The best TCL TVs of 2025: How do the brand's top QLEDs and LEDs compare?

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Over the last few years, TCL has established itself as one of the top TV brands for affordable yet reliable displays. The best TCL TVs are much cheaper than direct rivals from LG, Samsung, and Sony, but they still deliver impressive performance. This is especially true of the company's QD-Mini LED models, which are often sold at fantastic discounts.

My team of reviewers and I test the latest TVs every year, and TCL's offerings continually rank among our top recommendations for overall value. The QM8K earns my highest recommendation thanks to its exceptional brightness and fantastic local dimming control. Shoppers looking for a more budget-friendly set should consider the QM6K. That model can't get as bright, but it's one of the most affordable QLEDs available with a high-contrast Mini LED backlight and fast 144Hz refresh rate.

The best TCL TVs are sold in multiple screen sizes, and the company has one of the biggest collections of extra-large sets on the market, including several 98- and 115-inch options. I've linked to the 65-inch size for all of my picks, but most retailers allow you to select different sizes from their listings.

Our top picks for the best TCL TVs

Best overall: TCL QM8K - See at Amazon

Best midrange: TCL QM7K - See at Amazon

Best budget: TCL QM6K - See at Amazon

Best entry-level: TCL S5 - See at Amazon

Best overall

The QM8K is my pick for the best TCL TV overall. It goes toe-to-toe with pricier flagship sets from other brands. In fact, the QM8K actually surpasses the performance of many similarly priced TVs from Sony and Samsung.

This is TCL's top upper-midrange TV for 2025, and it uses a QLED screen with a Mini LED backlight and full-array local dimming. Those features enable excellent contrast control, allowing the TV to dim and brighten specific portions of its panel. The QM8K has more dimming zones than the brand's step-down QM7K and QM6K models, so it can deliver even deeper black levels and higher brightness.

Using the TV's most accurate picture settings, our reviewer measured a peak of 3,648 nits on an industry-standard 10% window. That's an impressive number, and it makes the QM8K one of the brightest TVs on the market. You can pump up the screen's luminance to help overcome glare in rooms that struggle with light, and it can produce vibrant high dynamic range images when watching HDR content on streaming services and 4K Blu-ray discs. You can learn more in our HDR TV guide.

Bright specular highlights, such as explosions, lightning bursts, gunshots, sunrises, shimmering waters, and other dazzling effects, pop with the bold impact that filmmakers intended. On dimmer TVs, some of these extreme elements can look duller than they're supposed to or appear blown out with missing detail. The QM8K is capable of displaying them with brilliant radiance.

Our reviewer was also impressed by the QM8K's ability to minimize backlight flaws like blooming and vignetting, which typically pop up on TVs of this type. These imperfections cause distracting halos or crushed shadows to appear around bright objects. Even top Mini LED models from Samsung are not immune to this kind of behavior. But the QM8K's backlight system is nearly free from these quirks. Its contrast control still isn't as precise as the pixel-level dimming of an OLED TV, but it's remarkably close.

TCL TVs have traditionally struggled with viewing angles, but the QM8K makes some notable improvements over past models. Contrast and color don't degrade as much when you sit off to the side of the TV as they did on last year's QM8. There are still some shifts in quality, but not to the point where the image looks washed out.

Like most of TCL's top TV models, the QM8K uses the Google TV interface, which works well with smooth navigation and access to lots of apps. The QM8K is also fully equipped as a gaming TV, with support for up to a 144Hz refresh rate. However, the TV falls short of the 165Hz offered by some high-end competing sets from LG and Samsung.

Special note should also be given to the QM8K's design, which stands out from the brand's other models with a ZeroBorder panel. This styling minimizes the black border around the TV's image, so most of the screen shows the display's picture without any framing around it. In contrast, most TVs have a thin, visible black border around their image.

Though the QM8K was a little expensive when it launched a few months ago, the TV has since dropped to a much more competitive price point. The 65-inch model is often on sale for $1,300, which is a steal given its level of performance. For example, Samsung's flagship 65-inch QN90F sells for around $2,000, and the QM8K can actually get brighter. The QM8K is also available in 75-, 85-, and 98-inch sizes.

Read our full TCL QM8K 4K TV review.

Best midrange

TCL's QM7K is the company's best midrange TV. In fact, this set is one of the top TVs in its class from any brand. It's one step below the flagship QM8K, and it carries over most of that model's advanced features while coming in at a lower price point.

Like the QM8K, the QM7K uses a Mini LED backlight with quantum dots, local dimming, a 144Hz refresh rate, and access to the smooth and reliable Google TV interface. However, this model's backlight isn't quite as advanced as it uses fewer dimming zones. This means the QM7K's contrast and brightness are a bit lower than the QM8K. Of course, that's to be expected, and the QM7K still performs great considering its lower cost.

