TCL - 55" Class A300L Designer Series 4K QLED TV with Ultra Matte Screen and Flush Wall Mount (2026)

The A300L feels like the TV for people who don’t really want a TV, but want/need to have one for one reason or another. From a performance and image quality perspective, there are better options out there for the money and the matte screen and edge-lit backlight don’t do most content many favors. But based purely on aesthetics it looks great on the wall and especially looks great displaying art and photos. Even not being the best performing TV compared to similarly priced options, it still looks good enough for watching shows and sports. Unboxing the A300L, I was struck by how thin it is. With the magnetic frame pieces attached and the included wall mount bracket it only comes off the wall about as far as a normal framed piece of art would. The TV itself is white and the included frame pieces are a light birch color, though I believe there are black and white versions of it available to suit the room. The frame pieces attach easily enough and there are notches between each of the pieces to keep them flush with each other and securely attached.I did notice that the bottom frame piece does not sit flush in the middle of my unit, though this is only noticeable if you walk right up to it. The power cord is black, so it will need to be hidden either behind the wall or through a cable channel for the cleanest look, but I do think they could have gone with a white cord here to better match the TV and not stick out as much. The wall mount is not like a normal TV wall mount and comes in 2 separate pieces that are placed on the wall with the help of a template. This part was a little daunting, but with the template and the help of a laser level I was able to get everything lined up. Once the wall brackets are installed, the mating pieces are then placed on the TV and it is hung using these hinged metal bars and pushed onto the wall. Magnets help keep it flush as well. The TV is only held on the wall at the top, which is nice because this lets you pull the bottom out a bit for easier access to the ports if needed. For where I installed the mount, I wasn’t on any studs, so I used the included wall anchors. I would usually avoid wall anchors for mounting a TV on the wall, but these seem to be holding well. The TV is light enough and close enough to the wall that I don’t have any concerns about them coming out - I may replace the anchors with stronger toggle bolts at some point, but for now it seems fine. There are standard legs included for placing this on an entertainment stand, though if you’re not putting this on the wall it kind of defeats the purpose of the TV. The A300L comes with Google TV, which is my preferred smart TV OS. The setup is simple and straightforward, especially if you have an Android phone with Google Home. The interface is easy to navigate and most of the major streaming apps are available. Unless you are specifically tied into another ecosystem there’s no need for an external streaming device. The performance feels good enough, though it’s not quite as snappy as I’ve seen on the two higher-end TVs I have. I’d class the performance as a bit better than the Chromecast with Google TV. The ports are surprisingly good for this type of TV and I was expecting this area might be lacking. You get 4 HDMI ports, a LAN port, 2 USB ports, an OTA antenna connection, an analog AV adapter port, headphone jack, and optical audio out. 2 of the HDMI ports support the full HDMI 2.1 spec and 1 of those ports also supports eARC; the other 2 HDMI ports are limited to 4K 60Hz. The panel on the A300L uses a matte coating and is edgelit, so this is not going to be the primo 4K HDR experience. There are reasons for that on this TV though - the matte coating makes photos and art look more natural and resists glare better and the edgelit backlight allows the TV to maintain a thinness that a full local array or mini LED panel would not. It still has support for all the modern HDR formats, including Dolby Vision. The panel is 120Hz native and can even run at 144Hz VRR for gaming. Picture quality in general on the A300L is good for TV and sports. Colors actually look nice even with the matte coating, but the contrast is very limited though due to the edgelit backlight. The picture on this TV is going to be outperformed by regular TVs that cost less, but for most people I believe it will be good enough. HDR content displays well and looks good, though because of the lack of local dimming it does not pop like it does on other TVs. For the stated purpose of this TV, which is to display art and photos, those do look very good and natural in a well lit room. TCL ships an app on the TV called T-Exhibition that will display a range of art pieces and photos (and AI art if you’re into that). You can load your own photos onto it via the TCL app or a USB drive as well. The Google TV ambient mode in the OS can also serve this duty and has the advantage of hooking up to your Google Photos library. For a TV like this, having to add a soundbar kind of ruins the aesthetic and I’m happy to say that the built-in speakers on the A300L sound pretty good. It’s not a cinematic experience or anything, but they sound clear and have a nice fullness to them. They can also get quite loud. Overall I’m happy with the A300L and it’s nice for putting a display in a place where you don't want the TV to be the focus of the room. You have to decide what your priorities are, but you’re definitely paying a premium for any art TV.

