TCL - 65" Class QM8L Series 4K UHD HDR SQD-Mini LED Smart TV with Google TV (2026)

This 65" TV from TCL is absolutely stunning. Over the years, televisions have come a long way, and this fact is on full display with this awesome piece of tech from TCL. The first thing I noticed was the size- I was able to set up this TV by myself, but I do think it would be much easier with someone to help. Thankfully, besides installing the stand, there really isn't too much work involved. Though I would mention that this unit is heavy, so keep that in mind. Setting up the TV is very simple, as this is a Google TV, so I just needed to sign into my gmail account to complete the setup process. This was extremely easy with the included remote, and I was ready to use my TV in no time. Right out of the box, the 4K picture quality is simply amazing. The details are fantastic, the colors are vivid, and the high refresh rate means that my video games look killer as well. I really appreciate that you can easily change settings at just the press of a couple buttons, and there are some on screen explanations of what each setting does. While I have experienced HDR technology before, this TCL does it in a way that is pretty spectacular. With its ability to go up to 6000 nits of brightness, the contrast between light and dark scenes really has to be seen to be believed. For instance, I can be playing a game, walking in a darkened area, that looks nearly pitch black on screen, while a light coming into view is at full brightness. I'm probably not explaining the effect quite right, but it really is cool to see. This HDR effect works extremely well, even when I have the brightness turned way down. That is one thing I've noticed; for most picture modes, I have my brightness set somewhere around 20 out of 100, and it is PLENTY bright. Your mileage may vary, but I've found that this TV is plenty capable of displaying a stunning, clear, and bright picture, at a reasonable brightness setting. Connecting things like Apple TV or a PS5 are a breeze, due to the wide range of connection options at the rear of the TV. I also really like the sound system which is handled by Bang & Olufsen. While these speakers don't have the low end punch of a dedicated subwoofer, they are VERY capable for watching TV, movies, and video games. They are clear, detailed, and dialogue comes through great on all of the movies I watched. Honestly, there is so much advanced technology in this TV, that it makes it hard to cover everything here in this review. But that is the great thing about this model: there is an abundance of tech, but for the user, the experience is streamlined and easy to grasp. Like I mentioned before, changing settings is the easiest out of any TV I've ever used, and I feel like I'm able to see and understand what I am changing as I adjust various settings. This TV has been a joy to use, and I really think that TCL has created something that is impressive on so many levels. If you are looking for a new 65" TV, with one of the most incredible pictures on the market, you have to check out the QM8L series from TCL. I highly recommend this model, and give it 5 stars!

The latest offerings from TCL QM8L series is a force to be reckoned with. Not only am I seriously impressed, my jaw literally dropped when running OLED test videos found on youtube and this QM8L does as well as my LG OLED. More on this below. Having owned an OLED for the past few years, it was my gold standard in TV picture quality. I had no idea that SQD-Mini LED can compete at the OLED level of TV. SQD-mini LED tech that this QM8L has is that it’s brighter and no risk for burn-in when compared to OLED TVs. This makes the QM8L perfect for very bright rooms and you either game or watch shows with static images, like a stock-ticker, etc. OLED wins with the best viewing angles, true blacks and motion clarity. Let’s dive deeper into black levels as this is the latest craze in TV tech to showcase. OLED is true blacks as each pixel will only emit light if it needs that pixel. If its meant to be black, that OLED pixel is completely off and not emitting any light. The QM8L nearly replicates this by having nearly 4 thousand dimming zones that only the LED fires where needed. While 4 thousand sounds impressive, OLED can control each exact pixel and there are over 8.3 million pixels in a 4k screen. But this is where this QM8L blows my mind, 4 thousand plus zones is nearly perfect when controlling black levels in every day use scenarios. It also does a fantastic job at controlling bloom and the colors are insane. Outside of picture quality, the Google TV aspect of it is fantastic. The processor is fast, making the menus and app launch without lag. The TV is instantly on when powered on. It really replaces my need for a 3rd party steaming box. If you’re already into the Google Home ecosystem, this TV will fit right in. This TV also has a processor to handle local image processing. That means you can have the TV change each frame’s picture contrast, brightness, etc to have the best looking video without you needing to tinker with the settings. The TV itself is elegantly designed. The internal speakers punches above its weight class. The speakers was designed by Bang & Olufsen with two visible subwoofers on the backside. The sound was bassy and loud enough for a medium sized room. It was so impressive that I left my soundbar unhooked and never looked back. In summary, you will not be disappointed in this TCL TV. Near OLED level blacks, vibrant colors and super bright is this TV’s highlights. If you have a light controlled room and need the most viewing angles, choose an OLED. If your room is bright, multi-purpose, and with zero risk of burn-in, then choose this QM8L. And shoutout to TCL’s guest service.

