Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsWON'T CONNECT to newer phone Hotspots because of cost cutting hardware even their reps admitted!!!
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2024
TCL, a company which I've bought TV's in the past from before, and since TV's are basically a bigger display screen and the cell phones a smaller display screen, I figured if they can make decent TV's, why not cell phones, correct? BIG MISTAKE!!!
I bought this TCL phone soley for the purpose of using WiFi on it only and not even connecting for service as it's just something I wanted to watch sports and videos with. It does connect to my house WiFi just fine but when I attempted to connect to my iPhone 15 PM hotspot via WiFi when I was not at home, it just WOULD NOT connect, and since it is the ONLY phone or device that I own that won't connect to my iPhone hotspot, I know it's not my iPhone's hotspot problem. Originally thinking it might be my particular iPhone and this particular TCL phone, I also tried friends iPhone 15 and it will not connect to their hotspot either.
This TCL phone does find the iPhone hotspot but when trying to connect after writing in password, the message "Obtaining IP address" will appear and it will show it as "Saved" but not connected. After multiple attempts at connecting, another message "IP configuration failure" will appear after which an "Authentication problem" message will next appear (see attached pics). Not understanding what's going on, I googled online and found forums where people actually had these similar problems, and a soulution for some people was to reset network settings and it might connect. I did that but still NOTHING!!!
Frustrated and annoyed because I had already bought 2 cases and screen protectors for this TCL phone, I called T-Mobile Tech support/Apple Support and spent hours with them on the phone explaining the issue after which they both had me resetting both phones, resetting networks, changing hotspot names, passwords, leaving phones turned off for 10 mins after rebooting all to NO avail. And in the end after all that, they both came to the SAME conclusion...
HARDWARE COMPATABILITY ISSUES!!!
That this budget TCL phone lacks the newer wireless WiFi connectivity hardware and uses cost cutting cheaper outdated hardware that will not support the iPhone 15 hotspot which uses the latest wireless WiFi connectivity hardware and technology. Apple Support even went so far as to tell me that they've heard of cases where certain budget Android devices will connect to older iPhone hotspots but not newer ones and that if I were to try it with an older iPhone such as an iPhone 8 or 9, it will MOST probably connect!!!
Annoyed and frustrated as heck at this point at all my WASTED hours on the phone and having to waste more time returning this phone, I checked the TCL website for their Customer Support number and decided to call them to ask them if this was really the issue before packing and starting the return process.
The TCL rep was friendly enough but wanted to go through "troubleshooting" which after I heard the steps, EXPLAINED to him that it was all done two times already to no avail but he insisted on doing again. After another hour of resetting, changing names and pw's, rebooting and doing basically the same things the previous T-Mo/Apple techs had me do, the TCL rep concluded that since the TCL phone can connect to my house WiFi and older iPhones, it was the new technology in the iPHONE 15 PM THAT WAS THE PROBLEM!!!
The TCL rep then went on to explain to me that the PROBLEM being that because Apple and other manufacturers flagship phones uses advanced and cutting edge technology that their bare bones budget TCL 40 series phones often cannot pick up, to not pair a cheap phone with a flagship model phone from another manufacturer because there will be compatibility issues. He also told me that in no way can a TCL phone compare and compete against and would definitely have compatibility issues with an iPhone (he even claims that he uses an iPhone himself, LOL). I really hope that my call with TCL was recorded and will be picked to be "used for training purposes".
But all in all, this budget phone is good looking and I guess if you never plan on using it to draw WiFi from more "newer model" phones hotspots, it's a good buy for the price with its big screen and 90hz refresh rates. Battery life is decent but I like my phones bright and even at full brightness, this TCL phone was just too dim for me. I understand the cost cutting LCD/OLED screens used in budget or more top of the line phones but even among budget phones, this TCL display was dim.
I have no use for this phone as it doesn't do the only one thing I really ask of it to do, so I will be returning it and probably looking at a budget Samsung A series phone or a Moto.