TCL QD-Mini LED - QM8 65" Class 2024 Review

The TCL 65" QM8 QD-Mini LED TV is a value champion. It delivers spectacular HDR brightness, deep blacks, and smooth 144Hz gaming at a price that undercuts the big brands. If you want a premium 4K TV experience for your movies and games without the premium price tag, this is the one to get.

If you're looking for a 65-inch 4K TV that punches way above its price tag, the TCL QM8 is probably on your radar. And it should be. This isn't your average mid-range TV. It's packing TCL's top-tier QD-Mini LED tech with a claimed 5,000 local dimming zones and a blinding 5,000 nits of peak brightness, which is specs you'd normally see on TVs costing twice as much. It's a 2024 model designed for one thing: delivering a knockout picture for movies, gaming, and sports without forcing you to remortgage the house. With Google TV built-in, it's also one of the smartest and most connected sets you can buy, landing in the 99th percentile for smart features in our database.

Let's talk about that picture. The QD-Mini LED backlight with full-array local dimming is the star here. In practice, this means deep, inky blacks right next to searingly bright highlights, which makes HDR content from Netflix or Disney+ look phenomenal. Our data shows its HDR performance is in the 98th percentile, and you feel it. Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ are both supported, so you're covered no matter what you're watching. For gamers, the 144Hz variable refresh rate (VRR) and FreeSync Premium Pro support make this a legit gaming TV, smoothing out action and eliminating screen tear. The audio performance is also surprisingly robust for a TV, hitting the 98th percentile with support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, though serious cinephiles will still want a soundbar.

Here's where the QM8 gets really interesting. We've seen prices for the 65-inch model range from about $767 to $1,272 across different vendors. At the lower end of that spread, this TV is an absolute steal. You're getting near-flagship-level Mini-LED performance for hundreds, sometimes thousands, less than similar-sized models from Sony or Samsung. Even at the higher end of its price range, it represents fierce value. If your main goal is getting the best possible picture quality for your dollar, especially in a bright room, the QM8 is incredibly hard to beat.

This TV sits in a very competitive space. Compared to the Hisense U6 Series, the QM8 typically has more dimming zones and gets much brighter, offering better HDR impact. Against the Samsung Neo QLED line, the TCL trades some brand prestige and perhaps a slightly more refined image processor for a significantly lower price. The elephant in the room is OLED, like the LG G5. An OLED will still beat any Mini-LED on perfect blacks and viewing angles, but the QM8 fights back by being dramatically brighter, which is a huge advantage in sunny living rooms, and it doesn't have to worry about burn-in. For most people in a typical bright home environment, the QM8's blend of performance and price makes more sense.

Skip the QM8 if you watch TV primarily in a pitch-black, dedicated home theater. In that environment, an OLED's perfect blacks and wider viewing angles might be worth the extra cost and lower brightness. Also, if your seating is spread at very wide angles to the screen, the QM8's picture quality will degrade more noticeably than on an OLED. For those folks, we'd suggest looking at the LG OLED evo series or the Sony BRAVIA 5, but be ready to pay more.

So, should you buy the TCL QM8? If you want a stunning 4K HDR picture and great gaming features without spending flagship money, the answer is a resounding yes. It excels in the areas that matter most for modern viewing: brightness, contrast, and smart features. You'll need to tweak the motion settings to your taste, and it's not the best for wide seating arrangements, but those are minor quibbles. For the vast majority of people turning their living room into a home theater, the QM8 delivers performance that will make you forget what you paid for it. It's that good.