Bo Moore
Four years ago, TCL was leading the way in the affordable television space – that was until Hisense started to take the industry by storm. TCL was outclassed by Hisense pricing and performance and it looked like it couldn’t find a way to stand out.
That has changed. Last year’s QM7 showed hints of what TCL was capable of, but the brand-new QM6K takes its technology to another level. I have never tested an LED television with a combination of this level of off-angle contrast control, halo suppression, and contrast at this price. The result is one of the best TVs for gaming at the $1,000 price point.
Note: all specifications mentioned are for the 65-inch version of this television, which is the unit IGN reviewed.
TCL QM6K – Design and Build
TCL isn’t breaking any new ground with the design of the QM6K. This is an unassuming, simple flatscreen that is 2.2 inches deep without the stand – but with it included, you’ll have to make room for 11.69 inches on a media console. Three of the sides feature very slim bezels while the bottom has a thin silver base that has an additional small bump in the middle for the IR receiver and microphone mute switch.
This is a very light television and a reasonably strong adult can hoist it and the box over their shoulder with relative ease. In contrast to modern OLED televisions that are extremely heavy, it is easy to navigate the QM6K’s 38 pounds around and get it positioned in a living room.
The feet don’t have the best design. While most manufacturers include metal dimples or guides to assure that it isn’t possible to install the feet incorrectly, TCL went with plastic nubs that nearly instantly shear off. It’s also easily possible to install the feet backward and not notice. The instructions are definitely required, which is unusual since feet installation is usually very self-explanatory.
The rear of the television sports a 40W, three-speaker system. TCL’s input layout is the reverse of what most manufacturers choose, with the power port on the left side (when facing the screen) and all the other inputs on the right.
The QM6K has four HDMI ports and two of them support the maximum 4K at 144Hz – which is becoming the standard for televisions. The other two are slower (just 4K at 60p) but luckily one of those slower ports is used for eARC, meaning you don’t have to waste one of the high-performance ports on your soundbar or sound system like you have to with a Sony television. TCL also included one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, an RF input, and an optical port.
There is zero cable management on the QM6K and while I appreciate the design of the included feet, I’m not a fan of how this is becoming the norm. I don’t like seeing cables dangle across the back through the space under the panel and not providing me with any way to guide them to the back of those feet, at least, isn’t great. TCL isn’t the only one doing this but that doesn’t forgive the exclusion of cable management of any kind.
TCL QM6K – The Remote
TCL’s remote control design is larger in both height and width than the industry average, but it’s not cumbersome. The fully-plastic design doesn’t overwhelm with too many options and features a “hamburger” for quick access to the most important TV settings (and holding it down in Game Mode activates the Game Bar) as well as the traditional gear icon for full settings access. It otherwise features the familiar suspects: volume, channels, voice control, input, etc.
It comes with six pre-installed shortcuts, too. My review sample had buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, Youtube, Apple TV, TCL TV, and Disney+. Five out of the six of those options are popular, regularly used services, which is nice to see.
TCL QM6K – Software and UI
TCL, like Hisense and Sony, uses Google TV as the operating system and it’s a stock system with just a couple of changes that are specific to the TCL experience.
I will say that one weak point of the QM6K is the processing speed. The TV can take a few seconds longer than you might expect to fire up and inputs on the remote can feel just a hair laggy, especially if you’re asking it to start up a new app or if you try to immediately go to the input options when you first turn it on. It can also sometimes not react to button presses and then, 10 seconds later, react to them all at once as if they were caught up in a queue. This isn’t frequent, but it does happen.
Google TV might be a resource-hungry operating system because I’ve noticed this can be a problem across all of the manufacturers who choose to use it, so I don’t particularly hold this experience against TCL, but it’s still worth mentioning.
Google TV’s default is littered with “suggestions” – AKA ads – which is becoming the norm with all smart TV interfaces, unfortunately. You can turn these off by activating Apps Only Mode but even that never gets rid of the big banner at the top of the home screen. All that said, Google TV never autoplays anything from the home screen unlike other systems (I’m looking at you Samsung Tizen), so it’s still one of the least offensive options available. It also has support for every popular streaming service, so you won’t be without options.
TCL QM6K – Picture Quality
It’s worth noting that the QM6K is TCL’s entry-level miniLED television, which means the recently-reviewed QM7 from 2024 – which is now more affordable than the QM6K – sits higher up on the line. The price cut is because it’s last year’s model, but it might be difficult to rationalize spending more for the entry-level QM6K versus picking up the QM7 mid-level television for a discount.
There are reasons to do so, however. Firstly, looking at the color performance of the QM6K, it’s almost as good as last year’s QM7. It covers 99.8%, 81.3%, and 89.6% of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI P3 color gamuts, respectively – all with an average Delta E of 0.64 and never more than 2.85, which is outstanding. Other than the dip in Adobe RGB coverage (which really only matters if you intend to use the TV as a monitor for color-critical work), the QM6K’s color differences compared to the QM7 are going to be generally imperceptible. I will say the TV pushes blues a lot (just like the QM7 does), so you may want to warm up the color temperature a bit to even out the tones (this tends to make your eyes less tired anyway, so it’s a win-win).
Panel uniformity is pretty good, dipping only in one corner of the display I tested – that outperforms the uniformity I tested on the QM7 last year. Panel uniformity varies from TV to TV, so your results may vary, but what TCL appears to have done here is very impressive for an inexpensive, entry-level television.
I think skin tones and landscape color both look really good on the QM6K, especially with native 4K content. I will say that the upscaling technology in the QM6K isn’t industry-leading and can result in footage that looks a tad out of focus or fuzzy. That means broadcast TV can suffer a bit, but streaming TVs and movies will look great.
