AI is not the kind of thing you generally associate with cheap phones, certainly not phones that cost $200. That hardware costs money, and you only need to look at the “cheap” iPhone 16e to see that in action.
But it seems that this isn’t going to stop Chinese company TCL from working to bring artificial intelligence to its phones.
TCL is known for many things, but selling expensive phones is not one of them. When one of your most advanced phones can be purchased for just $200, you’re not exactly on the same level as premium flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra or iPhone 16 Pro Max.
That means that adopting AI is a very different beast, and one that TCL seems to be tackling in a very different (and open) way.
Cloud is king
So how do you pack in the high-end hardware needed to run AI on a phone, without increasing the price to accommodate it? Easy, you don’t.
“When we talk about large language models, it’s really hard to squeeze it into a phone,” Daniel Sun, Chief Technology Officer at TCL, said at MWC 2025. “It means a very high end phone, and there’s no single model that will serve all use cases.”
The alternative is that TCL will be focussing on the cloud, to try and make AI more accessible for every single phone. Whether we’re talking about cheap smartphones or feature phones, Sun points out this kind of AI is only reliant on a data connection. As long as you have some level of connectivity that AI is available to you, and phone makers don’t have to worry about cramming everything into a single mobile device.
Not everything will need to run through the cloud. “There are a lot of small models that still work on the phone”, says Sun, “for example when you talk to a phone it’s just like we’re chatting.” While the models may not be able to offer answers right away, they can still think about it and get back to you fairly quickly — just like a human being.
Those smaller models are fairly conservative, but still fully capable of offering that sort of interaction, according to Sun. But more complex features, like camera processing, will be better suited to the cloud due to their relative complexity.
TCL won't be going it alone
With that in mind, TCL will not be tackling the issue of cloud-AI on its own. In fact that job is being outsourced — to Google and Microsoft. Part of this is down to both companies already having extensive experience with AI, but also because TCL doesn’t want to further fragment the AI ecosystem by offering its own thing.
Instead the company is mostly focussed on ensuring AIs like Gemini are able to interact with TCL phones more seamlessly — especially on system and first-party apps.
Sun also admitted the reach Google and Microsoft have was a huge advantage. They have the reach to offer AI features all over the world, and the resources to ensure they’re available without falling foul of local laws and regulations. The size of those companies would also prove to be a boon for privacy and cyber security, which is always an issue when the topic of cloud-AI is concerned.
Naturally this means TCL is not embracing the idea of the “AI phone”. The simple fact is that the necessary hardware is too expensive for the kind of price point TCL targets. Sun also noted that achieving that lofty goal is not very easy, since the point of such a device would be one that can “understand what your needs are and grab everything for you automatically,” adding that “Obviously it’s not so easy and will take some time.”
TCL is focussing on a hybrid approach, landing somewhere between the current application-focussed phone and the fabled AI-only approach that could arrive in the future.
Instead, right now TCL is focussing on a hybrid approach, landing somewhere between the current application-focussed phone and the fabled AI-only approach that could arrive in the future.
Using AI as a simple, more helpful tool, rather than an agent that takes over everything for you.
As for a timeframe on when this could actually happen, Sun wasn’t so clear. So don’t expect that AI switch to be flipped overnight, this is probably going to take some time. Meanwhile, follow our MWC 2025 live blog for the latest news from the event all this week.
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