TCL is one brand that quietly masters the art of giving people what they actually need on low-end phones, where everyone is chasing flagships. They’ve recently swung hard at the smartphone market with the new TCL K32 5G and it’s surprisingly affordable for all that it offers. The phone is officially available for sale, and it’s debuting at $120. Here’s all that it offers.
TCL has a vision for budget phone with the K32
The new TCL K32 5G phone has a 6.75-inch HD+ display that’s bigger than most devices, and quite huge for its price range. The brand has also added their signature NXTVISION tech, which fine-tunes color and clarity in real-time. It’s the same display tech that made their tablets stand out, now on a phone that’s clearly made for media lovers trying to save money.
Overall, the design is elegant with slim bezels on the sides and a slightly thicker chin at the bottom. The screen has a centered teardrop notch that carries the 5MP selfie camera. On the back is a matte finish in Midnight Blue, with the rear camera module positioned in a rectangular cutout and stacked vertically in the upper left corner. It houses a 13MP main sensor and a 2MP depth sensor.
From the side view, the phone is slim and has curved edges with a visible side-mounted fingerprint sensor likely integrated with the power button. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C port at the bottom.
Snapdragon processor and large battery on a budget
The Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 5G processor runs inside the TCL’s K32 5G and may actually be the smartest choice the brand made with the phone. Qualcomm launched it in 2024 as a slightly toned-down version of the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 with similar DNA.
It uses a four-nanometer process and carries eight cores, two Cortex-A78 cores running at 2.0GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores running at 1.8GHz. Those were high-end not long ago, and still fast enough for the basics of anything you need it to do.
The device also has a large 5010mAh battery that should buy you 2.5 hours of use, and offers 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage. That’s the only configuration you’ll get. A large chunk of it goes to Google’s Android 15 software onboard, and of course, system apps.
But the consolation is that you get support for up to 2TB of MicroSD expansion, as expected from a budget phone. The new software also provides features to help you optimize storage further.
That said, Android 15 out of the box is such a luxury, given that the update is so large Google had to up the storage requirement to 32GB for every phone. It’s a huge chunk for any phone with limited storage, and manufacturers would usually just go for something lighter like Android 12 or 13.
It’s worth noting that the TCL K32 5G is a carrier-locked phone, tied directly to Metro by T-Mobile. You won’t find it sold widely across retailers because it’s part of Metro’s promotional lineup. Right now, they’re offering it for free when you bring your number and activate on a qualifying plan. Extra terms and conditions also apply. If you’re a new customer without a number to port in, or an existing user, you’ll pay the full $120 price.
