TCL's newest tablet gets 5G speeds at half the price of an iPad Pro

(Image credit: TCL)

TCL has released plenty of affordable tablets, but its latest slate, the TCL Chit Pro 5G, may be ace of the cheapest 5G-on Android tablets in the US with its $399 (roughly £290 / AU$530), though IT's only sold through Verizon.

On paper, the TCL TAB Affirmative 5G looks decent for its price, protrusive with a 10.3-inch Gas-filled HD Plus (2000 x 1200) display that comes with the brand's NXTVISION color technical school, SDR-to-HDR lineament that auto-upscales cognitive content to HDR tone, and individual eye protection modes (Reading, Comfort, and Dark).

It doesn't make a 3.5mm headphone jack, though (a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter comes in the boxful).

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The tablet packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage (expandable up to 1TB via microSD), and runs Android 11 out of the box – specs in line with a middle-range phone around this price point.

Its 13MP rear camera and 8MP frontal-veneer shooter seem standard for tablets at this tier, and can both dissipate 1080p video at 30fps, which is finely for casual video chatting.

The TCL Tabloid Professional 5G has an 8,000mAh battery, which TCL claims lasts for 17 hours of 'mixed use of goods and services,' presumptively casual browsing and media watching, though its recharging time of Little Jo hours feels extensively long. On the advantageous pull, information technology has reverse radio charging, meaning it can charge upfield other devices.

Analysis: Who needs a 5G tablet?

5G-up to tablets have started sprouting up, offer the advantages of LTE connectivity for information on the rifle only at potentially wildly fast speeds (depending happening 5G coverage, of course). Just most of the 5G-equal to tablets we've seen have hefty pricetags: the cheapest 5G Apple tablet, the new iPad mini 2021, is priced at $649 / £619 / AU$979 for the 64GB of storage model, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab key S7 FE's 5G variance is priced at $669 (£629, about AU$1,180).

Thus, the TCL TAB Pro 5G gives more inexpensive access to the high-speed 5G speeds while KO'd and about. TCL's slate may not have comparable specs compared to Apple and Samsung's tip-tier tablets, simply the Tablet Pro 5G is accessible to consumers who don't need to do full graphical lifting but want something with fast data access.

As a Verizon exclusive, the TCL TAB Pro 5G will evidently ingathering to folk World Health Organization May already have one of the carrier's Unlimited 5G data plans (or is willing to sign up for one), and the tablet connects to Verizon's sub-6 and mmWave networks (n2/5/66 and n260/n261, respectively).

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David is now a mobile reporter at Cnet. Erst Manoeuvrable Editor, US for TechRadar, he covered phones, tablets, and wearables. He noneffervescent thinks the iPhone 4 is the record-breaking-looking smartphone ever made.