TCL Q Series 65-inch TV (65QM851G) Review

In the battle of TV brightness, TCL’s flagship Q series stands above all others, impressing with the highest light output we’ve seen. It beats Hisense’s recent flagship models by a good margin, even if the difference comes down to (literal) nitpicks. It offers accurate color performance and plenty of features, including 144Hz VRR, an ATSC 3.0 tuner, Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, and hands-free Google Assistant. That is, at $1,999.99 for the 65-inch or $2,699.99 for the 75-inch, the QM851G is significantly more expensive than the Hisense U8N ($1,499.99 or $1,999.99 for the 65 and 75-inch), which offer nearly the same performance and award-winning features.

Design: Dark and debonair

The QM851G’s design is bold and subtle, with almost no bezels. A black band runs along the side and top of the TV, with a narrow strip visible along the bottom edge. This configuration is common for high-end TVs, although most other brands use silver or dark gray finishes and leave black design elements for lower-end models. The black parts here are metallic, with a brushed metallic finish, maintaining a premium look.

Aside from screen size, the only physical difference between the 85- and 98-inch versions of the QM851G compared to the 65- and 75-inch models is the table stand. Smaller models sit on a square metal foot that is attached to the TV via a thick, angled plastic slab, giving the vague impression that the screen is floating. The slab can be mounted in one of two positions, allowing the screen to sit 1.5 or 3 inches away from the table to accommodate a slim soundbar. The larger screen sizes each sit on two flat, narrow legs that are dark gray metal.

A USB port for connecting an external drive sits on the right edge of the screen, while the rest of the connections are located in a rectangular recess on the back of the TV, facing right. These include four HDMI ports (one 4K120, one 4K144, one eARC), two USB ports, a 3.5mm composite video input, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an optical audio output, an Ethernet port and an antenna/cable connector. The power cable plugs into the back left side of the TV.

The remote is almost identical to last year’s version. It’s a long, narrow, smooth stick with a circular navigation pad on top. Power, input, settings, profile and Google Assistant buttons sit on top of the pad alongside a pinhole microphone. Volume and channel rockers can be found below, along with menus and dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Netflix, Pluto TV, TCL TV and YouTube.

Like its other TVs, TCL uses the Google TV smart TV platform for the QM851G. It’s a powerful interface that covers all major streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Netflix, Twitch and YouTube. It supports streaming from an Android device or a Chrome tab to Google Cast, from a Windows PC via Miracast/WiDi, and even from iPhones, iPads and Macs via AirPlay. A far-field microphone array enables hands-free voice control with Google Assistant.

Performance: Loads of light

TCL QM851G is a 4K QLED TV with 120Hz native refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG). It has an ATSC 3.0 tuner for 1080p and 4K over-the-air broadcasts.

We test the TV using a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and portrait display Kalman software. Out of the box and in movie mode, the 65QM851G boasts a peak brightness of 330 nits with a full-screen white field and 378 nits with an 18% white field. It’s not very impressive, but the default settings limit the backlight output, making it more like a low power mode. After manually adjusting the backlight to the highest setting, it jumps to a peak brightness of 903 nits with a full-screen area and 1,028 nits with an 18% white area. This is high for an SDR signal.

Feed the TV an HDR signal, and those numbers change drastically Full-screen white field light output in movie mode is actually slightly lower at 894 nits, but with 18% field, that number shoots up to 3,308 nits. Even the Hisense 98UX (3,060 nits), U8N (2,755 nits), and U9N (2,630 nits) put out less light. However, major companies Hisense and TCL are focusing on it. Samsung lags behind in light output compared to previous generations, and its flagship QN90D LED TV has a peak brightness of just 1,253 nits with an 18% white field.

Black levels on the 65QM851G are effectively perfect at 0.0035cd/m^2, which is within wiggle room to catch any ambient light on the panel.

The 65QM851G is most accurate in movie mode, with an odd quirk. The charts above show the 65QM51’s color levels in movie mode with an SDR signal compared to Rec.709 broadcast standards, and an HDR signal compared to DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. There is also a third chart, which also uses an HDR signal and DCI-P3 color space, which I will explain.

The 65QM851G actually leans slightly warm, which is rare to see. SDR color is mostly accurate, though whites, yellows, and magentas run a little toward red. They’re still within the tolerances we’d like to see out-of-the-box default settings, so that’s fine. Colors are also slightly warmer in Movie mode, with magentas in particular leaning toward reds and cyans leaning toward greens. The TV has a sliding scale of 11 different color temperature options, and Movie mode is set to the warmest, so I also measured its HDR colors at Warm-4, the second-warmest color temperature setting. Magentas are still warm, but whites and cyans are almost perfect at this setting, so we recommend switching this up while watching movies.

In our qualitative viewing test, the BBC’s “Lion” episode tanned fur and green grass dynasty Balanced and saturated on the QM851G. Dark details of objects silhouetted against light, such as lioness muscles and tree leaves, are clearly visible and retain color.

party scene The Great Gatsby Looks great on the QM851G too. Black suits look dark and detailed, with cuts and contours easily discernible. The balloons, lights and white parts of the shirt are very bright and show their own details well in the highlights. Skin tones look natural against the two extremes, and splashes of orange-like color come out.

Nature footage from the Spears and Munsil Ultra HD benchmark disc looks bright and colorful in movie mode on the QM851G. White clouds and snow are detailed and not blown out, and tree branches and leaves are clear even in dark shadows. Shots of brightly lit, colorful objects against black backgrounds show excellent contrast, the objects themselves are very vivid and the backgrounds are really black. There is some minor light flaring between the edges, but it’s not noticeable or distracting, and any LED-backlit LCD TV will show at least some level of it; Only OLED TVs can completely eliminate light bloom because the light output of each pixel can be adjusted.

Gaming performance: 144Hz VRR and FreeSync Premium Pro

The QM851G has a 120Hz panel that supports up to 144Hz variable refresh rate (VRR) and is AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certified. TCL has added a useful quick menu in Game Mode that lets you confirm the refresh rate and other settings. It is also responsive.

Using an HDFury Diva 4K HDMI matrix, we measured an input lag of 6.4 milliseconds in game mode. Interestingly, the TV’s Game Mode has a Performance Mode sub-option specifically tailored for content between 50Hz and 60Hz. With that setting on, latency drops to 2.2 milliseconds. This is very low, but since this is a very specific situation we will take high measurements to compare with other TVs. In that case, it’s slightly faster than the Hisense U8N in game mode (7.4ms) but slower than the cheaper and dimer Hisense U6N (3.6ms). All three TVs are considered good for gaming faster than our 10ms threshold and lag less than a frame for games running at 60 frames per second.

Verdict: You can buy brilliant TVs

TCL’s 2024 Q Class QM851G TV is excellent all around, with bright pictures, very good color performance and plenty of useful features we tested. It beats rival Hisense models at peak brightness, so if you want maximum light output, this is the TV to get. Still, the Hisense U8N remains our Editors’ Choice because it offers similarly great performance at a lower price. That said, the U8N doesn’t come in 85- or 98-inch sizes like the QM851G. In these sizes, the 85-inch Hisense 85U9N and 98-inch Hisense 98UX are used, and the QM851G is a direct match in price while being slightly brighter.