TCL 40 XE 5G hands-on review: the most affordable 5G phone you can buy

At MWC 2023, I went hands-on with the $169 TCL 40 XE 5G

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: 5G that won’t cost you a g.

• 📱 I went hands-on with the TCL 40 XE 5G at MWC 2023

• 💰 NICE: At $169, it’s the most affordable new 5G phone

• 🤼‍♂️ Beats Pixel 6a, OnePlus Nord N20 5G & Moto One 5G Ace on price

• 🏆 Big lead: Even its closest rival, Samsung Galaxy A13, is $249

• 📈 TCL has new 5G phones at every price point: $169 to $219

The first 5G phone I ever tested cost me $1,299: the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G in 2019. Four years later, the TCL 40 XE 5G proves that buying a 5G phone is longer an expensive proposition. Launching in June, it’s one of the most interesting Android smartphones I’ve tested here at MWC 2023, but for different reasons than a foldable design or flashy specs.

TCL 40 XE 5G: the price is right

TCL 40 XE 5G costs $169, representing a dramatic 87% decrease over that overly expensive first-ever 5G smartphone. Even today, there’s a major gap between the price of this newly announced phone and similar 5G phones that previously held the world’s cheapest “5G phone” crown over the course of the last 12 months.

Its closest rival is the Samsung Galaxy A13, which cost $249 at launch. Other popular 5G phones I’ve previously recommended get even pricier from there: the Motorola One 5G Ace costs $299, the OnePlus N20 Nord 5G is also $299, and the Google Pixel 6a and iPhone SE 3rd gen both launched at $449.

TCL 40 XE 5G: specs and design

The TCL 40 XE 5G is designed for people who want fast, reliable 5G connectivity over perks like cutting-edge specs, a flashy design or a pixel-dense display. That’s exactly what the TCL 40 XE 5G delivers.

• 🖥️ Display: 6.56-inch HD+

• 🏃‍♂️ Refresh rate: 90Hz

• 🙌 Touch sampling: 180Hz

• 📸 Camera: 13MP camera

• 🤳 Selfie: 8MP selfie camera

• 🔋 Battery: 5,000mAh

• ⚙️ Chipset: Mediatek MT6833 Dimensity 700

• 🐏 RAM: 4GB

• 🗃️ microSD card slot? Yes

• 🗄️ Storage: 64GB

• 🫵 Biometrics: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor

• 💰 Price: $169

The 5,000mAh battery capacity means that the TCL 40 XE 5G keeps up with its closest competition, and the refresh rate of 90Hz is actually better than what the Google Pixel 6a offers out of the box. The 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage will limit the appeal of this phone to some people, but I did spot a microSD card slot in this phone (up to 1TB of storage). I haven’t been able to do a deep dive with the camera, but the TCL 40 XE 5G specs offer value for its rock-bottom price.

If you want a bit more from this 5G phone’s camera, the TCL 40 X 5G costs $199 with one significant perk: a 50MP camera. $30 more for a better camera isn’t a bad trade-off for most people when the price remains under $200 for 5G.

TCL 40 XE 5G bottom line

At $169, the TCL 40 XE 5G is going to push its competitors to make more affordable 5G smartphones, and that’s good news in my eyes. We saw this play out before when fingerprint sensors and triple-lens cameras debuted on high-end flagships eight and five years ago, respectively, and then quickly crept down to mid-range and budget handsets. I saw shocked when ZTE launched a $99 phone with a fingerprint sensor in 2017, less than two years after the Touch ID-enabled iPhone 5S made a big impact.

I think we’ll one day see that with foldable phones, too. Until then, making 5G phones more accessible is a great trend for people who simply want their smartphone bells and whistles to correspond to upload and download speeds.