CES 2021: TCL NXTPAPER, TCL 20 Series, Smart Glass, Rollable Phone By Charbax

And we are live, hi, hello, I'm Nicholas so uh. You had a really cool CES keynote. Actually, how did you do it? Uh? How we did the press conference? Well, yeah um. It has been um pre-recorded in a studio here in Shenzhen china um, as there was no real uh CES. So everything is virtual, so we had quite a setup in an in epic studio, and we recorded it, live there and then played the video more or less nice and uh. So there's many very exciting products from TCL.

You have the 20 series, which is affordable.5G. You have a rollable phone, which everybody is saying is the biggest news of CES. Furthermore, you have uh, I think. Maybe a revolutionary device called the next paper right as a sunlight, readable display, LCD, ultra low power right, and you have a demo there yeah so well. It is not an LCD because an LCD has actually backlighted.

So it's based on a new display technology which is uh IPS and what it does is um. It's a display technology. It's called TCL next paper, and it doesn't have any backlight, so it actually takes the environment light that is reflected so to say on the screen and there's a number of benefits you have with this technology. So, first, the component itself display component gets like 35 slimmer, so you can make a very thin tablet and um also, you know the reading experience is very, very comfortable. It's kind of a similar reading.

Experience like you would have on e-ink or e-reader products, but this one is in full color and it also uh plays video. We particularly uh looking at this product uh for current times right now, when all of us need to spend so much time in front of screens, because our all lives moved so the same front of screens we're working from home, we're going to school from home. All our social interaction is happening from home, so what I can do is like. I can quickly show you the product as well what it does so this is actually the next paper and uh as you can see, uh it's pretty thin, all right and uh. When the, when you look at the display sorry, I tried to do this here with this camera you're indoor right in indoor lighting right now, I'm in India I'm in my office um, so it is does take so to see the light and reflects it and, as you can see, it's a full color.

It might look like this is a dummy, but actually the display works, and I can also show you how we can play uh videos um on this display um, because this is one of the key benefits so to say for um for compared to eating tablets because um this place, video is in full color, and also it has um android 10 installed. So you can run all the kind of apps and browse the web and everything, and it's just 7.4, millimeter, thick and also uh. The weight is just 316 gram, so this makes it very comfortable to hold it for a long time and work with this. So you know if you, if you need to be now very productive, um from home, and you need to watch on the screen for a long time. This makes it a very comfortable reading experience, and it's a completely new display technology that TCL has like 26 different.

You know new patterns applied for that uh. Are you um? What's it called uh shipping with the front light option or something like that, so people can light it up at night. Also, what's the front light solution so uh? Yes, there is a little accessory in the box uh, which is an extra light source uh. You connect that so to say to the tablet uh. It takes the power from the tablet, and it's just an extra light source, which uh gives you some external light.

This is specifically in environments where maybe you are in your bedroom, and you read a book, or you browse the web. Just before you sleep. Usually you don't want to turn on the full light, then in your bedroom, so uh. This is provided as part of the box that you have it, but you know in regular conditions. Like you know, I don't have much light in my office right now, uh it.

It works perfectly fine and, of course, some also outside with sunlight um. This uh actually works pretty good. It does also have no flicker. It has no blue light. Furthermore, it has no glare uh.

So it's a's. It's kind of an experience like a paper-like display. It's very, very exciting. I think, because uh, if you are really mass manufacturing this and depending on the quality of the know, uh saturation contrast uh. You know all these performance things that, hopefully people are thinking that it looks good.

So how do you think it compares with an e-ink? Can you actually use it for reading? Oh, yeah sure you can. You can use it for anything, so you know it has. It has much more benefits than any, so the reading experience is very similar like in eating. So you have a very high contrast and the very, very high sharpness as well um, but it is color usually and uh, e-ink or earrings are most of the time a black and white or a monochrome. And you know it's not a good experience.

If you play some videos- or you can only play like very simple games like chess or things which are moving very slowly here on this uh CNX paper, you can do anything you want like on a regular tablet. It's just you know. The display is different, it's not as bright as an lcd, but you know it protects your eye much better. So you, if you want to have a bit of a comparison. Probably if you take your current tablet and put the brightness level to around 30 35, you get kind of an experience how bright it is with normal lighting conditions.

