TCL have announced the launch of a new model named the TCL P618L, boasting a large battery, AMOLED display, Gorilla Glass 4 and more.
TCL are normally a little more prominent in the headlines than they have been recently. We’re not sure why the company are quieter than usual, but we do know that they are still working in some interesting phones.
The TCL P618L is interesting for both good and bad reasons. The bad is that it comes with only 1GB RAM and 8GB memory (although and SD card slot is present). The lack of memory is especially bad considering how nice the rest of the hardware is.
Starting with the screen, TCL have opted for a 5-inch AMOLED panel, with 2.5D curved glass and Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. Pushing those pixels around is a Snapdragon 410 quad-core SoC, with 4G LTE support and that gets its juice from a 5000mAh battery. TCL say that the 5000mAh battery, nestled in the 9.15mm body, will give the phone 90days of standby time.
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Looking at the rear of the phone the design appears have a rotating camera feature similar to the Oppo N3, but we can confirm that it is a traditional set up with 13 mega-pixel sensor on the rear and 5 mega-pixel on the front. The silver border actually shows a hatch where the dual SIM cards are located.
Currently only China Telecom users will be able to enjoy the ECL P618L, but there is a slight chance that Alcatel will rebrand the phone for international markets.
[ Source 1, Source 2]
they SHOULD rebrand !
They kind of do, they sell as Alcatel in the US.
and what about us ? 😀
i guess they sell the same TCL ?
Looking online I found they sell as both in Pakistan but the prices are a but inflated. For instance the Alcatel One Touch Fierce is a phone you can find for as low as $75 in the US, its selling for about $150 in Pakistan. They also sell TCL TV’s which are very good.
LORD! thats double the price…
i heard of TCL tvs , possibly the NOBEL series , but i think the people here are quite ignorant of anyother tv brand except sony/samsung/LG..
LG is my favorite brand of TV but here in Thailand it carries a premium for the brand name. For the money TCL is an excellent option IMO.
That is one ugly and confusing rear design.
Looks functional to me. Easy to reach too. Too bad the rests of the phone are pretty sht.
To me it looks like it would be a hassle everytime you wanted to swap out a sim (which I do often due to traveling). Seems like its much easier with a sim card tray or just popping the back cover off.
Looks easier than removing the entire battery and you don’t need extra tools like if you use sim tray (a small quip, but it’s a quip).
That remains to be seen, have to wait till someone has some hands on time with it.
I used to actually like TCL/Alcatel but they have been MIA for some time now. I never owned it but I always liked the Idol X and I bought a TV from TCL here in Thailand and it is excellent.
TCL M2U been available for a little while, international version of M2M.
Looks good to me and should really (really) come with IMX214.
5.5 Inch IPS OGS HD Screen, 1280*720 Pixels, 267 PPI
MTK6752M 1.5GHz 64-bit Octa Core
2GB RAM + 16GB ROM
13 MP Sony Exmor RS™ IMX214 Back Camera + 8 MP Front Camera
Android 4.4 System
Support 4G, Dual Band WIFI, GPS, Bluetooth, Multilanguage, Play Store, OTG, Acceleration Sensor, Light Sensor, Electronic compass, Gravity Sensor, Gyroscope Sensor, Proximity Sensor, etc.
That’s the thing it sounds like a good phone but I have never even heard of it. Seems like TCL needs to improve their marketing. I have used a few TCL/Alcatel’s and never had any issues with them.
For some reason it doesn’t seem to have made it in to many of the better resellers stock, even ones who have previous TCL models. I’m tempted by it, but not the resellers who hold stock. No proper reviews yet either. Shame.
launched or announced?
because i don’t see any price mentioned, or those are free? :))
I didn’t include the price as it is China only at the mo. 1690 Yuan 🙁
Andi please try and review the TCL M2U, this phone needs some exposure.
I was waiting for the bluboo x550 for its big battery, but now i just dt know what to know. many phones have big batteries these days, included the last Lenovo k80
With this big battery they didnt have any more space for more memory
I’d stopped reading when I saw the 1GB RAM + 8GB ROM…urghh!