TCL - 27" R94 Series 4K UHD HDR QD-Mini LED Gaming Monitor - Black and White

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• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  I wanted an OLED alternative and I found one!

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser
  • Owned for 1 month

  Let me start by saying I own a 32‑inch OLED from LG. It’s a gaming monster, but for everything else I was left wanting more. I spend a few hours each day in Excel and Tableau, and the text rendering on OLED was something I never truly loved. Not to mention the constant anxiety of image retention. Coming from OLED, I feel like I’m missing nothing in image quality or gaming performance, and gaining a lot everywhere else. Text is crisp and clear across both Windows and macOS on the TCL, and I now have zero anxiety about image retention when leaving Excel open for hours. For me, this is the perfect dual‑purpose monitor. For gaming, the panel is very responsive—nearly as fast as OLED. In practice, I don’t notice a difference while playing. Colors are extremely vibrant once set up correctly (disable Auto Color Management in Windows), and the local dimming does an excellent job keeping contrast deep and rich. I’ve been playing Dead Space on this TCL recently, and I’m loving how the shadows stay truly dark while highlights finally have real, usable brightness. Coming from OLED, I had forgotten what actual full‑screen brightness looks like. It’s honestly too bright for me, so I keep local dimming on High and brightness at 50. My one negative is the speakers—they’re abysmal. Easily the worst I’ve encountered on a monitor. They produce worse audio than my phone or the built‑in speaker on my Mac Mini. No idea why TCL cut corners this hard. Also, full disclosure: the coating is definitely matte, despite what some advertisements suggest. It’s not overly aggressive—somewhere between a strong Dell office monitor and a light semi‑gloss. In closing, I’ve always felt TCL TVs offered great picture quality and value, and that extends to the 27R94. The image quality is phenomenal in my opinion, and being Mini‑LED makes it far better suited for office work and gaming without the risk of image retention.

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  DennisD Posted 1 month ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Good Value and Good Real HDR Alternative to OLED

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 250 Contributor

  In terms of gaming monitors, it’s tough to match the inky blacks and near infinite contrast you get from OLED, but as an LCD alternative the 27R94 performs well in both SDR and HDR with its many dimming zones, high brightness, and good value. You also do not need to worry about static images or panel care routines either, so it’s also a good candidate for a mixture of gaming and productivity. The package includes the monitor and its stand, a power adapter, and USB/display cables. The stand comes in to pieces and the base attaches to the main column via a thumbscrew. The power adapter is a large 260W external brick, which provides power for the monitor itself as well as up to 90W PD charging via the USB-C port. Speaking of ports, there are 2 HDMI 2.1, 1 DisplayPort 1.4, 2 USB-A 3.0, and USB-B 3.0 upstream, and the aforementioned USB-C port that supports display and Power Delivery for compatible devices. The stand has the full range of movement and supports height, swivel, and tilt adjustments. It also has a cable channel built in that does a good job of hiding the cables behind the stand. The monitor can be tilted 90 degrees with the included stand for a portrait orientation. I like the stand, though it is quite wide. I’m not a huge fan of the black/white color scheme on the back and I think the ‘Inspire Greatness’ text on the stand is a bit gaudy, though none of that really gets seen when viewing the monitor from the front. There’s also a plastic piece on the right side of the monitor that pulls out - I assume this is meant to be a hanger for headphones, but I didn’t find it mentioned anywhere in the documentation. I used this monitor with my PC through the DisplayPort connection, had the resolution set at the native 3840x2160, 165Hz refresh rate, G-Sync enabled, and I alternated between SDR and HDR depending on the content. The 165Hz refresh rate is technically overclocked from 144Hz native, though 165Hz is enabled by default and I didn’t notice any issues running with this refresh rate. I set the local dimming to the highest possible setting. This is the first LCD monitor with HDR that I’ve used where the HDR feels like true HDR. So many other monitors advertise HDR, but don’t really deliver on due to either a lack of brightness, lack of local dimming, or both. This monitor struggles in neither of those departments. Using the Windows HDR calibration app, I was able to hit the stated 1400 nits at full screen. The 2304 dimming zones packed into this 27” display made it hard to spot any halo-ing effects or transitions and I had to pull up a test video to see it. It still doesn’t match OLED and the overall black levels are a little raised by comparison, but overall it looks great for an LCD. Gaming is smooth and the screen is responsive. Windows is still not well optimized for HDR, so I tended to keep that disabled unless the game/video explicitly supported it. The OSD can be accessed via the single button/joystick and is easy to navigate, though the settings adjustments are minimal and it’s a bit laggy. I also connected my laptop to the USB-C PD port and it worked as expected. Overall, I think this is a great LCD gaming monitor that actually supports real HDR. It’s also a good value for what it offers.