Um- and this is actually you know, it makes it a calmer experience when you uh read something so this is perfect for it for reading, but much more so, of course, for education purposes uh. This is great, but you know today's education is not just reading a book or text right. You have graphics, you have animations, or maybe you need to create something as well so this. This is why you believe this product is actually perfect as well for this scenario uh. But it's really.

It's going to be very interesting to see how it looks in the sunlight, for example, that could be because, if uh, let's say hopefully this strange time of uh, uh social distancing disappears soon but uh, maybe one thing one could consider is in the upcoming summer. People might want to go out in the park, and you know like work with direct sunlight is a great for inspiration for uh. The mood is better. Everything is better if, if people can work outside, there's a big difference, oh sure yeah this this this works perfectly outside, and you know, as I said in a way the more light you have, the stronger the display so to say performs because it needs light to um. Do this uh reflection, okay, so yeah it's in and due to the fact that it's anti-glare also this is.

This is typically, of course, also outside. If you go for the park, you know um. This is uh. This product is optimal to use it, because if you, if you use a traditional LCD tablet which has backlight, and then you have the sunlight, you know this. This kind of competes with each other.

This one takes the sunlight and reflects it back, which is good, uh. One application that I think would be a fantastic for this kind of display, uh, uh, provided maybe also that there might be some improvements in the front line technology. You know, like some e-readers, have uh perfectly integrated front light options, so they can like uh nicely. You know like uh, even with the light sensor so automatically like a Kindle. Furthermore, you know like it, it fronts lights.

Somehow, maybe this technology hopefully can integrate with the same kind of front light technology. So this screen also works in a darker environment and indoors and still is great for the eyes yeah. So we of course we're looking on how we can optimize it for now we feel like this is a very good experience. What you have um and in case you know, we what we, what to try to avoid is uh to build in a lot of different light sources, because then you know kind of the purpose of the product is lost. Uh.

If you take away the backlight of the display, and then you build in a lot of you know, fixed light sources, and it becomes heavy, it becomes thick. It starts to consume a lot of power battery again, because one of the clear benefits of this display technology is that it's much more efficient when it comes about power, consumption. So um this we yeah, we are just doing the tests right now versus a same tablet, size same battery size. You know how much longer you can use it, but from the calculations in our engineering department like it's up to 65 percent longer, you know you can use it and, of course this is where we need to be cautious, because if you then start to put a lot of separate lights in it yeah it consumes battery, but you're, looking at uh, if you're looking at something, you know uh as well right now. The solution we have is that you have a little light source which you can put on top in case.

You need it: okay, so uh TCL and uh, uh sister company, I guess or maybe same company cost- is doing the display right and uh cost supplies displays for every company right. Anybody who wants them right. One thing that I think would be fantastic. You know like this. MacBook m1 are very, very popular right now, and people are talking about the long battery life on these arm powered laptops.

I would love to see some armpit laptops with this display, and then they might be able to get 50 hours of battery life. Well. Theoretically, yes, that's possible right um. So what is a bit um? I can only comment for what we do in TCL communication and yes, it's true. We are selling our display um.

You know the manufacturing displays also for other products for other brands, and they're using this. That's that's uh part of our business um, but this one now obviously is very new. So I'm not aware of that there is anybody yet um showing a strong interest. But yes, you know we's not just this display technology. We are experimenting with a lot of different display technologies.

So, of course, we have the foldable flexible, bendable rollable, yours, you can do very small displays which you can build into your glasses, and this one is particularly strong when it comes about eye protection and long display usage. You know, so it's not just this product, so we have very, very or many many um solutions which we want to bring to the market because TCL is, is a global leader when it comes about basically manufacturing and display technology. If you have a lot of expertise- and this is what you want to apply to create some meaningful- you know new product use cases and also take into uh consideration like the situation where people are living in right now, so we spend you know if just discount yourself how many hours a day you spend in front of a screen these days right. Everything happens through the screen these days so and that's that we feel like you know. If we can add something as well for the eye protection, then this could be a real good user experience and uh.

