TCL is mainly known for its TVs, which deliver excellent bang for the buck, but it also has an interesting line of Nxtpaper tablets with matte displays that can mimic color and monochrome E Ink e-readers fairly convincingly.
The 1.08-pound Nxtpaper 11 Plus has an 11.5-inch, 120Hz display with Nxtpaper 4.0 display technology. You can get the 256GB tablet with a T-stylus for $240, or $130 off the bundle's list price of $370, as part of Amazon's Cyber Monday sale. That's $10 cheaper than it was earlier this week. (It's also available at Walmart for $224 without a stylus or case.)
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I've been playing around with the Nxtpaper 11 Plus for a few weeks and have been generally impressed with it, though my review sample didn't come with a case, which would have been helpful. Also, the tablet is powered by a midrange MediaTek Helio G100 processor, so it's noticeably not as zippy as a high-end tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 (now $650 or $150 off for Black Friday), which I reviewed back in October.
The bundle includes a stylus and a case.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Nxtpaper 11 Plus' display, which has a 2,200x1,440-pixel resolution at 229 pixels per inch. It's not super sharp or super bright, but the colors seemed accurate, and it has something that TCL calls "3-in-1 VersaView Modes."
Yes, the key selling point of the Nxtpaper 11 Plus compared to other Android tablets is the ability to switch between three display modes. Regular mode is the brightest and makes the tablet resemble a typical tablet with an LCD screen, although it isn't the brightest due to the matte layer on the screen.
Ink Paper mode turns the screen into a Kindle-like monochrome E Ink display "for extended reading sessions and note-taking." And Color Paper mode mutes the screen to mimic color E Ink tablets like the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and ReMarkable Paper Pro, offering "soft, low-saturation colors ideal for reading comics or magazines." Both Paper modes are designed to reduce eye strain, and there's also some blue-light filtering (the Paper modes are not E Ink technology). Note that those large color E Ink models cost over $600.
There are three display mode options. A dedicated button on the side of the tablet allows you to toggle between them.
To be clear, this is not the fastest tablet available, nor does it have the best cameras (just 8-megapixel front and rear). However, it's fine for everyday tasks like watching videos, web browsing and Zoom calls. While you can play games on it, it has its graphics limitations and is not a tablet I'd recommend to serious gamers.
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Where it does excel is for reading indoors, and it's a budget-friendly tablet for taking notes and drawing. I should point out that while the matte screen does help reduce glare in brightly lit environments, unlike E Ink e-readers, the display still has trouble with direct sunlight. In other words, don't expect to take this tablet to the beach and have the same glare-free, non-washed-out viewing experience that you get with an E Ink e-reader in direct sunlight. But there's still a lot to like about it for the price.
