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TCL Tab A1 Plus delivers a strong budget tablet
The TCL Tab A1 Plus pairs a 2.5K 120-Hz display with strong battery life, offline tools, and second-screen support at a budget price.
Image: Wired
The TCL Tab A1 Plus stands out as a budget Android tablet that offers more than its price category suggests. Its performance does not match flagship tablets, but it is adequate for everyday browsing, work, music, and video streaming.
Magic Hub and second-screen features
TCL’s Magic Hub is a sidebar on the right side of the display that stores clipped text and photos. It becomes particularly useful with split-screen mode: instead of manually copying content from one tab to another, you can save it in Magic Hub and retrieve it when needed.
The tablet also supports extend mode, which turns the Tab A1 Plus into a second monitor for a laptop or PC. Mirror mode duplicates the main computer display, although the reviewer found little use for that feature.
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Offline tools and battery life
The A1 Plus includes several AI-based tools, including Gemini, Writing Assist, and Smart Translator. They run on-device and work offline, which gives them a privacy advantage. Their capabilities are limited, however, compared with cloud-based tools, making them better suited to basic requests.
Battery life is one of the tablet’s strengths. The A1 Plus lasted a full day under heavy use that included web browsing, work, music playback, and streaming one or two baseball games. Recharging from empty to 100 percent took just under three hours, while standby mode helped conserve power during periods of inactivity.
How it compares with Lenovo and Samsung
The reviewer calls the Tab A1 Plus the best budget Android tablet tested so far. Its main rival is the Lenovo Idea Tab Plus, which also has a 2.5K display but lacks the TCL’s 120-Hz refresh rate. The Lenovo’s colors also appeared dimmer in testing, giving TCL an advantage, although Lenovo offers a longer period of Android update support.
Samsung’s Tab 11 is another major budget competitor, but its 1080p display looks significantly weaker beside the TCL’s screen. For buyers seeking an entry-level Android tablet that comes close to the base-model iPad experience, the review recommends the TCL Tab A1 Plus.
Computing Editor
Tomas lives in the terminal. He covers chips, laptops, and operating systems with a focus on performance and efficiency. He reads kernel changelogs the way other people read fiction, and he's always on the hunt for the perfect mechanical keyboard switch. If it processes data, Tomas has an opinion on it.
via Wired
