TCL 50 5G

The TCL 50 5G has a conventional, non-folding form factor with no rugged certification and no water resistance rating. It measures 164.1 mm tall, 75.1 mm wide, and 8.3 mm thick, giving it a total volume of roughly 102.29 cm³. The device weighs 183.5 g, placing it in a fairly typical range for a smartphone of its screen size.

The TCL 50 5G features a 6.6″ IPS LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 720 x 1612 px and a pixel density of 267 ppi. It runs at a 90Hz refresh rate and reaches a typical brightness of 480 nits. The display does not include branded damage-resistant glass, and it lacks support for HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and Always-On Display functionality. There is no secondary screen.

The TCL 50 5G is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 700 system-on-chip, built on a 6 nm process and featuring an octa-core CPU configuration running at 2 x 2.2 GHz and 6 x 2 GHz using big.LITTLE architecture with Heterogeneous Multi-Processing. The SoC integrates an LTE modem, a Mali G57 MC2 GPU clocked at 950 MHz with DirectX 12 support, and handles graphics through its integrated graphics unit. The chip supports 64-bit processing and multithreading across 8 threads. The device comes with 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM running at 2133 MHz and 128GB of internal storage, while the maximum supported memory amount reaches 12GB.

The TCL 50 5G has a dual-lens rear camera system combining a 50MP sensor at f/2.2 and a 5MP sensor at f/1.8, both using a CMOS sensor without back-side illumination. Autofocus options include phase-detection and touch autofocus, as well as continuous autofocus during video recording, though laser autofocus is not present. Video capture tops out at 1080p at 30fps, with support for slow-motion recording but no HDR10 or Dolby Vision recording. Manual controls cover exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance, while manual shutter speed and RAW shooting are not available. Additional shooting modes include burst, panorama, timelapse, and built-in HDR, and a single LED flash is included with no dual-tone or RGB configuration. There is no optical zoom. The front camera is a single-lens 8MP unit without a front-facing flash or under-display placement, and 3D or 360-degree capture is not supported.

The TCL 50 5G runs Android 14, a free and open-source operating system that supports multi-user access, voice commands, offline voice recognition, and on-device machine learning. Privacy controls include clipboard warnings, location privacy options, camera and microphone access management, and the ability to block app tracking, though cross-site tracking blocking and Mail Privacy Protection are not available. The interface supports dark mode, dynamic and manual theme customization, widgets, customizable notifications, and an extra dim mode, while focus modes and Wi-Fi password sharing are absent. Productivity features include split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, full-page screenshots, a media picker, sharing intents, Live Text, and the ability to play games while they download. A child lock, battery health check, and phone tracking are also included, whereas app offloading, Quick Start, and the ability to function as a PC are not supported. Direct OS updates from the vendor are not provided.

The TCL 50 5G is equipped with a 5010 mAh rechargeable battery that supports 18W fast charging, giving it a reasonable top-up speed for its category. The battery is non-removable and does not support wireless charging. A battery level indicator is included, allowing users to monitor charge status at a glance.

The TCL 50 5G includes a 3.5mm headphone jack and stereo speakers, covering the basics for both wired listening and on-device audio output. On the wireless audio side, none of the advanced Bluetooth codec standards are supported, including aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, and LDAC.

The TCL 50 5G supports 5G connectivity alongside Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), and accommodates two SIM cards. Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC are both present, and the maximum download speed is listed at 3300 Mbits/s. The device uses a USB Type-C port running USB 2.0 and includes an external memory slot for storage expansion. For location and motion sensing, it features GPS with Galileo support, a compass, gyroscope, and accelerometer, though a barometer is not included. Security is handled by a fingerprint scanner; 3D facial recognition and an iris scanner are not available. ANT+, HDMI output, infrared sensor, heart rate monitor, DLNA certification, crash detection, emergency SOS via satellite, motion tracking, optical tracking, and a built-in projector are all absent, and no stylus is included.

The TCL 50 5G includes a video light for illumination during video recording. The display is flat rather than curved and uses neither sapphire glass nor an e-paper panel.