Display Tech Can Make Digital Photos Look as If They Were Printed

Can a screen look so much like paper that it manages to replicate it in ways photographers can trust? TCL’s NXTPAPER is an attempt to do just that, a display technology that isn’t quite E Ink yet also diverges from the traditional OLED and LCD panels we’ve grown accustomed to.

The matte coating is designed to simulate the tactile appearance of paper. Originally engineered to cut down on blue light and minimize eye strain, the surface also creates a distinctive aesthetic. It’s still an LCD screen at its core, yet TCL’s unique spin makes NXTPAPER one of the more intriguing rethinks of how screens should look and feel.

Now in its fourth generation in 2025, NXTPAPER 4.0 finally hits a level of color accuracy that ostensibly makes it easier to appreciate how it’s maturing into something more refined, especially when viewing photos.

Paper-Like Screens in a Digital World

As tech giants like Apple, Google, and Samsung continue to iterate rather than reinvent, NXTPAPER feels like a new approach, even if it doesn’t completely break away from standard LCD foundations. Originally conceived as a means to reduce blue light exposure and offer an alternative to eReaders, TCL is beginning to market it as a creative tool by way of the latest TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus tablet and TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER phone.

The screen achieves its textured, paper-like appearance through a combination of blue light filtering and nano-matrix lithography. That means multiple layers are stacked on top of each other to create the effect.

The base layer is an LCD panel that provides the full-color visuals. On top of that, there’s an anti-glare layer that diffuses the ambient light and helps reduce glare. Then there’s another filter layer that aims to reduce blue light without resorting to changing the screen’s color temperature. Hence, no yellowing or amber effect. Different diffusion and color retention layers deliver a “softer” look without losing color vibrancy. Finally, the matte finish outer layer is what emulates paper in both appearance and tactile feel.

While this makes reading content a lot easier on the eyes, there’s one major trade-off in layering a screen this way: brightness still falls behind the curve. Even with a bump to 450 nits, NXTPAPER 4.0 comes up short compared to the 500-to-1,000+ nit range you find in most flagship screens. That poses a problem when viewing content in brighter daylight or while editing photos when a brighter display can prove helpful.

NXTPAPER works on three display modes: Ink Paper for full desaturation, Color Paper for muted tones, and Regular mode for full color. It’s the latter mode that plays the biggest role for photos, even though Ink Paper mode works just fine with black and white images.

Color Accuracy

Simply put, NXTPAPER can’t replicate the punchy visuals of a high-end OLED with HDR support. Movies and television shows lose some luster on this display, whereas comics, graphic novels, and other paper-native formats benefit from the matte texture and softer color palette. Even eBooks shine here, offering a comfortable reading experience outside of a dedicated eReader. So, what about photos?

NXTPAPER 4.0 claims full sRGB color accuracy — a marked jump from the 70–80% coverage seen in version 3.0. — which puts it roughly on par with modern LCD and OLED displays in terms of basic color fidelity. It also boasts an average Delta E of less than one color accuracy, which indicates the display’s color reproduction is “nearly indistinguishable from the original source.” That’s ideal for graphic design and photo editing, but printing is something else.

There’s no doubt photos look different on TCL’s unique display versus what photographers are used to. A matte and textured-like finish gives them more of the intended printed-on-paper effect. Except, unlike monitors that you can calibrate, TCL’s devices offer little in the way of manual adjustments. Beyond blue light filtering, there’s no specific mode to calibrate for the utmost color accuracy; it’s just there in the “Regular” mode.

The closest you get to a more tailored experience is in TCL’s AI features, like Smart Eye Comfort Mode to dynamically adjust screen settings, while Personalized Eye Comfort Mode tailors brightness, color, and contrast to your specific preferences.

For the first time I can remember, TCL is using paintings as a way to demonstrate the accuracy involved here. We’ve seen this sort of thing in the TV space with Samsung’s Frame TV lineup (which other brands have copied since then) but not quite like it in the mobile space.

A Crispy Finish — Maybe

While TCL boosts contrast to sharpen the image, NXTPAPER still struggles to deliver the crispness of high-resolution OLED or LCDs. The company suggests that’s not a big gap at all, mainly because the lithography etching process “organizes particles on the surface” without sacrificing detail. TCL representatives tell me it’s more noticeable on the edges of text but also in sharper details you’d expect to see in images. Without properly testing the newer tablet, it’s hard to be sure.

If it can deliver on that promise, TCL’s display technology makes the idea of using such a device for photography more intriguing. TCL is also including a stylus with the NXTPAPER 11 Plus, and reps confirmed with PetaPixel that it sees photo editing as a key use case for the pen. This way, if you’re adjusting or painting a color, you can trust that it will turn out just how you see it. We’ll have to see how true that is.

NXTPAPER’s Growing Pains and Potential

The TCL NXTPAPER 60 XE phone and NXTPAPER 11 Plus tablet will both launch in North America in 2025. Controlled demos suggest the shift from chemical etching to advanced nano-matrix lithography may indeed deliver the sharper text and clearer visuals TCL is boasting.

For the first time, TCL is positioning NXTPAPER technology as something more than just being easy on the eyes. It’s staking a claim to it being a productivity tool even photographers and photo editors can trust, though it remains to be seen if that includes taking an accurate image from screen to actual paper.

The problem for the company is that it doesn’t really utilize this tech in high-end devices. All NXTPAPER devices to this point — including the newcomers — are very much mid-range models. While likely a means to keep costs down and prove the tech works, the downside is that few have noticed on this side of the pond so far. Case in point: TCL only makes its 14-inch NXTPAPER tablets available in Europe and Asia.

Could you just slap on a matte screen protector on a flagship phone or tablet from another brand and get the same result? TCL says no but there’s also a caveat within that proclamation. The company generally refers to its blue light filtering in making that comparison. Not all matte screen protectors are made equal. A really good one could produce a similar effect, though, without the etching process to display the additional texture, NXTPAPER does have something the others don’t.

Whether version 4.0 is the first step to get everyone to notice is hard to tell. The prices are usually agreeable but the eye test is what ultimately sells the concept here. TCL holds enough patents around eye comfort to keep playing this game for as long as it wants. It could theoretically license the technology to other brands but if TCL’s strategy in the TV space is any indication, it’s willing to undercut the competition for as long as it takes to gain a market foothold.

Image credits: Ted Kritsonis for PetaPixel