TCL televisions: Rich colors with white LEDs and new nanoparticles

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Although TCL showed at last year's IFA that it can also build LCD TVs with RGB LEDs, the current situation was somewhat foreshadowed: they stated at the time that they were not working on RGB LEDs, but on clean LED control.

White LEDs are cheaper to produce than colored diodes, and rich colors can also be produced from white light using color-converting quantum dots, TCL argued.

Color-rich Super Crystals

With the in-house developed “Super Quantum Crystals” (Super QLEDs), the TVs are said to cover 100 percent of the BT2020 color space, according to the manufacturer. In addition, a new color filter and an exact algorithm ensure consistent color reproduction within image sequences.

The WHVA panel from CSOT, the panel manufacturer belonging to the TCL group, is said to offer wide viewing angles and reduce reflections in the image. In fact, the HVA panel in the past c't test of smart TVs was convincing in this regard, with colors being less dependent on viewing angle than in other LCD TVs.

The low viewing angle dependency is likely also due to the reduced distance between the liquid crystal layer and the backlight; this is made possible by new lens caps on the tiny LEDs. Since the backlight is closer to the imaging layer, there is also less risk of it scattering into adjacent zones.

Very Many Zones

In TCL's top models from the X11L series, up to 20,000 dimming zones produce rich contrasts and ensure that hardly any halos appear around bright objects; TCL cites a peak luminance of 10,000 cd/m², a very high value for large televisions.

The in-house TSR processor controls the backlight dimming, including halo control, and ensures image optimization with upscaling and motion compensation. The smart TCL televisions use Google TV as their operating system, and Gemini is also integrated as an interactive AI. In addition, TCL has incorporated an audio system from Bang & Olufsen, which suggests decent sound.

The televisions, only two centimeters thick, have slim bezels. For streaming, in addition to HDR 10 and HLG (for TV signals), they support the two dynamic HDR formats HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, including adaptation to ambient brightness (Dolby Vision IQ). For fast gaming, the LCDs refresh image content at 144 Hertz; at half resolution, 288 Hertz should also be possible. The display supports FreeSync, automatically reduces latency (ALLM), and offers a Game Bar for quick game settings for gamers.

Price Question

Where's the catch? Despite “only” white LEDs in the backlight and LCD technology, TCL estimates a price of $7,000 for the 77-inch model. This means the X11L series will not be significantly cheaper in retail than comparable LCD TVs with RGB Micro LEDs from Samsung & Co. or even OLED TVs. Therefore, it will be all the more interesting to see if the colored LEDs in the backlight of other manufacturers actually offer a noticeable advantage in image quality.

TCL plans to offer the X11L series televisions in 75-inch, 85-inch, and 98-inch sizes; the two larger models, with diagonals of 2.15 meters and 2.50 meters, will cost $8,000 and $10,000 respectively.

heise medien is an official media partner of CES 2026.

(uk)