TCL - 98" Class QM8L Series 4K UHD HDR SQD-Mini LED Smart TV with Google TV (2026)

The TCL 98” QM8L is a monster of a television, and after spending time with it, I can confidently say it delivers one of the most impressive big screen experiences I’ve ever had in my home. Picture quality is excellent across the board, and with proper 4K sources, it’s just plain awesome. This is the brightest screen I’ve ever used. Setup is a big job, but once this TV is in place and powered on, it’s worth it. This is my first experience with Mini LED backlighting; it’s not perfect, but it’s darn close. Unboxing and Setup: Unboxing and installing this 98 inch television turned into a weekend project. Study the instructions on the outside of the box; they do an excellent job walking you through the unboxing process, and I strongly recommend you understand them before you even touch the box. The tips greatly simplify the experience, but even with that guidance, this is absolutely a two person job. Make sure both people can safely lift and maneuver over 100 pounds. The TV is large, awkward, and demands careful handling. Once the QM8L is positioned, the thoughtful design becomes apparent. TCL placed all the connections (HDMI, USB, Ethernet, optical audio, power) in easy to reach locations. Cable management is excellent thanks to the included guides that fit invisibly over the TV legs. It’s a small detail, but it makes the final installation look clean and intentional rather than like a bundle of wires hanging off the back of a giant screen. Picture Quality: It’s a TV; what’s more important than image quality? The picture quality is outstanding. Standard cable looks great. But with 4K HDR content, the TCL QM8L produces amazing clarity, color, and depth. Some images look like you should be able to reach out and touch them. Brightness is the first thing I noticed; it was initially shocking how bright the picture can get. Daytime viewing is easy, even with the curtains open. This is the brightest screen I’ve ever used. Contrast is excellent. No, it’s not OLED, but it gets surprisingly close. Dark scenes have real depth, and shadow detail is preserved. The Mini LED backlighting does a great job controlling light, though it’s not perfect. There is minor blooming in certain situations, most noticeably white text on a black background. It’s not distracting with normal content, but it’s there, and it’s the one area where the QM8L reminds you it’s still a backlit panel. Motion handling is another strong point. I’ve watched baseball, auto racing and hockey, and the QM8L handles it with ease. Fast movement remains clear – I never lost track of the puck! – and I haven’t noticed any distracting artifacts or smearing. Gaming Performance: Gaming on the TCL QM8L is outstanding. Both console and PC performance are excellent. Input lag is low, responsiveness is immediate, and the size of the display makes games immersive. Cyberpunk in my family room never looked so good. Sound Quality: This is the best sound I’ve heard from a TV. If I didn’t already have a full surround system installed, I could easily be happy using just the built in speakers. Dialogue is clear, bass is surprisingly present (I can feel it in the floor), and overall volume is more than adequate. The Bang & Olufsen Beosound tuning is new to me, and it does a good job tweaking audio as needed. I’m still amazed that this quality of sound is coming from my TV. Screen reflectivity: This is really the only negative thing I can say about the TCL QM8L. The screen is quite reflective. In dark scenes, room lights and windows become prominent and distracting. In normal viewing, the TV’s brightness easily overpowers reflections, but in dim or dark scenes, they’re noticeable. Google TV: If you’ve used Google TV before, you’ll feel right at home. Navigation is intuitive, responsive, and predictable. Apps load quickly, menus are smooth, and I haven’t encountered any lag or stuttering. It just works. Picture Adjustments and Calibration: Out of the box, the QM8L brightness and contrast were already excellent without touching a single setting; however, the settings menus provide direct access to anything you might want to adjust. We’ve used a short throw projector on a 120 inch screen for several years, and I’ll admit that moving to a 98 inch TV felt like a downgrade on paper. My wife was especially skeptical. Once the QM8L was in place and we saw what it can do, all concerns disappeared. The brightness, clarity, and contrast are beyond any projector we’ve owned. The notion of a “downgrade” vanished the moment we powered it on. We have zero regrets about the switch. Overall, The TCL 98” QM8L is a phenomenal television. It delivers exceptional brightness, excellent contrast, outstanding motion handling, and the best built in sound I’ve heard from a TV. Gaming performance is top tier, Google TV runs smoothly, and the thoughtful design makes installation and cable management easier than expected for a display this large. The only real drawback is the reflective screen. In dark scenes, reflections are noticeable and occasionally distracting. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s something to be aware of. Even with that caveat, I love the TCL QM8L. It has transformed our viewing experience, and we have no regrets after making the switch from a 120 inch projector setup. If you want a massive, bright, high performance TV, the QM8L is an easy recommendation.

