices appears to disable dithering fully when NXTVISION is disabled. The telephone’s Colour Paper show mode appears to dither it doesn’t matter what choices are chosen.
TCL incorporates a notable variety of further eye care options discovered below the NXTPAPER zone menu. An automatic alert could be enabled that may let you know to take a break after a set quantity of display time that can assist you stave off digital dependancy.
Various posture alerts may aid you right issues with regular gadget use. Staring on the display too intently can generate a posture alert, and the identical will occur should you lie down and browse with the telephone for too lengthy.
You can even allow alerts for once you’re utilizing the telephone in an setting that is too shaky — on a prepare or someplace else that might trigger eye-strain whereas studying — or once you’re in environments which can be too vibrant or too darkish to take a look at the display for a very long time. All of those choices could be enabled should you like, and are disabled by default.
Colours and ink modes
Some of the distinctive elements of NXTPAPER expertise is the power to modify between full coloration, “coloration paper,” and black & white “ink” modes with the change on the appropriate facet of the telephone. Switching takes a number of seconds and is accompanied by a wonderful animation to point out the progress.
NXTPAPER units have at all times had these three choices, so that they’re no totally different visually from these. Regular mode is what you count on: a full-color expertise that appears like a contemporary smartphone show. Colour Paper makes all of the whites a heat, off-white coloration and modifications most colours to pastel. Ink Paper makes the whole lot black and white.
A fourth mode, Max Ink mode, makes use of the black & white visible look of Ink Paper mode however closes all apps apart from those you whitelist. The concept right here is to not solely save battery life but additionally to behave as a “digital detox” mode for once you want downtime or wish to be much less distracted.
As with the “studying modes” or “e-book modes” on some telephones, these modes simply alter the colour of the show. They do not regulate the backlight itself or change the character of the show itself, so they are not fairly the identical as utilizing an E Ink telephone for eye care.
Movement, decision, viewing angles
The TCL NXTPAPER 60 Extremely’s show routinely swaps between 120Hz and 60Hz, however you’ll be able to choose to maintain it at 60Hz for battery or eye consolation causes. At 7.2 inches, this large show seems a bit smooth with 2340 x 1080 decision.
I do not assume the show seems historically low-resolution, which usually infers that you may see the person pixels or that edges of icons and textual content have a stair-stepping sample to them. All the pieces right here is clear and clear, it is simply softer than you would possibly count on due to the extra gentle scattering and matte filters above the panel.
Lastly, we’ll check out among the historically weakest factors of LCDs: movement blur, viewing angles, and black ranges. Viewing angles and black ranges are downright spectacular and are the most effective I’ve ever seen on an IPS-based show. More often than not, I can not inform the distinction between the black ranges on this show and an OLED, though OLED continues to have higher total distinction.
When utilizing the telephone to scroll in darkish mode or in low gentle, you may be arduous pressed to inform the distinction between it and a high-quality OLED panel. Most OLEDs are inclined to “bleed purple” once you slowly scroll in low gentle or in darkish mode, and that impact is equal to the slight movement blur you may see from the slower-refreshing pixels of NXTPAPER’s IPS base.
That distinction turns into extra readily obvious when utilizing gentle mode or when the backlight is turned up brighter, particularly when scrolling with black textual content on a light-weight background. This impact is much less obvious in movies or whereas gaming.
Briefly, movement decision is worse than OLED however higher than a standard IPS show. I can simply learn phrases as I scroll, even when I flick the display shortly, so I might nonetheless price this as “good” even when it isn’t the most effective.
Verdict
The TCL NXTPAPER 60 Extremely has one of the crucial unbelievable shows I’ve ever used on a smartphone. It is absolutely flicker-free and gives reduction for each folks delicate to PWM dimming and dithering, one thing that is merely unprecedented in 2025 when telephones both use some type of dithering or PWM-style dimming, which each introduce flicker to the expertise.
NXTPAPER 4.0 additionally breaks from expectations of LCDs, providing excellent black ranges and viewing angles, wonderful coloration replica, and tons of eye care modes. Outside visibility continues to be the weakest level of the expertise, however it’s considerably higher than any earlier NXTPAPER show by a large margin. It is not arduous to see in daylight, but it surely’s not as straightforward as E Ink or some OLED shows.
The general look of the show is extremely charming because of a mixture of a number of bespoke visible filters and a matte floor, giving it a singular appear and feel. Readability is significantly better on this show than most, and I discovered myself entranced by the show over the previous week. It is attractive to take a look at, and ushers in a brand new period for IPS shows and TCL as a brand new high quality contender.
With eye consolation at its core, the TCL NXTPAPER 60 Extremely is the only option for anybody involved about eye well being with out sacrificing visible high quality. It is a paperlike show with energetic stylus assist, so you’ll be able to take notes and browse books in consolation whereas nonetheless having fun with all the conventional smartphone belongings you want.
