Customer Images

The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Great, well-balanced gaming monitor

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  I’ve known TCL for years as a manufacturer of giant, super-bright TVs, but I’ve never known them for monitors. Decidedly more modest-sized than their 98” behemoths, this 27” monitor, the TCL G64, ticks a lot of boxes for gaming, especially for those who want to combine high refresh rates with strong contrast. And while the screen itself is surrounded by black trim on the bezels, I really liked the overall different look of the gray and black on the back. Out of the box, I like the way TCL has things arranged for setup. It’s super easy to attach the base to the arm, and then connect to the back of the panel itself, allowing for easy removal from the packaging without getting your fingers on the screen. The mount is highly adjustable, with height adjustment, tilt, and rotation. (Though it’d be odd for a gaming monitor, you can run this in portrait mode just fine.)The footprint of the stand is fairly large, but it results in a stable setup for the monitor, with no wiggle or balance issues. Included with the monitor is a DisplayPort cable and a surprisingly large external power brick. Connectivity on the back is fairly generous, with one DisplayPort and 2 HDMI connections. I tested this monitor with a personally-built gaming PC running an AMD RX 9070 XT graphics card. I used the included DisplayPort cable. Upon connection, I was surprised to see Windows report 165Hz as the maximum refresh, and AMD’s Adrenaline software did not see it as a Freesync monitor. It turns out that there’s a toggle in the monitor menu (more on that later) to enable Freesync, and as soon as that was enabled I had the monitor recognized for Freesync and 180Hz for the refresh rate. A key feature of this monitor is that it’s an HVA panel. This is a subtype of the common Vertical Alignment (VA) panel that addresses one of the issues of that type: while they have superb contrast, they suffer from “black smearing” with high refresh rates, as well as poorer viewing angles. This evolution of the panel type fixes these flaws with improved viewing angles and greatly reduced smearing, so you get the superb contrast of the VA panel (which helps HDR to “pop”) with the fast response typical of IPS panels. The HDR 600 rating is perhaps not the highest, especially in an age where top end TVs will have brightness topping out at 3000 nits or greater, but 600 is sufficient (especially with the good contrast) to provide a solid HDR experience (see below). Another feature I really liked is that TCL’s monitor menu is both pretty intuitive to use and has lots of options, much like a TV. This extends even to how aggressive you want the local dimming of the Mini-LED backlight to be, depending on your tastes–the more you engage the dimming algorithm, the better the contrast, but this usually comes at the expense of a little latency. So it depends on what type of games you play–if you’re mainly playing competitive FPS you may want minimal, or if you’re more like me (RPGs with the eye candy turned up) you might well prefer the additional contrast of the high setting. All the menu options are controlled by a single four-way toggle/power button underneath the center of the bottom bezel, and I found it quick to zip through the various menus. I tested this monitor with Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. I chose this title for a couple of reasons. First, it supports FSR4 fully, including for frame generation. This is exactly the sort of situation where frame generation can be leveraged to make the most of high frame rate monitors like this one, especially since the 9070 XT is capable of generating very playable frame rates in this game natively. Sure enough, I was playing a consistent 160-180fps with frame generation, and since the base frame rate was still high, it felt silky smooth. Secondly, HDR presentation. HDR can be hit or miss on the PC as you juggle game engines, Windows, displays, and graphics cards, but consoles, with their controlled hardware/software implementations, generally do very well with it. Since HZD was originally a PS5 game, it provides a good comparison for the HDR capabilities of this monitor. And what I saw was very pleasing–a vibrant, colorful, and impactful HDR image. The bright sun in the desert area outside Meridian especially popped. I also took note to look for banding in areas like the sky and didn’t notice any, so at least in that game, it handled gradients well. If HDR is important to you, I’d recommend turning the local dimming to high. Overall, this is a terrific monitor for a lot of gamers. With 1440p resolution and a 180Hz refresh rate, this monitor pairs really well with a variety of graphics cards, depending on your tastes in upscaling and frame generation to maximize the use of those specs. And 1440p is a sweet spot for still looking sharp on a 27” screen–1080p is too fuzzy in my view, and 4K is often overkill. I like the full-featured menu, the gray/black aesthetics, and especially the multi-directional ergonomics of the stand. With the HVA panel’s contrast, quantum dot color, and Mini-LED backlight, this monitor also gives a very creditable HDR presentation as well that I think many would be delighted with. Highly recommended!