TCL smashed it out of park with their 2026 TCL QM8L SQD Mini LED line of TV's to go as far for me to say that this may be considered the mythical "Forever TV". What makes it a "Forever TV"? Quite simply it’s that there really is nowhere significant to go from here so you would keep the TV forever! It's big and bright so room choice doesn't matter which is something you have to consider for other tv panel technologies like OLED and it gets near OLED black levels as well as contrast at a cheaper price point without having the worry of burn in which is a giant plus when viewing sports. The packaging of the QM8L is thoughtful and the protection is well distributed. They even make it so you can put the feet on the TV without removing it from the bottom of the giant box. One thing I wish they would have added was the screw on handles from the 115" TV models as that makes moving the TV much easier. You will need an extra set of hands to setup the TV and a 3rd person would make things go even smoother. The remote has a premium finish and has side brightness adjustments which you may need to quickly tune your content to your liking. The software is straightforward as it uses the Google TV operating system and there are plenty of streaming apps. I did run into one issue where the serial number of my TV was not properly registering so I could not use certain apps on the TV, after contacting TCL's support they quickly fixed the issue on their end without having to send a technician so if you have any issues, you will be in good hands. TCL also has a quick menu button that lets you change certain settings like picture modes and sound without having to dig into the settings. The QM8L has 6,000 nits max brightness and 4,000 local dimming zones and they are superb! All the content I tried from sports to nature documentaries looked amazing and I never saw any other light source drown out the tv in the room. The panel can do 144 Hz for pc or 120 Hz for console @4k as well as 288 Hz @1080p which is amazing for future proofing the TV. My jaw dropped repeatedly while using the QM8L and I look forward to using it forever as it has been deemed my Forever TV!

