TCL QM5K Real User Verdict: Great Picture, Wrong Buyer?

My main issue that I have had with these more affordable TVs is that their specs are often impressive, but their image processing to take advantage of those specs are limited. You need the TV to be able to process the dimming algorithm effectively, and that can be hit or miss. Motion clarity can also be funky.

This one is pretty well reviewed and generally avoids that while watching stuff - TCL is a little more of a midrange than budget brand. The one thing it doesn't do well at all is gaming at higher refresh rates. There's a game mode, but it really nerfs color clarity and contrast to achieve 144hz without input lag. Speaking from experience, this is still probably the best tv for their money, this will wipe the floor with anything else for 330$ at this size.

This is a fantastic price, at this price you usually get 300 nit edge lit shit boxes from Samsung LG and Sony. This is a low end but still FALD mini led TV it's way better than those edge or direct lit crap boxes and way brighter.

Got a 65" and 50" for the in-laws a few weeks ago. It's basically the QM6K without the gaming features. Great deal.

QM6K will have more local dimming zones. So better blacks and contrast compared to the QM5K.

They are very similar in every way other than motion handling and the TV's native refresh rate. The QM5K is 4K 60Hz and the QM6K is 4K 144Hz. The QM5K has a similar pixel response time, is able to remove judder from all sources, and has the same amount of dimming zones. It also has the ability to use motion interpolation at 30fps.

For the price point, it's absolutely not crap.

Every TV being made has HDMI 2.1 unfortunately HDMI 2.0 was rolled into the HDMI 2.1 spec. As long as the port has one HDMI 2.1 feature it can be labeled as HDMI 2.1, the TV has VRR and eARC which are in the HDMI 2.1 spec. The TV only has a 60 Hz panel so HDMI 2.1 48 Gbps bandwidth does not matter the TV can not do 4K 120Hz. When shopping for TVs ignore the spec sheets.

It's the only TV in its price category to offer QLED, Mini LED, FALD, and VRR (48-60 Hz). It also has the option for 120 Hz at 1080p & 1440p. It only has HDMI 2.0, no 2.1 here unfortunately. It's the best TV I've owned but I've always purchased budget televisions as it's all I can afford.

I personally walked into bestbuy and looked at the 75-inch qm6k, qm5k, and qd7 hisense 2025 miniled. Hisense is an ads pro panel, and it looked kind of whitish. Qm5k and qm6k, i can't tell the difference in sdr. I got the qm5k because i didn't need the 144hz. I dont play games.

I went with the 65" QM5K since I preferred the bigger size and won't be gaming there at all. I'm thinking it can't be that much of a downgrade, right?

I have a 6 and 7. 7 is hurt your eyes bright if you want it to be. 6 is not as bright but everything else is very similar. I've heard the 5 is a 6 with a 60hz panel. I'd get the 7 if you can afford it.

Way better than the Samsung. It's probably the best tv in that price range.

I got the 50in of this back on Friday Day to put into my bedroom. I have a LG C2 OLED in my living room, yes the OLED is better, but this TCL MiniLED is still MILES above any edge lit display I have used in the past (in terms of display quality). No complaints from me at all considering its price. We are using this purely for media viewing, no gaming.

So far best tv ive had, i have a 50inch OLED valued at 1300 srp years ago, i cant believe that now i can get a 75inch miniled for 499, this is amazing amazing value.

Just got the 75" QM5K from Best Buy for around $750 (with the wall mount) and let me tell you, bang for buck worth it. Sound is amazing even at 20-30% it's very very audible. The blacks do look black specially when you're sitting on the couch can't tell the difference between the bezel and the screen!.

Its amazing for the value and just with the features, picture and audio quality and ease of use. If money is a concern go with this one, I had a regular LCD prior, 70in and went with the 75 in miniQLED and its like night and day. so much brighter and easier to see blacks on dark scenes. Totally a great TV, at a great price.

I'm not a huge tv nerd, I just want quality without breaking the bank. I feel like there's quite a few people in this group with the same interest. As long as longevity is there, this tv should be as good as value as you can get for your average Joe.

To me, it was a good tv to add to my guest room. Great features for the price.

I bought one for my gym. So far it looks great for that application.

It's great for what youre looking for. Amazing actually. It is very similar to the Q6k. It is essentially a slight downgrade and 60hz version of it. So yeah, its a great TV for the price if you have a hard budget.

I have an LG C1 (bedroom) and some other cheaper LED tvs. I got the QM5k for the living room (brighter day light) because i dont game as it only does 60hz at 4k but someone else said it doesn't really matter because consoles can't handle it anyway. Speakers are better on LG Tvs - the sound is loud on the TLC but the quality isnt there. Its not as smooth as any of my other TVs - especially with fast paced content - makes me feel slightly dizzy but i hope i can get used to it.

