Prior to 2020, TCL's smartphone efforts were limited to producing displays for other companies' phones and manufacturing devices under other brand names. That has changed over the past few years, and especially in the past year, TCL-branded phones have brought low-cost value to the U.S. smartphone market.

TCL hopes to maintain this momentum in the New Year with five more phones under its own name, and CES 2021 will focus on two models, the TCL 20 5G and TCL 20 SE, which will be available later this month. [But from what we've heard so far about TCL's cell phone plans, both the TCL 20 5G and TCL 20 SE, not to mention the other devices in the TCL 20 series, are expected to show up on this side of the Atlantic in the coming months.

The 5G version of the TCL 10 offers 5G connectivity at a much cheaper price than most other budget smartphones. The U.S. version (sold exclusively on Verizon called the TCL 10 5G UW) brings the price of the 5G phone down to under $400. This was the lowest price until the OnePlus Nord N10 5G was introduced earlier this month.

The TCL 20 5G could rival the low price of the Nord N10 5G; TCL plans to sell this phone for €299. It is already available in Italy at this price and will soon be expanded to other countries. [It is worth noting that cell phone manufacturers often adjust their prices for specific markets, but it is clear that the TCL 20 5G will certainly be less expensive than its 5G-enabled predecessor.

One way TCL can lower costs is by choosing a more powerful and less expensive processor than the chipset in the TCL 10 5G. That phone had a Snapdragon 765G; for the TCL 20 5G, TCL will use the Snapdragon 690, the first system-on-chip in Qualcomm's 6 series with an integrated 5G modem.

TCL will continue to highlight its display expertise with phones like the TCL 20 5G, which features a 6.67" LCD panel with FHD+ resolution. The display continues to support TCL's Nxtvision technology, which promises features such as SDR to HDR upconversion, automatic color temperature adjustment, and more accurate colors.

On the back of the TCL 20 5G is a triple camera array with a 48MP main camera, an 8MP wide angle lens, and a 2MP macro sensor. On the front, the 8MP camera is housed in a punch hole in the center of the display.

Other specifications of the TCL 20 5G include a 4,500mAh battery and Mist Blue and Placid Blue colors. It also comes pre-installed with Android 10, but an upgrade path to Android 11 is available.

TCL's other new phone, the TCL 20 SE, is a phone focused on both value and content consumption; TCL's new phone costs €149. It is unclear what the US price will be when the TCL 20 SE is actually released in the US, although it is The price in the U.S. is expected to be less than $200.

As for content consumption, the TCL 20 SE appears to draw in users with a 6.82" display with HD+ resolution; the bezels around the TCL 20 SE's screen are a bit prominent, but this is because the company chose a teardrop notch to accommodate the front camera.

Powered by a Snapdragon 460 system-on-chip, the TCL 20 SE won't break performance records, but its 5,000 mAh battery should power the device all day. the TCL 20 SE is only an LTE device and is not expected to have 5G connectivity.

Like the TCL 20 5G, the SE model has a 48MP main camera with quad-pixel binning for 16MP shots. Other lenses in the quad-camera setup include a 5MP wide-angle camera and dedicated macro and depth lenses; unlike the TCL 20 5G, this model comes with Android 11.

The TCL 20 5G and SE announced at CES is just the beginning for TCL. The company also promises a multi-screen collaboration feature that will allow information to be passed from a TCL Series 20 phone to a tablet, TV, or PC. More details on this feature will be announced later this year.