Walking through CES, it is hard not to notice how similar smartphones have become. Bigger screens, brighter panels, more color. Against that backdrop, TCL showed something refreshingly different in Las Vegas: the TCL Nxtpaper 70 Pro, a phone that does not try to impress your eyes, but to relax them.
Instead of chasing brightness records, TCL is doubling down on comfort. The 6.9-inch display uses the company’s Nxtpaper 4.0 technology, designed to cut glare and reduce eye strain. With a dedicated physical button, the screen can instantly switch from full color to a monochrome “Max Ink” mode that looks much closer to ink on paper than a traditional smartphone panel. TCL says this mode can push battery life to as much as seven days, but the real idea goes further than endurance.
In Max Ink mode, the phone starts to behave less like a phone and more like a notebook. There is a built-in reading library, AI tools to help with long texts, and support for the T-Pen stylus. You can highlight passages, take handwritten notes, or sketch directly on the screen. TCL is clearly aiming at people who read a lot, write a lot, and are tired of doing both on glowing glass.
A real smartphone, not a tech demo
The interesting part is that the Nxtpaper 70 Pro does not feel like an experimental side project. It is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor, paired with 8 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of storage. A 5,200 mAh battery keeps things running, and the phone is certified IP68, meaning it can handle water and dust without issue.
On the camera side, there is a triple-lens setup led by a 50-megapixel main sensor. It is not trying to compete with flagship camera phones, but it is more than enough for everyday use. In other words, this is not an e-reader pretending to be a phone. It is a proper smartphone that just happens to treat your eyes a bit more gently.
Does paper still matter in 2026?
TCL plans a global launch in February 2026, though pricing and Canadian availability remain unconfirmed. That leaves an open question. Will people actually want a phone that feels closer to paper, at a time when most brands are selling visual intensity as a feature?
The Nxtpaper 70 Pro is a reminder that innovation does not always mean more pixels or more brightness. Sometimes, it means stepping back and asking a simpler question: what if your phone was easier to live with, day after day? In a market full of look-alike devices, that question alone makes TCL’s approach worth paying attention to.
