TCL P80 Ultra's matte OLED measures 2,153 nits, not 3,200
Expert Reviews metered the P80 Ultra at 2,153 nits under a torch, well short of TCL's 3,200-nit peak. Battery lasted 26 hours 45 minutes, and the Dimensity chip trails a Pixel 10a by a wide Geekbench margin.
Prepared by theBench·how our desks work
The TCL P80 Ultra is the first Nxtpaper phone whose screen is a reason to buy it, and the 3,200-nit peak on the spec sheet is not what a meter recorded.
A torch, a hot panel, and 2,153 nits
GSMArena's September 3 launch report lists a 6.83-inch AMOLED, the matte Nxtpaper treatment, a 120Hz refresh rate, full DCI-P3 coverage and a claimed peak of 3,200 nits. TCL also promised circular polarization, a homogenizing film over the subpixels, and blue light cut to 2.9 percent. TechFi, after about a week with the phone, reported TCL's own figure as 2.7 percent, not 2.9.
Ben Johnston at Expert Reviews put a meter on the panel. With adaptive brightness on and a torch on the light sensor, brightness hit 2,153 cd/m2. The glass got very hot, quickly, and he treated that spike as a test condition. In direct sun the screen stayed readable without going that high. David van Dantzig at TechFi could not measure the 3,200-nit claim. His review lists 800 nits as the ordinary maximum and 1,800 for HDR, and attributes 3,200 to TCL's harsh-sun figure. Through bright days he never lost the image, and he put day-to-day readability in line with the Pixel 10 Pro he usually carries.
Dominic Preston at The Verge did not publish a nit reading. He found earlier Nxtpaper phones visually compromised. This panel, he reported, has deeper blacks, better contrast and richer color, and it is the first in the line with an always-on display. The matte surface stayed comfortable under TCL's IFA booth lights and in a dim room, and it stayed visible almost side-on. That feel, not the peak-nit claim, is what the reviews agree on.
Twenty-six hours, then the chip shows up
Expert Reviews' battery run lasted 26 hours and 45 minutes on the 5,800mAh cell. The Pixel 10a lasted 38 hours and 24 minutes in the same test. Thirty minutes on a charger took the TCL to 48 percent, and a full charge took 1 hour and 15 minutes, against about 90 minutes for that Pixel. Trusted Reviews, with no stopwatch time, called it an easy all-day battery. GSMArena's hands-on repeated TCL's claim of up to seven days of reading in Max Ink mode. No review printed a measured week, so that claim and the 26-hour run are not the same test.
The chip's name is not settled, and neither is how slow it feels. GSMArena, TechFi and an ASBYT walkthrough made in partnership with TCL call it the Dimensity 7400 Elite, with 8GB of RAM. Expert Reviews calls the same 2.6GHz, 8GB part a Dimensity 7400 Ultra. Johnston found it functional for ordinary tasks. On Geekbench 6 the Pixel 10a led by 59 percent single-core and 35 percent multi-core. He ran Asphalt Legends without frame-rate drops and said heavier 3D games belong on the Pixel. Preston called ordinary performance sluggish and stuttering. Trusted Reviews called day-to-day use very sluggish at a price just under £500. TechFi reported the opposite on taps and app launches: not slower than a Pixel or a Galaxy until the work gets demanding.
A 3x lens one review called 2x
The launch spec is a 50-megapixel main camera with optical stabilization, a 50-megapixel 3x periscope at f/2.4, an 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 32-megapixel selfie. Expert Reviews' spec summary says 3x. The camera section of the same review calls it a 2x periscope and likes it best of the three. Johnston found the main camera reliable, a bit washed out in hard sun, and a 112-degree ultrawide that matches the main camera's color and not its detail. Rear video tops out at 4K/30 or 1080p/60. The Pixel 10a, in that review, can do 4K/60.
ASBYT's sponsored overview listed preset stops at 0.6x, 1x, 2x, 3x and 6x, and called 3x the periscope. The host also wished the ultrawide were 50 megapixels. Preston called photo quality distinctly average. Trusted Reviews listed surprisingly versatile cameras as a reason to buy. The telephoto at this price is not in dispute. Whether it rescues the camera is.
Support, glass and the small disagreements
Support splits by a year. GSMArena and TechFi list four OS upgrades and seven years of security patches. Expert Reviews recorded four OS years and six of security, against seven and seven on the Pixel 10a. Trusted Reviews noted that the phone ships on Android 16 while Android 17 is already out. Expert Reviews found a Nano Crystal Shield, not Gorilla Glass. TechFi called the cover Gorilla Glass 7i and saw small scratches after a week in a pocket. Listed weight is 193 grams at Expert Reviews and 197 grams at TechFi. The sponsored overview lists 8.26mm against 8.3mm elsewhere.
Buy it for the page, not for the chart
Preston wrote that he "can't entirely recommend" the P80 Ultra "as a phone in its own right." The screen is the exception he would keep. He has not used the iPhone Duo, so his interest in its matte inner display is a guess, not a measurement of this TCL.
It fits a long-session reader who wants the glare cut and will live with a chip well behind a Pixel 10a. A camera buyer has to choose between Trusted Reviews' "versatile" and Preston's "average" before spending, because those reviews saw the same hardware and not the same pictures. On September 28, Expert Reviews priced the 256GB P80 Ultra at £480, next to a 256GB Pixel 10a at £479. On October 2, 9to5Google reported the UK Google Store listing that Pixel at £599. If that listing holds, the matte OLED is no longer next to a Pixel at the same money, and the slower chip is the discount.