That latter note is especially the case given the QM6K’s outstanding HDR color support. It has multiple picture settings including a Filmmaker mode and the TV supports Dolby Vision in addition to HDR 10, 10+, HLG, and IMAX/IMAX Enhanced. You will be hard-pressed to find an HDR movie that the QM6K can’t show in its intended HDR profile.
Where the QM6K falls in a head-to-head matchup with the QM7 is in peak brightness. This new television peaks in the 900 nit range, which is well below the 1,500 nits the QM7 packs. However, this isn’t a straight downgrade because TCL sacrificed some brightness to compensate and overcome the biggest weaknesses of the QM7: off-angle viewing and halo.
In large living rooms, a wide viewing angle is important so that everyone, likely seated in a wide fan shape around the TV, sees the same high quality image. Typically LEDs – and especially more affordable ones – see immediate and noticeable dropoff in quality by shifting even a few degrees to the right or left of center.
The QM6K has no perceptible loss in color saturation or contrast between viewing it head-on and seeing it from the sides, which is extremely impressive.
Perhaps even more impressive is the very well-controlled halo on the QM6K. Halo refers to a glow that appears around brightly lit objects set against dark backgrounds. The most common everyday way to notice this is watching super-wide movies or TV shows with captions or subtitles which will often sit against a pure black background below the on-screen content. Most LED televisions struggle here and the lettering will appear to have a big, white, hazy glow around them, which is not only distracting but can also make it harder to read the words.
OLEDs get around this by their ability to only illuminate the exact pixels that are necessary, but LEDs use dimming zones, and those are much larger than individual pixels – and are the cause of that halo. TCL does use dimming zones in the QM6K – 500, to be exact – but also combines this with a new “halo control system” layer.
Compared to the QM7, I would estimate the halo to be reduced by upward of 85-90%. You really have to look for it to catch it, and while there is still some present, it’s one of the best suppression technologies that I’ve seen on a non-OLED display. Combined with the excellent off-angle viewing experience, content viewed on the QM6K will look significantly better – albeit not as bright – compared to the QM7.
I noticed some stutter, especially on content that is moving vertically across the frame and when in the Filmmaker or Movie modes, but TCL’s motion clarity set on low immediately removed the problem. Even better, I don’t think the motion clarity adversely affects other content and avoids giving images that sickly, overly smooth look that motion settings typically do. While I usually recommend forgoing motion smoothing of any kind, I think you can “set it and forget it” on low with the QM6K and be very pleased with the results.
If your TV room is brightly lit with lots of windows, the QM6K will not be able to overcome that brightness as easily as the QM7 from last year. Added to that is the very glossy, reflective look of the QM6K’s front panel which will glare quite easily (which should be visible in my photos). However, in dimmer rooms where its brightness is less necessary, the QM6K is a much better television.
TCL QM6K – Gaming Performance
The first thing I tested on the QM6K was its gaming support and it is there that I have been most impressed. TCL says to expect games to look and feel fantastic on this television thanks to the variable refresh rate (VRR) accelerator which takes the 144Hz HDMI 2.1 maximum throughput and doubles it to a perceived 288.
I can’t really tell the difference after we start to go higher than 150Hz, but what I can say is that competitive multiplayer gaming feels spectacular. Both Marvel Rivals and Apex Legends are snappy and buttery smooth with no lag or perceived frame loss (at least not due two the television).
TCL also includes support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro which means gamers will find a good experience whether they are using a PC or a console.
That 144Hz is also the television’s native refresh rate, which means the panel is actually capable of matching the speeds that are being driven to it, so even without the help of VRR, the QM6K manages to feel as fast and performant as an OLED for competitive gaming.
TCL includes access to its Game Bar which gives you more control over how games look. There are a few profiles that adjust the shadow detail for competitive shooters versus the richer contrast you might want for a single player RPG and these can be dialed in further with a shadow detail option. All of the benefits that make the QM6K great for 4K movies and television are there in equal measure for gaming, which means couch co-op won’t be negatively affected by bad viewing angles and narrative-driven games will have the color and contrast that match Hollywood’s best.
Given that the weakest point of this television is its brightness, I think one of the best use cases for the QM6K is deployment in a gaming room or basement. There, it has more than enough brightness to deliver a great experience and the entry-level price combined with its excellent features makes it ideal as a household’s “second TV.”
TCL QM6K – Audio Quality
If there is one place I am disappointed with the QM6K, it’s with the audio quality: it’s bad. Not only does it lack the mids and lows that is a common problem with all flatscreens, it is also terribly unbalanced. The sound appears mushy and muddled and the reliance on the highs means music can sound downright harsh.
Voices are clear, at least, but if there are any competing sounds next to those voices, they can easily get lost – especially for deeper, lower-toned speech. I was hopeful for the audio quality given it at least looks impressive with those three speakers on the back, but I am quite disappointed.
That said, I have yet to find a television that I don’t recommend getting a soundbar or sound system with, as all televisions lack the ability to back up their excellent visuals with even mediocre audio quality. You’ll definitely want one here, though, as it’s well below what I consider to be average performance.
TCL QM6K – The Competition
TCL’s biggest competition is going to be against itself because, as mentioned, last year’s QM7 and QM8 are both higher-tier televisions in TCL’s lineup and are also both less expensive at the time of writing than the QM6K as they are old-stock now.
Still, I do think that unless you have a supremely bright living room and the windows are right across from the front of the television, the QM6K earns its price premium thanks to dramatically improved viewing angles and halo suppression as well as its fantastic contrast and great colors. It’s a shockingly good showing from TCL’s entry-level models.
Hisense is also still worth considering, as its U7 series brings superior brightness and great color, albeit worse off-angle viewing.
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