You talk also about the next vision. So but that's uh normal backlight technology, I mean maybe a special backlight technology, but there's a bunch of considerations also in this regular smartphone and tablet displays so all our products. You know right now, next paper, we cannot count in for that, but all the other smartphones and the tablets they are actually powered by our property. Visual technology, which we call next vision and next vision. Uh consists on mainly four things so, first, through its AI technology, it helps to boost and the performance of the display.

So we have a much better visual experience and some products will even have like a dedicated uh display engine. This is like similar. You would have a very strong gaming PC, and you put a powerful graphic card into this. You know if you want to have this, so some products will even come with additional hardware. What it does is um.

It has much higher color accuracy, uh, but also um. The clarity of the contrast is much improved for all the content you're watching on your phone. You know also your own pictures and anything and something which we know particularly consumers. Like is it does convert automatically your SDR content, which most of the videos are SDR quality into uh HDR, and this just delivers a better visual experience, and then you know. The second point is about eye protection, so we're building in a lot of technologies which reducing the blue light uh, but also smart reading mode or adaptive light technologies to make them more comfortable and more safe experience in the future.

You will see next vision, also being applied into you, know: flexible form, factors of course, and also what you're introducing this year at cs is what we call the display collaboration uh mode on the next vision. So we want to make it very easy to connect different products with each other. So you know typically, what is today is possible is that you can cast from your phone to the TV. Many people are doing this using Wi-Fi Bluetooth whatever, so we are having some ideas where we also put in NFC on the remote control, and you simply tap so to see the phone with the remote control, and you're connected and help you go. But you know to make an easy connectivity and once you're connected you're looking at solutions, how you can bring your phone screen simultaneously onto the TV screen or onto the PC screen, because today you might work on something, or you might watch something, and then we need to check your tablet.

We need to check the phone. You know we're very busy, and things like this if you can actually combine these different screens into one large screen, you just look at one thing, and you keep track. Only an important message comes in etc. , and the third element in this uh collaborative display experience is also that we want to make it easier to share content among different devices, so um working on solutions that you can simply drag and drop. Your pictures, your videos from one device to the other, or even your Excel sheets or PowerPoints.

Then you edit it of the PC, and you move it back, and we use the benefit of that that our phones are obviously based on androids and our tablets are based on android and GPL is also the global leader when it comes to android TVs. So this is kind of one uh consistent platform, and we're looking at ways to make this a very seamless, uh experience for the users and to make it easier and find some ways to make this just a better experience. Sometimes today is still a hassle to connect these products, so something that I'm very eager to hear. What's uh, what's up with your new 20 series, uh as far as I understand, maybe uh it will. The whole series will support the smart glass, so maybe uh, maybe they all have type c display part output, so that means uh.

Like the previous generation, you were able to connect the type c to an external display right, but it was just mirroring the phone. Maybe, but are you doing this on the whole range uh? Well, no, it's! I cannot confirm that all the phones will support that so, but um. If we talk about our wearable displays that that is a different concept. Okay, this is not VR. This is not an r okay.

This is more or less a display extension and I can also show you that product you know just um that you get a bit of an of an idea. We have showed this several times as project archery um, which sometimes it was a little clumsy to put it on the head, etc. So we have improved a lot when it comes to the economics and everything and uh. Today they became. I call these pretty cool sunglasses, you know, so I can just simply.

You know very like this. Okay, that's it. I connect so to say through a wire through my smartphone or my tablet, and there is around you know already a hundred devices on the market, not just with TCL, which actually can do this, and then you just see whatever you see on your smartphones, you see this in front of you on a 140-inch kind of screen. So this you know many young people, they don't buy large TVs any more today and they play it, but they watch all the content on the smartphones. So but you know if, then, you want to watch a real blockbuster movie in the future um, it's not the greatest experience right.

If these classes, you can actually you know, hang on your so far, and you can watch the blockbuster movie, and it's like you would have fantastic. It's like you're sitting in a cinema, okay, they're super light. Okay, uh there are less than 100 grams and very comfortable to wear and really what people like is. I can still see now my screen here. I can still see if somebody comes to my office, so it's not like VR goggles, which are getting you know, blacking you out and, and you don't you're, not in control anymore with the environment, or you don't know what is happening around you here.