My wife has wanted a "Frame TV" style TV for a while now and this one doesn't disappoint. The picture is great and when it's idle and has artwork cycling through it, it really does look like an illuminated art piece. Installation was really not that difficult. This TV comes with the flush mount for it and although the instructions are a little lacking, after a little bit of time investigating (and I found someone on YouTube that was mounting this same TV so I got some hints), we figured out how it works and the rest was pretty simple. There's no standard VESA mounting points on this TV. You need to screw the two smaller plates onto the back of the TV and then the larger plates get put on the wall. It comes with a template you can fold to the right side so you know where to drill your holes. Once that's done, you basically just "hang" the TV on the wall plates. Magnets keep everything pretty snug against the wall but allows you to swing the bottom towards you so you can access the inputs and power. Overall, I was impressed with the installation. Setup is normal GoogleTV affair. I really wish "dumb" TVs were made again so it wasn't necessary to have a full operating system on top of your TV but gone are the days. After all the setup prompts and a fairly lengthy update process, the TV was ready to go. If you're familiar with the Google TV interface, you'll probably feel right at home. I'm an AppleTV user so I was just happy to find the setting to turn the TV on to the last used input instead of always starting on Google TV. Picture quality is great. It's hard to find a TV these days that really looks "bad". The biggest downside you're going to find is that it's an edge-lit TV so you aren't going to get your super black blacks and a ton of contrast. You're paying a premium for the flush mount "art" TV but you still get a pretty good picture. The art screen feature is cool as well. You have to activate it manually but it's a single button on your remote. It brings up the gallery and you can browse the art or if you don't touch anything for 15 seconds, it'll start up a full screen art display. You can customize some things to your liking. You also have Google TV's screensaver which might be more customizable but you don't have a single button to load it. The "frame" part of the TV really does a good job disguising it. It's a thin frame but it does get rid of those standard TV bezels. The pieces are also magnetic so I'm sure you can find replacements for a different style frame if you want. If I really had to nitpick a downside, I don't understand the really large TCL power toggle button on the bottom left. For a TV that's trying to hide that it's a TV, it really does stick out. I understand that there's probably a technical reason they decided to leave this thing sticking out of the bottom of the TV but I'm not a huge fan of it. I feel like they could have made the power button a lot less in your face. Oh ya, also, the FIRST thing I saw when the TV was done updating and ready to use was a giant advertisement that took up a third of the screen for sports betting. I'd think the bright minds at Google would be able to come up with a way to maybe not blast ads in your face the literal second your TV is ready to use but I guess they couldn't figure that out. Overall, it's a good TV. Not a fan of ad-ridden Google TV but you don't really need to use it if you don't like it. The picture quality looks good and the frame and flush mount make the TV look just a little better on the wall. If you're looking for a flush art TV, give this one a gander.

