Folks we have a new record holder for the brightest TV
I've ever measured and it's made by TCL
Welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Denison just back from an extended trip to New York where I got to
spend some time checking out TCL's 2024 TV lineup in today's video I want to take you through the T
Q class lineup since we have more info and details including pricing to share plus I
did get to measure one of the TVs and have some shocking preliminary results to share with you
so stick around to the end for that bombshell there's a lot to cover so let's get into it
right away TCL's 2024 TV lineup starts with its entry-level S-Class TVs now because we have so
much to talk about today I'm not going to do a deep dive on the S-Class just suffice it to say
that TCL is offering a lot more TV for the money in this class than I've seen in years prior and
I think folks looking for the least expensive bright and colorful TV they can find are going
to be drawn to the S-Class like a magnet we may take a closer look at the S-Class in the future
but for now let's zoom in on the Q class TCL's Q class starts with the Q65 and the Q68 now like
all TVs in the Q Class both the Q65 and Q68 get Quantum dots for color and brightness enhancements
but where the Q65 is a direct lit LED TV the Q68 adds local dimming which we haven't seen at this
affordable tier before most sizes in this class offer 60 HZ panels with variable refresh rate but
the 85 and 98 in options have 120 HZ panels that's right there's a 98 in 120 HZ Direct direct lit LED
Q65 and as you may have guessed it's priced crazy low here's the size and price rundown for the Q65
series you can screenshot that if you like and then here is the price rundown for the local
dimming armed 600 nit Peak capable Q68 series next up is the Q7 series now here is where I think
folks looking for striking picture quality at reasonable prices are going to want to go that's
my prediction we'll know more once I've had a chance to give this series a proper review but
check out the specs and pricing so the Q7 is where you get into mini LED backlighting with
TCL now a quick word on that you're going to be seeing TCL talking about QD mini LED it's
going to be in their marketing on the side of the box yet another TV term right well sort of
QD mini LED is more like a statement from TCL if you're a regular viewer you've heard me say on
this channel that just because a TV has mini LED that doesn't make it great necessarily mini LED
holds the promise of greatness But ultimately just because you have smaller LEDs available
doesn't mean you necessarily get more out of them you need to have plenty of them break them down
into a sufficient number of zones and control them well TCL sees its competition putting mini LED in
entry level price TVs and its response is to say you know what we're only going to implement mini
LED when it represents a significant upgrade in picture quality so that's what QD mini LED really
means it's marketing language for TCL says mini LED means a baseline of Premium picture quality
must be met and that's what this is for TCL now you can take that for what you will you know me
all that matters is how the TV performs at this price price point with that said the Q7 offers
mini LED backlighting with up to 1,500 local dimming zones and up to 2400 nits Peak brightness
again that's according to TCL the Q7 also Sports a 120hz native panel with game accelerator 240 for
up to 240 htz gaming we'll dig into that in the full review but just keep in mind that sometimes
that high refresh rate VRR spec comes with a tradeoff in resolution that honestly most PC
gamers are happy to make the Q7 also has Dolby Vision IQ IMAX enhanced certification freesync
premium Pro a height adjustable pedestal stand and a 2.1 speaker system powered by encho we'll
also talk about that little licensing agreement in the full review along with how it actually sounds
here's the price breakdown per screen size shout out to the 65 in coming in under 1,500 bucks kind
of like the high sense u8n series and now my friends we arrive at the QM8 series the bulk
of this series is represented by the QM851 models and they range in size starting at 65 in working
up to yet another 98 in model that's three 98 in options total y'all the QM8 is the Pinnacle of
TCL's picture quality and has the richest feature set so here you get a special anti-glare screen
an atsc 3.0 tuner two .1.2 speaker system with upfiring Dolby Atmos drivers and Wi-Fi 6 now I'm
about to tell you a little bit about the picture quality and a few special features that help make
that picture quality happen but right now let's look at the pricing per size this is about what
we expected maybe a little bit more expensive than the QM8 last year but not by a ton I'm going to
come back to the QM8 51 and talk about picture quality in a moment but there's one more TV to
talk about you may remember this monster from CES I'm talking about the 115in giant QM8 91 without
a doubt this is by far the most ambitious TV that TCL has ever shipped to the US and quite frankly
it is just nuts I mean look at this thing and guess what guys I'm getting one in here at the
studio for review can you believe that you better subscribe now so you don't miss it it's going to
be insane now TCL Promises at least 5,000 nits Peak brightness but it's probably going to do
more than that I'll explain that in a moment here it's got 20,000 zones of local dimming
and to control that it's got a special processor TCL calls AI PQ ULTRA this TV also adds an Onkyo
6.2.2 speaker system that's six main drivers two subwoofers and two upfiring Atmos speakers and
