The TCL QM8K is a bright, colorful mini-LED TV equipped with a 2.2.2-channel Dolby Atmos spatial audio speaker system, along with every premium feature you’d expect in its class. That includes an ATSC 3.0 tuner, Wi-Fi 6, a 144Hz refresh rate with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, hands-free Google Assistant, Google Cast, and Apple AirPlay—the works. Even so, it’s pretty expensive at $2,499.99 for the 65-inch model I tested. Like most TCL TVs, it’s almost always available for much less than its official retail price, and as I write this, it’s priced at around $1,600 at every retailer I’ve looked at. That’s still higher than the Hisense U8QG’s “everyday price” of $1,499.99 for 65 inches. Both offer a great picture, but the Hisense U8QG has an even more impressive 4.1.2-channel speaker system and a unique side-mounted DisplayPort-compatible USB-C port, so it remains our Editors’ Choice for LED TVs. 

Design: A Nearly Edge-to-Edge Picture

The panels of bezel-less TVs usually don’t show a picture across their entire surface, and instead have a narrow blank border along the edges of the display. The QM8K isn't quite bezel-less, but its panel lights up across every exposed inch of its surface, right up to the thin, flat, metallic silver bezel framing it. It’s a sleek look that emphasizes the TV’s flagship status. The included plastic table stand matches the screen with a single brushed silver-tone square foot.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

Four HDMI ports (two 4K144, one eARC), two USB-A ports (one 3.0, one 2.0), an Ethernet port, an optical audio output, and an RF antenna/cable connector face right on the back of the TV, near the right edge. The power cable plugs into a similarly placed port on the left side.

The remote is a rectangular wand with a metallic silver finish like the bezel and stand, though in this case, it actually feels like metal and is cool to the touch. It only covers the face of the remote, though, and the rest is black plastic like the QM7K’s remote. At the top are power, mute, input, and menu buttons, along with a pinhole microphone and a large circular navigation pad. Volume and channel rockers sit in the center of the remote along with dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, TCLtv+, and YouTube. Most of the buttons are gently backlit, which is a nice touch.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

Audio: 2.2.2-Channel Dolby Atmos Speakers

The QM8K has a 2.2.2-channel Bang & Olufsen-designed speaker array with Dolby Atmos spatial audio. It isn’t quite as ambitious as the 4.1.2-channel-equipped Hisense U8QG with its separate side-firing channels in addition to the standard left and right front channels. That said, the QM8K's speaker array is still more sophisticated than what you'll find in most other TVs, and its upward-firing height channels can add detail to spatial audio imaging. 

Features: Google TV, ATSC 3.0, Wi-Fi 6

TCL uses Google TV for the QM8K's smart TV platform. It’s a robust and popular interface you'll also find on TVs from Hisense, Sony, and several other manufacturers. It has apps for all major streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube. It also supports streaming locally from your Android device or Chrome tab via Google Cast. The TV also includes Apple AirPlay support so you can stream from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

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Google Assistant is built into Google TV, and the QM8K has a far-field microphone array so you can use the voice assistant free of hands. Google Assistant lets you search for content, control the TV and any compatible smart home devices, get general information like weather reports, and perform other tasks. It’s useful, and if you don’t want the TV always listening for the wake word, you can turn off the microphone and access Google Assistant through the corresponding button on the remote.

The TCL QM8K is a 4K QLED mini-LED TV with a 144Hz refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma (HLG). It has Wi-Fi 6 for wireless network connectivity and an ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV tuner for 1080p and 4K over-the-air broadcasts.

Performance: Bright and Colorful, With Some Light Bloom

I test TVs with a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman software. Out of the box, in HDR Movie mode with an HDR10 signal, the QM8K shows a peak brightness of 720 nits with a full-screen white field and 2,849 nits with an 18% white field. I use the 18% field to compare peak brightness for different LED TV models, but shrinking it down to 10% pushes the luminance to 3,138 nits.

Brightness is similar in Dolby Vision IQ mode with a Dolby Vision signal: 708 nits with a full-screen white field, 2,784 nits with an 18% white field, and 3,063 nits with a 10% white field. Oddly, this is slightly dimmer than last year’s TCL QM851G (3,308 nits, 18% field, HDR10), as well as the Hisense U8QG (3,200 nits, 18% field, HDR10), but not noticeably. The human eye perceives changes in light level on a curve, and the visual difference between, for example, a 600-nit picture and a 1,000-nit picture is much more apparent than the difference between a 2,800-nit picture and a 3,200-nit picture. Both of the latter figures are extremely bright for any TV.

In both cases, blacks are effectively perfect, though as with all mini-LED TVs, light bloom can cause a haze along high-contrast edges. Dimmer OLED panels have a fundamental advantage here since they individually adjust the light output of each pixel rather than zones covering entire clusters of pixels. The QM8K has up to 3,800 mini-LED dimming zones, which means there's at least 2,192 pixels per zone. 

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The above charts show the QM8K’s color levels with an SDR signal in Filmmaker mode compared against Rec.709 broadcast standards, and with HDR10 and Dolby Vision signals in HDR Movie and Dolby Vision IQ modes compared against DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. White levels are accurate in SDR and HDR10, and while they run slightly cool in Dolby Vision, you won't notice a significant tint. SDR colors are spot-on, as are most HDR10 colors, though magenta runs slightly warm, a common issue with LED TVs. Dolby Vision IQ mode reins in colors a bit from HDR10, though it corrects magenta in the process. 

Off-angle viewing is very strong on the QM8K, with color and contrast staying intact even when watching from the far sides.

BBC’s Planet Earth II looks bright, colorful, and lifelike on the QM8K. The greens of plants, blues of water and sky, and tans of fur are all vibrant and accurate without looking oversaturated. Fur, grass, and tree bark are detailed in scenes both under bright sun and in shade.

The Great Gatsby shows off the QM8K’s excellent contrast, with the cuts, contours, and textures of black suits easily discernible and appearing very dark. White lights, shirts, and balloons in the same shots stay very bright with strong highlight detail. Skin tones also look natural and well-balanced.

The QM8K admirably displays the wide variety of demonstration footage on the Spears & Munsil Ultra HD benchmark disc, which serves as a good torture test for TVs. Snowy scenes are bright with plenty of detail, keeping wisps of clouds against white skies and falling snowflakes against snow-covered grounds clear and visible. Shadow details in dawn and dusk shots of landscapes are also preserved very well and retain their color. Shots of bright, colorful objects against black backgrounds display minimal light bloom, though a slight haze can be detected, which, as mentioned, is normal for non-OLED TVs. The bloom is more noticeable when watching the TV off-angle, and is much less noticeable when viewing it head-on.

Gaming: Low Latency and a High Refresh Rate

Gamers should be pleased with the QM8K’s performance and feature set. It has a 144Hz native refresh rate with VRR and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, though no formal Nvidia G-Sync certification. Input lag in Game mode, as measured by a Leo Bodnar 4K Video Signal Input Tester, is 12.9 milliseconds for a 4K60 signal and 4.6 milliseconds for a 1080p signal. That’s less than one frame of lag (16.7ms at 60Hz, 8.3ms at 120Hz), so the QM8K qualifies as good for gaming.