A while back, TCL debuted their NxtPaper tech on a 14-inch Pro tablet, giving folks a productivity machine with an eye-friendly paper-like display. Problem is, 14-inch tablets are massive affairs, so it’s not exactly the kind of machine most students will be taking to the classroom. The TCL Tab A1 NxtPaper, though, just might fit that bill.
An 11-inch tablet, the device lets you enjoy the outfit’s paper-like display on a tablet that’s perfectly sized for daily use. Whether you want to use it as a note-taking tablet in school, a document reader for work, or just a casual entertainment machine around the house, this is a much more accessible version of their massive Pro tablet from last year.
The TCL Tab A1 NxtPaper doesn’t use an OLED like the previous Pro tablet. Instead, it’s equipped with an 11-inch LCD that offers 2.1K resolution (2,112 x 1,320 pixels), a 16:10 aspect ratio, and up to 500 nits of brightness, so it should work decently well in direct sunlight. A 3A Crystal Shield Glass on top of the display gives it a matte finish, while eliminating glare, reflections, and smudges, which definitely does a lot to help it achieve the paper-like appearance. By default, it runs on Standard Mode, which is designed to look like a regular tablet screen, so you can watch movies, play games, or browse through Instagram like normal. However, if you want to use it for reading or drawing, you can activate either the Color Paper Mode or the Ink Paper Mode, which turns the erstwhile LCD panel into a paper-like display.
The biggest advantage of this over E-Ink devices is, of course, the fact that it’s an LCD panel. That means, the display has high refresh rates, so you don’t the ghosting or the painfully slow screen refresh that happens with e-readers. In this case, it has a 90Hz refresh rate, so you can even use it for gaming and enjoy smooth action visuals onscreen.
The TCL Tab A1 NxtPaper is bundled with the outfit’s T-Pen 2 stylus, so you can write, scribble, and draw onscreen like you’re working with pen and paper. The stylus comes with 4,096 pressure levels and two interchangeable tips (broad and thin), so it should allow for an authentic-feeling drawing and writing experience. Like other modern tablets, it gets cameras, specifically an 8MP autofocus camera in the rear and a 5MP front-facing sensor, as well as a quad-speaker stereo system and dual microphones. It runs on an 8,000 mAh battery that supports 20W fast-charging, although they don’t have a usage time rating.
The tablet is powered by a MediaTek MTK G100 octa-core processor, with up to 16GB of RAM (only 6GB built-in, but you can expand it), 128GB of built-in storage, and up to 2TB of expandable storage, so you can equip this for serious productivity tasks. Other features include IP54 water resistance, a slim build that measures just 0.24 inches thick, a light weight of under a pound, a folio case that doubles as a three-angle stand, and Android 16 built-in with native Gemini AI integration.
The TCL Tab A1 NxtPaper is available now.
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