Verdict
The TCL P80 Ultra Nxtpaper is a compelling smartphone and e-reader hybrid, with a fantastic glare-free display, useful Nxtpaper modes, decent cameras and solid battery life. Its sluggish everyday performance is difficult to overlook at just under £500, but it remains a uniquely appealing option for keen readers who want to carry one device instead of two.
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E-ink-like customisable reading experience
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Matte screen coating makes a huge difference
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Surprisingly versatile cameras for the price
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Easy all-day battery life
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Performance is disappointing for the price tag
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Design is a little plain
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Comes with Android 16, despite 17 now available
Key Features
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Review Price:
£479
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Nxtpaper AMOLED screen tech
The P80 Ultra has an AMOLED panel that also doubles up as a colour or monochome e-ink screen.
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Versatile cameras
Considering the mid-range price, the P80 Ultra has a fairly versatile setup, including a dedicated zoom lens.
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Great battery life
The 5800mAh battery, combined with the power-friendly screen and processor, delivers solid all-day battery life.
Introduction
What if your phone could replace your Kindle without compromising the everyday smartphone experience?
That’s the idea behind the TCL P80 Ultra Nxtpaper, a sub-£500 Android phone with a glare-free AMOLED display that can transform into a colour or monochrome e-reader at the flick of a switch.
It’s one of the most distinctive mid-range phones around, backed by versatile cameras and solid battery life, but lacklustre performance prevents the rest of the experience from matching the brilliance of its screen.
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Design
- Nice-looking, but isn’t exactly exciting
- Aluminium frame and plastic rear panel
- Comparatively lightweight, yet durable
The TCL P80 Ultra Nxtpaper is a fairly stealthy thing; glance at it, and you’d think it was a regular phone, not the phone/e-reader hybrid that it actually is. The only real giveaways are the matte screen and the Nxtpaper switch on the bottom-right of the phone, both of which I’ll come to a little later.
Elsewhere, it’s very much your bog-standard 2026 phone; flat-edged with rounded corners, a flat screen and a squared-off camera bump that lives in the upper-right corner on the rear. That’s actually one of the main changes compared to the older P60 Ultra, which had a larger, circular camera housing. There is still a bit of a wobble when placed down on a flat surface, but it’s not egregious.
Now this is a sub-£500 phone so, of course, there are sacrifices to be made in the materials department, but I think TCL has struck a nice balance here. The mid-frame is made from aluminium, which helps give it an air of premium, while the rear is made mostly from plastic. It’s a high-quality plastic that, when I first picked it up, I thought might’ve been glass – but alas, it’s not.
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Aesthetically, you can’t really tell much of a difference, especially with the anti-fingerprint matte finish, but it does feel a little hollow when tapping on the rear compared to glass-backed alternatives. Is that a dealbreaker? Certainly not, especially when plastic is much less likely to shatter than the premium alternative.
That plastic panel also helps keep the weight down; considering it has a 6.8-inch screen, it weighs in at a comparatively lightweight 198g. Similarly-sized flagship alternatives like the Galaxy S26 Ultra weigh in at 214g, while Apple’s new iPhone 18 Pro Max tips the scales at 249g. It makes it all the nicer to hold over long periods – crucial for a phone that doubles up as an e-reader.
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It’s also pretty durable for the price, offering full IP68 dust and water resistance and MID-STD-810H certification. It’s a bit of a plain Jane then, but still robust in its own right.
Screen
- 6.8-inch Nxtpaper AMOLED display
- Various levels of e-ink functionality
- Remains a fantastic regular phone screen
Really and truly, the screen is the reason to opt for the P80 Ultra Nxtpaper – the clue is in the name.
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The hook here is the upgraded 6.8-inch Nxtpaper AMOLED display, making a jump from the LCD tech in previous Nxtpaper phones and tablets, and bringing all the usual AMOLED benefits with it. In its regular display mode, the colours are vivid, blacks are inky and deep, and with elements like a 1.5K resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, 3200nits peak brightness and a 2560Hz touch response time – usually reserved for gaming phones – it’s a solid all-round screen by most regular metrics.
