Punching above its weight
Anyone who knows me knows I love fiddling with a new TV. I spend an unhealthy amount of time tweaking settings and finding just the right settings for everything from SD TV content, to the most up to date console gaming. I have always been a fan of the TCL brand. It offers a quality picture for a great price, and over the past few years they have been upgrading their sets to compete with the big boys. This year’s QM8 might be the closest thing I have seen for TVs twice (and sometimes three times!) It’s price. It is THAT good. I spent several weeks digging into all it has to offer and have come away extremely impressed. This will be the TV I recommend to 95% of people who ask what TV they should buy.
What’s in the box?
I could do an unboxing video of a TV and be the 6,189,333rd person on YouTube to do so, but who does that benefit? We have all seen what a TV coming out of a box looks like. Instead let’s talk about the items. The packaging is great, with lots of padding to make sure things are not scratched or broken. The remote and paperwork included is tightly packed in alongside the included stand. See not that exciting, now aren’t you glad I didn’t deliver you a video with some stock YouTube music showcasing my awkward box lifting?
Now let’s talk about the pieces outside the TV itself. I will start with the stand. TCL includes an angled stand that is set up right in the middle of the TV. This thing is very sturdy and heavy. I was impressed with how well it held the massive 65-inch unit. It did wobble a little bit as I centered it, but once it was set, no issues at all. It can be adjusted height wise, but not by a whole lot. If you want to put a sound bar down in front of the unit, you will need a deep entertainment center, or a very slim sound bar so it fits below the stand and the bottom of the TV.
The stand is sleek and sturdy
MSRP: $1999.99 (65 inch)
Price I’d Pay: $1999.99
The design of the TV is pretty much what I expected. Being a more budget-friendly set, the plastic on the TV is not as high quality as something like an LG or Samsung set, but it still looks good. It is also relatively thin when compared to the bulky back of LG’s OLED set, which I had previously set up. The bezels are nice and thin, and I only had a minor instance of a dirty screen effect in the bottom right that is only noticeable on pure white screens, and even then, I had to look for it. The HDMI ports are located on the right-hand side alongside every other connection while the power is on the left, both if you are facing the TV. There is a TCL logo in the bottom middle that I rarely notice and a button underneath that gives you access to basic functions.
Next up let’s talk about the remote. It is relatively simple in design with a cheap plastic feel when compared to something like the LG remote. What I do like though is that it has a ton of buttons. I have never been a fan of minimal remotes. I want to be able to access what I want from the remote without digging through the menus. It is also backlit which is awesome. I watch a lot of movies in a dark setting, so being able to see my buttons is a must. It has the standard app buttons including Netflix and other apps, but also one for TCL’s TV service, which isn’t half bad.
TV from Google
Speaking of apps, let’s talk about Google TV. I am not usually a fan of built-in streaming services in TVs. I invested in an Apple TV as it has a much higher bitrate and is usually much smoother to navigate. Google TV is probably one of the better included systems though and I spent a little time seeing if it could replace my extra HDMI port used for my Apple TV. While it didn’t quite deliver an experience that will tear me away from my external device, it is easily the best or second best included system, the only one that comes closer is Roku, which is still a pretty good service. The apps included in Google TV just didn’t match up when it came to picture clarity that I get from the Apple TV, still if you don’t have access to a dedicated streaming device, Google TV does a great job on its own.
Moving on to HDMI ports, this is one area where the TV can fall short for some. It includes four HDMI ports with two of them being 2.1 and the other two being the normal 2.0. The first port also includes support for up to 144Hz at 4K and a whopping 240Hz at 1080p. It sucks that not all four ports are 2.1, so for gamers if you game on all three platforms hitting FPS above 60, this is a disappointment. I do like that the eARC port is not assigned to one of the 2.1 ports. This causes more issues than anyone not in the know will understand. The CEC works well enough, and I love that the Auto function recognizes almost everything I attached to it, including older consoles such as the PlayStation 3. My HDMI switch also worked flawlessly running through my soundbar’s input, which has caused me issues in the past with other models.
Lots of connections, but would have loved four HDMI 2.1 ports
While I did use my soundbar for most of the testing, which I recommend for almost any TV setup, the included sound system in this TV is better than most. It has two up-firing speakers as well as a subwoofer right on the back and it sounds pretty good out of the box. With some tweaks I was able to get it to sound almost good enough that a normal movie watcher would be content with the sound coming directly from the TV itself. This is rarely capable as we all know TV speakers are usually pretty bad. In the end for serious users, I still recommend a soundbar, TCL even has a line of them that pairs well with the unit, but my current Samsung soundbar worked perfectly as soon as I plugged in the HDMI cable.
