Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile

TCL’s Tab Pro 5G might be worth it for Verizon customers who want cheaper 5G

Elizabeth Tirk
By

TCL has just announced its first 5G tablet from Verizon, the Tab Pro 5G. The specs are largely midrange, but it offers a large and crisp screen, decent performance, and fast 5G connectivity at a reasonable $400 price tag. Verizon is also offering a “Buy More, Save More” promo where users can save $100 on a new Tab Pro 5G purchase if they also purchase an eligible Android smartphone on a Verizon plan. It’s no iPad, but it’s a good budget-friendly option for a device with 5G Ultra Wideband.

Image of Tab Pro 5G Tablet front lock screen sideways.
TCL

The device weighs 16.09 ounces and comes in Metallic Black, giving it a relatively standard and inoffensive look. The tablet also has a fingerprint sensor built into one of the side keys and face-unlockcapabilities.

Recommended Videos

In terms of hardware, the Tab Pro 5G features a 10.3-inch, 2000 x 12000 resolution FHD+ display with a standard 60Hz refresh rate. The panel comes with the increasingly common set of adaptive features to make reading easier, like dark mode, eye cComfort, reading mode, and more.

Related

For cameras, the tablet has a 13-megapixel rear sensor and an 8MP front-facing camera; both take 1080p video at 30 frames per second. The tablet also comes with dual speakers and microphones with noise cancellation, making it a decent option for multimedia and taking Zoom calls.

Image of Tab Pro 5G Tablet back camera.
TCL

Under the hood, the slate runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 chipset and has 4GB of RAM. These are decidedly average specs, but it should serve fine as a family or kids’ tablet. While it does start with only 64GB of built-in storage, it is expandable up to 1TB with a microSD card, so space isn’t a worry.

The 8,000mAh battery should provide 17 hours of battery life, according to TCL, and it has a USB-C port that supports an 18-watt adapter. It should charge to full in four hours. It even has reverse wireless charging capabilities to help keep all your devices online for the day — a feature we’ve typically only seen on Samsung devices. One notable downside is that there isn’t a 3.5mm headphone jack, a somewhat surprising omission for a tablet. If you intend to use wired audio, you’ll need to do it with the included USB-C audio adapter.

The Tab Pro 5G runs Android 11 out of the box, supports Bluetooth 5.0, and is built to utilize Verizon’s 5G coverage and speeds by supporting mmWave and sub-6GHz. Is it among some of the best tablets of 2021? Probably not. But a reasonable price and 5G connectivity may make it a compelling enough option for Verizon customers.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Elizabeth Tirk
Elizabeth Tirk
Mobile Writer
Elizabeth is a small town writer based out of the US, focusing mainly on mobile tech news. Part of her interest in tech is…
Live in a rural area? Verizon 5G is about to get better for you
Verizon store front displays the 5G network in NYC.

Verizon plans to expand its faster 5G Ultra Wideband network to reach beyond urban and suburban centers later this year, helping to drive up performance for folks in rural areas and spearhead the growth of its fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband services.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestburg touched on these details this week in the company’s quarterly earnings call, where he lauded the rapid expansion of the carrier’s C-band coverage to reach 200 million people in just over a year “since we lit up the first site.”

Read more
T-Mobile’s 5G is still unmatched — but have speeds plateaued?
Woman holding up smartphone with speed test results on Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband network.

Each time a new analysis of mobile network performance gets published, it’s almost a given that we’ll see T-Mobile leading the pack in terms of delivering the fastest 5G speeds. After all, the “Un-carrier” had a massive lead in deploying its 5G networks — and it hasn’t been resting on its laurels.

However, its competitors haven’t been sitting still either. While Verizon may have been starting from behind, it’s been aggressively deploying the faster 5G spectrum that gave it a nice leap in 5G performance last year. Still, Verizon and AT&T are lagging quite a bit in overall mobile network performance, and AT&T has fallen even farther behind when it comes to delivering the best 5G speeds across the nation.

Read more
Moto G Power 5G adds a flagship feature to a budget phone
Render of the Motorola Moto G Power 5G in a white color against a light purple background.

Motorola may be making a play for the flagship market with the Motorola Edge 40 Pro, but budget phones are what the American monolith is best known for. While it won't be making as many waves as the latest Samsung phone or Apple iPhone launch, the newest iteration of the Moto G is always something worth paying attention to, as Motorola is a true veteran of the space and knows what makes an excellent cheap device.

Best of all, this new Moto G comes at a time when budget phone enthusiasts have never had it so good. Previously premium features are filtering down into lower-priced devices, without altering that sweet low price or the features everyone loves. That's exactly what's happening with the new Motorola Moto G Power 5G, which includes a 50-megapixel main camera lens, a larger amount of storage, and a big screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. With the big 5,000mAh battery the G Power range is known for, this could be the $300 phone to grab if you love a budget bargain.
Super-smooth motion

Read more