TCL announces the 20 R 5G - Australia's cheapest 5G phone

The cheapest 5G smartphone in Australia is a hotly contested title and has changed hands several times. Today TCL are throwing their hat in the ring with the launch of the ultra-affordable TCL 20 R 5G for just $349.

While $349 is an amazing price, it gets even better with Vodafone announcing they’ll also be ranging the phone as a postpaid handset (locked) for just $299 with a prepaid offer to come.

Getting people into 5G at that price is a bargain, with the 20 R 5G enabling more people to experience 5G – and all the benefits – for the first time says Joseph Corrente, Channel Manager for TCL Communication Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands.

“From fast 5G to contactless transactions with NFC and Google Pay, this handset is ready for when Australia opens up again. It has a beautiful display and a refresh rate that makes it great for mobile gaming, seamlessly fitting into people’s lives and reinforcing our mission to make important technologies accessible to more people than ever.“

It is indeed a big move for TCL who have now launched six phones here in the past 12 months. With a great price, there’s also some great specs with TCL including their NXTVision display tech on the 6.52-inch HD+ resolution display. The screen comes with a 90Hz refresh rate with 180Hz touch sampling making for ultra-smooth scrolling.

It’s no slouch on the internals either with an octa-core Mediatek Dimensity 700 processor, 4GB RAM and 64GB of on-board storage which can be bolstered using the microSD card slot on-board. There’s also a big 4,500 mAh battery included for all-day battery life.

TCL haven’t forgotten cameras either with a triple 13MP camera array on the rear that offers a a 13MP main sensor with 2MP Macro + Depth sensors on board which will add to the portrait effects and offer excellent up close photography.

There’s an 8MP front-facing camera on-board which can be used for almost instant face unlock, or you can use the rear mounted fingerprint sensor for secure biometric authentication.

There’s NFC on-board for contactless payments, and of course it’s going to last with guaranteed OS and security updates, and is on the list of Android Enterprise Recommended devices verified by Google.