A pair of humongous TVs were unveiled at CES, for the first time matching a huge size with great picture quality
TCL QM891G AV editor Tom Parsons really wants this set
I realise that some people feel the TV industry’s recent obsession with super-sized TVs is misguided, but I’m not one of them. That’s probably because I’ve got plans to one day turn my garage into a home cinema, and a super-sized TV is more appealing to me than a projector.
It’s not that I don’t love projectors, but unless you spend huge amounts of money you’re not going to get one that can do seriously deep blacks or make the most of bright HDR movies. There’s the issue of movies in different aspect ratios looking odd against a projector screen, too, which can be overcome but not without quite a lot of faff. I would also like to game in this hypothetical home cinema, and the vast majority of projectors have but a fraction of the gaming functionality of most TVs.
So, when TCL announced the most massive Mini LED TV yet at CES 2024, I just had to go and check it out for myself.
Thrillingly punchy
The 115in QM891G is absolutely huge. TCL had it set up in a swanky Vegas hotel suite, and demonstrated how metal handles can be screwed into the sides so it can be lifted to a wall bracket or onto its feet.
The chassis is angular and quite thick by modern TV standards, but it has a flat back that will allow for fairly flush wall mounting. The bezels are quite thick, too, but they are perfectly black. If I was to have this TV it would be mounted on a black wall so that in a pitch-black room you would see nothing but screen.
For the demo, I was sitting only around five feet from the screen. Far closer than you ever would for normal viewing, but great for getting the full cinematic spectacle. Unfortunately I was only shown a loop of short demo clips rather than any real movie content, but I still developed some good first impressions.
First, the TV goes incredibly bright. TCL says it is capable of going brighter than 5000 nits, and I can well believe it. Highlights such as the sun setting over rolling hills were thrillingly punchy and dazzling. It’s easy to imagine this level of brightness being wince-inducing, but I didn’t find this to be the case.
Just as importantly, blacks looked nice and deep. Admittedly, the demo room was quite brightly lit, which will have helped with the black performance, but I didn’t get the impression there woul