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  SamG Posted 3 months ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Gorgeous QD-MiniLED Gaming Monitor

  • Top 500 Contributor
  • Tech Insider Network Member

  The TCL 27R94 is a premium QD-MiniLED gaming monitor that uses technology whose main competition is OLED. It combines Quantum Dot technology with Mini-LED backlighting to enhance color accuracy and brightness. This technology’s main claim to fame is that it offers best-in-class brightness levels, a high contrast ratio, and a wide range of colors with OLED-like deep-black levels but without the fear of burn-in. I was really excited to test out the TCL 27R94 monitor because I am a big fan of TCL HDTVs and wanted to see what their first foray into computer monitors would bring to the table. The package came with the following items: The TCL 27R94 monitor itself A futuristic looking monitor stand with RGB lighting A large 260W power adapter 1x Type-C cable 1x USB-A to USB-B cable 1x DisplayPort cable 1x HDMI cable A setup guide Setup Setup was very easy and required no tools. The bottom part attaches to the neck of the stand and is secured with two attached screws, and the complete stand just snaps into the back of the monitor. The stand is tiltable and height adjustable. You can also use any standard VESA 100mmx100mm stand or wall mount if that is your preference. Finally, there is a pull-out hook on the right side of the monitor to hold your headphone. Quick Specifications 27-inch 4K UHD 3840x2160 QLED display using a Fast-HVA panel 165Hz refresh rate 1600nits peak brightness 2304 Local Dimming Zones VESA Display HDR1400 4000:1 Native Contrast Ratio 16,000,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio 1 ms response time (GTG) 2x HDMI 2.1 port 1x DisplayPort 1.4 port 1x Headphone Jack 2x USB-A 3.0 port 1x USB-B 3.0 port 1x USB-C port with support for 90W PD Supports Picture-In-Picture/Picture-By-Picture Supports AMD Freesync Premium Supports KVM features Supports TUV Low Blue Light Test Configuration For testing, I am using an Alienware m17 R5 laptop connected to the USB-C port on the monitor. I have also connected a mouse and keyboard to the two USB-A ports on the monitor to test some of the KVM features. First Impressions I really like the overall aesthetics of the TCL 27R94. The design language used makes the monitor look like it could have come from a Star Trek or Mass Effect movie set. The included stand is very sturdy and solid but also takes up a lot of table space (it’s actually wider than the monitor itself). There are plenty of ports for connecting multiple devices to the monitor and everything is controlled by a 4-way toggle button that brings up an OSD with many options for tailoring the configuration of the display settings. Some of the menu options (such Scenario Mode and Gamma adjustments) were dimmed out probably because I was connected using the USB-C port. The KVM worked well except I couldn’t wake up my laptop using the externally connected mouse or keyboard. I had to press the trackpad or the laptop’s keyboard to wake up the computer. The KVM looks like you can also connect another computer (such as a desktop) using the USB-B port and it will automatically switch to the device that is powered on. So, you can have a laptop connected to the USB-C port and a desktop connected using the USB-B port and automatically switch between them while using the same external keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to test this feature. I also didn’t have time to test the picture-in-picture feature of the monitor. Picture Quality Impressions One of the first things I noticed was that the TCL 27R94 was easily viewable in my bright spare bedroom during the day. I tried playing a game on both the TCL 27R94 and my laptop’s screen and all the game’s elements were easily seen on the TCL but these same elements were hard to discern on my laptop’s screen. This is a fantastic monitor for brightly lit rooms. The text is super sharp and clear and readability is easily the best of all the monitors I have used. This monitor is great for productivity work and software development where working with text is very important. Colors are very vibrant and natural looking. Because it uses a matte screen instead of a glossy screen, there are instances where an image doesn’t “pop” out as much compared to some other monitors or HDTVs that use a glossy screen. When I viewed Dolby Vision HDR demo videos on YouTube on this monitor, I thought the images did have that “pop” that many people love. However, I actually prefer a matte screen for their more natural and accurate colors for a computer monitor. Glossy screens can be really bad in a brightly lit room where reflection can be a problem. The TCL 27R94 also came with a personalized Color Calibration Factory Report which is a first for me. I think this would be a fantastic monitor for content creators where color accuracy is important. VA panels typically do not have wide viewing angles but I usually sit right in front of my monitor so this doesn’t really bother me. And when I did view the monitor from the side, I didn’t really notice any color distortion. Modern HVA panels are much better than the VA panels of the old days where color distortion was very noticeable. The TCL 27R94 is also a fantastic monitor for media consumption. I watched videos, TV shows, and movies on YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video and the experience was very pleasurable. The image quality was superb with vibrant natural colors, great contrast and rich deep blacks. The built-in speakers sounded okay. They are very clear but like most TV speakers they lack bass. They do a good job for games (the soundstage is really good) but are just okay for movies. Gaming Impressions I enabled AMD Freesync Premium on the monitor for testing with games. The games that I tested were Baldur’s Gate, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. When panning the screen, I didn’t experience any tearing. Everything was super-smooth and the image quality was superb. I am not a competitive FPS gamer so I can’t really test how well it will do for those types of games but for the games that I play, I am extremely happy with the TCL 27R94. Summary Overall, I think TCL’s foray into computer gaming monitors is a smashing success. The TCL 27R94 offers exceptional image quality with vibrant natural colors and deep blacks. It is a fantastic monitor for viewing videos and movies. It performs extremely well in brightly lit rooms. It also offers super-sharp text so it’s great for software development and other productivity tasks. With support for AMD Freesync Premium and high refresh rates, the TCL is also a good monitor for gaming. I can easily recommend the TCL 27R94 to anyone looking for a new gaming monitor.

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  DoctorHoo Posted 3 months ago