TCL QM8K Reddit Verdict: Mini-LED That Rivals OLED

TCL packs a lot of dimming zones, push for a higher brightness overall. They are going for high numbers on a budget. Sony is focusing more on quality. They are known for having the best picture processing, upscaling ability, motion handling, and a really great local dimming system. It's not just about how many zones you have but the processor behind it.

I kept the 98" TCL as we sit about 13-14ft away, so the size was the better viewing experience. Although I also thought the OLED had the better picture quality, in the end we just had more fun and overall more enjoyable experience with the TCL. No regrets on the choice all this time later.

This year in particular, TCL has clearly learned to go for overall quality and worry less about max numbers. The QM7K is a fantastic TV and tops many lists for best value/best buy. I bought the B7 first, not the TCL. The B7 was underwhelming, especially for hockey. It was too much money for the picture it provided. It was only then I started considering other TVs and eventually the TCL. So not one-sided — I would have kept the B7 had it impressed me.

My living room is VERY bright during the day, no thanks to the Texas sun and lots of windows. I wanted a TV that didn't force me to close the blinds on a Sunday afternoon. I purchased a 7K and it was good, but it quite frankly struggled a bit in our space, so I tried the 8K, and its additional brightness just laughed at the mid-day sun.

Just having a good panel is not everything, processor matters.

They offer fantastic value for the money. Sony's are really nice at the mid and high end, but they ain't cheap.

Weird, because I have the exact same TV and find the sports mode setting for football looks great. The only thing I've tweaked is the color temperature. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

The QM8K is MADE for sports, frankly, given its specs. OP just needs to figure out how to adjust settings appropriately, including jitter and motion smoothing.

The jumps from one model to the next just aren't worth it to me. The 6K is really great. That's where I'm getting the most value.

I can say that without proper settings of the white balance 2-point/20-point, sharpness, brightness, contrast, motion, and noise reduction, the TV looked worse than my OLED. With all these settings done it is the same as the OLED if not better — I am really not exaggerating.

More dimming zones and better brightness on paper. Is it worth it? I don't know. I bought the 75 Q8K (C8K) and I am very happy. Pure black, good white, and no dead pixels or LED backlights.

Most live sports are broadcast in 720p. Not a whole lot can be done to make them as good as native 4K.

We just got a 98 QM8K on Black Friday for our family room and it's great. The issues people have stem from where the stream is coming from. Some apps are much better at upscaling to 4K than others. Prime Video's TNF stream is incredible but the NFL app's stream of the same game is garbage. Peacock has been great too.

Some people upgrade from a 55" to 98" and expect that the blown up picture will look as good, but if they're sitting too close and the broadcast is in 720p, they will see a difference. It's not an issue with movies in 4K, but it can be with sports that aren't in 4K. In most cases it has nothing to do with the TV brand.

I recently was in the market. I was overwhelmed with the amount of praise Reddit and Google searches gave TCL. Everyone had valid points. I decided to take the risk. I've never had a problem with a TV in my life. Never. This TCL has been a pain and I'm deeply considering returning it.

I got a 98" QM8K and a 65" Sony Bravia 8II the same month. I can maybe notice some motion issues with the TCL while watching sports — absolutely nothing that ruins the experience. Happy with both TVs. Both do great in bright rooms.

Never owned a good TV before so had to go for QM8K and it's mind-bogglingly good, especially when gaming.

I love my TCL — it was the best TV for my situation. That said, the processing leaves something to be desired. End of the day there is no perfect TV. Pick the things most important to you — that's how you make the decision.

I got the C8K 75 on Black Friday after months of arguing with myself. Best TV in my opinion. I'm totally satisfied with everything — movies, gaming, the simple setup. Everything.

Personally I'd go mini-LED. I don't think OLED is worth it for most people. You're getting 95% of OLED picture quality for a third of the price. The QM8K is fantastic.

I went from a 77 inch OLED to the 98 QM8K. Like yourself, I do see the picture quality difference, but some of that is attributed to the larger size showing more flaws in the clip since it's magnified. There won't be a perfect option until 97" OLED is much cheaper. I don't regret going with the 98" QM8K still.

They offer a ton of value for a great price point. However, their software and hardware reliability experience leaves a lot to be desired. Sometimes it's just an annoyance — wow, this doesn't work.

I pulled the trigger on it at $950 for 65" on an Amazon sale last month. I couldn't be happier — it's in my living room that gets bright and it handles it incredibly well. Could the blacks be blacker? Sure. Is it something I notice? No, because I haven't owned an OLED so it might be a Plato's cave type of deal. But for the price and feature richness, I love it.

Just purchased an 85" QM8K and my wife and I are blown away at the picture quality. Sound isn't the greatest but not bad by any means. We just watched Moana 2 and the colors this TV was producing were insane. Highly recommend if you can get your hands on one.

The only people that are going to tell you that a mini-LED is better than OLED are the people that can't afford OLED or have never watched a movie with one. The only way I would say go with the TCL is if you're in a bright room.

I ended up with a 98" QM851G and was extremely pleased with the black levels and brightness on it. I'm planning on getting a smaller OLED for the bedroom one day, though the HDR brightness on the TCL is going to be hard to beat. Genuinely wincing at visuals of fire, for example.

I think you'll miss the size way more than you'll miss the minuscule quality differences, especially once you don't have them right next to each other.

Do it! One of the best TVs, if not the best value on the market as of now. Rivals OLED — in fact maybe better if placed in a bright living room. Doubt you'll buy a better TV for the money.

