2026 is shaping up to be the year of RGB Mini LED. Just about every major manufacturer has a model in the works, and it's a pretty exciting direction. The idea of using red, green, and blue LEDs directly in the backlight opens the door for better color control and potentially higher peak performance. But the verdict is still very much out on how it looks with real-world content. So far, most of what I've seen has been early prototypes, and while there are clear advantages, there are also some challenges that still need to be worked through.
One of the bigger concerns is color saturation in mixed scenes. Because RGB Mini LED systems rely on red, green, and blue LEDs working together in the backlight, certain color transitions can become less precise. In certain cases, that can lead to subtle color shifts. A good example is something like a red flower with a bright white center. Instead of that, white, staying completely neutral, it can pick up a slight pink tint. It's not always obvious, but once you see it, it's hard to ignore.
While TCL still plans to release an RGB Mini LED model later this year, the company is also making the case that Quantum Dot technology can still be pushed further. That's where its new SQD Mini LED comes in. Instead of using colored LEDs in the backlight, SQD relies on a blue LED backlight, similar to current Mini LED TVs, and generates color through quantum dots paired with an improved color filter. Two key elements are doing most of the work here. TCL is using a much finer quantum dot particle this year, reportedly around 5nm compared to what's more typical in the industry, around 60nm. The second is TCL CSOT's UltraColor Filter, which works alongside those updated quantum dots to deliver more accurate color at the pixel level.
Photo Credit: TCL
Together, this allows the series to achieve full coverage of both DCI-P3 and BT.2020. Since SQD relies on a single-color LED backlight and uses quantum dots and an improved color filter to create color, it avoids the crosstalk and the associated loss of saturation that can come with RGB Mini LED systems. There are physical advantages as well. RGB Mini LED requires additional optical depth to properly mix colors, which increases panel thickness. SQD's simpler backlight structure allows for a thinner overall panel design.
Earlier this year, we got our hands on the X11L, which is the flagship SQD model from TCL, and to say we were impressed is an understatement. It's actually become our new reference display. The only thing is, the X11L sits at a much higher price point. What we're really curious about here is where this next model lands. TCL flipped its release strategy this year compared to last year. Instead of releasing the flagship after the other models last year, it came out first this year. But this next release is likely where that sweet spot will be, and that's where the TCL QM8L comes in.
Features
As of the time of this review, the QM8L is available in three sizes:
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65" Model: $2,499.99 MSRP
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75" Model: $2,999.99 MSRP (model reviewed)
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85" Model: $3,999.99 MSRP
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98" Model: $5,999.99 MSRP
The QM8L is essentially a scaled-down version of the X11L. While the X11L pushes things to the extreme, the QM8L feels more like what most people will actually be using day to day. It's still a very high-end spec sheet, just brought back to a more practical level. TCL is claiming peak brightness of up to 6,000 nits here. That's obviously not touching the 10,000 nits of the X11L, but it still puts this among the brightest TVs available right now. It also comes with around 4,000 local dimming zones.
Handling all of that is TCL's new TSR AI Pro processor. The idea here is to better utilize the panel's capabilities, even when the content itself isn't fully taking advantage of it. It also introduces a number of updated processing features, along with AI-based adjustments for color, contrast, clarity, motion, and upscaling.
Like the X11L, the QM8L supports native 4K at 144Hz, with the option to switch to 1080p at 288VRR using TCL's Game Accelerator feature. It also carries over some of the panel improvements introduced last year, but utilizing the enhanced WHVA 2.0 Ultra Panel, which is designed to improve native contrast by better controlling light in darker scenes. On top of that, the backlight control system has been upgraded to a 26-bit bi-directional controller, allowing for more precise control over brightness and smoother transitions between scenes.
On the software side, the QM8L runs Google TV on Android 14 and adds support for Google's newer Gemini AI assistant. Instead of just handling basic voice commands, Gemini is designed to be more conversational and allow for follow-up questions and more natural interactions. I'll get into that a bit more in the Google TV section. The TV also supports all of the major HDR and audio formats you'd expect including Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, IMAX Enhanced, as well as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. TCL has also mentioned a future over-the-air update that will add support for Dolby Vision 2 Max later this year.
