Review: TCL QM8K TV

The main way to tell how old a TV is? Look at the bezels. Until about 10 years ago, they were thick picture frames, but they’ve slowly gotten smaller and smaller as the models turned over. With its new QM8K QLED, TCL has removed them entirely.

Innovations in panel design mean that this blindingly bright screen looks like it's floating in space on its pedestal mount. It’s a classy party trick that makes it easy to hide on the wall with images or artwork on it, and it improves the viewing angle to boot.

This flagship model costs a pretty penny more than TCL’s other value-first options, but that’s for good reason: It competes directly with more expensive mini LED models from Samsung and Sony, and the great viewing angle and brightness even give high-end OLED models a run for their money. If you want a good picture and great apps for less, you can get it with a more affordable Hisense or TCL model, but if you want a great picture, this is the most affordable way to get it this year.

Out of the Box

Photograph: Parker Hall

The experience of setting up the QM8K is basically the same as with any other TV. The QM8K comes in a large cardboard box surrounded by foam, and you’ll want two people to pull it out, put it on a soft surface like a bed or table with a blanket, and install the included pedestal mount. It comes with a power cable and backlit (!) remote, but you’ll need to supply your own HDMI cables if you want to connect anything to any of its four ports (two HDMI 2.1, two HDMI 2.0).

I always love a TV with a pedestal mount, and this mount is sturdy and easy to attach. It also allows you to tilt the TV. Likewise, the included Google TV interface is extremely easy to use, with QR-based logins for essentially every modern streaming app, and speedy swaps between apps (something I had an issue with on last year’s TCL models).

The TV supports Chromecast and Airplay 2, which makes casting music and YouTube clips super easy for folks who are visiting and on your Wi-Fi. The TV has Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 support, and it was more than capable of keeping up with 4K streaming on my mesh network at home. It has Ethernet as well, should you want to hard-wire in for the fastest speeds.

No Bezels

Photograph: Parker Hall

The lack of bezels isn’t immediately noticeable if you’re not looking for it, but once you see that the brushed gunmetal frame of the TV now immediately transitions to screen after just 3.2 millimeters—rather than having a 10 mm-ish black rim—every comparable model seems old and tired. The gorgeous crystal WHVA panel is capable of up to 3,040 local dimming zones (depending on the size of TV you buy), which makes for a stunning image, and the lack of frame makes it look like the picture is hovering in space.

Five thousand nits (according to TCL) of peak brightness means that this TV is outstandingly bright—so bright that it will actually hurt your eyes if you have it on the highest backlight setting in a dark room. Ask me how I know.

The best new mode for viewing is Filmmaker Mode, which looks extremely accurate out of the box. The brightness peaks a thousand or two nits lower in this mode than in full Vivid mode, but that's more than bright enough for HDR colors to pop when streaming or playing discs. Other built-in viewing modes range from the brighter Standard mode (good for rooms with lights on) to Cinema (you’ll want the lights off). Sports mode is great, particularly because the TV has a 144-Hz native refresh rate, as is Game Mode, which turns on variable refresh rate (and a frame accelerator) for seamless gaming.

All in One

Photograph: Parker Hall

As far as viewing options: The world is your oyster. Combine the aforementioned specs and modes with compatibility with every major HDR format (from HDR10+ to Dolby Vision IQ and IMAX Enhanced content)—you really can't find something that won't play to its full potential.

Popping in my favorite 4K Blu-Ray discs felt like a treat on this TV, which showcases near-OLED levels of contrast amid its beautiful color highlights. I particularly loved watching vividly mastered films like Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse, which is utterly beautiful in a dark room on this panel. Still, it manages to restrain itself when dealing with more vintage-y content like Ford v Ferrari.

Speaking of Ferraris, a new collaboration with Bang & Olufsen brings branded speakers to the back of the screen. These larger drivers do better than virtually all built-in TV speakers in the modern era, but if you're buying a screen this beautiful, you'd be doing yourself a disservice to not also have a sturdy home-theater listening system, or even a nicer soundbar, to go with it.

As far as daily usability, it's really hard to think of a high-end model that can do more than this. Samsung's highest-end QLED models might be prettier (I have one in the studio in early testing as I type this), but they have a worse interface and don't even support Dolby Vision. If you want a solid TV that can do everything very well, I have a hard time pointing you elsewhere.

It's great in a bright room, it's great in a dark room, and with a viewing angle that's 40 percent wider than before, it's great in a wide room too. I can't think of a room it doesn't belong in.