I have the 50 and 55" QM5K and I love it. I replaced some 5 yr old entry level Samsung and LG tvs, and I'm surprised by how much better the TCLs are.

I got a 55" QM5 a couple of weeks ago and I love it. It was cheap $269. The picture is great. Gaming looks great and its super smooth. Its plenty bright for me. I had to turn the brightness down to suit my tastes. I am a movie fanatic so I was really concerned how they would look and I am not disappointed at all. The one complaint I have is that the speakers are really not great. My old samsung plasma had a surprising amount of low end. This one not so much.

I bought this for my gf, its actually quite good. Looks great for TV and movies, and it even has decent speakers! Not as good as my LG oled obviously but its far and away better than traditional backlit tv's.

I got the 65 inch for 371 during Christmas week (had a $100 gift card) and love it. Fair warning though, I had to return it after only a week because it randomly went to pink SUPER LOUD static randomly while watching, shut off on its own and never turned back on. The replacement hasn't had any problems after a few months of use though.. knock on wood.

I just bought and set up this TV for $350, and it's absolutely blowing me away. It's the first TV that legitimately looks like what you see in the store. The HDR and color is great, the local dimming/mini-LEDs completely change what blacks look like for the better, and the brightness is good.

I bought the 55in version for my bedroom and it's more than decent. I mean, it doesn't compare with the best TVs out there, but for the price I'm more than happy. The OS is really snappy (I had other TCL before that was super laggy) and the picture and sound quality are very good.

I just got it and the OS is quite sluggish in my opinion. This does however smoothen out after a minute or so and is perfectly fine. I also agree with the sound quality, I use a soundbar system but it shocked me at how good the built in speakers were. Definitely was not expecting it.

I'm a college kid, it works really well if you need a cheap 55" TV, the colors look and quality look fine, I think it's cause it has local dimming which honestly is what makes it worthwhile. Also it has surprisingly good built in speakers if you don't wanna pay for a soundbar or a stereo. I'd just turn the motion smoothing off, from my experience a couple weeks in that's it's main weakness. But if you just mainly game on xbox and watch sports like me it's a perfect.

I just got the QM5K, 75" TCL and I absolutely love it! Major upgrade from the TV I had and the Google TV interface runs fast and smooth, video looks incredible and it has mini-led and QLED.

Got the 65in QM5K to replaced an ~9 year old Samsung 60in 4K tv. Wife was commented how much better it looked. So definitely passes the lay person test.

It has FALD but not as many zones as the 6k. Also only does 60hz native so there's that. If all youre using it for is to watch media on it for the most part and aren't looking for the best HDR experience out there then it might be a good budget tv on sale. But for not that much money more you could get the 6k or 7k which are miles ahead of it as far as features go.

I got it because it was the smallest Tv with local dimming with a proper matching price tag. (50inch for a master bedroom.) Only had it for a day or two but so far it's decent. Will it wow your socks off? No but it has okay local dimming so it won't be beaming light at you during a dark scene when you're watching at night.

Got it about 2 weeks ago and love it. The audio is pretty good as well.

Yeah, I dont even know how that can happen haha, even when TCL's website has the specs on their website. But still, for the price I am very satisfied. The picture is amazing and great for gaming and was not expecting the audio to be that good as well. For this price range, I dont think you can do much better.

I've had my $450 qm5k for almost a month now and it has been excellent.

TCL's only higherend 50" is the QM5K with a 60hz panel. I was going to buy one but worried about longevity. If I could have fit a bigger TV, I would chose the QM6k or 7.

It's basically a qm6k without the 120hz panel. I say go for it if that's the best your budget allows.

I went from a 65 inch Samsung cu8000b to a 55 inch tcl qm5k and I have zero regrets it's an amazing upgrade over the edge lit Samsung and the size difference didn't bother me since it's for my bedroom. 55 still looks big in there.

You probably talk about full screen brightness In SDR. Basically there is no difference between qm 5-6-7 k while watching conventional broadcasting. But in HDR peak brightness provides HDR impact and should be 1000+ nit for most content. Peak brightness of qm5k is twice as less from required.

I recently replaced three of our 5 yr old basic non-gaming TVs (just watch streaming content) with the QM5K and have been super impressed with them. In its default setting, I find the QM5K too bright (I turned the QM5K down to 40% brightness.)

Have it, picture is great. Main issue is content stutter like when my kid watches Disney animated shows. Otherwise for a movies/television shows tv it's great!