It’s time for a showdown! FIGHT FOR BLOOD! Psh! Psh! Psh!
(Those were supposed to be the punching sounds from my old showdown videos.)
Budget hardware is brutally competitive these days. The daily driver experience found near $400 is formidable, and we’re getting more options for different features. Adding 5G to the mix, these are the phones that will help move 5G forward in the Android space. More reasonably priced, but not compromising too much from the upper mid-range tier.
OnePlus has represented the idea of low price and high performance since the brand started. 2020 was a strong year for TCL coming out of the shadows with their own label on phones.
These two phones are primed for a battle!
Let’s see how some subtle differences effect performance!
How are each of these tests performed? Here’s my process for benchmarking phones!
Synthetic Bench – GeekBench 5
Starting off with a synthetic bench, we can see right away, even though these phones have different tiers of processors, CPU performance scores are very close. 2020 showed us that Qualcomm was a little stuck in their mid-range strategy. When we see only a handful of points difference between single and multi-core scores, we should assume that mainstream users will likely detect almost no difference in daily use.
From a 600 series Snapdragon to a 700 series, the main difference is in GPU performance. We see more significant gains here, so it should be interesting to see if that translates to real world gaming improvements.
I think it’s important to keep these synth scores in mind as we look at real world tests. How a phone uses a testing platform can be very different from how it uses a real app.
Video Render – PowerDirector
Inexpensive phones are able to shoot respectable UHD video, so it’s not out of the question that someone might want to edit that video on the phone. Have no fear! $400 phones can edit and render UHD video projects fairly well. This is a handy win for the TCL over the OnePlus, shaving a significant amount of time off the final render, and landing where we think it should opposite phones like the Pixel 5.
The OnePlus struggles a bit more than I thought it would with a complex video project, but it still manages to complete the project at a respectable quality.
Video Transcode – PowerDirector
Oddly, the gremlin we’ve seen before on PowerDirector creeps up again on both phones. A simple transcode test takes significantly longer, but the TCL really struggles to finish.
There has to be some kind of software or API issue at play. Where we saw the Snapdragon variant of the Velvet flounder, phones like the Wing, Pixel 5, and the Mediatek powered Velvet perform better. One would hope a future software update will correct these performance issues.
Podcast MixDown – Audio Evolution
Happily, looking at audio editing, these mid-ranger SOCs are in close proximity to last year’s premium chips. Both TCL and OP are just slightly outperformed by a Surface Duo, and scores are well within the margins against more premium phones using similar processors. TCL takes a bit of a lead over OnePlus, but both are solid.
Synthetic Photo Test – PhotoMate R3
Likewise, the synthetic benchmark in PhotoMate lands close between the two, and both manage small wins over the more expensive Pixel 5.
Photo Batch Process – PhotoMate R3
However, in the most brutal test I run, the differences between the two phones stand out a bit more. Not only does the TCL complete each batch of photos faster, it also throttles less over the entire test. The OnePlus started close, but loses more time completing the second 100 photos. Both outperform the Pixel 5.
Stabilization – Google Photos
This is still my voodoo test.
The OnePlus finishes up just a hair faster, and this still contributes to my hypothesis that phones with higher refresh rate displays might have some magic voodoo which allows them to stabilize video faster.
The hunt for an explanation continues!
Synthetic Compression Test – RAR Lab
RAR Lab shows about a 10% advantage for the TCL. Often we see these synthetic numbers don’t quite compare to real world performance…
Real World Compression – RAR Lab
But this is one time where the synth scores lined up better than I was expecting. Over a sustained work load, the OnePlus takes about 10% longer to finish up the batch.
Gaming – Brightridge
Taking a quick look at gaming, remember those synthetic GPU scores. I wonder how close they’ll track with an actual game.
Firing up a fantasy open world game, and cranking all the setting up to their maximum, the TCL is able to almost double the frame rate of the OnePlus. The Nord is basically a slideshow at max settings, where the TCL is almost playable.
Taking the resolution down, but leaving the quality high, the OnePlus is playable, while the TCL is surprisingly fluid.
This continues to be the main differentiator between different tiers of Qualcomm processor. GPU performance scales more aggressively.
And the winner is…
Well. The TCL packs more performance. That’s an easy win for a good mainstream priced phone.
The actual daily driver use is more nuanced though. These benchmarks are built to showcase differences between phones when driven like pocket computers. I also hope to continue a conversation where we can stop promoting the FUD of less expensive chipsets.
When I started reviewing the international Nord, I was anticipating pricing fairly close to the TCL. In my brain, I was working around a ballpark, at most maybe a $50 difference. These results are even more fun to compare knowing there’s a $100 price difference in favor of the N10.
Handling a Nord N10, we should be more impressed with a $299 phone that can render UHD video this well, than we should be upset that it’s not magically a ridiculous super computer at a bargain basement price.
What’s exciting, is seeing two mainstream offerings, WITH 5G, that perform this well. Were I to choose between the two, I’d be inclined to recommend the extra horsepower from TCL for folks that might want to play some games. However, for folks looking at a phone more for communication and social media, the Nord’s 90Hz display feels a little smoother in real world use, and arrives with a decent price advantage.
It’s an encouraging trend where consumers can pick and choose from a handful of features that will better compliment their needs and wants. Someone who doesn’t game on a phone, might want to balance GPU horsepower against a more fluid UI. Someone who wants to dabble in some content creation might appreciate faster photo and video editing.
Thankfully, someone shopping a new phone WITH 5G on a reasonable budget doesn’t have to suffer too many compromises. These are both solid daily drivers.