That’s all well and good, but how does it look?
OK time to dig into the picture quality and features. Now I am not using any sort of professional cameras to tell you the peak numbers or how this color grade is not 100% accurate. I find following those kinds of things just drives me bananas. What most call “accurate” I find dull. So, I always calibrate my TVs based on the content I view, and what I enjoy. I love a bright and vibrant set, and TCL might be the most bright and vibrant TV I have ever used. This thing is a showpiece when viewing all sorts of content from movies to games, to TV shows. It simply blew me away with its brightness and outstanding contrast. It also delivers some of the best blacks I have seen outside of an OLED. In fact, I would say this is the best Mini LED TV when it comes to black levels.
For this review I ran multiple tests from various devices. I watched multiple movies using my 4K Apple TV. Played a ton of games on consoles from Atari 2600 up to PS5 through a variety of devices. I checked out HDR, Dolby Vision, and SDR content from a variety of sources and everything I threw at this TV, it handled like a champ. The one exception was extremely older content. The upscaling on this set leaves little to be desired when it comes to legacy content, at least where movies and TV shows are concerned. Everything else though, looked outstanding. It is also nice to take the anxiety out of the equation for me, not having to worry about burn-in when playing classic games with a lot of static images, or even modern games with massive UIs. I still have PTSD from my first OLED burning in the ultimate meter from Overwatch, and don’t get me started with Final Fantasy XIV. I can now game without that fear.
The built-in sound is actually impressive
HDR is hit and miss on so many sets. I have always found the modes extremely dark with a washed out look in some scenes. Yes, people tell me that is natural, but that doesn’t change the fact that it looks like the TV I paid a lot of money for simply looks unimpressive. The TCL does not have this issue. Running games in HDR really makes the colors pop, and the brightness is amazing. I had to turn it down in most scenarios as it made my eyes hurt. This TV gets so bright that I doubt most people will ever put it above 70/100 in the brightness setting. It is ridiculously bright. This makes the colors really stand out. It is worth noting that I had to turn down my Govee light’s relative brightness as it was distorting colors. A far cry from my previous LG C3 OLED.
Movies are super crisp and beautiful on this set in both SDR and HDR. I watched movies from the 80s all the way up to recently released films such as Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. It all looked amazing. For the price of this set, it is hard not to recommend it to anyone looking for a quality set that can do almost anything with very few setbacks. If there is one issue, I ran into it was the viewing angels. If you have this set in a large room and are viewing it at a side angle, you can definitely see issues with the picture. This is common with LED sets, and this one is no different.
Shall we play a game?
Gaming is a huge part of TVs these days. They even build gaming overlays into a lot of these sets. TCL has always been at the forefront of this and the QM8 is no exception. As I mentioned it has two 2.1 HDMI ports, with the first one supporting up to 240Hz at 1080p. For this review I spent a lot of time playing a lot of games of varying styles. I am a big Overwatch player on Xbox, and this TV handled it flawlessly. The 120Hz mode on Xbox felt superb. The input lag was almost non-existent and just as good as my OLED, at least to me aging gamer sense. The set supports VRR as well, making games with variable frame rates feel more stable. Starfield is a good example of this, uncapping the frame rate can cause stutter, but using the built-in VRR, this game felt smooth most of the time.
Everything looks crisp and bright on this set
The built-in gaming features on this set are very nice. There are picture modes for genres as well as the ability to increase shadow detail. It even has a frame counter that actually works. Most of these sets include one, but it rarely moves outside of the screen’s refresh rate. There is also a built-in reticule for shooters that is completely customizable. You can also toggle HGiG for enhanced color. A lot of these features are par for the course, but the implementation is nice, and for once the Game Picture Mode doesn’t look washed out, which again I really appreciate.
That was a lot. To sum all of this up, TCL has really delivered one of the best TVs for the price I have ever had the chance to check out. This thing punches well above its weight in nearly every category. The black levels are outstanding for an LED TV. The gaming features are excellent, I just wish it had four HDMI 2.1 ports. Watching movies on it is an experience and the contrast and brightness are some of the bests even when compared to sets twice its price. This TV is an incredible value that has become my current set, and it will take a huge upgrade to change my mind. This will be the TV I recommend to people for this year, easily. If you are in the market for a set that delivers more than the initial price tag, you cannot go wrong with the TCL QM8.
Review hardware provided by TCL.
