One Week with the TCL Tab 11
It’s been a week already since my previous post about the TCL Tab 11, and so far so good. Given it’s a budget device that I bought for reading, I didn’t expect I’d like it this much.
This time I’m going to break the post in different sections for organization as it’s in longer format than the previous post about first impressions.
Bundled Devices
Let’s get through this quickly, the tablet comes with a T-Pen, a folio cover, and a bluetooth keyboard.
The latter two aren’t that good, yes the folio looks good but is a bit flimsy and when using it as a stand the carvings for the different angles don’t have much depth making it common for the tablet to slide bit. I’ve checked a couple alternatives but haven’t decided on one yet.
I will get a pen loop holder to attach the T-Pen because the included attachment is uncomfortable when laying the tablet flat.
I really didn’t like the keyboard, it’s in Spanish (not much I can do here) and the keys feel very cramped. It’s cool as a bonus, specially if you only need it to reply to emails, but I tried writing this post using it and didn’t go past the first paragraph.
Good thing is I can plug my ZSA Voyager mechanical keyboard directly and still consider it a “portable” setup (with short cables of course).
The T-Pen is good for its purpose, but it’s missing some features like being magnetic, the loop should solve this issue for me. It needs to be recharged, but according to TCL it lasts for about 100 hours of continuous usage, we’ll see about that.
I’ll mention more about it in the note-taking section.
Media Consumption
This was the main purpose I bought this tablet for, more specifically reading. Reading mode eases some of the eye-strain from looking at the computer all day, the characters are crisp, and my main goal of reading PDFs with diagrams, zooming in and out, has been accomplished.
I’m using Zoo for Zotero, following my previous post’s setup to synchronize with Syncthing, while using Xodo as my PDF reader. Loading PDFs with over 400 pages without problem.
A few days in, I noticed I made a newbie mistake by buying the tablet without the NXTPAPER technology, the one that makes the most sense for reading/writing, granting a paper-like feel. Anyway, a little more research and found out it’s not really available here or the US (Amazon US doesn’t even list the regular model).
Still, this display uses the NXTVISION visual adjustments which resulted in my favorite panel when compared to other tablets in the same price range. I checked other tablets at the store, so this part still holds true.
As for the paper-like feel, it’s not holding me back, and normally I’m reading indoors without direct lights and this isn’t much of a problem. I’d still like to see if there’s any improvement, so I’ll be buying a third party screen protector from Amazon that claims to help with glare.
For media consumption is pretty good, the full HD is likely what makes the most sense at this size, or even 2k. I’ve only used it for Youtube videos, which look even smaller when working with split screen, with colors being pretty good without oversaturation nor looking flat.
I was bit surprised by the audio, not only because of the volume, it’s a quad-speaker setup, but by the quality itself. This is my first tablet, but compared to laptop speakers (unless they’re Dolby Atmos) costing more than double, there’s so much more depth in the sound.
This is great for watching conference videos, making the voice clearer and not sound like a cricket. I must say it’s not the best in every aspect, it’s fine for a song or two, but I wouldn’t use it extensively for music listening.
Note-taking
A secondary purpose for this tablet is note-taking. On my computer I use Obsidian, and it’s still my favorite, I’m writing this post right now on the tablet, and it performs way better than the smartphone application. In case I want to write in longer formats, I feel like I’m covered as long as I keep a keyboard at hand or the handwriting recognition behaves.
Yet, that’s not where tablets shine. After looking for Samsung Notes(favorite to many) alternatives, something I hadn’t considered now that I chose a non-Samsung device, I landed on NoteIn.
NoteIn is similar to the preinstalled Jnotes application with the main difference being how polished it is. Without thinking it twice it replaced the physical notebook I always had on my desk for meeting notes, daily to-dos and general note-taking.
Too bad there’s no button shortcut for the T-Pen on this app for the eraser, making me rely on the toolbox shortcut a lot. Creating new pages, zooming, switching tools, exporting, everything has worked as expected.
It’s possible to embed images, link to other notes, change page templates, use OCR. I don’t see myself moving away from this app.
The clean UI is also good for taking notes while watching Youtube videos or reading PDFs, although for PDFs I mostly highlight with Xodo since NoteIn works on an imported copy of the PDF which breaks my sync.
This way I’ve removed my physical notebook I use on a daily basis and improved how I take notes when consuming media in a way that feels more natural. I’ll still carry pocket notebooks in my car, and near my desk for more transient stuff.
Performance
I haven’t watched 4k media nor tried playing anything, it’s not the reason I bought this. I do notice some apps having to reload when they haven’t been used for a while, but besides the initial load time I’d say the performance is decent.
However, apps like Google Slides are slow when editing presentations, not sure if this happens regardless of the device. And Miro takes a moment after loading the diagrams before being usable.
With 4GB of RAM don’t expect a multi-tasking powerhouse.
Battery
After a full day of usage, reading, writing notes throughout the day, watching Youtube videos after work and taking notes at the same time, it goes approximately from 100% to 65%. This is with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on.
Could better? Yes, it’s just not a limiting factor unless the only usage is video consumption or gaming.
Flexibility
This is just a glance at some of the cool features that work on specific scenarios.
- PC mode: Nice to have, not really something I need since I’ve used 2 apps at most so far.
- Second Screen: I don’t use Windows, but it’s still possible to use SmartView from my phone to cast. I also tried Duet, I’m not sure when I’d use it. Dex mode from my Samsung phone can also be cast here when using the same Wi-Fi for a bigger screen with my phone’s performance.
- Quick Share: works seemlessly with my phone and my Macbook using Neardrop.
- LTE/5G: It’s just handy.
I’ll update with the accesories once I get them and have more long-term thoughts about the tablet. Thanks for reading o/.