Design
The QM8L's design is going to feel very familiar if you've spent any time with TCL's higher-end models from last year, and that's a good thing. It's very close to what we saw on the QM8K. TCL continues to use what it calls its "ZeroBorder" design, and while it might sound minor, that slimmer bezel with virtually no black matrix border really does make a difference when you're watching a movie. There's been a big push lately toward TVs that try to look like décor, but there's still something to be said for a display that's almost all picture when you're actually watching content.
The bezel itself has a brushed gunmetal finish along the top and sides, with a slightly thicker strip along the bottom that houses the TCL logo. Just beneath that, you'll find the infrared sensors, far-field microphones, and status LEDs, along with a discreet power button tucked underneath. The panel uses a slightly glossy finish with an anti-reflective coating that does a really good job of cutting down glare in brighter rooms. Just like last year, TCL has the "Premium SQD-Mini LED" badge on the rear of the panel.
The TV comes with a two-part, wedge-shaped stand that's easy to set up and holds the panel securely. You do get some flexibility with height as well. In the lower position, there's about 2.3 inches of clearance, and in the raised position, it's closer to 3.6 inches, which should be enough room for most soundbars. The 98-inch model switches things up with a feet-based stand instead of the center pedestal to better support the larger panel. As for the TV itself, it's around 2 inches thick and has that clean, minimalist look from the front.
On the back, TCL includes four HDMI ports, and this year, all four support 4K at 144Hz as well as 1080p at up to 288Hz with HDMI 1 handling eARC. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4. You also get a USB 3.0 port on the right side of the TV, which makes it easy to access if you wall mount it, a USB 2.0 port, Ethernet, optical audio out, and a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner for next-gen over-the-air broadcasts.
Remote
The remote looks very similar to last year's design and is also the same one included with the X11L. The shape is a bit more squared off compared to older TCL remotes, but it still feels comfortable in the hand and easy to navigate. The brushed silver finish adds a slight metallic sheen, which gives it a more premium feel compared to the matte plastic designs TCL used in previous generations.
The main controls, like the Home and Settings buttons, are centered in the middle of the remote. Just below that are the app shortcuts for Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube, with the TCLTV+ button sitting underneath for quick access to TCL's free channel lineup. At the top, you'll find the microphone button for voice commands, along with the input button and directional pad. The remote is also backlit and automatically lights up when you pick it up, which comes in handy in a dark room.
There are a couple of new features here that you don't see very often from other manufacturers. On the bottom left side of the remote, there's a customizable button that you can program to launch your favorite app. Along the right side, there's also a new rocker panel that lets you quickly adjust the backlight brightness. Just below that is a dedicated picture mode button, which makes it easy to switch modes without digging through menus. I actually found myself using that brightness rocker more than anything else, especially when going back and forth between daytime and nighttime viewing. This TV gets extremely bright, so having the backlight set around 80 during the day works great, but that same setting at night can be way too much. Being able to quickly dial that down without jumping into the menus made a bigger difference than I expected.
Operating System
Just like last year, the QM8L runs Google TV, but this time it's based on Android 14 instead of Android 12. In day-to-day use, it does feel a bit quicker and more responsive. Navigating through menus and jumping between apps all feel a little more refined compared to what we saw previously. TCL is also continuing with what it introduced last year by including Gemini, Google's newer AI assistant.
The quick menu system from last year is still here as well, and it's something I continue to appreciate. Being able to jump into commonly used settings without fully leaving what you're watching just makes the whole experience feel smoother. I didn't run into any major glitches or snags during my time with the TV. App support is also exactly what you'd want. All the major streaming platforms are here. Voice control works through the remote or hands-free using a wake word, and Gemini handles more conversational requests pretty well, including follow-up questions. It's especially useful for things like content recommendations, where you can ask for something similar to a movie or show and actually get relevant results. TCL also includes support for Apple HomeKit, along with built-in Chromecast and AirPlay 2, so casting from a phone or tablet is really easy.
