TCL’s paperlike OLED phone made me more excited for the iPhone Duo

I’ve spent most of the last couple weeks using an otherwise unexceptional midrange Android phone with one amazing feature: a matte OLED display. That screen is by far the best thing about the TCL P80 Ultra, and weirdly, it’s made me more excited for the iPhone Duo and its matte inner display.

2023’s TCL Nxtpaper 40 first brought matte displays to the company’s phones, after they appeared on tablets in 2021. Nxtpaper is more than a simple matte finish on a panel: it also includes a paperlike feel and low-power, monochrome modes that create a reasonable facsimile of an E Ink screen. But the matte effect has always been the biggest draw for me.

The P80 Ultra’s screen is special because it’s the first to combine the Nxtpaper tech with an OLED panel. That means it’s the best-looking Nxtpaper screen yet, with deeper blacks, better contrast, and richer colors. Previous models have felt a little visually compromised; this one doesn’t. It also finally enables an always-on display. Always-on displays have been the norm on Android for years, and the fact that TCL’s Nxtpaper phones didn’t have them was a dealbreaker for many.

I’ve used a couple of Nxtpaper phones over the last few years, but usually found the tradeoffs — both across the specs and in the screen itself — never quite made sense. In some respects, that’s still true for the P80 Ultra, which I can’t entirely recommend as a phone in its own right. Performance has been sluggish and stuttering, and while the triple rear camera has decent enough specs on paper, photo quality is distinctly average.

The difference now is that the display feels like all upside. As an OLED, it’s bright and beautiful, with enough color and contrast to suit both scrolling and streaming. But the matte finish keeps it comfortable to look at, even at cranked up brightness or in a dimly lit room, with less flicker and blue light than most other displays. Nxtpaper’s anti-glare effect actually makes this a really excellent phone to use in brighter environments. It looked great under the bright lights of TCL’s IFA tradeshow booth, no mean feat. And the viewing angles are truly excellent, with good visibility even when the phone is almost entirely side-on. That’s without touching on the texture, which is smooth and satiny, so your finger sticks just a little less when swiping. It’s a small thing, but a welcome one.

Because this is a Nxtpaper phone, it goes a little further. A dedicated toggle on the phone’s side triggers one of two more substantial overhauls to the display. Paper Mode washes out the display’s color — or can go fully monochromatic if you prefer — to make it even easier on your eyes, with the option to exclude individual apps so they run as usual. Streaming apps and games are exempted by default. Max Ink Mode is more drastic: it’s strictly monochrome and removes access to most apps and OS features, giving you a power-efficient mode with minimal distractions, turning the P80 Ultra into something between an e-reader and a dumb phone.

Although most other phones are limited to aftermarket matte screen protectors to get anything like the same effect, TCL isn’t the only manufacturer making hardware with a matte display. Huawei has made a string of tablets with what it calls PaperMatte panels, and Lenovo and Xiaomi offer similar screens on select models. Matte screens underpin the painterly effect of Samsung’s Frame TVs (and imitations from rivals including TCL). And then, of course, there’s Apple’s nano-texture glass.

Apple’s offered this coating as an option on iPad Pro models since 2024, selling it on the basis that its paperlike qualities are beneficial to anyone using the iPad Pro as a drawing device. It’s now appearing on a phone for the first time in the iPhone Duo, with Apple relying on the anti-glare effect to minimize the visibility of the foldable panel’s crease.

I haven’t had the chance to try the Duo yet, but using the P80 Ultra has made me more excited to. Pairing a matte effect with the Duo’s large inner screen sounds great, and it’s one of the few elements of the Duo that no Android foldable can currently match. My only hesitation is that Apple didn’t make the outer panel matte too — an odd choice given how much it’s emphasized the seamless switch between the two screens — so I worry the transition might be jarring. Given the book-style form factor, Apple will also be missing a trick if it doesn’t create its own e-reader-inspired mode for the Duo to match TCL’s, though the existing grayscale mode might be a decent imitation.

Perhaps what’s most exciting about an iPhone adopting a matte panel is that within the year we’ll probably see Android brands imitate it, something TCL wasn’t able to inspire. We’ve already seen the Duo’s squat form factor appear in handsets from Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei, with Motorola teasing its own too. The Duo’s matte layer hasn’t yet sparked its own imitators, but I suspect it’s only a matter of time, especially if it helps hide foldable creases. Not every phone needs to be matte, but I would love more of them to give me the option. Hopefully Apple’s industry influence grants me my wish.