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But really, it’s the Nxtpaper tech that elevates the screen above most of the competition. That starts with TCL’s unique nano-etched anti-reflective coating that does an absolutely stellar job of getting rid of glare and reflections.
When I first started using the phone, something looked a bit off about the screen, and I couldn’t put my finger on it – it was only a few days later when I realised it was the complete lack of reflections. Seriously, this thing is on the same level as dedicated e-readers like the Kindle, and by what I’ve seen so far, the matte screen of the £/$2000 iPhone Duo.
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That’s only a part of the package though; the real magic happens when you flip the dedicated Nxtpaper switch on the bottom-right of the phone. It essentially turns the screen into a colour e-ink screen or a proper e-reader experience that not only turns the screen monochrome but shuts down the majority of the smartphone’s functions to eliminate distractions and really push battery life. It essentially turns it into a Kindle.
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I surprisingly found myself using the latter more than I initially suspected I would, especially on my commute where signal can be pretty spotty anyway. But, I think the middle-ground Paper mode will be the go-to for most – you can choose which is activated by the physical switch to make things easier.
In its Max Ink mode, it’s essentially a colour e-ink screen with the same level of responsiveness as a smartphone – like a Kindle Colorsoft on steroids. It makes reading books and comics in particular genuinely enjoyable, with customisable levels of colour intensity to suit your preferences. I also found it a good alternative to the usual eye protection mode that filters out blue light late at night, retaining most of the colour even in apps like Instagram while being way easier on the eyes.
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Of course, it’s not quite the traditional e-reader shape, with a regular smartphone 19.5:9 aspect ratio, but it’s not something that bothered me beyond the first page of my book. The fact that I no longer need to carry two devices more than makes up for that compromise, in my opinion.
Cameras
- Surprisingly capable cameras for the cost
- Main, ultrawide and dedicated zoom lens
- Main lens is best for challenging environments
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Considering its sub-£500 price tag, the TCL P80 Ultra is surprisingly well equipped in the camera department.
Alongside a pretty competent 50MP f/1.8 main camera and a comparatively low-res 8MP ultrawide lens, you’ll find a 50MP f/2.4 periscope telephoto lens, offering 3x optical zoom and up to 6x lossless zoom, all the way up to 100x if you want to push it to its limits – not that I’d advise that if you want an image that’s even passably shareable.
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The fact that the P80 Ultra has a dedicated zoom lens is a big deal; most sub-£500 phones don’t offer such versatility, often relying on the main camera to provide some kind of digital zoom. And that’s from popular camera-focused mid-rangers like the Google Pixel 10a.
And it’s not just there to look impressive on paper either; it’s actually a pretty competent shooter that lets you close the gap without taking a massive hit to overall quality.
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The overall look and feel of the shots looks very close to the results from the main sensor – in good light, anyway – with solid detail and light, and very little in the way of noticeable processing until you push past the 6x mark. It’s not going to take on something like the top-end Oppo Find X9 Ultra with its dual-zoom setup, with slightly softer details if you pixel-peep, but it’s good for the money.
Of course, that doesn’t quite translate in low-light conditions – most telephotos struggle in darker environments, especially those with a relatively small 1/2.8-inch sensor like TCL employs here. For those kinds of shots, you’ll need to rely on the main camera.
Again, this one does a very good job, both in well-lit environments and low-light scenarios, though it doesn’t quite slurp up as much light as some of the competition. But really, that’s fine – this isn’t a camera-first phone, and I think most people who use cameras for general day-to-day snaps and sharing on social media will be more than happy with the results.
The 8MP ultrawide, despite its relatively low resolution, manages to put up a good fight too. There’s a good amount of detail on shots taken on bright, sunny days, with a colour palette that’s pretty much identical to the other lenses, even when it comes to more vibrant shades like blue and green. I wouldn’t use it too much in darker environments though; results are pretty muddy.
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Still, for the price, this is a surprisingly capable setup. Not one that dedicated mobile photographers will thirst over, but one that’ll keep the vast majority of mid-range owners happy.
