The review you see below was from a few months back. As I stated it was awesome in many areas but wouldn't make or receive calls. And one had a bad speaker and people couldn't hear me talk when I could get a call through....This is my third attempt and I'm glad I didn't give up! I had my husband put up a cell repeater/ booster and I'm not sure whether it was that or that this particular phone was built differently but Wow! I now can make calls receive calls and the messages get through! As stated below...the video quality is awesome as is the camera and I can read my books from Kindle on it without having to carry a huge tablet with me. So if you're having difficulty getting reception try a cell phone booster ...it may do the trick! If you live within town limits it should work without a booster.

Here is my original review.....
Let me start off by saying this is a great tablet but not a great phone. When it comes to crystal clear video playback, this thing is awesome. It also takes great photos, the memory is fantastic, and I could enlarge the font to see clearly with my imperfect vision. However, even after several days of working with Verizon tech for several hours at a time, it still would not pick up enough bars to make or receive calls.

I really wanted to keep this device because of its exceptional features, but I need a cell phone. Now, we do live in the country, so I don't expect 4G service, but I had my daughter's older model Motorola phone sitting right beside me as we tried over and over, and she had complete cell service while the TCL wouldn't even register one bar.

Nevertheless, I must say, if I ever decide that I want to get a new tablet (I already have a Kindle), I would ironically choose a TCL phone! LOL!!! Simply because it does have an exceptional camera, memory and so many other features that I could have done my schoolwork on it just like a laptop! I'm sad to say that I had to return it and am awaiting my refund.

If TCL management does read this review, might I suggest you invest more into the cell service aspect of the phone or switch your focus to making one of the best tablets in the world?

One last thing, this is my second attempt with TCL. I thought the first one just happened to be a "lemon," per se. But the second phone performs the same way. Maybe it doesn't like country air, haha!

I was concerned getting this phone since I had Straight Talk that ran off Verizon towers, and everything I've read about this phone said it's iffy with Verizon. But I bought it.

It arrived, I plugged it in, turned it on and it said to insert SIM card. I took the one from my old phone and put it in. (One thing though, the SIM card tray wouldn't open with a push pin, a paperclip, or a sewing needle. After rummaging through the box it came in I found the tiny pin that came with phone. It was the only thing that opened the tray. So don't lose this 1/2 in pin or you'll never get tray open again!) After too long, I figured out how to put my micro SD card in. You have have to put it in upside down with the metal facing up.
Everything worked fine, I was able to download Straight Talk app. Then phone said it had to restart to install updates. So I restarted the phone. Then the trouble began. My phone had no bars. No internet. Straight Talk app wouldn't open. It was basically like my phone data plan wasn't working. My email still strangely worked, though texts and calls didn't. Then I had to go to work.
After work, I sat in the parking lot for 25 min connected to Starbucks wifi trying to get my $45 data plan I had to connect. After much despair, thinking this phone wouldn't work with Verizon towers or straight Talk after all, I happened on the solution by pure luck. I was in settings > SIM card & cellular network > Cellular Network > Access Point Names, and I clicked on the 3 dots in top right corner. It said "Restore to Default". So I clicked it. The Access Point name changed from VZWINTERNET to WENTP. Internet still didn't work. So I restarted phone. VOILA! I had bars! I could make calls! Internet!!! I don't know why they had to make it so condiluted and hard to figure out what to do, just to connect.
I was so happy. Everything ran smooth. My games were smooth, hardly a lost frame the whole time I played Ulala Idle Adventure. YouTube ran without buffering.
This phone has 256 GB of storage! The most I've ever had and I LOVE it! Perfect for gaming, storing videos and photos. I haven't had much chance to use camera yet.
The one thing I think is garbage so far is the speaker. It's on the bottom of the phone and makes calls sound muffled. Lying in bed with it sitting on chest watching videos, leaves something to be desired. I have to hold phone with a finger wedged under it so speaker isn't smothered in blanket.
That, and the difficulty of getting my plan to connect are the only 2 gripes with this TCL 20 Pro 5g as of now.

Update: I had a chance to use cameras, and they are the best! I recorded some chickadees at my feeder in slow mo, and 🤯. Well worth it. I've noticed sometimes when I take macro photos, it's blurry around the edges, but otherwise great. The phones flashlight is pretty good; better than any other phones I've had. On the left side of phone, there is one button. You can disable it, or program it. I have mine set up 1 press for camera, 2 presses for flashlight, and you can also set it up for a 3rd long press. Headphone jack is on top of phone, which is wonderful for putting phone in pocket and going on a walk while wearing wired headphones. One last tiny gripe I've found is the charging cord that came with it is kinda hard to push into phone. I have to use a tiny bit of actual muscle strength. I tried with my old phones cord and it went in easy. Both charge it the same speed, so it works out.

I wanted to wait a little while before posting a review so that I could use the phone. I used to have an LG G7 ThinQ and I liked it a lot, up until the battery died. I had it for about 3 years. Since LG is no longer making phones, I decided to look around for something different. I am not one who spends thousands of dollars on a phone that will eventually die. Having said that, I found this TCL phone. It was a great deal at the time, so I jumped on it after reading reviews and checking out other TCL phones. We have a TCL TV and have had no issues with it, so why not try their phone?

