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With Dated Hardware, The TCL L5 Bets On Low Pricing To Be An Emergency Option But Faces Strong Competition From More Modern And Capable Models.
In a market saturated with increasingly powerful smartphones, the TCL L5 survives as a representative of the ultra-basic category, focused on a single powerful attraction: price. Originally launched in Brazil in 2020, this device continues to be found in 2025 at prices around R$ 400, positioning itself as an option for those who need a device for essential tasks or as a backup in an emergency.
However, the extreme economy comes at a high cost in performance and features. With specifications that were already modest at launch, the TCL L5 today raises a crucial question: in a scenario with slightly more expensive competitors, but infinitely more capable, is the savings of R$ 100 to R$ 200 worth bringing home such limited hardware?
What Is The TCL L5? A Dive Into The Basics
The TCL L5 is a smartphone designed for the essentials. Its purpose is to cater to an audience that needs to communicate via calls and WhatsApp, use social media in its lighter versions, and occasionally browse the internet. It was one of the pillars of TCL’s strategy, the Chinese giant best known for its TVs, to enter the competitive entry-level smartphone market in Brazil.
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Its specifications reflect this low-cost proposal:
- Display: A 5-inch LCD panel with a resolution of 480 x 960 pixels.
- Processor: MediaTek MT6739, a quad-core chip launched in 2017.
- Memory: Only 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage, expandable with a microSD card.
- Operating System: Android 8.0 Oreo (Go Edition), an optimized version for devices with weak hardware, but which hasn’t received security updates in years.
Performance In Practice: Who Is It Still For?
In practice, the hardware of the TCL L5 imposes severe limitations in 2025. The 1 GB of RAM is the main bottleneck, making multitasking almost impossible. Opening more than two light apps simultaneously already causes slowdowns and crashes.
Strengths: It is an extremely compact and lightweight device (only 134g), ideal for those who don’t like large smartphones. The 2,000 mAh battery, although small, can last a day of basic use, precisely because it powers low consumption hardware.
Weaknesses: Don’t expect to run modern games or heavier applications. Even some banking apps may show incompatibility or slowness due to outdated operating system and hardware, which poses a security risk.
Cameras And Build Quality: The Bare Minimum
The camera setup of the TCL L5 is as simple as possible. The rear camera is 8 MP and the front camera is 5 MP, capable of taking acceptable photos only in ideal lighting conditions. In indoor or nighttime environments, quality drops drastically, with much noise and little definition. Video recording is done in Full HD (1080p), but with no stabilization.
The construction is entirely plastic, and a nostalgic detail is the removable battery, something that has completely disappeared from modern smartphones.
Is The Economy Worth It?
The TCL L5 is one of the cheapest phones you can find, and that’s its only selling point. It can serve as a backup device, a first phone for a child, or for an elderly person who will only use WhatsApp and make calls.
However, for the vast majority of users, the savings are not worth it. For a slightly higher price, in the range of R$ 500 to R$ 600, you can find much superior entry-level models, like the Samsung Galaxy A05 or Motorola Moto E13, that offer double the RAM, 5,000 mAh batteries, faster processors, and updated operating systems.
The recommendation is clear: unless your budget is extremely tight and usage is as basic as possible, investing a little more in a more recent model will provide a vastly superior and safer user experience.
And you, would you buy the TCL L5 in 2025? Do you believe there is still space in the market for such basic phones or has the minimum required technology already risen to a new level? Leave your opinion in the comments!
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