TCL NXTPaper 14 Pro takes e-readers to a whole new level

TCL's joined in on the fun at CES 2024 by launching a whole range of new phones and tablets, including a bunch that use its now-familiar NXTPaper technology.

This is basically a fancy coating on the surface of its tablet or phone screens that gives them a matte finish and allows them to pretty closely mimic the experience of using an e-reader, like one of Amazon's many Kindles. 

It can make for a pretty interesting tablet experience in particular, letting you enjoy all the benefits of an e-reader while also being able to use the likes of YouTube and Netflix as you would on an iPad or Fire Tablet. 

TCL's latest launch on this front takes the form of the NXTPaper 14 Pro, a 14-inch tablet that hopefully brings some welcome power upgrades and the newest version of TCL's UI. 

It'll let you toggle instantly between a standard colour mode, a more paper-esque finish and a full black and white e-reader mode whenever you like from the quick settings dock, making it ideal for those who read a lot and want a single device that can accomplish a wide range of tasks. 

Under the hood, TCL is calling this the 3.0 version of NXTPaper, and the big change it's shouting about is the addition of Circularly Polarized Light screens, which will apparently help to simulate the effect of natural light on the display.

To simplify that, TCL says it'll be more like reading a page in natural light than ever before where colours and the softness on the eye are concerned, which can only be a good thing. 

That said, we don't really know all that much about the actual power driving the NXTPaper 14 Pro, in terms of its processing oomph, and we also don't have a price or release date for the tablet. 

Having used a NXTPaper tablet before, I'm conscious that its relative power is pretty key to how it'll feel to use - if it can avoid any lag while opening apps, multitasking or just in regular use, then that'll be quite a big differentiator compared to some of TCL's earlier efforts.