TCL QM7 2024 Review: Cheaper Doesn’t Mean Worse

One of the worst feelings you can have when buying an expensive tech product is the thought that you’re settling. TVs, especially, price many people out of the market when they want anything of more quality than an IPS LCD. Unfortunately, it remains as true as it ever has. You will never get the ultimate picture quality of the highest-end OLEDs or QLEDs, especially when looking for a new TV from this year. However, with flatscreens like the TCL QM7, the drawbacks are so minimal that most won’t need to listen to that devil on your shoulder telling you to dive deeper into your savings for that shiny new TV.

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

The TCL QM7 has a listed price of $1,100 MSRP for a 55-inch TV (though currently $800 MSRP from Amazon and Best Buy), though my 65-inch review unit costs $1,500 (closer to $1,100 from most sites) when not on sale. Samsung’s QLED costs $2,700 MSRP. That’s all to say: you can always find these TVs at one deal price or another, even more so heading toward Black Friday (at the time of writing, the 65-inch QM7 is going for $700 on sale).

The QM7 has great picture quality. If it weren’t for my job, I wouldn’t even be able to tell you there’s any sort of gulf between it and more expensive screens. However, you may want to opt for something a bit more expensive depending on how many people you expect to crowd around the display. The TCL QM7 has very shallow viewing angles. Walk outside the sweet spot, and the picture quality takes a hit. As another caveat, if you expect to hang your QM7 in a nice, sunny den, know you may need to close the blinds to avoid a heavy sheen of reflection and glare.

But if all you’re looking for is a quality mini-LED TV for that budget price, the QM7 is very, very solid. Plus, it’s not skimping on port selections or base TV audio. The QM7 has a solid number of audio ports, 4K HDMI ports (though only one of them supports 120 Hz refresh rates), and USB (one 3.0 and another 2.0). There’s enough there should 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 that were it, but beyond all that, the QM7 a Google TV. I can’t say it’s my favorite UI for this or any television. But if you can stomach that and those other minor pain points, it’s easy to recommend the TCL’s QD-mini-LED, especially during these pre-holiday times when some sellers are hawking it for way below its starting price.

TCL QM7 Review: Picture Quality

© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

Once I had all the settings the way I wanted it, the QM7’s 4K picture is sharp and bright. The TV supports both HDR10+, and Dolby Vision, and I was satisfied with the contrast in everything I watched or played. I sat through the whole of Deadpool & Wolverine on the QM7, and it’s clear this type of TV will do you just fine with any colorful flick. The base audio is also fairly loud, enough to fill the room and beyond. You’ll still want to eventually invest in a soundbar or speaker system for better bass, but what’s there is good enough to start.

This TV does require some fiddling to get right. To avoid any motion smoothing nonsense, you’ll need to avoid both the Dolby Vision IQ setting and the “Motion Clarity” setting, which is—of course—on by default. That being said, the automatic Dolby Vision Bright preset is a solid choice for most content. You need to remember that Google TV automatically defaults to Dolby Vision picture settings in apps like Disney+. I also preferred it with the Local Dimming setting on High, and you should too if you want anything close to TCL’s promotional pics, or the shots in this review.

On other apps or in supporting movies, you can probably stick to the Smart HDR mode, although Vivid might prove a good second choice. The blacks in these modes are plenty deep, avoiding the grays you might get on an IPS LCD display. The TV defaults to the Low Power picture setting, but the image quality is so much more washed out than in any other modes I can’t recommend. You lose so much of the contrast that way, and it’s a wonder TCL doesn’t make any other mode default.

You’ll enjoy the quality of the image on the QM7, but only if you’re standing directly in front of it. When you get a few degrees off angle, the image quality immediately starts to dip. Even going 20 degrees from about 10 feet away results in a much grayer image than most would want. It’s an issue with many mini-LED screens, but this is closer to the same issues I had with the Sony Bravia 7 released earlier this year.

The other annoying aspect of the TCL QM7’s setting profile is that you need to turn on the setting to apply all your picture settings across apps and inputs. At the very least, the TV’s automatically adjusted game settings don’t require any more fiddling, at least for the most part. The “Original” setting on the TCL game bar is fine, but the color is perhaps too warm compared to the “FPS” mode, especially while I was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

I’ll discuss the game settings in more detail in the next section, but I can say that these games look solid across the board. Playing Black Ops, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, and Mortal Kombat 1, I was impressed with the quality of the display, as long as I was standing directly in front of it with all the right settings enabled.

TCL QM7 Review: Build and Setup

© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

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

After that, the major issue you’ll run into is Google TV. If you have any experience with Chromecast or even if you have a standby Google account, it doesn’t require too much effort, especially if you plan to connect everything through Google Home. The TV will automatically pair to your Home app on your phone if you want to get in easier, but it takes a lot more typing on the remote if you don’t want to bother.

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

The game bar is rudimentary if you’ve used any modern smart TV in the past few years. It offers an always-on reticule, picture settings, and “Shaw enhancement” settings to increase brightness (and find any campers hiding in dark corners). The High Frame Rate Mode enables any game to run at the max 120 FPS, but it won’t support every game. If you’re a PlayStation 5 Pro owner or a PC gamer wanting to play on the big screen, this setting may be useful.

But, still, I’m not too fond of Google TV. The menus are basic, and there’s no sign in the main menu for what devices you have connected to the HDMI ports. Instead, you have to hit the input button at the top of the remote to switch between consoles. At the very least, the UI is simple and clean. It’s just not very helpful.

That said, the TCL QM7 is not the kind of screen that will still look fair in direct sunlight, either. On a cloudy day, at full brightness, sticking the TV near the window results in reflections clogging up the picture.

TCL QM7 Review: Verdict

© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

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 Samsungs and Sonys out there would blow a fuze. There may be an alternative universe where that’s true, but not in this demented timeline.

The three big issues—limited viewing angles, glare, and—to a lesser extent—Google TV—are not hard to overcome. You can do far worse for the money you might be spending on the QM7, especially if you get it on sale now for under $1,000.