I ordered it in the blue tone case. I like color and it seems they are no longer using bright colors on their newer phones. Also, I read their TCL 30 series was not all that great, so I stuck to the 20 pro. I'm still figuring all the camera can do but so far it seems to take pretty good photos.

One definite pro was that it wasn't bogged down with a ton of apps. There is a programmable button on the left side that is awesome! You have options as to how to set it. I chose screen capture and flashlight. God, how I hate the two button screen capture that so many phones have! Now it's totally easy to do.

The screen is larger than my old phone, so it's more difficult to stick it in your back pocket and sit. Finding cases for it; there are limited options. I found a clear/gradient case that works well. However, TCL actually includes a clear case for it, along with a power cord! Also, screen protectors are limited but I found one that works pretty decent. Keep in mind this phone has curved sides. Sometimes those sides want to raise up and I have to keep smoothing them back down.

The only issue I was having was making phone calls. At first I thought the wireless was dropping calls but then I realized the phone was set for 5G and I only have a 4G service. So when I clicked that off, it seems to work fine now (DOH!).

The fingerprint works good. I miss the double tap of my old phone to wake the phone up and access it but it's better than entering a code each time. I haven't tried the face recognition. The phone is new, so of course the battery lasts a good long time but I'm sure over time that will change. They all do. What a waste now that batteries can't be replaced on phones!

The other thing (which is minor) is that I set certain notification sounds to certain people. When they text me, I know it's them but after replying, their subsequent texts then revert back to the default sound on that thread. Weird.

All in all, I'm happy I got it. It sure beats paying the iPhone and Samsung prices and it was an easy switch on my T-Mobile service.

I bought two of these phones one for my wife and one for myself primarily for the specs, appearance and color. After received the phone I can feel the look and quality all exceed my expectations.

Update 5/18/22 : Almost 5 months later and the phone is still pretty solid. I did run into the GPS issue other reviews mention (the GPS was off by about a street width, messed with some rideshare drivers). It just received the April 2022 security update if that matters to anyone, I haven't needed to use the GPS since that rolled through so not sure if that issue was addressed.

Battery life for my use case still see's me through two full days without turning the phone off, averaging 6-7hrs screen on time with 20%-30% left at the end of the second day. I've noticed that background audio playback does take a chunk out of the battery usage however so keep that in mind.

Nothing else to add, everything else has been good and after seeing a lot of mixed things from other phone's that are on Android 12 I'm glad this device is still on Android 11 for the time being.

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First things first - when j setup the phone and put in my 128GB sdcard that I used in my previous phone(s) it didnt work. I thought this could have been due to it needing to be formatted, but after doing a software update (Nov. security patch) the phone recognized it and I've had no issues since.

The phone feels good, it's a bit taller than my old phone but is lighter. The curve on the screen feels a bit more pronounced but doesn't impact typing. The screen looks great, and coming from a 1200x2640 screen to this 1080P panel wasnt as big of a change as I thought. No problems with the fingerprint scanner, it works fine.

I checked a lot of video and photo reviews, and the camera will work for my needs. I like the ability to use the full pixels, and the pro mode works well even if it doesn't have focus peaking to help you get to the right setting quickly.

I do think some people will be better off going for the Samsung A52 instead for photos, but then you're losing out on the headphone jack and sdcard which were things I really wanted on a phone again. The selfie camera also is better on this phone IMO, which is a nice surprise.

Battery is pretty dependent on setup, but on the first day I only charged to 75% and by the end of my day was at 42% after all the app loading and configuring with 4hrs screen on time - this will work for me just fine and I expect to tinker with the various options until it's where I want it. So far I have been charging the phone every two days so it has worked well for me.

I noticed the first day that the app switcher would blank out some of my open apps so they didnt have a name or image in the "switcher" view. They still opened, I assume this is related to RAM? This still happens from time to time, not sure why but wanted to point it out.

No issues with my carrier, WiFi calling worked out of the box as did MMS and MMS over WiFi - Volte and 5G did as well (though I have 5g turned off). The default launcher is pretty unobtrusive and offers some nice touches here and there, you can always just install another if you want.

Call quality is good and headphone jack seems fine with my headphones and earbuds. The bottom speaker (while a let down) is OK, some audio is fine but if it's a quieter video be prepared to need to bump up the volume.

The phone came with some bloat unfortunately (Booking.com, Netflix, Facebook, a game) but you were allowed to uninstall those so I didnt think it was a dealbreaker. Sony phones used to include the same apps too, if it bothers you I'd recommend hooking up to adb and removing any other traces you find if you're so inclinded. There also is a non-blockable customer survey notification, I opened and closed it but am not sure if it will come back.

One star off for the SD card not working out of the box, the task switcher blanking out apps and for the bloat (especially since there wasnt mention of the SD card problem or bloat in the manuals or release notes). If you're not needing the quickest updates and want the headphone jack, sd card and big battery combo this could work for you especially if you find it on sale.

PS.
There's a preview for Android 12, but if you check the terms once you enroll you cant revert back