Using a 10% test pattern, I measured a peak of around 1,800 nits on the QM7K. Though that's about half the brightness of the QM8K, it's still an impressive number for a midrange TV. Extra-bright HDR movies that push beyond 2,000 nits, like "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Aquaman," lack some of the luster that you'd get on the QM8K, but the QM7K is able to display most content with pleasingly bold, vibrant highlights.

The TV's backlighting system is also great for its performance tier and offers notable improvements over last year's QM7 model. Though I encountered some uneven dimming in dark scenes when testing the 2024 QM7, this new model is virtually free from those imperfections. Blooming and halos were almost completely absent, even during particularly tricky scenes that I use to test local dimming.

That said, the QM7K's black levels aren't perfect. Black bars in widescreen movies never quite disappear into a dark room the way they do on OLED TVs or some higher-end QLEDs. Perhaps as a result of the TV's anti-halo system, black levels always look just a hair elevated, but this is something you'll only notice in a pitch-black room.

Although viewing angles aren't as wide as those of the QM8K, they're still improved compared to older TCL TVs. Contrast and color do shift from off-axis, but I could sit at my desk positioned at an angle from the TV and still enjoy solid image quality.

The QM7K is available in 55-, 65-, 75-, 85-, 98-, and 115-inch sizes. Though I think the QM8K is worth the extra money if you're a home theater enthusiast or are planning to put your TV in an especially bright room, the QM7K's overall value is hard to beat. This is the best TCL TV for buyers who want to save some cash while still enjoying excellent HDR performance.

Check out our guides to all of the best TVs, best smart TVs, and best TVs for sports.

Best budget

The QM6K rests at the bottom of TCL's QD-Mini LED lineup, but it offers solid picture quality for such a budget-friendly TV. The 65-inch model is now regularly sold for around $600, making it one of the few Mini LED TVs available at such a low price.

Despite being the cheapest offering in TCL's Mini LED collection, the QM6K still has all of the core features found on other QM models, including quantum dots, local dimming, a 144Hz refresh rate, and Google TV streaming. However, the QM6K is notably dimmer than the QM7K and QM8K, and its contrast is a clear step below those pricier models.

When reviewing the TV, I measured a peak of around 557 nits on a 10% test pattern and about 736 nits on a 50% test pattern. Those are respectable numbers for a TV in this class, but they're a big step down from TCL's more expensive offerings. This was evident when watching many HDR movies and TV shows, as highlights were noticeably dimmer than they were on the QM7K, lacking the full impact that they're supposed to carry. Likewise, this dimmer image makes the QM6K less suitable for rooms with lots of ambient light.

That said, the QM6K is still bright and colorful enough to deliver some benefits when watching HDR content, and the display works well as an entry point for those who want to enjoy high dynamic range videos on a budget. The TV's dimming performance is also quite impressive, with similar halo and blooming control as the QM7K. Black levels look a bit lighter, but general uniformity is excellent.

Viewing angles are also decent for a budget QLED, but they're not as wide as the QM7K or QM8K. Off-axis viewing is better than it was on TCL's older Q65 model, but the image does still wash out a bit when seated at an angle.

Despite some compromises, the QM6K is an ideal entry point for anyone who wants an affordable home theater TV that still offers worthwhile HDR quality and contrast. It's available in 55-, 65-, 75-, 85-, and 98-inch sizes.

Read our full TCL QM6K 4K TV review.

Check out our guide to all the best budget TVs.

Best entry-level

The S5 is one of TCL's standard LED TV models. It's a solid fit for people who just want a cheap yet reliable smart TV for basic viewing. It's also available in smaller 50- and 43-inch screen sizes, so it works well as a secondary set for a bedroom.

Unlike my other picks, this model does not use a QD-Mini LED panel, so it has notable limitations in color, contrast, and brightness. The TV can't dim separate zones across its screen, so its black levels look lighter and more washed out when watching videos with the lights off.

While it technically supports HDR processing, its contrast and brightness are too low to properly showcase the benefits of that format. It's also too dim to overcome substantial glare in rooms with lots of windows. Viewing angles are the most narrow of any TV in this guide, so you'll want to sit as close to the center as you can to get the best image. And the panel's refresh rate is limited to 60Hz, so it can't support high frame rate modes on a gaming console or PC.

Though all of those drawbacks are important to note, the S5 is priced accordingly. The 65-inch model is typically around $370. This is an entry-level set, and it works well within that context. The S5 isn't meant for home theater fans or hardcore gamers. It's geared toward casual viewers who mostly watch cable TV and SDR (standard dynamic range) streaming content. It can't wow with bright highlights and inky black levels, but it still delivers a sharp, colorful 4K image.

I also like that TCL offers a choice between Fire TV and Google TV models. I prefer the Google TV interface thanks to its more streamlined design, but it's nice to have an option with an Alexa voice remote if you're already plugged into Amazon's ecosystem.