Performance
- MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Elite power
- Very sluggish and laggy in day-to-day use
- Vibration motor feels old and cheap
If the screen is the TCL P80 Ultra at its best, performance is the phone at its worst – especially considering its mid-range price tag and what you’ll get from a lot of similarly-priced phones.
The phone packs MediaTek’s mid-range Dimensity 7400 Elite, paired with a fairly healthy 8GB of RAM (that can be expanded via virtual RAM expansion) and either 256- or 512GB of storage. On paper, that sounds like a pretty solid offering – but that doesn’t really translate in real-world use.
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The P80 Ultra is one of the laggiest phones I’ve used in recent memory at any price point, with stutters a fairly frequent part of my experience over the past week or so. Not even when running particularly demanding games or anything like that; simply scrolling through my notifications and in apps like Instagram and Threads.
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It did get a bit better once I cranked the virtual RAM expansion from its default 4GB to 16GB, so why that’s not on by default I do not know, but I’d recommend doing so if you pick one up.
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That’s pretty much backed up by benchmark tests too, with the P80 Ultra trailing across CPU, GPU and NPU tests compared not only to mid-rangers like the Pixel 10a with flagship-level chips, but more modestly powered phones like the Honor 600. Simply put, if you want the best experience for power-hungry apps or games, the P80 Ultra isn’t the best fit.
I also feel the need to point out the performance of the vibration motor here – something you don’t often hear about in modern phone reviews because most phones these days get it right. It seems that TCL missed the memo about the refined, crisp vibration feedback found in most phones these days though.
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The P80 Ultra’s vibration feels loose, messy and actually audible, closer to something you’d find on cheap phones from 10 years ago than modern mid-rangers. It activates frequently by default, for things like typing and going to the home screen, so it’s something I noticed – and disabled – fairly quickly, but whenever I’d get a call or notification, it’d sound like an old Nokia 3410 on a desk.
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Software
- Clean approach to Android 16
- Very few annoying AI tools to deal with
- Four years of OS upgrades promised
TCL could’ve followed in the footsteps of other mid-range makers that completely change the look and feel of the Android experience – I’m looking at you, Honor and Xiaomi – but instead, it took a much more restrained approach. One that I can certainly appreciate.
At a glance, it’s much closer to the stock Android experience found on Google’s Pixel range, albeit with a smattering of liquid glass-like Gaussian blur effects. There are a few tweaks here and there, mainly to accommodate the e-ink functionality of the phone, but where there are changes, they’re welcome.
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That includes elements like the Google News Feed, which lives to the left of the Home screen on its regular smartphone, getting swapped out for a bookshelf for easy access to any ePUB files you have on your phone for reading when the Nxtpaper mode is activated – essentially replacing something like the Kindle app if you’ve got eBook files to hand.
There’s also AI here because it’s 2026 and of course there is, but it doesn’t feel like it’s being rammed down your throat like a lot of the competition. Again, TCL has decided to be much more restrained here, and I think it works in its favour.
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You’ve got basic AI tools like translation and recording transcription, accessible via a widget on the Home screen, along with Gemini smarts, but that’s about it – no competing AI systems competing for your attention, no over-the-top AI photo editing tools, nothing. It sounds like a criticism, but it really isn’t – it’s refreshing.
The software should only continue to improve over time, with TCL committing to four years of OS upgrades and seven years of security patches – though it’s worth noting that one of those upgrades will be the jump from the older Android 16 the phone ships with to the now-available Android 17.
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It’s not the longest software promise compared to Google, Samsung and the like, sure, but it’s still solid for a phone that costs less than £500.
Battery life
- 5800mAh battery
- Easy all-day battery life
- Pretty solid charge speeds
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With an e-reader-like screen, it should come as no surprise that battery life is pretty solid on the TCL P80 Ultra – especially when combined with a 5800mAh battery and its power-sipping chipset.
