TCL 50 XL 5G

The TCL 50 XL 5G has a standard flat, non-folding design with a height of 167.6 mm and a width of 75.5 mm, making it a fairly large handset. At 8.2 mm thick and weighing 195 g, the device sits on the heavier side for its form factor. It carries no rugged certification and offers no water resistance, so it is not built to withstand exposure to liquids or harsh physical conditions.

The TCL 50 XL 5G features a 6.78″ IPS LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 1080 x 2460 px and a pixel density of 396 ppi, delivering a fairly sharp image across its large panel. The display runs at a 120Hz refresh rate paired with a 240Hz touch sampling rate, contributing to smooth scrolling and responsive input. It does not include branded damage-resistant glass, and there is no support for HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision, nor does it offer an Always-On Display mode or a secondary screen.

The TCL 50 XL 5G is driven by the MediaTek Dimensity 6100 Plus chipset, built on a 6 nm process with an 8-thread CPU running at 2 x 2.2 GHz and 6 x 2 GHz using big.LITTLE architecture with HMP support. Graphics are handled by an integrated Mali G57 MC2 GPU clocked at 950 MHz with DirectX 12 support. The device comes with 6GB of DDR4 RAM running at 2133 MHz and 128GB of internal storage, with the memory ceiling extendable up to 12GB and external storage expandable up to 2000GB. The SoC also includes integrated LTE, and the platform supports 64-bit processing and multithreading throughout.

The TCL 50 XL 5G sports a triple rear camera system built around a 50MP main sensor accompanied by two 2MP lenses, 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 absent. Video capture tops out at 1080p at 30 fps with slow-motion support, but HDR10 recording and 3D video are not available. Manual controls cover exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance, while burst mode, HDR, and in-camera panorama are also on board; raw shooting and manual shutter speed are not supported. A single LED flash is present on the rear, with no dual-tone or RGB flash, and the front hosts a single 8MP camera without a flash or a secondary lens, positioned in the display bezel rather than under the screen.

The TCL 50 XL 5G runs Android 14, bringing a broad set of privacy and usability features to the table. On the privacy side, it includes clipboard warnings, location privacy options, camera and microphone access controls, and the ability to block app tracking, though cross-site tracking blocking and Mail Privacy Protection are not present. The interface supports dark mode, dynamic theming, theme customization, widgets, customizable notifications, and a media picker, while productivity is aided by split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, full-page screenshots, text selection from images, and sharing intents. Additional capabilities include on-device machine learning, offline voice recognition, voice commands, a child lock, multi-user support, device tracking, battery health check, and an extra dim mode, as well as the ability to play games while they download. Wi-Fi password sharing, focus modes, app offloading, Quick Start, and the option to use the device as a PC are not supported, and OS updates do not come directly from the vendor.

The TCL 50 XL 5G houses a 5010 mAh rechargeable battery that supports 18W fast charging, and a charger is included in the box. A battery level indicator is available, making it easy to keep track of remaining charge. The battery is not removable and there is no wireless charging option.

The TCL 50 XL 5G covers the audio basics with stereo speakers and a 3.5mm headphone jack, along with a built-in radio. On the wireless audio side, none of the advanced Bluetooth codec options are present, as aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, and LDAC are all unsupported.

The TCL 50 XL 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 device reaches download speeds of up to 3300 MBits/s. A USB Type-C port and an external memory slot are included, while HDMI output is not available. For biometric security, a fingerprint scanner is on board, though 3D facial recognition and an iris scanner are absent, and no stylus is included. The sensor suite covers a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, barometer, GPS, and Galileo support, but there is no heart rate monitor, infrared sensor, or motion and optical tracking. Features such as ANT+, DLNA certification, crash detection, satellite SOS, and a built-in projector are not supported.

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