TCL - 98" Class RM9L Series 4K UHD HDR RGB-Mini LED Smart TV with Google TV (2026)

TLDR: TCL's all-out effort in RGB-Mini LED TV's. They left nothing off the table. CONNECTIONS AirPlay 2 Bluetooth 5.4 HDMI 2.1 x 4 (144Hz) KEY SPECS Up to 6000 Nits Peak Brightness 5600 Local Dimming Zones 100% BT.2020 Color Reproduction 288Hz Variable Refresh Rate Compatible (144Hz Inputs) Dolby Vision / Dolby Vision IQ / HLG / HDR 10 / HDR10+ / IMAX Enhanced Dolby Atmos / DTS Virtual X PROS Excellent Sound Quality for a Flat-Panel Backlit Remote Accurate Color Reproduction Best-In-Class Processing Power Minimal Blooming / Excellent Light Control CONS Remote Lacks Essential Playback Controls Hernia Causing Heft - Eat Your Wheaties INSTALLATION & SET-UP First off, big thanks to TCL for springing for in-home delivery. The RM9L weighs in at a hernia inducing 143 pounds (without stand and/or shipping pallet). Make sure you have a heavy-duty mounting bracket and plenty of studs to anchor that bracket to. You will need it. Even after eating our Wheaties, my teenager and I struggled to get it lifted and placed on its mounting bracket. The RM9L is, by far, the heaviest TV I've ever mounted. After getting my workout for the day, the RM9L is extremely easy to get set-up. Our household is primarily an Android-based ecosystem, so setting up the TCL was an easy lift (pun intended). Using my Pixel 10 Pro, the TCL started up and with just a few clicks, had logged into my Google account, logged into Wi-Fi, and had reached out and got an update. Not to mention, during set-up, it asked me what streaming services I wanted to pre-install. I clicked all my apps of choice & aside from DirecTV stream, all apps downloaded and logged me in using credentials obtained from my phone. Super slick and so much easier than in the past. Kudos to Google and their refinements. AUDIO The RM9L features audio tuned by Bang & Olufsen. I've had numerous TV's in for review and this TCL has the best audio of any flat-panel TV I've ever heard. The RM9L features a 4.2 surround system built-in. It houses L&R speakers, 2 surround speakers, and dual subwoofers. Everyone that has ever purchased a flat-panel TV over the years knows just how weak and anemic the speakers are. No matter how good the picture is, I've never heard a TV that had decent audio. The RM9L changes my expectations. Sound is actually fairly robust and enveloping. I was surprised at just how full-bodied the audio quality is. A lot of that comes from the included B&O subwoofers built into the top of the TV. They add just enough low frequency extension to keep the audio from sounding thin and uninspired. Again, the RM9L is the first TV I've reviewed to date that I can honestly give a thumbs up for audio quality. It far superior to any other TV I've had to date. BRAINS TCL spared no expense putting their top-of-the-line processor in the RM9L. When the TCL arrived, I purposely left my streaming stick off and used the Google apps to stream. I am thoroughly impressed at just how responsive the TCL is as a streaming platform. Their new CPU is superior to any of my other streaming sticks. While the Google ecosystem isn't as intuitive as a dedicated streaming device, I have zero complaints about the RM9L's responsiveness and usability. Additionally, TCL claims their AI processor (isn't everything AI anymore) can do per pixel analysis of video reproduction. While I have no way to test this, it seems legitimate from what I can tell. Motion is smooth and clear and light and artifact control seem to be the best in the business. A feature that I never thought I would really care about, but have been using it more and more, is Google Gemini. It can be accessed by either speaking directly to the TV or by holding the microphone button down and speaking into the remote. If there isn't a bunch of ambient noise in your house, the TV is plenty responsive by merely speaking "OK Google". Any additional noise can easily be overcome by speaking into the remote. It works quite slick and I find it ridiculously useful, where I thought I never would. From checking the weather, to getting movie times, or even asking about current events, its intuitive and easy. Having it integrated seamlessly into a TV is really changing my mind. PICTURE QUALITY BLOOMING / LIGHT CONTROL - This is, by far, the biggest issue with any display technology outside of OLED's. Edge-lit panels are the biggest offenders, while the best panels have FALD (Full Array Local Dimming) technology. This allows the CPU to control individual zones on the display. The more zones, the more control over light the TV has. TCL claims 5600+ dimming zones. Doing some quick math, at 5600 zones, this would put a dimming zone approximately every .75 square inches (if my math is right). Furthermore, TCL touts that the RM9 has 11,520 Precise Color Zones on this 98" model. This translates into a Precise Color Zone approximately every .35 square inches. Needless to say, the picture quality is top-notch. I noticed no discernible blooming or artifacts during my testing. Even the darkest of scenes in the new Star Trek movies failed to produce any blooming around stars to spaceships. Something I haven't ever been able to say about any other panel outside by beloved OLED. Colors are rich and vibrant and pop with an