TCL 65” QM6K Mini LED TV
The TCL 6-Series has often been thought of as the budget option, but this year everything has changed. The new QM6K is a massive upgrade that at times even puts far more expensive last generation TVs to shame.
That said, it’s not without its shortcomings, so let’s take a deep dive into the 2025 65” QM6K to determine if it’s the right TV for you.
TCL’s 2025 QM6K brings an enormous improvement over the 2024 Q6 in terms of contrast making it an excellent choice for budget-conscious buyers. Despite that, it still suffers in terms of micro contrast, motion, and specular highlights when compared to OLEDs, so those looking for the best picture quality possible may want to consider the upcoming QM8K or even competing OLED options.
Disclaimer: This TV was lent to me by TCL for review, but all opinions are my own. Additionally, Home Theater Review may run advertising campaigns with various manufacturers including TCL.
For this review I used an X-Rite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, Color Checker Display Plus colorimeter, Calman Ultimate, Portrait Displays Video Forge Pro 8K pattern generator, a Sony RX100 VII 1000fps camera, an SM208 Screen Luminance Meter, and a Sony Cinema Line FX3 mirrorless video camera. Plus, years of display testing experience.
The price for the TCL QM6K is incredibly good.
Above is the Connectivity for this TV. Most importantly it does come with two HDMI 2.1 ports capable of 4K 144Hz, and two HDMI ports capable of 4K 60Hz (one of which is eARC).
The unboxing experience for the QM6K is a breeze. Thankfully the TV is fairly light, and although it's not a screwless design, the assembly was very straightforward. It can easily be put together and set up by 1-2 people in less than half an hour. No ER trips required.
Mini LED typically does a good job with color and often sits between WOLED and QD OLED in terms of vibrancy. Unfortunately, on my model, the color fell slightly short of expectations in HDR making it more comparable to older WOLED TVs. In SDR thankfully it does a great job and actually punches way above its weight.
For home theater enthusiasts below are all my Calman results measuring the accuracy of the display. For everyone else, feel free to skip to the TLDR.
Rec. 709 Testing
Out of the Box in Film Maker Mode, the TCL QM6K follows the EOTF curve well.
PC Game Mode has similar results.
SDR Color Accuracy Test
Color Accuracy in Film Maker Mode for SDR content is solid.
HDR Testing
The default HDR FMM mode in HDR has significant issues with under-tracking, leading to dim HDR imagery.
Thankfully this is easily solved.
PC Game Mode has good accuracy.
HDR Color Gamut
The TCL QM6K has mediocreHDR color coverage out of the box delivering around 71% BT.2020 UV.
HDR Color Accuracy
HDR Color Match results were above expectations considering the price.
The short version: the TCL QM6K looks great and is capable of displaying the vast majority of HDR content as the creator would intend. Not only that, but in terms of accuracy, the QM6K is far better than I expected in fact, both in terms of gamma tracking, but especially for color accuracy, the QM6K often dethrones far more expensive TVs from the biggest brands.
If you were looking for an affordable TV with Sony-like color accuracy, I would highly suggest taking a look at the QM6K.
Mini LEDs are known for getting much brighter than OLED, and the QM6K has decent full screen brightness, but it falls short of more expensive mini LEDs, and in overall HDR impact is far behind even some mid-range OLEDs.
The TCL QM6K has somewhat disappointing brightness for a Mini LED.
Strangely the QM6K is less bright than even many OLEDs in real HDR content.
The QM6K is bright enough for most viewing conditions, but is not competitive with more expensive alternatives in bright viewing areas. Specifically in real world content, I was disappointed with its lack of brightness as it was unable to reach 1000nits which is necessary for showing most HDR content as intended.
If you’re looking for a TV to fight bright sunlight, I would suggest eyeing a more expensive QM8K, though it will likely satisfy most buyers.
Contrast has always been a struggle for many Mini LEDs compared to OLED, but this year with TCL’s new 23 bit backlight controller even the more affordable QM6K has made a massive strides to improve this.
The TCL QM6K shows a massive improvement in contrast tests.
Surprisingly the QM6K even out performs last year‘s QM7 which was a far more expensive TV. In fact, even though the charts don’t show it, it can even at times look better than the QM7K in my testing.
That said, micro contrast can still be a challenge.
TCL QM6K Blooming Issues.
The most apparent issue on the QM6K is blooming that can occur with a black background. When counting local dimming zones I noticed the TV struggled to contain the light within the small square unlike an OLED. This could be an issue if you’re watching a lot of films in a dark theater room with subtitles on where you will likely notice blooming.
That said, the overall performance, considering the price, was so shockingly good that in many cases, I felt it was actually Not only a better deal, but actually an overall better TV than other much more expensive options.
Hats off to the TCL engineers.
One thing that plays a big role in the clarity of TVs is the coating. Unfortunately, the QM6K sticks with a more affordable, semi glass finish rather than the better looking and more clear glossy coating on the QM7K.
