TCL makes its first appearance on AT&T and Cricket with 30 Z smartphone

Budget handsets are always interesting. Since costs are a primary concern, it’s interesting to see what kinds of compromises are made by the company in order to get a product to launch at a certain price point. TCL has long offered low to mid-range products in the US but is now finally making its debut on AT&T and Cricket with the introduction of the TCL 30 Z.

The TCL 30 Z comes in two colors: Elegant Black and Slate Gray. The handset is powered by a MediaTek Helio A22 processor and 3GB RAM. It also has 32GB of internal storage with expansion via microSD up to 512GB. The design is quite simple. It has a 6.08-inch HD+ display on the front and the back is made of textured plastic. The display has a teardrop cutout for its 5MP front-facing camera.

In 2022, the TCL 30 Z has a micro-USB connection

TCL is also touting NXTVISION for its display, stating that it will provide “enhanced visuals” that will improve contrast, videos, pictures, and more. Plus it will have adaptive modes for better eye care. The phone will also rely on an 8MP main rear camera, shooting videos at 1080p at 30fps. If you’re curious what kind of security this phone offers, it will not offer a fingerprint reader and will instead make use of facial recognition. This is quite a bold move for TCL, considering that face masks have become the norm in the past couple of years.

Thankfully, the handset will be running Android 12 and will make use of all the beneficial features Google’s software has to offer. The device will charge its 3,000mAh battery via micro-USB (yes, you read that right) and will also have a 3.5mm headphone jack. The TCL 30 Z will be available on AT&T and Cricket. Currently, AT&T does not have pricing, but it should arrive for under $100. On Cricket, the phone is priced at $49.99.