TCL QM7 2024 review: Cheaper doesn’t mean worse

Suppliers love Hisense, TCLAnd now Amazon have brought the more affordable mini-LED to its heyday. You could of course opt for more expensive, excellent mid-range models from 2024 The QN90D from Samsung or The W95A from Panasonic. They have excellent picture quality and relatively solid viewing angles for mini-LED, better than what you can normally get from something like a Hisense U7. That is, if your eagle eyes can really tell the difference.

The TCL QM7 has an MSRP of $1,100 for a 55-inch TV (though currently $800 MSRP from Amazon and Best Buy), although my 65-inch review unit costs $1,500 (closer to $1,100 on most sites) when not on sale. Samsung’s QLED costs a suggested retail price of $2,700. That’s all to say: you can always find these TVs at some deal price, especially heading into Black Friday (at the time of writing, the 65-inch QM7 goes on sale for $700).

The QM7 has great image quality. Without my work I wouldn’t even be able to tell you that there is a gap between this and more expensive screens. However, you may want to opt for something more expensive depending on how many people you expect to be around the screen. The TCL QM7 has very shallow viewing angles. Walk outside the sweet spot and image quality takes a hit. Another word of caution: If you expect to hang your QM7 in a nice, sunny study room, know that you may need to close the blinds to avoid a heavy glare from reflection and glare.

But if you’re just looking for a high-quality mini LED TV at that budget price, the QM7 is very, very solid. Plus, there’s no skimping on port selections or basic TV audio. The QM7 has a solid number of audio ports, 4K HDMI ports (although only one of them supports 120Hz refresh rates) and USB (one 3.0 and another 2.0). There’s plenty if you eventually decide to upgrade your movie experience with a soundbar or extra speakers, and you’ll never run out of 4K ports for your consoles.

And I wish it was, but besides, the QM7 was a Google TV. I can’t say this is my favorite user interface for this or any television. But if you can stomach that and those other minor pain points, it’s easy to recommend TCL’s QD mini-LED, especially during these pre-holiday times when some sellers are selling it well below starting price.

TCL QM7 Review: Image Quality

Once I got all the settings the way I wanted, the QM7’s 4K image is sharp and clear. The TV supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and I was pleased with the contrast in everything I watched or played. I sat the whole time Deadpool and Wolverine on the QM7, and it’s clear that this type of TV is great for any colorful movie. The base audio is also reasonably loud, enough to fill the room and beyond. You’ll eventually want to invest in a soundbar or speaker system for better bass, but what’s there is good enough to get started.

This TV does require some fiddling to get right. To avoid motion smoothing nonsense, you should avoid both the Dolby Vision IQ setting and the “Motion Clarity” setting, which – of course – is enabled by default. That said, the automatic Dolby Vision Bright preset is a solid choice for most content. Please note that Google TV automatically uses Dolby Vision picture settings in apps such as Disney+. I also preferred it with the Local Dimming setting on High, and you should too if you want something close to TCL’s promotional photos, or the photos in this review.

In other apps or with supporting movies, you can probably stick with Smart HDR mode, though Vivid might be a good second choice. The blacks in these modes are sufficiently deep, avoiding the grayscale you might get on a computer IPS LCD screen. The TV defaults to the Low Power picture setting, but the picture quality is so much washed out than in other modes that I can’t recommend it. You lose so much contrast that way, and it’s a wonder TCL doesn’t make any other modes the default.

You can enjoy the image quality on the QM7, but only if you are standing right in front of it. When you get a few degrees off angle, the image quality immediately starts to drop. Even a temperature of 20 degrees from about 3 meters away results in a much grayer picture than most people would like. It’s a problem with many mini LED screens, but this is closer to the same problems I had with the Sony Bravia7 released earlier this year.

The other annoying aspect of the TCL QM7’s settings profile is that you have to enable the setting to apply all your picture settings to all apps and inputs. At the very least, the TV’s auto-adjusted game settings no longer require any fiddling, at least for the most part. The “Original” setting on the TCL game bar is fine, but the color may be too warm compared to the “FPS” mode, especially during gameplay Call of Duty: Black Ops6.

Sick discuss the game settings in more detail in the next section, but I can say that these games look solid overall. Play Black Ops, Star Wars: Jedi SurvivorAnd Mortal Kombat 1I was impressed with the quality of the screen, like as long as I was standing right in front of it with all the correct settings enabled.

TCL QM7 Review: Build and Setup

Make sure you have a friend or family member on standby to set up your QM7. Of course, you’ll need someone to help you lift it out of the box, but you may need an extra hand to keep the “L” shaped stand steady while you screw it into place.

After that, the biggest problem you will encounter is Google TV. If you have some experience with Chromecast or even if you have a standby Google account, it won’t take too much effort, especially if you plan to connect everything through Google Home. The TV will automatically pair with your Home app on your phone if you want easier access, but it takes a lot more typing on the remote if you don’t want to worry.

The remote control itself is what you expect. There are special buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, TCLtv, AppleTV and Pluto. It also connects to Google Assistant for voice, but it’s still much better to manually go through the settings menu, tap the three-line button in the center of the remote to change settings, or press and hold it to activate the game bar.

The Game Bar is rudimentary if you’ve used a modern smart TV in recent years. It offers an always-on reticle, picture settings, and “Shaw Enhancement” settings to increase brightness (and find any campers hiding in dark corners). High Frame Rate mode allows any game to run at up to 120 FPS, but it doesn’t support every game. If you’re a PlayStation 5 Pro owner or a PC gamer who wants to play on the big screen, this setting might come in handy.

But still, I’m not too fond of Google TV. The menus are simple and the main menu does not indicate which devices you have connected to the HDMI ports. Instead, you have to press the input button at the top of the remote to switch between consoles. The user interface is simple and clean to say the least. It’s just not very useful.

That said, the TCL QM7 is also not the kind of screen that still looks nice in direct sunlight. On a cloudy day, at full brightness, placing the TV near the window causes reflections to clog the image.

TCL QM7 Review: Verdict

The TCL QM7 is the kind of TV you can live with. It’s not perfect, and of course it wouldn’t be. Imagine if TCL’s cheaper TVs had absolutely everything the more expensive models had. The Samsung’s and Sony’s out there would blow up a detonator. There could be an alternate universe where that’s true, but not in this crazy timeline.

The three big problems – limited viewing angles, glare and – to a lesser extent – ​​Google TV – are not difficult to overcome. You could do a lot worse for the money you spend on the QM7, especially if you can get it on sale now for less than $1,000.