Check out our guide to all the best TVs under $500.

How we test TCL TVs

To evaluate the best TCL TVs, our reviewers got hands-on with the brand's top QD-Mini LED models and put them through our extensive testing process. We've been covering home entertainment products for over a decade, and used that experience to inform our methodology.

Brightness and color are measured using test patterns and calibration software. Though this process offers a great idea of a TV's technical capabilities, it's even more important to evaluate how a display looks when watching actual real-world content. To accomplish this, we use each TCL TV we review as we would use any TV in our home, by watching a variety of shows and movies in both bright and dark environments.

We also use a curated selection of scenes from various titles that we've chosen to showcase different image quality aspects, like black levels, contrast, HDR highlights, color gradiations, viewing angles, upscaling, and local dimming.

In addition to image quality, we test smart TV features and assess overall usability and smoothness during navigation, streaming, and voice searches. We also consider overall build quality and general value for the money.

For more details on our testing process, check out our breakdown on how we review tech products.

TCL TV FAQs

Is TCL a good TV brand?

TCL has cemented itself as one of the top value-forward brands in the TV market. The company offers a wide range of affordable display models and has several midrange and high-end offerings that rival more expensive TVs from companies like Samsung, Sony, and LG. For instance, TCL's QM8K Mini LED TV compares favorably to Samsung's flagship QN90F and even bests it in several performance metrics, but costs substantially less. That said, the brand isn't perfect.

In the past, we've encountered occasional software glitches and other bugs when reviewing TCL TVs, typically related to certain settings not working properly or adjusting when they're not supposed to. Though no TV brand is immune to glitches, we've found Sony, LG, and Samsung models to be a bit more reliable. However, we didn't experience any notable glitches while reviewing the company's 2025 TV lineup, so it appears that TCL has made improvements in this regard.

Build quality is another area where TCL has traditionally lagged behind pricier brands, so its TVs tend to be a bit cheaper in construction and lack some of the flashier design perks you might find on more expensive options. This is most evident in its entry-level and midrange offerings.

But none of the bugs or build limitations we've encountered on TCL TVs have ever been big enough problems to prevent us from recommending the brand. As it stands, the best TCL TVs are some of the best bang-for-your-buck displays on the market, and our overall experience with the company's products has been positive.

If you do want to browse models from other companies, be sure to check out our additional TV buying guides:

• Best 4K TVs
• Best Samsung TVs
• Best LG TVs
• Best Roku TVs

What kinds of TVs does TCL make?

TCL sells a variety of LED and QLED TV models across different budgets and performance levels.

The company's LED TVs include 4K and HD displays geared toward budget buyers who want an entry-level TV for casual use. These models include the company's S-, 4-, and 3-Series TVs. Though fine for basic smart TV needs, they offer limited contrast, brightness, and color capabilities.

Meanwhile, the brand's QLED models offer much better picture quality. Some of TCL's QLED displays also have advanced Mini LED backlights. These flagship models are branded as QD-Mini LED, and they include the QM6, QM7, and QM8 Series. These TVs offer substantially brighter images than a standard LED model with much higher contrast ratios and deeper black levels. This makes the company's QD-Mini LED TVs best suited for buyers who prioritize image performance.

TCL does not sell any OLED TV models in its current lineup. For OLED recommendations from other brands, check out our guide to the best OLED TVs.

When it comes to screen sizes, TCL sells displays that range from 32 to a whopping 115 inches. For size-specific recommendations, check out our TV buying guides focused on different screen sizes:

• Best 100-inch TVs
• Best 85-inch TVs
• Best 75-inch TVs
• Best 65-inch TVs
• Best 55-inch TVs
• Best 50-inch TVs
• Best 43-inch TVs

What smart TV platform does TCL use?

TCL primarily uses the Google TV operating system on its flagship smart TV models, including the QM6K, QM7K, and QM8K. However, some of the brand's entry-level offerings use the Fire TV and Roku TV interface. Likewise, some of these budget-friendly sets, like the S5 Series, are available in multiple editions so buyers can choose which interface they prefer.

Do TCL TVs have good sound quality?

Generally speaking, most TVs, including those made by TCL, offer mediocre sound quality. To keep panels slim and costs down, manufacturers use small speaker drivers that lack depth and bass. However, some of TCL's high-end models, like the QM7K and QM8K, use more advanced speaker arrays developed in partnership with Bang and Olufsen. These models sound better than cheaper options, but they still can't match the performance of a typical soundbar or dedicated set of speakers.

To get the best audio quality, we recommend adding a separate soundbar or surround sound system. Check out our audio buying guides for top recommendations:

• Best soundbars
• Best budget soundbars
• Best Dolby Atmos soundbars
• Best soundbars with subwoofers
• Best Bose soundbars
• Best Sonos soundbars
• Best surround sound systems