I am reviewing the TCL 55” Class 4K QLED A300L Designer Series Smart TV with Google TV from Best Buy. It features an Art library, AI art and the flush wall mount is included. Let’s begin with the wall mounting. Removing the tv from the box was easy enough despite the bulky size. The mounting hardware consists of two metal plates that attach to the TV and another two separate mounting brackets that are mounted into the wall. If mounting into drywall, I strongly recommend anchoring into studs if possible. TCL does include some plastic anchors for mounting into drywall, concrete or bricks. I do wish the wall bracket was one piece to simplify leveling, but a paper template is included that does require some folding to fit the 55” TV. The plates that attach to the TV each use a single short bolt and be aware that at least in my case they did not tighten completely so there is some bracket swivel. The process went smoothly but I decided drill a second hole on the bottom of each of the metal wall brackets to prevent them from rotating or twisting under load and for added support, even though the 55” TV isn’t all that heavy, weighing in at a little over 30 pounds. I would suggest TCL add a second duplicate row of slots to allow two bolts for each bracket into a vertical stud. Oddly, TCL also states that the model 55A300L TV does not utilize the industry standard VESA wall mounts. Once up on the wall, the TV sits perfectly flush and because the TV is white plastic, it’s not really necessary to attach the decorative metal faux wood light oak frames, but they do give the TV more of a “framed painting” look if desired. The bottom frame piece has two tiny screws to hold it securely, although the magnets alone seem to be strong enough. For some odd reason, TCL chose to include a black power cord when a white or light gray cord would make more sense with a white TV. I just happened to have an extra white cord from another TV and used it instead. I do plan to hire an electrician at some point to mount an outlet behind the TV, at which time I will pick up a short one-foot cord as it uses a standard figure 8 C7 power cord connector. I should add that the TV does come with its own stand if you choose not to mount it on a wall. The initial TV setup was quick and painless but did require a firmware update early in the process. Since it is a Google TV, it comes with most built-in apps for streaming content. Of course, the big draw for this TV and why most people would buy it is for the ability to display artwork on a TV that mimics framed art. The provided art is quite extensive and if that’s not enough, there is an option to create art using AI to generate unique artwork for your home. I tried my hand at some watercolor art and the results were beautiful and colorful. Having art TVs in other rooms of our house, I am familiar with uploading my own 4K images and this is where I encountered some frustrations with TCL’s version, exacerbated by a lack of help guides. It turns out there are a couple of ways to upload and display your personal photos, either directly through the T-Exhibitions app or via Google Photos. I almost forgot to add that there is a third way to load your personal images and that’s using a USB memory stick, although that would seem awkward at best. After a lot of finger poking and button pushing, I was able to figure out the T-Exhibitions built-in TV app using the TCL Home smartphone app. On-screen instructions will guide you through the process, and it relies on scanning a QR code using the scan function in the phone app. I did notice that I was limited to uploading 12 photos at a time from my iPhone. Frustrations aside, the results are well worth it and the artwork I uploaded looked phenomenal. I previouslyhad a 43” art TV in our entry and replaced it with this slightly larger TCL 55” in and it’s primary use is to display artwork and family photos vs. watching TV. The quality of the display using QLED technology is bright and contrasty and highly configurable thanks to its QLED Pro Quantum Dot Technology. I chose the “standard” picture setting with some minor tweak to brightness, HDR settings, etc. There is an “intelligent” setting if you prefer letting the TV adjust to ambient room lighting. The Ultra Matte Anti-Glare Screen really does help to make the appearance of displayed art look the part. Much beyond a viewing angle of 45 degrees though, the picture degrades quickly, typical for an LED TV. The A300L includes most features found on TCL’s premium line of televisions. There’s a little bit of something to please everyone, including 120 Hz (144 Hz VRR) for those watching sports, and Game Accelerator 240 for gamers. Home theatre enthusiasts will appreciate enhanced sound features like Dolby Atmos audio, DTS:X and Virtual:X sound processing capabilities. Wi-Fi 5 is a bit dated but pretty much guarantees a solid and fast data transmission for television and music streaming apps. In summary for their model A300L Designer Series, TCL refined a 4K QLED TV designed for two purposes, watching TV shows and displaying art and it certainly appears to do an excellent job at both, especially when you factor in the cost for what you get. The 55-inch fits perfectly in our home décor and we receive lots of compliments from guests who view the artwork on display. It would be easy to deduct a few fractions of a point for the black power cord and for the frustrations of uploading photos for display, but once you figure that out, it becomes a non-issue, and everything works well once you come to grips with the process. It still rounds up to a 5-star rating as I see it. I might someday try the Google Photos option of uploading personal photos, but the T-Exhibition method is fine if you limit the number of uploaded images. I look forward to exploring more of the AI-generated artwork as the results are impressive.

