TCL 98QM851G Preview | PCMag

TCL and Hisense have been in a little bit of an arms race for the largest and brightest TVs this 12 months, with the latter’s 98-inch 98UX incomes our Editors’ Alternative award with implausible image high quality and class-leading brightness. Scorching on its heels, the TCL 98QM851 is one other 98-inch QLED TV with a mini-LED backlight system and a great deal of options. It shares the 98UX’s $7,999.99 worth and might truly get even brighter, making it an interesting possibility if you happen to’re on the lookout for a big-screen TV that doesn’t break 5 digits.

Observe that this evaluation relies on testing carried out on a prerelease model of the 98QM851 with out finalized firmware. It’s unlikely that TCL will make vital changes to the TV’s image high quality for the ultimate model, however for the reason that unit we noticed will not be absolutely consultant of what is going to be accessible to shoppers, we is not going to be giving it a proper rating till we have had an opportunity to check a production-ready mannequin.

Design: Easy, Understated Fashion

The 98QM851’s design is darkish and delicate, with nearly no bezel. A black band runs alongside the edges and prime of the TV, with a slender strip seen alongside the underside edge. This configuration is frequent for high-end TVs, although most different manufacturers use a silver or darkish grey end and depart black design components for lower-end fashions. The 98QM851 maintains a premium look because the black elements are steel, with a brushed metallic end. The TV sits on two flat, slender toes which might be a darkish grey steel.

(Credit score: Will Greenwald)

A USB port for connecting an exterior drive sits on the proper fringe of the display, with the remainder of the connections positioned in an oblong recess a number of inches inward on the again of the TV, going through proper. They embrace 4 HDMI ports (one 4K120, one 4K144, one eARC), two USB ports, a 3.5mm composite video enter, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an optical audio output, an Ethernet port, and an antenna/cable connector. The facility cable plugs into the left aspect of the again of the TV.

(Credit score: Will Greenwald)

The distant is sort of similar to final 12 months’s model. It’s a protracted, slender, glossy wand with a round navigation pad close to the highest. Energy, enter, settings, profile, and Google Assistant buttons sit above the pad, alongside a pinhole microphone. Quantity and channel rockers may be discovered beneath, together with menu and devoted service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Netflix, Pluto TV, TCL TV, and YouTube.

(Credit score: Will Greenwald)

Like most of its different TVs, TCL makes use of the Google TV good TV platform for the 98QM851. It’s a sturdy interface that covers all main streaming companies together with Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube. It additionally helps streaming from an Android machine or a Chrome tab over Google Solid and from a Home windows PC over Miracast/WiDi, although in contrast to Hisense’s implementations of Google TV on its higher-end fashions, it doesn’t help Apple AirPlay. A far-field microphone array additionally allows hands-free voice management with Google Assistant.

Efficiency

The TCL 98QM851 is a 4K QLED TV with a 120Hz native refresh charge. It helps excessive dynamic vary (HDR) content material in Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma (HLG). It has an ATSC 3.0 tuner for 1080p and 4K over-the-air broadcasts.

We take a look at TVs utilizing a Klein Ok-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G sign generator, and Portrait Shows’ Calman software program. We have been in a position to carry out all of our normal image high quality checks on the 98QM851. Nevertheless, as a result of the unit we examined was a preproduction pattern, we have been unable to check it within the typical Film mode we use to measure out-of-the-box efficiency. As an alternative, we took measurements utilizing the TV’s Vivid mode, although with shade temperature on the warmest setting to get as near Film mode as attainable.

Each Hisense and TCL have made claims this 12 months of placing out the brightest TVs ever bought, and their guarantees have largely paid off. The 98QM851 particularly takes the trophy for the brightest TV based mostly on our testing methodology. With an HDR sign, the TV exhibits a peak brightness of 883 nits with a full-screen white subject, however that jumps as much as 3,836 nits with an 18% white subject. That latter quantity is often what we think about a TV’s peak brightness to be, and it’s a lot increased than the Hisense 75U9N (2,630 nits), the Hisense 98UX (3,080 nits), and the TCL 115QM891 (3,374 nits). Every of these TVs can push previous 4,000 and even 5,000 nits with smaller white fields beneath sure situations, however with an 18% subject for consistency, the 98QM851 is the winner. Black ranges are extraordinarily low as nicely, successfully utterly darkish at 0.0005cd/m^2.

The Vivid mode on most TVs nearly all the time exhibits utterly skewed hues by adjusting the image to look far more blue, since we understand blue gentle as brighter than different colours of sunshine. This may be mounted to some extent by setting the white steadiness to the warmest preset, and that’s how we measured shade efficiency on the 98QM851.

(Credit score: PCMag)

The above chart exhibits the TV’s shade ranges with an SDR sign in contrast in opposition to Rec.709 broadcast requirements and with an HDR sign in contrast in opposition to DCI-P3 digital cinema requirements. Whites are almost good in each instances when the default Vivid presets would have them sitting deep within the blue space, and colours are usually nicely balanced. The TV makes no effort to drag again saturation with an SDR sign, and oddly exhibits grey to be a lot cooler than white (an unusual discrepancy). Magentas additionally lean heat in each instances, however that is pretty frequent for QLED TVs.

We weren’t allowed to take measurements of the Film mode, although we have been in a position to carry out qualitative viewing checks with it, and it appears to look fairly good on the 98QM851. The tans of fur and greens of grass within the “Lion” episode of BBC’s Dynasties are balanced and saturated. Darkish particulars of objects silhouetted in opposition to gentle, just like the musculature of a lioness and the leaves of timber, may be clearly seen and retain shade.

The celebration scenes in The Nice Gatsby additionally look superb on the 98QM851. Black fits look darkish and detailed, with cuts and contours simply discernible, and the whites of shirts, lights, and balloons are all very shiny and present their very own particulars nicely within the highlights. Pores and skin tones look pure in opposition to the 2 extremes, and splashes of shade like orange come out.

Nature footage from the Spears & Munsil Extremely HD benchmark disc seems shiny and colourful in Film mode on the 98QM851. White clouds and snow are detailed and don’t get blown out, and the branches and leaves of timber are clear even in darkish shadows. Photographs of brightly lit, colourful objects in opposition to black backgrounds reveal glorious distinction, with the objects themselves very vivid and the backgrounds certainly black. Some minor gentle bloom may be seen among the many edges, however it’s not vital or distracting, and any LED-backlit LCD TV will present at the least some stage of it; solely OLED TVs can completely eradicate gentle bloom as a result of the sunshine output of every pixel may be adjusted.

We have been sadly in a position to take a look at the 98QM851’s enter lag, however at the least by way of options, the TV ought to please most players. The 120Hz panel helps as much as 144Hz variable refresh charge (VRR), and is AMD FreeSync Premium Professional licensed. It additionally has a useful gaming fast menu when in Recreation mode.

Verdict: The Brightest Massive Display screen We have Seen

The TCL 98QM851 is big and extremely shiny, and it rivals the Hisense 98UX in noticed efficiency and worth. TCL would possibly additional tweak its efficiency, although, so we’re not at the moment giving the TV a proper rating. As such, the Hisense 98UX stands as the perfect big-screen TV we’ve formally examined, and stays our Editors’ Alternative winner.