TCL Tab 10L Gen 2 review – Ready for a little comic relief?

7.1 Comic actor

TCL's 10in tablet isn't powerful enough to work as a general purpose machine. It won't replace your laptop or your phone. But it can stand on its own as a streaming or reading device for those times when you don't want to a) lug a laptop around or b) squint at finer detail on a smartphone display.

• Battery 8
• Display 7
• Performance 6
• Design 7
• Value 7.5
• User Ratings (4 Votes) 3.5

What is your tablet actually for? That’s the question you’ll have to ask before purchasing something like TCL’s Tab 10L Gen 2 (we’re just going to call it the Tab 10L from now). It’s also the question you should ask before buying any budget tablet.

Yes, it’s a portable little computer with a fair-sized screen but it does less than your average smartphone or laptop computer. A tablet, to be competitive with either device it closely resembles, has to be substantially more expensive than this budget slate.

At around R2,900, you’ll never edit videos on the Tab 10L. You can, if you hate yourself, but it’s not a great idea. It won’t replace any of your work hardware either. Pairing a Bluetooth keyboard is an option but there are more convenient ways of getting that functionality. So why pick this device in particular? The answer is easy. Entertainment.

Slate. Grey. 

Before we get into what sort of entertainment — and it’s quite specific — let’s take a look at what the Tab 10L consists of. There’s a 10.1in LCD dominating the front. The thickness of the bezels tells you what sort of budget we’re operating under while the resolution — it’s just 800 x 1,280 — is another indicator that this device occupies the lower part of the price bracket.

But it’s not at the lowest rung, which helps to explain the remaining build quality. The frame and back panel are grey aluminium, lending strength to the overall shape. The tab’s 8mm thickness only looks porky compared to very premium tablets from the likes of Apple and Samsung.

Otherwise, the layout is the same as any budget smartphone or tablet. Buttons on the upper right edge, a speaker vent at the base, and a USB-C charge port and 3.5mm port on top. The upper edge is also where the other speaker vent and a SIM tray live. You’ll also stick your supported microSD card (and you’ll want one) into the latter recess.

Copied homework

The Tab 10L’s internal specs are workable, if not respectable. There’s a MediaTek MT8766B processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage in Stuff‘s review model. Something about the spec sheet stood out to us, especially when taken with the screen specs. That’s because it’s almost entirely cribbed (that’s the wrong word but it’s the one we’re using) from Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A7 Lite.

The major difference between Chinese brand TCL and Samsung’s efforts is the screen size. Samsung packs more pixels into a smaller 8.7in display, while TCL serves up some in-plane switching (IPS) for better view angles. There are also battery differences — TCL’s 6,000mAh effort is larger, Samsung’s 5,100mAh job charges quicker — but for the most part these are the same machine.

This means you shouldn’t expect gaming-capable performance from this tablet. The screen is bright enough and features enough resolution to make most streamed content look good. The entertainment on offer here is mostly of the passive kind. If you can watch it or read it, you’ll be well served. If you’ve got to interact with something more than a comments section, you’re in for a bad time.

Snap decision 

This is especially true of the TCL Tab 10L’s cameras. The company has optimistically branded the rear sensor as an ‘AI camera’ but that’s not a case of truth in advertising. The front-facing camera is a dinky little 2MP affair. You’ll navigate a video call well enough, provided you’re not interested in sharing fine details. The trouble is that the rear camera has exactly the same performance. Yup, a lowly two-megapixel sensor is mostly around the back so TCL can say that one is included. You’re unlikely to get any compelling snaps from the TCL potatocam but you’re not supposed to take photos with a tablet anyway. Didn’t your parents teach you anything?

There’s less to complain about from the battery. 6,000mAh is a fair number for a ten-inch tablet and the Tab 10L isn’t the most resource-hungry machine. It’ll chug through a constant stream of video content for ages, with Wi-Fi (or an internal data connection) active the whole while. If load shedding ever comes back, you’ll be glad you’ve got this sucker sitting in reserve.

The screen is also spacious and responsive enough that the Tab 10L will serve admirably as a reading device. Not Kindle ebooks, the screen is far too reflective for monochrome work. But scrolling through your various feeds, be they Reddit, Facebook (yuck), or something equally distracting, is what this slate was made for. The same goes for comics. The screen acreage makes the Tab 10L ideal for marvelling over the finer details of Greg Rucka’s Wolverine run or Garth Ennis’ Punisher MAX series.

TCL Tab 10L Gen 2 verdict

You probably don’t need a R3,000 tablet. They’ve got limited usefulness, though they can be reluctantly pushed to perform productive tasks. But if you’re looking to enhance your entertainment arsenal without breaking the bank, the TCL Tab 10L is a fairly good place to start your investigation. The hardware inside is hardy enough to let you watch or read something without too much slowdown and the build is worthy of a big international like TCL.

That’s possibly the selling point for this tablet. It’s made by TCL. There’s effort and money behind its development. It won’t suddenly stop functioning or see apps pull support following a new update in six months. It’ll stick around for years, especially if you plop it into the included clear case. Just don’t expect to take any photographs with it. Or play games. But other than that, we’d be happy to use this one daily.