You still can see around and everything, but you have like a very, very big screen in front of you, so this um is also a different display concept which uh we bring to the market in a partnership um which we cannot disclose yet. But you can expect that this becomes available in q1 as well, and it's going to be a bundle package of the wearable display, together with the TCS smartphone, together with a content subscription uh offer, okay, where you can watch movies, uh, games and stuff like this. So this will be more details about that will be released very soon. But, as I remember last year, when you were launching the 10 series right, um, the way that this would connect would be by cable type c, directly to the phone yeah. Let's do this, so that probably means that the phone, the whole series hopefully has a type c output right.

The video output yeah. I cannot. I cannot confirm that the whole series has it okay, but definitely there will be products which do it. So, as I said, you know, the bundle package goes on. The market is the wearable display and the TCS smartphone and the content package.

So, yes, you can expect that there will be products which have this uh USB video out uh, because then uh, the kind of like my hope, a little is that you might do something that actually Motorola is talking about right now. You know, like the number one and number two smartphone companies in the world Samsung and Huawei they're, both doing type-c PC mode. You know like a desktop mode when you output it'd be so nice if TCL was considering, if, if you already have type c DisplayPort, maybe it's just a soft software kind of thing and then suddenly and what's great about that- is that your phones are very uh cool prices. Furthermore, you know like you're, not sending prices you're, not selling phones at a thousand euro, unless it's maybe a rollable one uh or one that can levitate. I don't know in the future or something but uh.

That's just something. That would be that I'm a little hoping for that. You might yeah. If you actually have this output, maybe you can use it for that. So I can confirm that we are looking into this and looking at solutions and this I cannot confirm when or which products exactly will do this, but you know I told you a little before about this display collaboration mode, which we are having.

Of course, you know this. What you just described is also kind of a display collaboration and where your smartphone transforms into something else kind of real productivity tool. So definitely we are looking into this, but you know also um to be clear is um. Sometimes you need to have a very powerful processor CPU into these phones, and usually you know a TCL if you're focusing on democratizing these technologies and make it affordable. You, you see like some of these very expensive phones.

They have, of course, the latest processes and CPUs. We usually work with a generation which uh is a little lower, but that's the job for everybody right and therefore uh. We need to see what is possible, but when it is a good user experience, then we're definitely going to bring it to the market. Yes, uh. The way I kind of like imagine this thing for actually many years is that even the mid-range kind of CPUs, especially the most modern ones, the ones that you're going to be using now, I think they have so much performance that uh, potentially a lot of people can do.

You know like a Chromebook experience kind of, and maybe even you could do it wirelessly to the android TV or to the smart TV right and or you could do it with the cable and both should be where it's just something. I've been hoping because this phone right here, TCL 20 5g, it's only 299 euro. Yes, that's a very affordable, 5g phone. Yes, so this you know this is where we're focusing on me. We already have introduced um last year.

You know two 5g devices, uh one is the tcl10 5g for the more European market and that the TCL 10 5g UW, together with Verizon- and this shows like our capabilities, that we can bring these latest technologies into much more affordable price segments. And we are keen that we uh reach as many as possible consumers. We don't want to make this an exclusive offer um for just you know the people who can afford a thousand dollar phone uh. So this is something we are very keen on, and it shows the strengths of our company because you know TCL as a brand or TCN mobile as a brand might be something that is new uh but TCL as a mobile company. We are here for 20 years.

You know we are one of the survivors, so we have a lot of experience in it and a lot of capability when it comes about from the r d side and doing these products, and therefore we can benefit from that. But yeah this is um. You see that 5g will probably grow quite a lot uh in this new year, because there is more competition as well, but also the networks already, and the carrier will probably uh push more on this 5g, and it's a fantastic experience. I don't know how it is right now in Europe, but uh. I hear people sometimes struggle with uh, with the fixed internet in their home, because it's overloaded- because everybody you know- is on the internet and needs to work or streaming videos, and sometimes people just switch to a 5g device or using a hotspot, and they get.