Performance
The QM8L's picture quality is its main draw, and overall, it's very close to what I saw on the X11L, just with a bit less peak brightness, and it makes a very strong case of TCL's SQD technology. Right out of the box, color looks more balanced than what I've seen from TCL in previous years. You get six picture modes in both SDR and HDR: Movie, Filmmaker Mode, Intelligent, Vivid, Sports, and Standard. Filmmaker Mode, which was introduced last year, continues to be the most accurate option without any adjustments. Setting it to 100 nits with all processing turned off, the QM8L delivered near reference-level color accuracy out of the box. As a matter of fact, the QM8L measured around a Delta E of ~2.0 pre-calibration and dropped below 1.0 after calibration.
For Dolby Vision, you've got four modes to work with: Light, Dark, Vivid, and IQ. In my setup, Dolby Vision Light ended up being the best overall balance. TCL also brings back its processing features like Precision Detail and Super Resolution. Precision Detail is limited to Dolby Vision content, while Super Resolution works across everything. It's similar in concept to Sony's Reality Creation, and whether you like it will come down to personal preference. I found myself using it more often than not. Watching something like the "Dance The Night" scene in Barbie , there are a lot of close-ups where this becomes easy to spot. With Precision Detail off, the image is already sharp. Turning it on adds a bit more texture, especially in things like hair and detail in fabric. It's subtle in a good way and adds just a bit more clarity without calling too much attention to itself.
When it comes to color performance, this is where the QM8L really starts to separate itself, especially with how close it gets to full Rec. 2020 coverage. For a bit of context, Rec. 2020 is the color space defined for 4K and 8K HDR content, but most movies and shows today are still graded in the smaller DCI-P3 color space, which sits inside that larger Rec. 2020 container. On top of that, a lot of SDR content is still mastered in Rec. 709, which is even more limited. Because of that, most of what you're watching today isn't fully taking advantage of what panels like this can do yet. There are a few exceptions, like The Matrix , Aquaman , and Inside Out , where you can see that extended color range comes into play, but for the most part, Rec. 2020 support right now is more about future-proofing than something that completely changes the look of every piece of content.
The QM8L still delivers excellent color performance in both SDR and HDR. In my measurements, it came in at just under 92% Rec. 2020 coverage and about 102% of Rec. 709. Where things get a little more detailed is how that color performance is actually reported. There are two different types of measurements here, BT.2020 coverage ratio and BT.2020 area ratio, and those two numbers can tell very different stories. Gamut coverage measures how far the display can reach toward the outer boundaries of the color space, essentially mapping the edges of red, green, and blue. On the other hand, color area looks at the total volume of color the display can reproduce, but in a flattened, two-dimensional way.
Most manufacturers base their 100% BT.2020 claims on area ratio, and by that metric, the QM8L does in fact measure at 100% area coverage. The benefit of that shows up in real content as more saturated and fuller colors without them looking pushed. I noticed this pretty clearly in Inside Out , especially during the "Seasonal Sadness" scene. Sadness's blue has a bit more richness to it compared to older QLED panels, and the memory orbs in the background, particularly the reds and greens, stand out a bit more.
Given the specs, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the first thing you notice when powering on the QM8L is just how bright it can get. After letting a full black screen run for a few minutes, which TCL engineers recommended before taking measurements, I measured 5,208 nits on a 10% window and just over 6,043 nits on a 1% window. Those are extremely high numbers for a consumer TV, especially at this price point, and you can see that translate directly into real content.
HDR and Dolby Vision are where this TV really starts to show what it can do. Watching Aquaman in Dolby Vision, particularly the Aquaman vs. Black Manta sequence, is a great example. The red lighting along the ceiling has a real intensity to it, along with the LED lighting in the background. There's also a surprising amount of detail on Black Manta's suit, even with all that brightness in play. At the same time, the green from the missiles behind Aquaman has a richness to it that doesn't look oversaturated.
