TCL 30 5G Unlocked Smartphone, 4/128GB, 50MP Camera, 5010mAh Battery, 6.7″ FHD+ AMOLED Display, Android 12, US Verizon, Single-SIM, Tech Black

Heavy bang for the buck….but…..
So I am giving this 5 stars. There is zero doubt this is a very quality smartphone. Cameras are solid, the battery is off the chart, comes with the full charger brick and even a phone case. The audio driver is awesome. 3.5mm headphone jack is awesome, but using my JBL earbuds, even better. Video records very well, will record in HDR, you can take HDR photos, the haptics are good, not great, and finally, the OS is easy to use.Why the but in the headline? So, if you are a phone snob or to be very frank someone that is constantly buried on your phone, sniffing through multiple apps at once, that much of a photo nerd that you can probably count the pixels per photos with your own eyes, THIS IS NOT THE PHONE FOR YOU. Pay the extra, go to the Samsung, Google, or Apple models. At times due to the 4gb of RAM, scrolling is not as smooth as you would hope for. Again, if you are a phone nerd, someone that buries themselves in their phone, this is not for you.With that, if you are looking for a solid smartphone, great click and share camera photos, good video quality, an AMAZING battery, good audio, buy this thing. Not to mention the last thing…..it is TCL. As in TV’s…..as in the display on this thing is solid! It does not disappoint.To be very clear…..I am moving over from an iPhone 12, and for the past 48 hours, burning it up, downloading, watching movies, YouTube, etc…..great battery to be honest.Who is this for? People who want a solid smartphone, great display, even better battery, easy camera, easy OS, and comes with a ton of stuff out of the box.Who is this NOT for? Phone nerds, people who want the top end camera, people who require solid sound out of the phone speakers rather than using earbuds, and those who use multiple apps at once.Overall…..5 stars, but would say 4.7 out of 5.Battery 5Display 4.8Call quality (I use Tello) 5Camera 4.3Video 4Accessories out of the box 5Fingerprint on the side 5***update from 7/23/2023***This is without a doubt my daily driver now.As to the scrolling lag, that is not just on this phone but one app for weather that I am not going to call out is laggy even on an iPhone 14 Pro Max….the scroll and loading rate on this for this price point is solid.Tested out a UMIDIGI 5G Max to see if I was missing something on the price point. Already sent it back. The geekbench on this vs the UMIDIGI 5G was 2:1 faster. I want to say dual core on this one was 1867 vs 1302 on the UMIDIGI. To put it in perspective, my old iPhone SE 2020 was only 2118 on geekbench so not missing a ton out.The ONLY thing I am noticing is that in low light the camera is, meh, but I can live with it.Again…..if you are a phone nerd or snob, you will probably not be the happiest with this phone. If you need a solid smartphone, that does the trick, solid camera, UNREAL battery, and great TCL screen, for 219 after a 30.00 Amazon coupon, you cannot go wrong. And again……I am moving over from an iPhone 12. So take that for what you will.

price change and case
I like the look and functionality of this phone.the phone is nearly $100 less than 5 months after my purchaseNow, only one type iof case is available because the inventory is now made up of the new TCL 30 z,SE however, i cannot find a full body case. now it’s too late to return or even swapp out or credit towards another TCL compatable for full body case.price dropped $100. not cool!

An Updated Review: This Phone Is A Beautiful Headache
This phone has a lot going for it. The CPU and RAM seem to keep up nicely with regular usage and the design feels nice, lightweight and premium. But things are definitely a bit…strange beneath the surface. I liked this device a lot once I first got it. It felt thin, and a lot different from the devices I was used to using. I had come from using a TCL 10 5G UW for over two years, and that phone was absolutely incredible. I never had a single issue with it the entire time I owned it, so I decided to give the 30 5G a shot. Below are some of the reasons while I simply can’t recommend this device.The AMOLED screen is bright and beautiful, though even it has a few gotchas that eventually ruined the panel for me. It has very nice colors and can get uncomfortably bright. Though it also seems to have some strange uniformity issues. When looking at the screen, whatever part is closest to your eyes appears to be a warmer color temperature, while the rest of the screen appears to be a much cooler color temperature. By moving the device up and down, you can change the position of this ‘band’ of orange tint. I know AMOLED displays have color shift, but they usually don’t have it while you’re looking straight on at the screen. Another issue is that at very low brightness levels, my particular screen has a very very difficult time displaying the color gray. The bottom half of the display seems to just give up, going to a straight black instead of gray while the top of the display is able to maintain the color. As someone who uses their phone in dark lighting almost all the time, this is definitely an issue I can’t deal with.It’s incredibly aggressive with closing apps, so nothing will stay open if you close out of it making it absolutely useless for multitasking. In 2023, I think a phone that’s $250 should be able to let itself have more than one app open at a time. The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G has the same processor and amount of RAM, but I can leave an app and go back into it without the entire app reopening itself. There is almost nothing more irritating than having to leave apps on the screen at all times if you want to use them. AccuBattery, Musicolet, and even Chrome will just close for no reason. This also prevents you from getting certain push notifications, as the phone will just kill the apps and keep them from notifying you of things.But what’s even worse is that my copy keeps disconnecting itself from my carrier without any warning. No notification, no nothing. It will just randomly display “EMERGENCY CALLS ONLY” and stop receiving or making any calls or texts until it’s rebooted. This is an extremely big issue, and it basically keeps the phone from functioning as a phone. I can only imagine that this is a defect with my particular device, but with everything else wrong with the phone…I also can’t guarantee such a thing. It does seem to work with Verizon, but it refuses to stay connected to service.This phone runs Android 12. Now, when I got my TCL 10 5G UW it ran Android 10, and it never got upgraded from Android 10. There’s no guarantee that this device will ever see Android 13, and with the track record TCL has I doubt it ever will. It’s also running a six month old security patch, which definitely doesn’t bode well for future usage. This isn’t some old used device you bought from a friend, this is a brand new phone being sold on Amazon. You’d expect at least a decent upgrade promise, but there’s seemingly nothing here.Oh, but things don’t end here. This is going to seem like a rather small thing, but it’s definitely not pleasant. The back camera area is huge, but it’s also almost entirely made of plastic. This plastic is constantly exposed, and it constantly acquires scratches. The little black oval beneath the flash is particularly nasty at getting scratched, the plastic being used for this specific piece clearly being made of nothing but the most bottom of the barrel soft piano black plastic that one could ever imagine. It literally scratches if you swipe your thumb over it.You can get more for less! This is a $250 phone, and even with the discounts and coupons it often has placed on it, there’s better options out there even unlocked. Take the Galaxy A14 5G I mentioned earlier for example. It costs $199.99, which is $50 less than this phone. With that phone, you’re actually getting guaranteed security and software updates. It runs Android 13 out of the box, and is guaranteed to get updated to Android 15. It also is able to keep apps open in the background without viciously beating them into submission.Now, I don’t want this to seemingly come across as being anti TCL. I own nothing but TCL TVs, and the best phone I have ever owned, the TCL 10 5G UW was made by the same company, but this phone is a huge miss for $250 especially with the competition that exists in 2023. I would recommend pretty much anything besides this phone. You don’t have to get a Galaxy A14 5G, but just keep looking elsewhere. The unlocked phone world is vast and wide, and there’s far better options out there for the money than this.