GROUP TEST
PREMIUM TELEVISIONS
Thank view for being a spend
If you want to gaze into a properly high-end telly, you’re spoilt for choice… as long as your bank balance is up to it
[ Words Chris Hall ]
LET’S TALK ABOUT SETS: HOW TO CHOOSE
● Think about where your TV is going to live in your home. If it’ll be on the wall, look for seamless zero-gap mounting options.
● If it’s going in a really bright room, you’ll want a really bright screen. That might suggest Mini-LED, but consider an anti-glare OLED too.
● A built-in soundbar is great, but otherwise think about the spec demands of your TV sound system.
● If you’re a big movie watcher, you might want support for all HDR formats – not all models offer that.
● While all these sets support at least 120Hz, some only have two HDMI 2.1 ports. If you’ll be connecting a lot of devices, make sure you have the right inputs.
● The older a model is, the more discounted it’s likely to be. Sometimes the savings are huge.
TCL 65C8K
What’s the story?
Upstart brand TCL is out to shake up the status quo by pushing sets loaded with specs and really focusing on Mini-LED mastery. The C8K is a premium Mini-LED at the top of its range, and it’s a real challenger to the OLEDs in this test.
Mini-LED is inherently brighter than OLED – great for HDR performance and brighter spaces – but doesn’t have quite the same skill with rendering absolute black because it dims in zones.
This is a bit of a chunky telly but it has a high-end feel, with a pedestal stand that’s finished in metal and looks pretty similar to that of the LG C5 on p69.
A ‘ZeroBorder’ design means the screen runs all the way to the edges without the usual black border… but it does still sit in a metal frame.
Is it any good?
The C8K is one of the best Mini-LED TVs you can buy. The huge brightness can cut through reflections so things remain visible, and I also love how bright and engaging the Google TV home screen is.
TCL has worked to beat the biggest problem with Mini-LED – blooming – and the results are spectacular, with precise highlights and shadows. Still, with HDR content the colour does look a little washed out. But that’s easily countered by bumping up the colours, which is very much the story of this TV: with a wide range of controls, there’s usually something you can do to tweak things.