TCL - 55" Class QM5K Series 4K UHD HDR QD-Mini LED Smart TV with Google TV (2025)

If you don't need 4k120hz (and you probably don't!) then this is a great tv for the money. Gaming on it is fantastic. It's bright enough, has excellent speakers, motion is decent and powers on quickly. The Google OS is the best that there is. Positives: - It can do 1440p120hz which is the sweet spot for PC gaming and console gaming! Much better than 4k60hz that competing sets offer (which it can also do but it not limited to). Why? Because although PS5 and Series X can do 4k120hz in LIMITED games, they always downscale the graphics rendering to near 1440p, then upscale it to 4k anyway! So why you may think you are getting 4k120hz, you aren't. The hardware just isn't capable of it except MAYBE the PS5 Pro. - You can set it to boot up on last input used which means it can power up and be ready on that input in around 5 seconds. This is blistering quick and the best I have seen on any tv. It's just like a monitor in this respect. - The remote is decent, but not nearly as nice as what came with my QM7 or the QM7K (same only different color). It gets the job done though. Streaming apps work great. No problems there at all. Menus are really good and quite detailed on the settings available - It has the EXACT SAME panel as the QK6K which costs $150 more. Same brightness, same contrast, same colors. The difference is the QM6K has a better HDMI board with 4k144hz on 2 inputs and 1 4k120hz with 4 inputs total. If you don't need that feature (I didn't), then save the money. - You get an extra free 90 days of warranty through TCL when you register your unit so don't forget to do that! So that's now a 15-month warranty versus other brands 12-month. Negatives: - Not bright enough for great HDR. Yeah, it can do it but you won't see spots like you will with the TCL 7 or 8 series. But you know what? I have the brightness turned down to ZERO on my QM7 because it hurts my eyes in my bedroom. Seriously, too bright. This tv is just about right for normal tv viewing. - Really poor off angle viewing if you sit close to it. I tried to use it as a monitor, and it does not work for that. You need to be a minimum of 6 feet away and 8 feet looks even better. The way this mini-LED works aims the brightness straight ahead and very little to the sides. You'll get washed out images AND color change - usually reddish tint. So straight on and far enough back it's great. It's not a plasma or an OLED with perfect viewing angles! - The VESA mounts are very low on the tv. This could be a problem with some tv stands and was for mine. I had to drill holes 4 inches lower because the tv was way too high. If you have a wall mount, keep this in mind - you might be modifying it. It comes with the cheapest "chicken feet" possible and I would never use them. Only 3 HDMI inputs, one of which is eARC. Might be an issue for some, but not I. In summary, I play games in SDR on this and it is so bright I have to turn the brightness down to 75 or it hurts my eyes. Some reviewers said this tv is dim - yeah compared to a QM8K it is! But it's WAY brighter than anything made 10 years ago. If I had to guess, it looks to be about 400nits in SDR and 500nits+ in HDR. For the price, YOU WILL NOT find a better tv - period. I spent months comparing brands and this QM5K has no competition at this time in this price range.

This TV is easily had under $400 with quite the feature set, it shares a panel with the QM6 but this QM5 has a lesser motherboard so it tops out at 4k 60hrz, part of why it's perfect for the Series S, it can also downscale to 1440p for 144hrz. The picture Quality on any setting is good enough out of the box but if it's not to your liking there are many quite granular pictures settings to get the picture that suits you best. Some settings like IMAX or Dolby Vision Gaming doesn't let you change some settings though (not certain but I think it depends on what HDR the source is using) the TV will display in the top left corner what HDR is being used for a brief moment. The Sound is also quite surprising, very good and rich sound coming from the Onkyo 2.1 system, note that only the 55in and above will have that Onkyo system the 50in is pretty basic in that regard, in my opinion if you need the TV itself to have good sound it would be worthwhile going for the 55in and above. The legs that come in the box aren't confidence inspiring but I haven't had any issues with them. It is a Google Smart TV which means you'll need some kind of Google account if you want to use that side of the TV, thankfully though if you don't, it does allow for setting it up as a basic TV which is something more smart tvs should do. It does have an app to use your phone as a remote, and the remote that comes in the box is very nice, it has a motion activated backlight which can be turned off and it is connected through Bluetooth so the remote doesn't need line of sight to the TV to work it. Assuming the 55in the best place for a TV like this would be between a living room, spare room, or bedroom TV, I have this in my bedroom and my room is quite small so it takes up a lot of space but if the room you have in mind for it is a bit on the larger side it will fit perfectly. This TCL QM5K is a standout in the budget category for being a 4k QD-Mini LED panel with Full Arry Local dimming with 300 zones, all the HDR standards are supported, a gaming mode that supports downscaling resolution for higher refresh rate (peak is 144hz) and a Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) good sound from Onkyo with the rear subwoofers (only available on the 55in+) this TV is quite the package coming in under $400USD

Absolutely love this tv! Especially for the price. If you can fit it in your budget its definitely worth spending the extra to upgrade to something like this with mini-LED over a standard LED or QLED tv cause the contrast and black levels are GREAT especially compared to other tvs around this price Super bright and colorful too, definitely worth it :)