all the other goodies I mentioned earlier with the other8 series TVs now the MSRP on
this was listed at $27,000 but I have it on good authority that the street price will be
closer to 20 grand still a huge chunk of change but I mean it's a 115in TV folks and we better
expect white glove service with this sucker too okay so back to the QM851 I already let you know
it's the brightest TV I've ever measured but just how bright is it honestly it is insane
what this TV can do if you ask it to folks I got no less than 6,200 nits Peak from a 10% window
and actually I got right around that number at some other test window sizes surrounding the 10%
Mark including at 5% which is a pretty good sign 2% was over 5,000 nits Alone full screen bright
was an insane 1,000 nits and it appeared that it could hold 3,000 knits all day long so again that
peak brightness number is for HDR highlights okay but still 3,000 nits sustained makes for
incredibly bright average Picture level and 6,000 nits your mileage may vary for highlights is well
guys it's straight up intense now to be clear in a dim room you only want the highlight to get that
bright so it's important that the TV tracks the EOTF curve well and fortunately according to what
I tested it does just slightly above the Mark just a touch but it is linear and that's a good
sign and while the brightest whites do tend to be a little on the cool side in the color temperature
Spectrum the overall grayscale tracking for SDR and HDR was pretty respectable now we do see some
errors as we approach the 60 to 80% bright region but that can be calibrated out the out of box
performance in the movie mode picture preset was pretty solid across the board most color errors
were well below the visible spectrum save just a handful and color primaries were very respectable
too I mean brightness black levels and from the short time I got to look at it Shadow detail was
very good on the QM8 now part of this performance boost has to do with the design of the backlight
system which apparently involves some lenses it's not like MLA on OLED per se but sort of a focusing
lens that gets more of the light out into the room and less scatter inside I know that sounds exactly
like MLA but back lit TVs function differently so it's not like MLA TCL has also broken down
its mini LEDs into like six individual parts and has a ton of ICs control controlling them
so blooming and Halo is so minimal that along with the TV's insane brightness you basically can't see
any blooming or Halo outside of extreme torture tests what I did not get much time to check out
was processing so motion processing low bit rate streaming content cleanup that kind of thing we
got to wait for the full review for that I did see one thing that I would like to see smoothed
out a bit and that was a a little bit of stair stepping in the backlight as it faded in from
black and then faded out to black but these are early models with as yet unfinalized firmware
so it's entirely possible that what we'll get in our homes may not exhibit that effect at
all and I should clarify that nobody else in the room other reviewers included even noticed that
stair stepping until I pointed it out it's really really hard to see you kind of got to look for it
but I mean I'm going to be tough on this TV in the review because the stakes are high this year
I think TCL has a shot at taking a big bite out of Samsung's market share in the US this year
but to do it it will need to perform really well in a couple of key areas and that is one of them
overall though guys like the TCL QM8 is going to drop Jaws I guarantee you is it the perfect TV
no as super picky enthusiasts some of us will be talking about how it might be able to do
this thing a little better or this thing a little bit better but for the vast majority of folks
looking at the QM8 it's just going to knock their socks clean off and for that matter the Q7 watch
out for that model that could end up being TCL's bestselling TV ever in the history of the company
sales in North America anyway suffice it to say I was very excited by what I saw at this event now
all that's left is to get these TVs in for review and go over them with a fine tooth comb and I
can't wait but I'll have to and I'm afraid so will you just just a little bit cuz here's the deal
guys I haven't taken a vacation in over 3 years and that's on me I just I get dug into this work
because I love it so much and next thing you know it's been 3 years since I got away and unplugged
and recharged so I'm going to go do that and that starts in just a few days I'll be back soon enough
just wanted to let you know that your boy is going to go get some sun sand and surf and come
back better than ever now I'm pre-recording some you asked episodes and I'm excited to let you know
that I'm starting a new series called nit nerds news that you can watch every week kind of a quick
five minute hot take on the news that matters most I think that you're going to love it I'm
having fun making it so you'll see me here on the channel but the TV reviews will resume in a couple
of weeks and I thank you so much in advance for your patience it will be worth the wait trust me
thanks so much for watching everyone please tell me what you think about the TCL TV lineup down
in the comment section so we can talk about it before I sign off on vacation don't forget to like
and especially subscribe because all the hot TV reviews are going to come in Fast and Furious very
soon I'll see you on the next one and until then here's two other videos I think you might like