Overall The 2026 TCL 98" Class QM8L Series 4K SQD-Mini LED TV is positioned as an obtainable mid-grade option for cinematic viewing. It's a simple setup and with surprisingly better than expected built-in audio. I mean, I haven't heard integrated sound in a TV that sounded like you had a small soundbar paired. While this won't replace a surround sound system, this gets you to a good place for everyday TV viewing. It offers a tremendous picture quality on a user-friendly smart platform, potential buyers should be aware of limitations in viewing angles, and gaming features. Features This TV features a 98-inch SQD-Mini LED display with 4K resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. Generous range of viewing angles make for easy viewing setup. ZeroBorder, as TCL refers it, is a small bezel roughly .25" around the sides and top. Makes for viewing content quite the enjoyable experience. It is powered by Google's TV OS, granting access to a wide variety of streaming services and applications. 52gb of internal storage for apps and works as an offline TV without limiting features. The design is heavy and bulky to mount, setting up is a 2 person job regardless of placement; on a countertop with it's own feet or wall mounted. Setup is quick, and the TV can automatically detect and guide the programming of a soundbar remote, or any connected devices through CNC. The remote adds motion activated backlighting and includes dedicated buttons for brightness controls and picture settings, a first I hadn't realized how useful those would be. The internal speakers support Atmos. Cons - Features While the QM8L has many positive points, it does have it's fair share of shortcomings. Viewing angles are limited to roughly 100⁰, beyond that you'll begin to notice diminishing color detail. The screen is somewhat reflective. If viewing in a dark room and a light in front of the TV, even if in a room over, that reflection becomes visible while viewing. The motion activated backlight on the remote is rather sensitive. A little tap and the light comes on. I would have much preferred this having a sensor around the base of the remote that would detect your hand grabbing it to light up. Certainly would have a longer battery life if the backlight wasn't turning on every few minutes. Performance The TCL QM8L offers an amazing picture quality and a bright display. At it's peak brightness, it easily mitigates any reflections or the issues of viewing in a bright room. By default, this TV starts with high contrast and brightness settings. It makes for an extremely bright panel that produces a lot of colors in vivid color tones. It becomes necessary to tune it down as it still is very bright in my living room with open windows having natural light shine in. Once adjusted to something that makes viewing comfortable, you can appreciate the displays potential. It exhibits a high native contrast ratio in specific scenarios with rich vibrant colors and deep blacks. According to TCL, it offers 4000 local dimming zones. Movies are fluid, both in action sequences and slower paced scenes. Bright vivid scenes in animated films or live action films that bring a lot of color into specific scenes are produced well. Day to day TV viewing is flawless. Cons - Performance Despite having a high range of color tones and vibrant colors. The one area it seems to struggle are with video games, in dark scenes with minimal lighting and HDR enabled. The absence of local dimming zones contributes to a lack of strong contrast, where bright colors can appear vivid, but black levels tend to present as a washed-out grey. For clarity, it seems to be struggling to produce shadowy scenes where key areas should be partially lit while obvious dark shadows should be present. The result tends to be some shadowy greys on areas that should be black. This isn't something that seems to affect every scene in games, mostly cinematic scenes in story driven narrative types. So be at ease that your multiplayer fps with explosions and bullets firing will still look great. This brings me to a second point. While digging around, I did come across a claim that the 4000 local dimming zones might be exaggerated. Unfortunately, I lack the hardware to dig deeper into this but it could explain the poor shadows result. In unrealistic viewing scenarios, motion blur is slightly present but that doesn't translate to average TV viewing, movies or video games where it should be more noticable. Conclusion The 2026 TCL 98" QM8L 4K SQD-Mini LED TV serves as an obtainable mid-grade option in the world of smart televisions. Its ease of setup, superb sound quality, and user-friendly Google TV OS are notable positives. However, potential buyers should carefully consider its limitations in black level reproduction during gaming and it's reflective panel. While it can be superb for casual viewing in bright rooms, these drawbacks might be significant for users with specific picture quality or usage requirements.

I am extremely pleased with my experience with the TCL QM8L 98-Inch TV after a few weeks of usage. I find the first thing to jump out at me is the size of the TV screen. It is truly an immersive experience when watching a movie, sports event, or playing video games because of how large the TV's screen is! The TV's screen feels more like a movie theater than it does a typical TV setup. The picture quality with the Mini-LED backlight seems to be bright enough to support a wide range of bright and dark images through its high-brightness rating, but also, the colors appear to be vibrant without looking too saturated. Furthermore, when watching dark scenes in movies or other programming, the detail still shows up well and when watching bright scenes during the day, the brightness holds up well as well. The motion handling of the TV is also very good when watching sports and fast-moving programming. The TV's 144Hz native refresh rate and support for modern HDR formats both help create a smooth and clear picture. The Google TV platform is easy to navigate and provides fast access to streaming services and the ability to search for any content by voice. Setting up the TV was very simple, and I had no issues connecting my other devices to it. The remote control provided with the TV is very responsive and has a comfortable feel. One of the things I find most impressive is how well the TV performs across all different content types. Regardless of whether I'm watching a movie, streaming a show, or playing a game, I am always able to enjoy the same consistent picture quality from the TV. That said, the large screen size of this TV requires a decent amount of space in a room. However, if you have sufficient space, the TV provides an incredible viewing experience. In conclusion, the TV has performed consistently, reliably, and has provided excellent performance. Therefore, if you're thinking of upgrading your home's entertainment system, this TV would be worth considering!

Very clear and bright. Needs a bit of customization but once that’s done there probably isn’t a better mini led on the market