With brightness this high, the next question is always how well it handles black levels, and this is where the QM8L holds up really well. In the Bing Bong scene from Inside Out , the background stays dark without lifting the blacks or washing out the image. That's not always easy to do when you're dealing with this level of brightness, but the local dimming system does a solid job keeping things in check. With around 4,000 dimming zones, there's a lot of control over how light is distributed across the panel. Blooming is very hard to spot in normal viewing. Letterbox bars stay black during movies, and even when I went looking for it using YouTube torture tests, it was difficult to find anything distracting.
Off-axis performance is another area where the QM8L does a really solid job. Both color and brightness hold up better than I was expecting, and this is where the WHVA 2.0 Ultra panel really starts to show its strengths. The image stays pretty stable and accurate up to around a 45-degree angle. Once you move past that, you'll start to see some color shifting and a slight drop in brightness, but that's still fairly typical for Mini LED panels.
Upscaling is also a noticeable step forward compared to last year, thanks to TCL's new TSR AI Pro processor. I spent some time watching the 1080p version of Batman Begins , and it handled it really well. The image is cleaned up without looking overly processed. You get a bit more perceived detail in textures like the batsuit, but it doesn't push things into that artificially sharpened look or add extra noise, which is important since that film already has some natural grain since it was shot on film. Even lower-quality sources like 720p and 1080i held up better than I expected. Watching NBA broadcasts, for example, looked clean and fairly detailed, with minimal artifacts. One thing I would recommend is keeping the sharpness setting below 15, because once you go past that, you start to see a bit of edge enhancement creep in.
Motion handling is probably one of the biggest improvements compared to last year, but if I had to nitpick anything on this TV, this would still be the area. The Blur and Judder Reduction controls do help smooth out lower frame-rate content, especially with streaming or older material. Like most TVs, though, if you push those settings too far, you'll start to introduce the soap opera effect. I found that keeping both settings around 2 gave me the best balance. It smooths things out just enough without making everything look overly processed. You can push them up to around 6 or 7 if you prefer a smoother image, and it does help with motion clarity, but at that point, it starts to lose that natural film look a bit.
Audio
Audio is an area where the QM8L caught me a bit off guard. The X11L, as I mentioned in that review, is probably one of the best-sounding TVs I've heard, and while the QM8L doesn't quite reach that level, which makes sense since it doesn't have the same full speaker array or TCL's Bang & Olufsen speakers, it still performs way better than I was expecting. I ended up using the Film preset for most of my testing, as it struck a nice balance across the board.
Bass has a bit more weight than you typically get from a flat-panel TV, and that's largely thanks to the rear-mounted woofers. It's not going to replace a dedicated system, but it does add some presence to things like explosions and music that you usually don't hear at this level. The midrange comes through clearly, especially with dialogue, and it doesn't sound thin. High frequencies are detailed enough to keep things clear.
Gaming
The QM8L is also a very capable gaming display. It uses a native 144Hz panel and supports variable refresh rate (VRR) along with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. Using a Leo Bodnar 4K input lag tester, I measured input lag at 11.7 milliseconds with a 4K60 signal and 5.2 milliseconds at 1080p60.
There was some discussion around motion performance on the X11L when it comes to gaming. Personally, I didn't run into those issues there, and I'm not seeing anything like that here either. To be fair, I'd consider myself more of a casual gamer, but from what I tested, everything felt consistent. Playing Hogwarts Legacy on the PlayStation 5, the QM8L handled fast camera movement cleanly without noticeable blur or artifacting. Motion held together well even in more demanding scenes. Black levels stayed deep without crushing shadow detail, and the local dimming helped keep blooming under control.
Final Thoughts
The QM8L ends up being a great follow-up in TCL's SQD lineup. As the second TV in this series, it builds directly on what we saw with the X11L, but in a way that feels much more practical for everyday use. The X11L was clearly designed to show everything TCL is capable of at the high end by pushing brightness and specs to the limit. The QM8L takes that same foundation and brings it into a more real-world package, both in terms of performance and price, without giving up what makes this new SQD approach so compelling.
What really stands out here is just how well TCL's SQD Mini LED system performs. It gets surprisingly close to what we're starting to see from RGB Mini LED in both color and contrast, but without some of the drawbacks that can come with that technology. For what it delivers at its price point, the QM8L doesn't just compete, it really does punch way above its class.
