TCL C8K Review: This Flagship TV Costs Surprisingly Little!

For years, TCL has been known primarily as a budget-friendly brand, offering incredible value without compromising too much on features. However, their new TCL C8K television is set to change that perception. This isn’t just another value-for-money TV; it’s a display designed to compete in the absolute top segment, yet it still comes with a price tag significantly lower than its high-end competitors.

In the past, TCL TVs often lagged slightly behind giants like Samsung, Sony, and LG in terms of design and advanced image processing. But with the C8K, that era seems definitively over. As a seasoned tech reviewer, I’ve put the TCL C8K through its paces, and it truly demonstrates TCL’s ambition to compete with the big players in the high-end market. Let’s dive into the details and see why this TV is making such a buzz!

Design & Aesthetics: A Premium Look That Stands Out

The first thing you’ll notice about the TCL C8K is its sleek and modern design. It exudes a premium feel that belies its competitive price.

• Truly Bezel-Less Display: While many modern TVs boast thin bezels, they often have an additional image-free border of about half a centimeter within the bezel. The C8K eliminates this, with the picture starting right where the frame ends. This small detail gives the TV a genuinely high-end, immersive look.
• Slim Profile: The TV itself has become noticeably slimmer, measuring only 5 cm at its thickest point. This is thanks to TCL’s innovation in placing the Mini-LEDs closer to the panel.
• Subtle Branding: A welcome change is the discreet placement of the “Premium Mini-LED” badge on the side, rather than prominently on the front. This contributes to the TV’s clean and sophisticated appearance.
• Central Stand: It features a sleek central stand, though it’s worth noting that it cannot swivel.

Remote Control: A Thoughtful Upgrade for Convenience

The new remote control is a significant improvement, enhancing the user experience, especially in low light.

• Logical Layout: The remote is more logically organized, making navigation intuitive.
• Automatic Backlighting: A fantastic addition is the automatic button backlighting, which illuminates when you pick up the remote. This is incredibly useful for watching movies in dimly lit rooms, eliminating the fumbling for buttons.

Picture Quality: A New Era of Mini-LED Excellence

The real magic of the C8K lies in its advanced picture panel and Mini-LED backlight system.

• New WHVA Panel: The C8K uses a new type of WHVA panel. While VA panels are known for high contrast, they traditionally struggle with viewing angles and reflections. This new panel addresses these weaknesses head-on.
  • Remarkable Viewing Angles: For a Mini-LED TV, the viewing angles are exceptionally good. Colors and brightness remain much better preserved even when viewed from the side. While not yet at OLED levels, it’s getting remarkably close.
  • Improved Reflection Suppression: Reflections are also better suppressed than in its predecessor. Although the C8K still has a glossy finish, distracting reflections are noticeably reduced.
• Thousands of Mini-LED Dimming Zones: TCL continues to innovate in Mini-LED technology, pushing beyond typical zone counts.
  • 1680 Dimming Zones (65-inch): The 65-inch version boasts an impressive 1680 individually dimmable zones, a 25% increase from last year. For comparison, a direct Samsung competitor has only 720 zones.
  • Superior Light Control: More zones mean more precise control over light, resulting in almost no “blooming” (light halo around bright objects on a dark background) when viewed head-on. Only at extreme angles might you notice a faint halo.
• Absolute HDR Highlight: This is the C8K’s crowning glory. The combination of the high-contrast panel and precisely controlled backlight with thousands of Mini-LEDs results in an incredibly bright image.
  • Record-Breaking Brightness: In accurate Filmmaker Mode, the TV measured over 3440 nits on a 10% window – a figure rarely seen on a consumer TV.
  • Explosive HDR: This means HDR highlights like explosions, the sun, or bright lights in movies and series truly pop off the screen. It even surpasses the much more expensive Sony Bravia 9, one of the best Mini-LED TVs to date, in this regard.
  • Ideal for Bright Rooms: This TV is particularly impressive for daytime viewing in bright rooms.

Gaming Features: Ready for Next-Gen Consoles and PCs

The C8K is also an excellent choice for gamers, offering high-performance features.

• 4K @ 144Hz VRR Support: The TV supports 4K gaming with Variable Refresh Rates (VRR) up to 144Hz, making it perfect for high-end consoles and gaming PCs.
• 288Hz Mode: There’s even a special mode that halves the vertical resolution to achieve an astounding 288Hz, though this is primarily relevant for PC gaming.
• Excellent Input Lag: Input lag is outstanding at 5.5ms in 120Hz mode, ensuring a highly responsive gaming experience without noticeable delay.
• Gamebar 3.0: The Gamebar has been expanded with new functions, including an FPS counter and the ability to magnify parts of the screen (like a mini-map).
• One Minor Drawback: A slight downside is that only two HDMI ports support the full 144Hz. Since one of these is typically used for eARC (for a soundbar/receiver), you often end up with only one fully capable port for a gaming console or PC.

Audio System: Bang & Olufsen Collaboration for Impressive Sound

You might not even need a separate soundbar with the C8K, thanks to its impressive integrated audio system.

• Bang & Olufsen Partnership: TCL has collaborated with Bang & Olufsen for the C8K’s speaker system, resulting in surprisingly good sound quality.
• Powerful Output: The system boasts 90 watts of power.
• Deep Bass & Dolby Atmos: Two integrated subwoofers at the back provide robust bass, while two upward-firing speakers create a convincing Dolby Atmos effect.
• Clear Dialogues & Spatiality: Dialogues are clear, spatiality is impressive, and the sound can get quite loud without distortion. This audio system truly competes with top models from Sony, Philips, and Panasonic, known for their excellent built-in sound.

Smart TV Platform & HDR Support: Smooth and Comprehensive

The C8K runs on the familiar and reliable Google TV platform.

• Fast & Smooth Interface: It uses the same MediaTek Pentonic 700 chip as last year, ensuring a quick and fluid interface.
• Ample Storage: With approximately 50GB of free storage, you can install plenty of apps.
• Comprehensive HDR Support: The C8K supports all major HDR formats, including HDR10, HLG, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of content.
• Filmmaker Mode: New for this year, the Filmmaker Mode delivers reasonably accurate out-of-the-box picture quality that respects the director’s intent, though minor manual tweaks to gamma and color temperature might be needed for absolute perfection.

The Main Drawback: Energy Consumption

No TV is perfect, and the C8K has one significant drawback: its energy consumption.

• Higher Power Usage: All those thousands of LEDs and extreme brightness make the C8K an energy guzzler. In tests, it consistently consumes almost 50% more power than its direct Samsung competitor.
• Environmental & Cost Consideration: While the annual cost difference might only be a few tens of euros, it’s a significant difference and something to consider, especially in times when energy efficiency is a growing concern.

Conclusion: The New Mini-LED King?

Is the TCL C8K the new king among Mini-LED TVs? For enthusiasts who love spectacular, super-bright HDR, the answer is an emphatic yes. It’s not perfect: black levels aren’t quite as deep as OLED, and the limitation of only two full-spec HDMI 2.1 ports, coupled with higher energy consumption, are minor drawbacks.

However, these are small points when considering its overall performance. The C8K costs significantly less than Mini-LED competitors from Samsung and Sony. For that reason alone, it’s hard not to be impressed. If you’re looking for a top-class TV that truly shines, especially during daytime viewing in a bright room, the TCL C8K is an absolute recommendation. It’s a super-bright Mini-LED television that delivers premium features at a surprisingly accessible price.

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• Source: TCL C8K review