  ...See More
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 

  DFN80 Posted 1 month ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Great Monitor! Great color and adjustable stand!

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser

  The height adjustable stand is great! I love the screen and the colors are very bright. It’s a big improvement over my older LG monitor. I love playing COD on it because the blacks level contrast is great against the colors of the game.

  • 

  NFLfan Posted 2 months ago

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  TCL G64 Series: Specs vs Reality, It's a Win

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  The TCL 27" G64 Series 180Hz Mini LED Gaming monitor finally gives the mid-range gaming market the opportunity to game with deep blacks, fast response time, high contrast, vibrant colors, and motion clarity. I've had time to determine whether it hits the mark on value and still delivers what we require as gamers. Overall, TCL cut a few corners to give us what I would call an Essential gaming monitor with the core features intact. - Design/Build/Unboxing - TCL provides the typical cabling and packing along with an HDMI cable, DisplayPort cable, power brick and cable, and a rectangular base. Stand: The base is flat and doesn't take up much space on your desk. It's flat enough that you can place a few items on there to reclaim space if necessary. It's a light gray color so it clashes a little with the color of my desk. Ergonomics: The stand can be adjusted up and down in the Y-axis, angle left to right, pivot to portrait mode, and tilt up and down too. Bezels: There are 3 sides that are borderless with a thicker bezel on the bottom. Underneath the bottom center is your OSD control. Connectivity: - (2) HDMI 2.1 for Console Gaming - (1) DisplayPort 1.4 for PC - (1) 3.5mm Audio Out for Headphone or Speakers There is no USB Port(s) for peripherals and no USB-B or USB-C upstream port for data (No ability for firmware updates.) This is a significant corner cut. However, there is a Monitor Color Calibration Factory Report in the box. My Report looked great with accurate colors, correct white balance, proper gamma, and good consistency across tones. These are great results for gaming, content work, and general productivity. - Specs/Features - Resolution: 2560 x 1440 QHD, 27 inches, pixel density of 109 ppi Refresh Rate: 180Hz Backlight: 180-zone Mini LED array. This is modest compared to higher end models but the 5000:1 contrast ratio does it's job to mitigate any potential blooming. - OSD Settings - Color: Color Temperature, Saturation, ColorTone, Color SpaceStandard, Office, FPS, RPG, RCG, Movie, Eye Saver, and E-Book Game Mode: FreeSync, Dark Part Brightening, Response Time, Crosshair, Timer, Refresh Rate On/Off Local Dimming, Brightness, Contrast, DCR On/Off, Sharpness, Gamma Settings: Rotation, OSD Display Time (I changed this to 40 to give me more time to adjust settings), Reset Settings, Factory Reset Personally, I adjusted the Picture Mode to "Movie" for General web browsing. For gaming, I use FPS. At night I switch to Eye-Saver. Note: E-Book setting is Black & White. I set local dimming to Medium to preserve shadow details. I use Gamma 1 when there's more ambient light in the room and Gamma 2 under normal indoor light. I set the Overdrive to Fast. - Performance - PC: In fast paced games like COD or Apex the 180Hz refresh rate and motion clarity perform well. Note: When setting overdrive to Fastest I noticed ghosting and halos trailing behind enemies. When set to normal or fast, ghosting disappears and black smearing is minimal. Console: I hooked up my Xbox Series X and the TCL 27G64 is a diamond in the rough. It downscales the 4K signal from the console to 1440p resulting in a super sampled image that looks sharper than native 1440p. It supports 120Hz output with Variable refresh rate making FPS feel really responsive. Overall, this is a great find and produces deep blacks, vibrant colors, and low input lag all at an affordable price. TCL Pairs a high contrast HVA panel with a modest but effective Mini LED array. Essentially, you're sacrificing USB ports, viewing angles, and firmware updates for raw picture quality and performance that was previously unavailable in this mid-range category. I recommend it for serious gamers. - Pros & Cons - *Pros* - 5000:1 Contrast/Local Dimming creates Inky Blacks - 97% DCI-P3 coverage - Brightness peaks over 800 nits - 180Hz refresh is smooth and responsive - Extremely low input lag - Practical stand - Clean aesthetics - Unbeatable value *Suggestions/Needs Improvement* - No USB means no firmware updates - 180 zones is entry level - Potential for VRR FLicker in menus/loading screens - Viewing angles could be better

  ...See More
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 

  NanoEthan Posted 1 month ago