You know superfast internet, but it's mobile, and they still can enjoy all the things they need to do. Uh. Hopefully, the snapdragon 690 that you're using is a very good uh, because when I see those Qualcomm demonstrations when they say, oh, my god, you get one gigabit per second, and actually that was that's old. Now they're talking multi gigabit per second, it's like a fiber to your phone directly and another thing that I'm a little excited about that. Maybe you are thinking into that direction is uh cloud gaming because with the 5g you might get very low latency on the phone, so people can connect to very big cloud.

You know like it could be Stadia, or I prefer shadow, the French company or some other cloud kind of like low latency gaming directly on the phone sure this. This is part of the 5g proposition, so you know there's many things you get to 5g, but the two main things. Of course, I call this kind of mobile entertainment experience where you know all the things you're doing online like video watching or music. You know also for streaming services that just becomes a better experience and then just pass the loads. It's you don't have any interruption um, so this of course happening and then the second big thing is about gaming and online gaming, because you really don't have latency.

Now you know the the speed what you get is not just dependent on the phone. There is, of course, as well a network, the network configuration and whatever the situations you're into or your indoor or your outdoor, to get maximum speeds. Of course, that is not in our hands. That is more like in the hands of the network. But what I can tell you are like it's its it's its! You can feel if it's much, much faster and uh.

As I said, I have the feeling it's faster than many times the internet that I have in the home or in the office uh, to download something and to um or to stream something it's a perfect experience and uh. Then you also have a 4g LTE and a 20 series. That's just 149 right is uh. That price uh 20 SE is, is our most affordable, smartphone so far from TCL um, and this is kind of an entertainment, beast. Okay, it has a super large screen um, it has four cameras uh.

It has two loudspeakers one on the top on the bottom. This really delivers kind of a lot of entertainment experience and then, on top of that, we pack in five thousand million per battery that lets you really go much, much longer than a day and if you have battery left, you can also use this as a power bank to charge your other IOT devices you might have, if you. So. This is a very powerful value proposition. You get a lot of smartphones here for very little box.

Okay and this uh, the product is targeted, uh to come to the market this month, uh as well in January, and it's uh priced just below 150 euros, which is 149 euros. So of course we want to bring now TCL. You know in our second year now we also want to address the next price segments and when I reach more consumers- and we believe it's important as well- and the kind of situations of you know, tablets and phones- and all of this is kind of an essential product. These days that you stay in contact with everybody, but also people are more cautious on how much uh budget they have available for their next smartphone, and this is also very want to contribute and help the people to have a fantastic experience. But you know, maybe not it doesn't break your bank uh if you need to buy a new one, so uh you're talking a lot about prices in euros.

Does that mean you are very much focusing on the European market, the EU market? Or are you also doing a bunch of stuff in the US, or how is it going in the U. S. ? And so we know we have. Of course, we have a very high focus on North America in general, but also known as like Latin America. We are present now in all the regions.

Europe is a key market, so usually, whenever you announce a product and when you um for the first kind of availability, uh often these you can do this in Europe uh in the US, we have to be a little more patient uh, because there are some negotiations going on with the carriers. You know, and we know how this goes and then maybe at the later stage you will get more details uh on when this product is coming to the market in the US uh. And what is the price because um us is, the U. S. market is heavily dependent on the carrier, business so and this of course we cannot jump ahead.

So these negotiations are ongoing, but we can definitely confirm that you will see some products of the tc20 series and the those flexible robot overall ones, they're, definitely coming and hopefully not too expensive. Well, what the thing? What you're saying now at cs is that we, we have already showed like three dozen different prototypes and concept phones when it comes to rollable, flexible bendable, foldable display technologies, and we continued to experiment that we didn't have the ambition to be first, you know others, others can go first and price it very high. For us, it was very important that we can deliver a very mature product experience uh, but also uh, that the technology is uh. You know good enough and then and that really we can deliver something. And yes also we are looking at how we can bring that display technology into different price seconds than maybe you have seen in the last year um.