I’ll admit, I was super intrigued from the idea of this tv. It functions as entertainment in many ways. It displays art and I can watch my favorite shows, movies or sport teams play. I like the idea of how thin and minimal it is. The stylist white frame makes it an instant conversation piece in the room. I love the screen saver aspect where it can display some art. It was a little heavier than I thought considering how thin it is. But I suppose that’s a good thing because it means it has “good” parts. Ok, so in this day and age it’s tough to find a tv that hits all the marks. Some are great with the black setting, others have better refresh ratios and some just don’t come with speakers. It’s hard to tell what you’re getting your money worth. This tv offers a great entry. It’s not going to blow you out of the water with its picture. But it does the job. If you’re looking for a tv to watch Netflix on, then look no further. This is near perfect out of the box. In a matter of minutes you can watch whatever your heart desires. Pros: 4k Google tv Art screen saver display Frame style television Very thin Decent picture quality 4 hdmi ports! Cons: Picture can be a tad crisper Overall: Ok, so this is a pretty decent tv. Obviously there are better versions out there, but this makes a good argument. It has 4 hdmi ports and that is super rare these days for a style of tv like this.

I have a friend who owns a flush-mounted "art TV" which I've been wanting to get for about a year now. Even though the model he has is from a different manufacturer, I seized on the chance when I found out that TCL was launching an updated version of their own "Designer Series". We've always used a 27-inch monitor for our streaming in the office and I thought this would be exactly the right thing for that purpose, and I'm thankful that I did. In fact, I'm a great admirer of the "art display" on this television. It's not an OLED and it won't take any awards for gaming or for having perfect blacks, but it is a great secondary TV and looks very good on a wall. These TVs are quite thin. It has to be to get a flush mount on the wall. That’s what the TV is made for. It took us a while to get Best Buy to mount it, but it’s well worth the wait. The screen has a matte finish because it really shines when you’re not watching TV. I know that sounds wild, but it does streaming and gaming just fine, but don’t expect it to be as good as your “main TV.” You’ll need to customize the picture settings to improve it (though it’s subjective). This is perfect for a secondary TV in the house, but if you put it somewhere with art, wallpapers will enhance the space. The mounting kit is rather unusual. Even though the installation is easy, if you're after a clean appearance with no visible wires I would recommend that you get a professional to carry it out. The TV is designed to fit very closely to the wall, so there is no room behind it for cables or plugs and you can expect to have a cramped space. It's important to arrange all your cabling before you mount the TV. There are molded grooves on the back which allow all the cables to run down to the bottom. At present we're only using it for streaming, but in future we might put our Xbox up there when we have sleepovers. I’m a fan of the Google TV UI. I’m used to it, and it’s made to be very simple. Once hooked up to the wifi, it’s snappy and should download the apps you want fairly quickly. It has all the apps you’ll need, and the remote is good enough if you don’t want to use your phone. I’m spoiled when it comes to TVs and most of our displays. Between an OLED and a few QD-OLED monitors in the house, I’m a sucker for the deep blacks. The blacks are the biggest difference, and the picture isn’t as crystal clear as I’d hope. The colors are good enough, but don’t pop as much as I’d love them to. Now, one may ask, why don’t they use OLED technology for these art TVs if OLED is “the best?” Well, it’s likely because of the burn-in risk OLEDs have. However, I would have loved a mini-LED with enhanced brightness. That would work almost as well as an OLED. That would of course raise the asking price (which is still $1000). That’s just too high an asking price based on the picture quality. But again, it’s not horrible; you’re paying a premium for a thin, wall-mounted TV that has a cool Art feature you can leave on if you sh. I’d say that’s a big premium to pay for what is essentially a wallpaper, right? Edge-lit LED display technology is aging, but the colors do pop well enough to make the art and 4K pictures above average, and the blacks aren’t horrible (especially when you aren’t comparing next to an OLED screen). The television really stands out in the art mode. This will automatically turn to a (we choose random) art piece that looks lovely in a room setting. It makes me appreciate the art every time I walk in the room. It is odd, though, that when you adjust the TV with an art wallpaper on the screen, you can get it perfect, but when streaming, those same settings aren’t as good. Then, you change the streaming settings to make them look as good as they get, then the art screen doesn’t look as great. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong with the settings or what, but I’d love for either mode to automatically change depending on what's on the screen, or for some sort of firmware to keep both screens looking great at the same time. For a 55-inch “Art TV,” which uses edge-lit QLED technology, I’d love to see it priced a few hundred dollars less than the 1K asking price. TCL has proven to be a serious brand when it comes to TVs, but this doesn’t quite seem like a premium product that should cost the same as, or nearly as much as, a great, proven OLED TV.