authority that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. To fulfill my amateur ambitions of being a video snob, I typically disable any post processing settings in the menu. Black level enhancements, contrast enhancements, color enhancements, they all get turned off. I want a picture as close to perfect as I can get, with no external intervention from the TV. With this RM9L, there is one setting that I turned on, that I have never turned on in ANY TV I've ever reviewed or tested. That setting is the ambient light control. Why? This TCL can output an eye-watering 6000 nits at peak brightness. WOW! It is incredibly bright in dimly lit movie rooms. I've never tested a TV that can output so much light. TCL has done a great job of including nearly every conceivable current audio and video technology into their TV. Dolby Vision, Dolby Vision IQ, Variable Refresh Rates, AMD Freesync Pro, HDR 10, HDR 10+ Gaming, HLG, Dolby Vision Gaming, IMAX Enhanced, Dolby Atmos, and DTS Virtual X. This is the most extensive and comprehensive list I've ever seen in a TV. Impressive! One thing that I do find quite odd is that out of the box color accuracy was not nearly as good as I expected it to be. Using the recommended FilmMaker Mode and changing the color balance to Warm still left way too much blue in the picture. I had to take out a BUNCH of blue at the high end to get the color back to the D65 spec. I was surprised that such a high-end TV was so far out of adjustment out of the box. However, a little work paid huge dividends. As you can see, I was able to get the picture dialed into near perfection, even if I wasn't unable to fully get all the blue pulled out. Aside from that mild blue error (nearly imperceptible), all other primary, secondary, and grayscale colors were spot on. Overall errors were some of the lowest I've ever got out of a TV to this day, espeicially the grayscale. Great work TCL! NEGATIVES Overall, I like the included remote. Not only does it feel premium, but the inclusion of a backlight is a game changer. I would hate to use a remote without a backlight after having this. Frankly, a backlight is a necessity with the TCL remote. Nearly all the buttons are the same size and shape and without said backlight would have made it nearly impossible to find the proper button in the dark. Also, the remote is sorely missing dedicated playback controls. I would have loved to see TCL put in Play, FF, and Rew buttons. It would make the remote so much more useful. I've already touched on the other negative above and that is the overall out-of-the-box color accuracy. CONCLUSIONS Is the RM9L a great TV? Yes, it is. It's hard to find any meaningful faults with the device. Outstanding color accuracy and reproduction, best-in-class audio, and a powerful processor make for a great device. Though it's not an OLED, I found no evidence of halo or blooming in the picture even during the darkest of sci-fi films. I've never been able to say this about any other display technology outside of OLED's. Colors are rich, bright, and vibrant. Far superior to any color reproduction I've experienced on any other TV, from any other manufacturer, including my OLED. The TCL AI processor does an excellent job at cleaning up the picture, regardless of the streaming service. I noticed substantially less blocking and streaming artifacts. Granted a 4k stream looks far better than an HD or SD stream, but even those are cleaned up nicely without looking fake and unnatural. Audio quality is best-in-class, or at least best that I've ever tested. No, it won't replace a dedicated AVR and surround sound system, but it gives soundbars a run. Again, this is something I've never been able to say about any other TV to date. If you want uncompromising picture and audio quality in a flat panel TV, the RM9L is it. It has the best audio and video quality of any display I've tested to date. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This TV is massive, it weighs in at ~175lbs as shipped in its box. Highly recommend having this delivered to your home and professionally installed if you plan to hang it. The instructions for the TV state to use 3 people to place it on a TV stand. The packaging is designed in a manner to make it easily removed from the box and set up. The shipping box handles did not make it during transport and when my help to get the TV placed into the area of the home wanted, the handles came out during the move. Out of the packaging, it seems lighter, because it is no longer super huge and bulky. This was hung on the wall using a wall bracket that supports the weight of the TV as noted. While the wall it was hung it massive already, the TV makes the wall look smaller than it really is. Setup is quick, until you hit the requirement to check for updates. The initial out of box update, took a while to download and install. It was not my ISP that was the issue. The update had to be a fairly large update and took some time to process as it hit the TV. Needless to say, I was able to wait until it was at ~30% update, showered for the evening, read some emails and then it was done. Once passed this stage, the remainder of the setup and the initial apps that shipped with the TV are the primary apps it seems everyone uses today. There was not much that had to be