Out of the box, setup is simple. You just need to put the base on it. It's straight forward. I had to do it by myself, which I don't recommend, but it is manageable. I just used two of the Styrofoam shipping pieces to prop up the bottom of the TV to install the stand. As far as the stand, I had a previous TCL TV and one thing that I love is that it is has a center stand. My old TV had the feet at the outer edges and they were always in the way of the soundbar. With this stand, you can just put the soundbar across the stand. I have an Android phone with the Google Home app. Just turning the TV on opened the Google Home app on my phone to setup the TV. It doesn't get any easier than that! Initial setup was quick and easy. There are a ton of settings that you can adjust. I'm honestly still playing with them. I usually go to sleep with the TV on for some background noise. This TV can get insanely bright, but it can also be very dim which I like for falling asleep. I just dim the brightness to 0 and set the sleep timer. Streaming apps are all easy to install. During initial setup, you're given some options of the most popular ones you want to install, from their it's just searching for and installing any others that you want. TCL has their own channel lineup as well, which includes of 350 channels. Even if you don't have any streaming services or cable, you can always find something to watch. The picture is crystal clear and bright in any light situation. You'll have no issue in even the brightest rooms. Also, blacks are very good with this TV. There are plenty of options to get the picture exactly how you want it. Everything from Vivid, movie, sports, filmmaker mode and more. I was really impressed by the sound of this TV. Every TV that I've had before this one I couldn't wait to get the soundbar setup with it because the sound was terrible. While I'll always have a soundbar/surround sound, this is the first TV where I felt like it wasn't absolutely necessary. The Bang & Olufsen speakers are loud and clear. For the size, they have fairly punchy bass to them. For the remote, they've added side buttons since the last TCL TV that I got about a year ago. One is for picture mode (vivid, sports, etc.) and the other buttons are for brightness. It is backlit which is nice for night viewing. The TCL QM8L is punching above it's price point! I definitely recommend it!

I was in desperate need of a TV upgrade; we already had a 10-year-old 65-inch TV, but it had some burning in and other issues. When looking at options, I had a friend who had gotten a TCL tv less than a year ago and was thrilled with the quality of it as well as the price point for the technology included. I was not permitted by my wife to go beyond the 65inch size that we currently had. I began researching current TCL models and found that the QM8L was the higher end version of the TCL family of mini-LEDs. I settled on the QM8L because it had all the features that I was looking for. Out of the box, this is a great TV. Installation was easy once we laid the TV down on a blanket and then prop up the bottom of the TV to facilitate getting the stand on. This was the only challenging part because you have to align the holes/base and mount. I love the fact that this has a center stand. This helps if you have TV stand that may not be as wide as the feet on some TVs are. It may sound like a small thing but logistically, it can be a big deal. Now, let’s talk about picture, WOW! What a beautiful 4K TV! Even with the default settings, this thing is beautiful! Colors are warm and deep. The ability to customize the picture settings are impressive. There are 6 different picture modes: Intelligent, Vivid, Standard, Movie, Sports and Filmmaker. HDR is dependent on picture mode. I really liked the Brightness settings, I tweaked the Contrast (also set Dynamic Contrast to “Adaptive” but also adjusted the Gamma, which adjusts the middle range brightness of the picture. I found that this gave better color depth. You can also select if you want these settings applied to all inputs, which is great for the DVD player. Sound through the Bang & Olufsen speakers is very good. I did have one issue that I did not haver with my previous TV. I have an older Sonos Soundbar that I love. It only has an optical connection which the TCL does have, but when you use it and change the audio output to Optical, it does not permit you to change the volume from the remote, you must use your Sonos app. This is very frustrating because now you have to control the sound through your app but everything else with the remote. I am not sure why this is. I have had to basically leave the Sonos on and plugged in with it’s volume down to just very low and if I want to use the soundbar, I just turn it up. I did this while watching a movie, it was fine, just a shame for the $600 soundbar. I did like all the sound customization features, including the Surround sound enhancer, the Dialogue enhancer and the Volume leveler. I love that this is a Google TV. Setup was seamless with my Google account. I also have a Google Pixel phone so the integration with Google Gemini is awesome! Overall, I am thrilled with this TV! Even my wife is impressed and that, in and of itself, is wonderful! The soundbar situation is not great but it’s probably over 10 years old now and I know the newer one would probably be supported but it was not an issue worth knocking down on the TCL, it’s still a 5 star for this fam! I would recommend this to others.

This is one of those televisions where you see it displayed in a store, and you're wowed by everything about it. The size, the color, the smoothness, the sound. I never thought I'd get to have such a fantastic television on my wall, but I do, and it's every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. The display itself is excellent. My previous television was a Samsung Q70A, and while that had incredible picture quality and color compared to any TV I'd used before, this one blows that one out of the water. It's got excellent brightness, poppy and vivid colors, and things are *buttery* smooth, especially if you go into the settings and turn on the increased refresh rate setting. That being said, there's a bit of latency in that setting. Being someone who will play games on this television, I was a bit worried when I connected my Switch and found that there was noticeable, problematic input latency. About a half second. Upon turning it off and back on, it turned on game mode, which increased the response time at the cost of the smoothness, which is fine by me. It still looks excellent with beautiful colors despite not being as smooth. For someone who only watches stuff with this, you shouldn't have an issue. The settings on this are nice, but there's something to know. There's two different buttons you will need to access your settings - the settings button, and the menu button. The settings button goes into the details of color temperature, brightness, saturation, all that stuff. It lets you change the preset display mode, too. But if you want to get to things like game mode, VRR, that kind of stuff, you need to press the menu button. It's not immediately clear, and the manual didn't mention it, so I thought I would make a note of it. The sound. I have a Samsung sound bar that I used with my previous television because its sound was a bit hollow and rather quiet. This television doesn't need a soundbar at all. It is very high quality - it's warm, with decent bass, mids and highs, and is clear and forward sounding. The bass is a little lacking compared to my soundbar, but that's a dedicated audio device that cost a bunch of money on its own. For being built in audio, this is fantastic. I will say that if you're going to wall mount this one, don't do it yourself. I did it myself, because I live alone and am too stubborn to ask for help, and I would not recommend, under any circumstances, you do what I did. The display by itself weighs in the ballpark of 46 pounds, according to the box. It's not light. It's also difficult to see whether you've actually mounted it properly since it's so large. For smaller sizes, it may not be as much of an issue, but for the 65" one, don't do it. Just get help. Oh, the remote also lights up when you pick it up. It's got metal on front, clicky buttons, and it's overall very responsive. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to get an amazing television without spending OLED money.