I've had a 98QM8K for 6 months in a large great room with total windows on the south side. After fine tuning it was good, but after update V313 it is great even during daytime. I could not be happier, especially for the price of a 98" TV.

The only upgrades you're getting for the extra $1,000 on the QM8K over the QM7K are a barely better off-axis viewing experience, increased brightness which is so inconsequential since the QM7K is unbelievably bright, ATSC 3.0 tuner, and a different color remote. It's basically the same TV with unnecessary improvements.

85QM8K owner. If you cannot control light it will not be a good experience — I have curtains. There used to be some motion issues watching sports, but one of the last two firmware updates fixed it. I had been using a Shield Pro that absolutely resolved sports and was happy with that solution, but now it's not needed. Very happy with my purchase.

Just picked up the QM8K last week. It is better in almost every aspect compared to the QM7K — better color accuracy, zero bezel, upgraded Google TV, and way better blacks. The biggest one for me is that it can achieve almost twice the brightness as the QM7K, and my room is all windows down one side.

I watch subtitles on everything and blooming on them is so distracting especially with HDR/DV content. The QM8K is a win for me — the LAD and halo control is so tight. No issue for me and the picture quality is spectacular. If blooming is not a priority, I don't see why the extra money is worth it.

I own the QM8K and also an LG C5. The difference between the C5 and QM8K is not night and day — except in brightness, where the QM8K blows the C5 out of the room. It honestly shocked me how good the QM8K is while standing next to an OLED. It will never beat OLED's infinite contrast of course, but it's not lacking in contrast or black levels at all. I love it.

I chose the QM8K over the Sony Bravia 9 and an OLED candidate because the QM8K is an excellent TV, and only the QM8K supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10+. That's a real content compatibility edge.

I picked up one open box at Best Buy for $720 and used the savings to get the 5-year warranty. Honestly it's a beautiful TV. It looks premium — reviewers mentioned the small borders, I didn't think much of it, but it does add to the immersion.

I got the 65" TCL QM8K and the picture quality is mind blowing. I tried the Hisense U8QN but returned it as everything had a red tint. The colors on the QM8K out of the box are accurate and the picture quality is a joy. Great reflection handling and viewing angle is good too, not Samsung QN90 series good but more than good enough.

I've had my 75" QM8K for a week now. Took a while to dial it in to my liking. But wow — very impressed with the TV. My previous TV was a 55" Panasonic when 4K were new to the market. First thing I saw was an F1 trailer and just blown away. Super pleased with the TV and all the settings it comes with.

I have the QM8 from 2023. It looks absolutely gorgeous to this day. If you don't have an OLED sitting right next to it for comparison, you'd probably think the QM8 is OLED too. If OLED is number 1, the QM8 is 1a in my opinion.

I got the 75" QM8K. It's very large and feels very premium — even the remote. Blacks are super dark and highlights will probably burn your retinas. I think both extremes are kind of too much out of the box on this TV, frankly. Most people won't be able to tell the difference between this and an OLED.

I got my QM8K on Friday from Amazon at the Black Friday price for 65". Watched some hockey, some concert video, some SD content, news, streaming — all look great. Going from 55 to 65 is incredible, the size feels astronomically higher. I even think the audio is quite good, and I am kinda fussy about sound. For about $300 less than the C5 and 4 years of warranty.

Got mine last week. OTA sucks. Everything else appears to be too warm for my taste. I try the cool setting and it's still too warm for me. Also I can see adjustments the auto setting makes — not good for me. This is a deal breaker.

I have the 98" QM8K and I have no regrets whatsoever — best decision I made was getting this brand and model.

In my opinion, the 7K is still the best value for how well TCL made it. I've tested both the 8K and 9K and find the best quality/price ratio is with the 7K. Even when you push the 8K and 9K to their max potential, they got pretty unpleasant with their buzzing noises when brightness got up.

I love the QM8K but whatever processor or HDMI ports the TV has aren't up to the task for playing high bitrate content from external devices. I have a 4K Player, PS5 Pro, and Sonos system. Whenever I play Atmos movies for too long I start getting audio drop outs. Same when I have my PS5 audio set to Atmos. It's only with external devices though — playing Atmos content through the internal apps gives me no issues.

I bought the 65" QM8K not only for the better specs but that zero-border design and overall build just seems a bit more premium. The picture is top notch. I was coming from last year's 55" Hisense U7N which was a fantastic TV, but this blows it out of the water.

The blooming control alone is worth it.

I'm currently upscaling 720p and it looks very good. Clearly I can tell there are a few small artifacts here and there, but overall it's impressive. I think it's the best value. If I truly cared more I would have spent up for a Sony, but I seriously think it looks great.

I bought a 75" QM8K on Black Friday. I'm watching the Texans-Raiders game now and the picture is absolutely stunningly incredible. I did spend two agonizing weeks calibrating. Game is on CBS and I'm wondering if they use different technology than FOX? Prime always looks incredible too.

It seems to be a great TV and they say it's the best mid-range TV. They also say out of the box the color accuracy isn't good and needs to be calibrated. I was all set to buy this TV, but then I saw that after a few weeks of use the unit developed a noticeable buzzing sound, and other owners have reported the same issue. That stopped me.

Viewing angles are not good. If you sit directly in front they seem OK. I've had the 6K and 7K — I could never get the color looking right on skin tones. Went with the LG OLED instead. I would recommend the 8K since you said bright room — the real difference is the refresh rates and dimming zones. The 8K and above will get you close to OLED contrast levels with minimal halo or bloom.