TCL 50 SE

The TCL 50 SE has a conventional, non-folding form factor with no rugged certification and no water resistance. It measures 168.2 mm tall, 75.5 mm wide, and 8.1 mm thick, with a total volume of approximately 102.86 cm³. The handset tips the scales at 195 g, placing it in a fairly typical weight range for a smartphone of its screen size.

The TCL 50 SE features a 6.78″ IPS LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 1080 x 2460 pixels and a pixel density of 396 ppi, delivering a reasonably sharp image across its large panel. The display runs at a 90Hz refresh rate and reaches a typical brightness of 550 nits. It does not include branded damage-resistant glass, an Always-On Display mode, or a secondary screen, and there is no support for HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision content.

The TCL 50 SE is powered by the MediaTek Helio G88 chipset, built on a 12 nm process with an octa-core CPU configuration of 2 x 2 GHz and 6 x 1.8 GHz cores spread across 8 threads, supported by big.LITTLE and HMP technologies for workload distribution. The SoC integrates an LTE modem, a Mali G52 MP2 GPU clocked at 850 MHz with a turbo ceiling of 1000 MHz, and supports DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2. It is paired with 6GB of DDR4 RAM running at 1800 MHz across two memory channels, offering a maximum memory bandwidth of 13.41 GB/s and a ceiling of 8GB, while 256GB of eMMC 5.1 internal storage handles on-device data. The chipset also supports 64-bit processing, ARM TrustZone security, and operates within a 5W thermal design power envelope, with Geekbench 6 scores of 425 single-core and 1355 multi-core.

The TCL 50 SE sports a dual-lens rear camera system combining a 50 MP sensor at f/1.8 with a 2 MP lens at f/2.4, both using a CMOS sensor without back-side illumination or optical image stabilization. Autofocus options include phase-detection and touch autofocus, as well as continuous autofocus during video recording, though laser autofocus is absent. The main camera records video at up to 1080p at 30 fps without HDR10 or Dolby Vision recording support, and it covers a solid range of manual controls including exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance, while manual shutter speed and RAW capture are not available. Additional shooting modes include HDR, burst, slow-motion, timelapse, panorama, and in-camera panorama creation, with no optical zoom and a single LED flash unit that is not dual-tone or RGB. On the front, an 8 MP single-lens camera sits at f/2.0 without an LED flash or under-display placement, completing a fairly conventional camera setup for this class of device.

The TCL 50 SE runs Android 14, an open-source platform that supports multi-user profiles, voice commands with offline voice recognition, on-device machine learning, and phone tracking. On the privacy front, it offers clipboard warnings, location privacy controls, camera and microphone access management, and the ability to block app tracking, though cross-site tracking blocking and Mail Privacy Protection are not included. The interface supports theme customization, dynamic theming, dark mode, and an extra dim mode, while productivity features cover split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, customizable notifications, a media picker, full-page screenshots, widgets, sharing intents, Live Text, and the ability to play games while they are still downloading. A child lock and battery health check are also present, and Wi-Fi password sharing, focus modes, app offloading, Quick Start, and the ability to function as a PC are not supported. OS updates do not come directly from the platform vendor, meaning software updates are handled through TCL rather than via a direct Android update channel.

The TCL 50 SE is equipped with a 5010 mAh non-removable rechargeable battery that supports 33W wired fast charging, and a charger is included in the box. A battery level indicator is present for convenient monitoring, while wireless charging is not supported. The battery is sealed and not user-replaceable.

The TCL 50 SE includes a 3.5 mm headphone jack and stereo speakers, covering the basics for both wired listening and built-in audio output. On the wireless audio side, none of the advanced Bluetooth codec standards are supported, meaning aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, and LDAC are all absent.

The TCL 50 SE supports dual-SIM operation with a cellular module but no 5G, capping mobile data at download speeds of 300 Mbits/s and upload speeds of 100 Mbits/s. Wireless connectivity covers Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) alongside Bluetooth 5.1 and NFC, while DLNA certification and ANT+ are not present. The device connects via a USB Type-C port running USB 2.0 and includes an external memory slot for storage expansion, but there is no HDMI output. For location, it features GPS with Galileo support and a compass, and onboard sensors include an accelerometer, though a gyroscope, barometer, infrared sensor, and heart rate monitor are all absent. Security is handled by a fingerprint scanner, with no 3D facial recognition or iris scanner on board, and features such as crash detection, emergency SOS via satellite, motion tracking, optical tracking, a built-in projector, and a stylus are not included.

The TCL 50 SE includes a video light for illumination during video recording, while its display is a standard flat panel with no curved edges, sapphire glass protection, or e-paper technology.