It hasn’t quite got the longevity of something like a Kindle, of course, unless you keep it in its Paper MAX mode, but with general use, you’ll get through the day comfortably with around three to four hours of screen time. I couldn’t quite squeeze it to a full two days, but it did make it well into the second afternoon, so it’s far from a bad showing.
Those with lighter usage may well be able to get it to the full two-day mark – especially if you really lean into its e-ink stylings.
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When it does inevitably run flat, 45W wired charging delivers 57% charge in half an hour, with a full charge taking 64 minutes in testing. That’s far from the fastest we’ve seen, but for the vast majority, the 45W speeds here will be more than enough.
There’s no wireless charging here, but that’s still relatively uncommon at the lower end of the mid-range market.
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Should you buy it?
You want a phone and e-reader in one device
If you like the idea of ditching the Kindle and having a smartphone and e-reader in one, the P80 Ultra is the ideal option. It’s fantastic for reading.
You want a great all-round phone
The P80 Ultra’s screen and cameras remain a highlight, but the performance is seriously lacklustre for a phone of its price, and the design is a little plain too.
Final Thoughts
The TCL P80 Ultra Nxtpaper is built around the genuinely compelling idea of replacing both your smartphone and e-reader with a single device, and yet, it doesn’t feel like a gimmick.
The glare-free AMOLED screen, dedicated Nxtpaper modes and physical switch make a noticeable difference to how the phone feels to use, particularly when reading, commuting or scrolling late at night.
And, considering its Nxtpaper tech is the main USP of the phone, it also has decent cameras – including a dedicated zoom lens – and solid battery life that’ll get most people through the day.
The problem is the performance; it’s just not up to scratch for a phone that costs just under £500. It’s not just benchmarks either; it’s laggy in day-to-day use, with fairly frequent stuttering and freezing despite not doing anything that demanding.
Honestly, I’d love to see TCL either go all-in on a proper top-end flagship beholden to the Ultra branding, or to license it out to the likes of Oppo, Honor, Xiaomi or Samsung. Because I love everything about the Nxtpaper experience – I just want the rest of the phone to be as impressive.
As it stands, it’s still a fantastic option if you want to ditch your e-reader and carry around a single device, but its performance, especially at the price, may put some off.
How We Test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
- Used as a main phone for over a week
- Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
- Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
FAQs
Can the TCL P80 Ultra Nxtpaper replace a Kindle?
Yes. Its glare-free AMOLED display and dedicated monochrome reading mode provide a convincing e-reader experience, although its smartphone aspect ratio isn’t as comfortable as a traditional Kindle.
Is the TCL P80 Ultra Nxtpaper good for gaming?
Not particularly. Its sluggish everyday performance and frequent stutters make it a poor choice for demanding apps and games, especially compared to similarly priced rivals.
Test Data
TCL P80 Ultra Nxtpaper
Geekbench 6 single core
1061
Geekbench 6 multi core
3034
Geekbench 6 GPU
3239
Geekbench 7 single core
949
Geekbench 7 multi core
3202
Geekbench 7 GPU
2988
Time from 0-100% charge
64 min
Time from 0-50% charge
24 Min
30-min recharge (no charger included)
57 %
15-min recharge (no charger included)
33 %
3D Mark – Wild Life
1056
3D Mark – Wild Life Stress Test
99.7 %
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Full Specs
TCL P80 Ultra Nxtpaper Review
Manufacturer
TCL
Screen Size
6.8 inches
Storage Capacity
256GB, 512GB
Rear Camera
50MP + 50MP + 8MP
Front Camera
32MP
Video Recording
Yes
IP rating
IP68
Battery
5800 mAh
Fast Charging
Yes
Size (Dimensions)
77.7 x 8.3 x 163.3 MM
Weight
198 G
Operating System
Android 16
Release Date
2026
First Reviewed Date
28/09/2026
Resolution
1280 x 2772
HDR
Yes
Refresh Rate
120 Hz
Ports
USB-C
Chipset
MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Elite
RAM
8GB
Colours
Sunlit Gold, Burgundy, Midnight Blue
Stated Power
45 W
UK RRP
£479
USA RRP
TBC