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TCL and Hisense have been in a bit of an arms race for the biggest and brightest TVs this year, with the latter’s 98-inch 98UX earning our Editors’ Choice award with fantastic picture quality and class-leading brightness. Hot on its heels, the TCL 98QM851 is another 98-inch QLED TV with a mini-LED backlight system and loads of features. It shares the 98UX’s $7,999.99 price and can actually get even brighter, making it an appealing option if you’re looking for a big-screen TV that doesn’t break five digits.Note that this review is based on testing performed on a prerelease version of the 98QM851 without finalized firmware. It is unlikely that TCL will make significant adjustments to the TV’s picture quality for the final version, but since the unit we saw is not fully representative of what will be available to consumers, we will not be giving it a formal score until we’ve had a chance to test a production-ready model.
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Design: Simple, Understated StyleThe 98QM851’s design is dark and subtle, with almost no bezel. A black band runs along the sides and top of the TV, with a narrow strip visible along the bottom edge. This configuration is common for high-end TVs, though most other brands use a silver or dark gray finish and leave black design elements for lower-end models. The 98QM851 maintains a premium look as the black parts are metal, with a brushed metallic finish. The TV sits on two flat, narrow feet that are a dark gray metal.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
A USB port for connecting an external drive sits on the right edge of the screen, with the rest of the connections located in a rectangular recess a few inches inward on the back of the TV, facing right. They 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 left side of the back of the TV.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
The remote is almost identical to last year’s version. It’s a long, narrow, sleek wand with a circular navigation pad near the top. Power, input, settings, profile, and Google Assistant buttons sit above the pad, alongside a pinhole microphone. Volume and channel rockers can be found below, along with menu and dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Netflix, Pluto TV, TCL TV, and YouTube.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
Like most of its other TVs, TCL uses the Google TV smart TV platform for the 98QM851. It’s a robust interface that covers all major streaming services including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube. It also supports streaming from an Android device or a Chrome tab over Google Cast and from a Windows PC over Miracast/WiDi, though unlike Hisense’s implementations of Google TV on its higher-end models, it does not support Apple AirPlay. A far-field microphone array also enables hands-free voice control with Google Assistant.PerformanceThe TCL 98QM851 is a 4K QLED TV with a 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 TVs using a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman software. We were able to perform all of our standard picture quality tests on the 98QM851. However, because the unit we tested was a preproduction sample, we were unable to test it in the typical Movie mode we use to measure out-of-the-box performance. Instead, we took measurements using the TV’s Vivid mode, though with color temperature at the warmest setting to get as close to Movie mode as possible.
Both Hisense and TCL have made claims this year of putting out the brightest TVs ever sold, and their promises have largely paid off. The 98QM851 specifically takes the trophy for the brightest TV based on our testing methodology. With an HDR signal, the TV shows a peak brightness of 883 nits with a full-screen white field, but that jumps up to 3,836 nits with an 18% white field. That latter number is typically what we consider a TV’s peak brightness to be, and it’s much higher than the Hisense 75U9N (2,630 nits), the Hisense 98UX (3,080 nits), and the TCL 115QM891 (3,374 nits). Each of those TVs can push past 4,000 and even 5,000 nits with smaller white fields under certain conditions, but with an 18% field for consistency, the 98QM851 is the winner. Black levels are extremely low as well, effectively completely dark at 0.0005cd/m^2.The Vivid mode on most TVs almost always shows completely skewed hues by adjusting the picture to look much more blue, since we perceive blue light as brighter than other colors of light. This can be fixed to some extent by setting the white balance to the warmest preset, and that’s how we measured color performance on the 98QM851.
(Credit: PCMag)
The above chart shows the TV’s color levels with an SDR signal compared against Rec.709 broadcast standards and with an HDR signal compared against DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. Whites are nearly perfect in both cases when the default Vivid presets would have them sitting deep in the blue area, and colors are generally well balanced. The TV makes no effort to pull back saturation with an SDR signal, and oddly shows gray to be much cooler than white (an uncommon discrepancy). Magentas also lean warm in both cases, but this is fairly common for QLED TVs.We weren’t allowed to take measurements of the Movie mode, though we were able to perform qualitative viewing tests with it, and it seems to look quite good on the 98QM851. The tans of fur and greens of grass in the “Lion” episode of BBC’s Dynasties are balanced and saturated. Dark details of objects silhouetted against light, like the musculature of a lioness and the leaves of trees, can be clearly seen and retain color.The party scenes in The Great Gatsby also look very good on the 98QM851. Black suits look dark and detailed, with cuts and contours easily discernible, and the whites of shirts, lights, and balloons are all very bright and show their own details well in the highlights. Skin tones look natural against the two extremes, and splashes of color like orange pop out.Nature footage from the Spears & Munsil Ultra HD benchmark disc looks bright and colorful in Movie mode on the 98QM851. White clouds and snow are detailed and don’t get blown out, and the branches and leaves of trees are clear even in dark shadows. Shots of brightly lit, colorful objects against black backgrounds demonstrate excellent contrast, with the objects themselves very vivid and the backgrounds indeed black. Some minor light bloom can be seen among the edges, but it’s not significant or distracting, and any LED-backlit LCD TV will show at least some level of it; only OLED TVs can perfectly eliminate light bloom because the light output of each pixel can be adjusted.We were unfortunately able to test the 98QM851’s input lag, but at least in terms of features, the TV should please most gamers. The 120Hz panel supports up to 144Hz variable refresh rate (VRR), and is AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certified. It also has a helpful gaming quick menu when in Game mode.Verdict: The Brightest Big Screen We’ve SeenThe TCL 98QM851 is huge and incredibly bright, and it rivals the Hisense 98UX in observed performance and price. TCL might further tweak its performance, though, so we are not currently giving the TV a formal score. As such, the Hisense 98UX stands as the best big-screen TV we’ve officially tested, and remains our Editors’ Choice winner.
The Bottom Line
The 98-inch TCL 98QM851G is an excellent all-around performer and the brightest TV we’ve tested yet—by a good margin.
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