Rather than roll out a whole series of new TVs here at CES, TCL has decided to take a staggered approach in 2025. So it came to Las Vegas with just one model to show off: the QM6K Mini LED. The company is claiming that this TV, the first of a new Precise Dimming series, “offers a level of picture quality that has never been offered in its price band before.” TCL has found itself in a fierce battle with Hisense in the Mini LED category; both brands have delivered fantastic TVs in recent years that set new expectations for their pricing tiers.
Highlights include up to 500 local dimming zones, a 144Hz panel (which can be pushed to 288Hz VRR in Game Accelerator mode), a new Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode, hands-free voice controls for the Google TV software, and even a “sleep sounds” mode. The latter could prove useful if you end up putting one of these in a bedroom.
But beyond the usual talking points, TCL is really putting emphasis on its newly enhanced backlight technology:
TCL has also upgraded to a Bi-directional 23-bit Backlight Controller, allowing granular control of over 65,000 levels of brightness for each LED. In addition, TCL includes a new Dynamic Light Algorithm, which intelligently optimizes the incoming video signal so that SDR signals render at near HDR level, for consistently great picture quality, regardless of the content metadata.
The company is also doing its best to fully eradicate blooming — the halo effect that can surround bright objects on a dark background — which has traditionally been one downside of Mini LED compared to the pixel-level control of OLEDs. TCL is also emphasizing sound performance with this “affordable premium” TV: it comes with an Onkyo-branded 2.1 system built in.
It’s unusual to get pricing for new TVs at CES, but TCL is getting right to it. The QM6K comes in sizes ranging from 50 inches to the XXL 98-inch behemoth, and preorders for several of them are beginning today.
This staggered release cadence means TCL isn’t ready to show off its very best 2025 TVs yet, so a follow-up to the excellent QM8 will have to wait for a few more months.
