TCL QM8K Review

The QM8K is the best television TCL has made and the clearest evidence that the price of a bright, well dimmed Mini LED has collapsed. Peak brightness goes beyond anything LG or Sony sell, the dimming algorithm has been tightened to the point where haloing around bright objects on black is hard to provoke, and a new diffusion layer holds contrast at an angle that would wash out any other set of this type.

It carries 144Hz, variable refresh and a speaker system tuned with Bang and Olufsen that is better than most. Then the details start to show. Only two of the four inputs run at full bandwidth, upscaling of poor sources is ordinary, and Google TV on this processor stutters while an app loads. The wide angle layer costs a little native contrast when you sit straight in front of it, so in a blacked out room the black floor still sits above what an OLED gives you and shadow detail is a shade flatter.

The reviews land in the same place year after year with this series and land there again: some of the best Mini LED picture anyone sells, at a price the Korean flagships cannot answer. As a big bright screen for sport and games it is the value pick of the category, and a film purist in a dark room will still take the OLED.