We only can confirm today that you will see the first commercial product coming. We will not say what it is: okay and also not what kind of display technology, but this is just the beginning. You have here a long-term strategy and this is exactly where we feel like TCL, can uh add a lot of innovation to the market by bringing a new product from fact the new use cases. You know, I hope it's going to be fun again, because you know for the last 10 to 12 years. We have only used more or less the same rectangular form factor.

So just a little. Can you say how well it's going because uh, I guess- maybe you might be doing a great job and that your market is growing very fast like especially in Europe? I guess uh some countries are. Are you very popular I'm just guessing here, Spain, France, or something like that? Yeah yeah, we're doing your, doing pretty good in a number of markets? Okay, but also, you know, take always into consideration. We are only one year old, okay, uh. We just started one year ago at CES uh, but we have quite a momentum, and we're doing this.

As I said, you know, TCL is not a new company, you know what also helps us is in parallel, we're rolling out more TVs and there are more clients for us coming to the market. So we're just you know at the beginning of our big story, because TCL is a consumer electronics company, and we are not just a phone player, okay, um and so far we are very happy with what you have seen uh in the countries- and we are very you know we are very uh kind of clear and and and what we can expect in the first one two three years, but nevertheless you know we understand this takes some time, because we still have our strong Alcatel business and discontinues. We are focusing on that um. This also allows us to really build this new experience for TCL products and let it grow and then deliver really new cool products which maybe you haven't seen yet in the market and hopefully uh with the new Biden administration. This kind of like tension, that's happening with the US and china, and especially between like the US, forcing google to do strange things with uh with the Chinese uh, especially with Huawei, but actually the Huawei issue is giving opportunity for Xiaomi and for TCL and others who don't have the same issue right.

So I'm guessing. Maybe that actually helps in terms of boosting your because you have the full google play and everything right. Yeah, sure I mean I can only comment on TCL, okay, I cannot comment what is the issues with the others but uh? There is now any impacts on TCL uh. We have full android implementation. We are a consumer electronics company.

Furthermore, we are not doing anything else right and we always have to focus for international business, so it's kind of natural. You know this is normally in this market. If one of the players gets a bit under pressure, of course, that's that's part of the game, then people step in and try to grab some possible market share, but as TCL we never look at this with a short term view. You know um. We are very keen to follow our long term strategy, because that is much, much more important for us just to gain.

You know two percent market share in three months and then lose it again, because somebody becomes cheaper and things like this. This is not a's, not a wise strategy. So if you're looking at this long term- and maybe you could consider bundling the phones with the TVs and everything like people can get all kinds of funny- we did that. Actually, with the 10 series you in several markets, you could uh. You had launch promotions where you buy a new TCL phone.

You get a free TV, headphone, yeah yeah this! No, no, they are real. You could get that in the UK. You could get it in uh in Portugal, in Philippines, there's a number of markets that have been running these promotions um to really promote as well TCL, okay. So, of course, you need to make a little of noise um in the market when you come as a new player, all right, because you already have a big market in China, but now you're going to replicate this uh everywhere cool. Well, no, we don't have a big market in China because TCL is not selling its products.

Its mobile products in China, so we are not selling on our productivity market. No, no! No! No! Our focus is always overseas. You know this year is a very international company, so might be a little strange, but we are not selling uh. Today we are not selling our mobile product range in China. We are focusing overseas club TV and the whole appliance is there they are sold in China all right, but I'm so eager.

I'm so looking forward to seeing the next paper and I hope it is performs great, and I hope, to see more and more uh development in that area, and hopefully people think it's uh, because then we can get really the premise of long battery life on armpit devices, not just one day battery, but like a weak battery or something kind of all right. You know we are looking forward as well. You know you see, we have a good momentum, we're looking forward now to bring all these product innovations to the markets, get the feedback on from the users and the customers, and we're very excited you know and, as you can see like, we have. We have quite the fast pace in bringing these products to the market, and I keep repeating myself. We are still at the beginning.

There is many more things to come all right. Thank you very much thanks for your time, thanks for talking about this new year, it's a pleasure, CES 2021 into.

Source : Charbax