done besides some minor customizations. What I did not go through was any kind of setup prompt series on how the TV was setup and placed as found on other TVs. Manually went through these in an additional 5 minutes of time. The B&O sound on this tied with Dolby Atmos reflects nicely and carries the voice very clearly. There are dual bass modules on the upper rear of the TV that aide in carrying those strong thumping sounds (No sound bar had been used during this testing.). It definitely passed the Saving Private Ryan, Gone in 60, Transformers, John Wick, and kids films testing. The overall sound is impulsive and room filling. The display on this series is has excellent clarity and the color changes, did not notice and discoloration or hue changes. Especially when there were bright and dark scenes. The TV has its own AI “Intelligent” mode you can set for the display that removes the guess work from setting your color settings and having to change them. The colors during gameplay are crisp, clear, and precise from other latest gen TVs. The one thing I did notice and seems to have similarity across all brands is the slight glare from background lights in the room. A few things to keep in mind when setting up this TV is it should not be placed in direct sunlight or lights, this is really hard to do unless you have a super dark home. Overall this is definitely worth the investment.

I have owned my share of large televisions, but stepping up to a 98-inch panel turns out to be a different category altogether. The first thing to set expectations on is the sheer physical reality of a screen this size. Boxed it is close to 175 pounds, and while that number comes down to something more manageable once the substantial packaging is gone, it is barely a 2-person job. I would consider treating delivery and installation as part of the purchase rather than an afterthought. If you are wall mounting, make sure your bracket is rated well above the panel weight and that you are anchoring into studs. In addition to a stud finder, I like to use a strong magnet to locate the nails/screws so I know exactly where I need to place my lag screws. When moving or mounting the tv you will need at LEAST one extra set of hands, though I would suggest following TCLs recommendation of three people to assemble and move. We set this up in our game room and the scale does something I did not quite anticipate - it shrinks the room around it. This monster takes up the entire wall making the room feel like a theater room, but without the projector. Knowing this, consider what your goal is for your TV. If this is going into a dedicated room, for me bigger is better – but if this is going into your living room just know that space is going to revolve around this TV. Setup itself is mostly painless. It runs Google TV, and if you already live in the Android ecosystem the onboarding does most of the work for you, pulling your account, your network, and the bulk of your apps over with very little input. The first firmware update sat downloading and installing for longer than I expected, but after that the only real work left is customizing with the apps that you plan to use. The remote has a backlight, voice control, and shortcut buttons for some of the built-in apps. It’s not a standout piece of this kit, but it gets the job done. The built-in speakers are tuned by Bang & Olufsen and carries a pair of bass drivers along the upper rear of the cabinet. The resulting audio does a good job filling the room with good vocal clarity and volume. Like any flat screen, it does struggle on the low end, but overall it’s perfectly adequate. I recommend going into the tunning settings and also selecting your mounting style (standing or wall) as this made a big difference in the performance for me. It also supports eARC and I had no issues getting it to work with my existing soundbar. The picture quality is the reason to buy this, full stop. The RGB Mini-LED panel has amazing color reproduction, though out of the box it was a little cooler than I was expecting, but that was easily adjusted. The blacks are not as deep as my OLED, but the brightness in HDR scenes where there was sunlight were other-worldly like the sun is in your room. With all the dimming zones, there was very little haloing or blooming. The detail in 4K content was very crisp and the refresh rate meet my competitive gaming expectations in games that supported it. I tried the setting for adaptive color temperature, but my experience was that the TV would actually have an effect on what it was detecting causing it to fluctuate back and forth so I turned it off. The screen is very glossy as in “see your reflection in it glossy” and this feels like a draw back and I would consider this an area for improvement – but frankly when there is content on the screen in a lit room and especially a dark room you don’t notice it. I would definitely consider proximity/line-of-sight to lights when deciding on placement especially if you plan to leave them on when watching content. Overall, for the movie fanatic looking to take their game/theater room to the next level in both size and picture quality, this is an obvious strong contender. It brings the latest technologies in a beautiful premium package that is sure to make your friends’ jealous.

