New QLED in Town
Sound & Vision|February - March 2020
TCL 75Q825 8-SERIES ROKU LCD ULTRA HDTV
THOMAS J. NORTON
New QLED in Town

TCL MADE its mark worldwide over the last few years largely by selling budget sets with built-in Roku streaming. But with its new 8-Series, available in 65- and 75-inch screen sizes ($2,000 and $3,000, respectively), the company has elbowed its way into the high end and managed to do so at a highly competitive price point.

TCL flew me out to its California headquarters in mid-October 2019 to spend a day with its 75Q825 75-inch 8-Series set. While Sound & Vision rarely evaluates a TV outside of our own facilities where we have ample test gear and weeks to obsess over features and performance, the 8-Series sets were still a few weeks away from shipping, with the final firmware not yet completed. But knowing that the 8-Series would be a hot ticket during the upcoming holiday shopping season, we agreed to an offsite review.

FEATURES

TCL’s 8-Series models use mini- LEDs for their full-array local dimming backlight. This shouldn’t be confused with MicroLED, a stratospherically pricey new display technology that uses microscopic LEDs acting directly as the pixels comprising the image, with no LCD panel needed. As with any LED/ LCD set, the TCL’s mini-LEDs still function as the backlight for an LCD panel, but they’re so much smaller than conventional LEDs that TCL has managed to fit 25,000 (!) of them into the 75-inch 8-Series model. TCL calls this configuration Quantum Contrast.

Since the processing needed to independently control 25,000 mini-LED zones on an instantaneous basis isn’t something that can be affordably implemented in a consumer TV, the mini-LEDs are instead arranged into a claimed 1,000 zones, with each zone comprised of 25 mini-LEDs. While the local dimming is thus limited to 1,000 zones (a higher number than what’s found on any other consumer set we know of), the extra mini-LEDs in each zone should offer a significant boost in peak brightness for HDR highlights.

This story is from the February - March 2020 edition of Sound & Vision.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the February - March 2020 edition of Sound & Vision.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM SOUND & VISIONView All
The Big Clean
Sound & Vision

The Big Clean

Chances are you probably do not think about the state of your electronic devices too often. Oh, you might think about all the upgrades you would like to make; where you would put those new tower speakers, or how a second or third subwoofer would really tame those bass modes in your room, or how much more cinematic a larger screen would be. Sure, you think about that part of your system. But how often do you think about the well-being of your system?

time-read
5 mins  |
August - September 2024
Planar-Magnetic Attraction
Sound & Vision

Planar-Magnetic Attraction

THE DIPTYQUE DP 115 speakers are a new model 2-way, ribbon, and planar magnetic driver dipole \"isodynamic\" speaker system designed and built in France.

time-read
10 mins  |
August - September 2024
Full-Featured 4K
Sound & Vision

Full-Featured 4K

THE QN95D is one of two televisions we went hands-on with on a recent trip to Samsung's New Jersey QA Lab, the other being the S95D quantum-dot OLED.

time-read
10+ mins  |
August - September 2024
Party Animal
Sound & Vision

Party Animal

FOR ANY party, the Soundcore Boom 2 Plus Outdoor Bass Bluetooth Speaker is an essential invite.

time-read
7 mins  |
August - September 2024
It's the End of the World. How About Popcorn and a Movie?
Sound & Vision

It's the End of the World. How About Popcorn and a Movie?

Attention all preppers! Today's column is right up your alley-or, more precisely-your tunnel to your underground bunker.

time-read
3 mins  |
August - September 2024
Bridging the Analog-Digital Gap on a Recliner
Sound & Vision

Bridging the Analog-Digital Gap on a Recliner

When I shopped for a motorized recliner, I rejected models with their own Internet Protocol address and built-in speakers. No need. I had already placed a smart speaker on an étagère beside the space where I had planned to put the chair. I'd have a smartphone in my hand and the room would be bathed in Wi-Fi.

time-read
4 mins  |
August - September 2024
BACK TO THE GARDEN
Sound & Vision

BACK TO THE GARDEN

AN AQUARIAN EXPOSITION in WHITE LAKE, N.Y.

time-read
10+ mins  |
August - September 2024
Big Sound, Small Price
Sound & Vision

Big Sound, Small Price

DOLBY ATMOS, once a costly premium, is enjoying a surge of popularity across a range of new audio gear.

time-read
10+ mins  |
August - September 2024
Classic Sound with Streaming Smarts
Sound & Vision

Classic Sound with Streaming Smarts

THE TWENTIETH century had its Roaring Twenties; welcome to the twenty-first's Streaming Twenties.

time-read
10+ mins  |
August - September 2024
Stand and Deliver
Sound & Vision

Stand and Deliver

IT DOESN'T seem all that long ago that SVS first entered the audio scene.

time-read
9 mins  |
August - September 2024