Before acquiring this television, I had an 85" LCD. While 98" is not that much larger, relatively speaking, this television is huge and really helps fill out the bare wall in my living room. With that in mind, the size comes at a cost... It is heavy. I believe the shipping manifest had it at something like 175 pounds. If you are mounting on a wall, ensure the mounting bracket is rated for that weight and make sure you have someone else (maybe even two additional people) to help you mount it. With that out of the way, I am hard pressed to think of anything negative to say about this television. First of all, the picture quality is outstanding. Our last television was really nice and people would always say how great the picture was. This television is even better. The Mini-LED is extremely bright and, even in a relatively sun-filled room, the picture has punch, vivid colors, and is not washed out. The physical screen itself has a glossy finish to it, which does reflect light quite a bit. I suppose that is my largest complaint. If watching a "dark" movie or something along those lines, the reflection of lights in the room off the screen is noticeable. If purchasing a television of this size, I would suspect it would be paired with some type of external sound system, like a sound bar or a discrete surround sound speaker system. As a result, many, including myself, would never give the internal speakers in a television like this much thought. I have to say, however, that I was extraordinarily surprised at the sound that is delivered by this television and its two Bang & Olufsen speakers that are directed out the rear of the television. I could not believe how loud the speakers went without any distortion. The sound filled my large living room without any problem at all. After testing the speakers in the television, I went to switch back to my soundbar and, at first, I actually had trouble telling the difference and whether the sound was still coming from the television or from my Sennheiser soundbar and subwoofer. While the television speakers could not generate the bass I have from my dedicated subwoofer and I would not really call the sound "immersive" like you would have from a true surround sound system, this is truly the first television I have ever owned where I think I would be okay using the television's speakers without feeling like I am really missing great audio. Again, I did find the audio a little "tinny" and on the higher (tweeter) side; the bass was not very rich. I cannot help but wonder if the sound would be better if the television were set up on its stands with more room between the back of the television and the wall. Regardless, the speakers are still very impressive given the thin profile of the television. Along those lines, the eARC works very well. Knock on wood, but I have not had any issues yet (as I have with some other televisions where it would not turn on the soundbar every time). The operating system on the television is pretty straightforward and uses Google TV. Now that my television provider finally has an Android app, I no longer need to use an external media device, which is awesome and eliminates cords and setup issues! There are also a couple apps that provide free streaming as well, which were much more robust than I thought they would be. The remote is really nice. Has decent "heft" to it, yet sits in the hand comfortably. The remote is not backlit, but that is really not a big deal for me. If we could rate with half stars, I would probably give 4.5 stars because of the reflectivity of the screen itself (yes, it is that noticeable for me) and the lack of backlighting in the remote (which really does not impact the usability of the remote, it is just an "attention to detail" and "premium feature" thing). Rather than rounding down to four stars, however, I have to round up to five stars. There is a lot to like about this television. The Mini-LED is awesome, bright, and watching anything on the television (including sports) is magnificent. True, the blacks may not be true blacks that are obtained with an OLED, but the brightness of the screen given the sunlit room in which I have the television far outweighs that for me.

First thing that comes to mind with this TV is its sheer size. Previously, I had a 65" which I thought was pretty big. But this 98" makes the 65" TV look like a old PC monitor. With that increase in screen real estate, yes, everything just looks that much better. The 4k resolution on this TV is quite impressive. For TVs, especially larger ones, the clarity of the screen can be hit or miss sometimes. Everything with this screen is quite crisp and clear. I have no issues with the clarity of this TV and am quite please with it. So far, everything from console gaming to Blu-Rays are coming in quite beautifully. When playing video games, the screen is so large the characters on the screen almost look life like. That said, with such a massive TV, logistics is most likely going to be an issue. Transporting this thing was quite a chore. Installation can be somewhat easy if you decide simply to just use the stand legs with the TV. However, I'd highly recommend getting this professionally mounted/setup as the look will be that much more complete. Also need to make sure you got the space for this thing wherever it is it finally rests at your place. This is an entertainment center dream TV really. The size alone makes this screen the centerpiece of any home entertainment system. Hooking up all your peripherals to it is also a breeze with ample HDMI hook ups and other ports. Also makes things much easier if you have a A/V receiver to act as the primary hookup and then have the TV tap into that. That said, you can go pretty much any direction you want with this TV. It's a showstopper for sure so plan accordingly. This is one heavy, big TV so it needs to be treated as such FYI. Ever with all that said, wow, such a great TV both in terms of functionality and just sheer entertainment value