TCL QM6K semi-gloss coating & reflection handling.
What this means is, you will still get all the same reflections you would expect on a full glossy coating, however you don’t quite get the full clarity. Now you will still get improved clarity versus a full Matt coating, but it could be improved.
That said for most buyers this will be an unnoticeable issue and certainly unacceptable compromise for this excellent price point.
Like all glossy coatings you will see direct reflections with this display, and thanks to the anti reflective treatment you may even get rainbow-like streaks across the screen.
Also the panel in use does not have a regular RGB layout, so some text may be slightly less crisp than other IPS-based RGB panels.
TCL 65QM7K BGR subpixel layout.
Now I didn’t get a chance to photograph the sub pixels on this model, but you should see the same blue green red layout that is seen on the QM7K as they share the same panel.
This means you will also get a small hit to the clarity of text, but again this is unlikely to be noticeable by the vast majority of buyers and is a very minor criticism.
I was very happy to see that the QM7K moved from a semi gloss to a full glassy coating and hopefully next year TCL can do the same for the QM6K.
Most Movies and TV shows are still shot in 24 or 30FPS. This means modern TVs will not be taking full advantage of their 120Hz+ panels. Some prefer the original creators intent, but for those who would like to fix judder or add motion clarity to your favorite content, judder control performance is crucial.
TCL QM6K judder control on vs off.
On my unit the TCL QM6K actually did an excellent job of reducing judder without introducing too many motion, artifacts or other issues. I did notice some problems, especially on a dejudder setting of 10 where the processor is significantly strained but my unit actually even outperformed the QM7K in this regard.
Overall, considering the price point, the QM6K once again punches well above its weight here.
The TCL QM6K is certainly a capable gaming display, but it doesn’t hold a candle to OLED. This is the reality of Mini LED vs OLED as the response times are much slower.
Motion Performance is mediocre for Mini LED.
The QM6K does a mediocre job for a Mini LED in motion. It still has some trailing leading to more blurry images in motion than OLED, and definitely performed worse than the QM7K which had little noticeable trailing in motion by comparison.
Additionally, the QM6K not only supports 120 Hz for consoles, but it can even be switched into a 144 Hz mode if you wanna hook it up to a PC. This is crucial for PC gamers looking for the fastest response times and lowest latencies.
34ms of total system latency.
Unfortunately the input lag is a bit behind some of the best OLED and Mini LED TVs, but it is certainly good enough for gaming and enjoying movies.
Ultimately the QM6K has acceptable gaming performance. That said if you're after the best gaming display I would point you towards an OLED.
Viewing angles are a big deal this year, and the QM6K does a pretty decent job considering it’s positioning, but still has some issues.
QM6K viewing angle issues.
When viewing from a significant angle, there is significant desaturation as well as loss of brightness and color. This makes the QM6K not my first pick for theater rooms with seats that may be at something crazy like a 90° angle, but for most viewing conditions, this is unlikely to be a significant issue.
It seemed like to me that the QM6K was perhaps marginally better in terms of viewing angles versus last year‘s QM7 and perhaps maybe due to luck marginally worse than my QM7K which also still had issues making it acceptable, but I’d like to see TCL continue to improve in this area.
Surprisingly in terms of sound this TV actually performed far better than I expected. In fact, it even did better than my QM7K which should hopefully improve with firmer update soon, but in the current state, yes my QM6K actually had better audio.
Don’t get me wrong it didn’t blow me away, but the timbre was fairly solid and the body in base had decent quality as well. I did notice some distortion at higher volume levels, but I think most buyers will find it good enough.
That said, as always, I would recommend some sort of sound system to pair with it to get the most out of your purchase.
One thing TCL has been nailing each year is the OS. Personally, I’m a big fan of Google OS; which is what they used here, and once again it works flawlessly. Every TCL TV I have used as far as I can recall zips through the menu at a speed even the most expensive displays often can’t match.
Buyers will be very happy with the responsiveness and features offered by the QM6K.
At such a great price the QM6K is going to be an extremely tempting offer in 2025. If I had $1,000 and was looking at buying a large TV this would be at the top of my list.
TCL 65QM6K HDR Impact.
It brings big improvements in almost all areas over the last generation, most noticeably in far better contrast making it a much better display overall. In fact, the QM6K is closer to last year's QM8 in many ways, which was a far more expensive TV. In fact, if you were to place a 2025 QM6K side by side with a 2024 QM8, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference in many situations. An impressive feat to be sure.
I was especially impressed by the major advancements TCL made in the contrast which will make this TV far more suitable for many buyers vs last year’s models, as that was a major point of contention in 2024 for TCL’s more affordable TVs.
That said it’s not without its issues. First off, despite the improvements to viewing angles it still remains an issue. Additionally in dark theater rooms this TV is likely to have noticeable blooming making it more suitable for brighter rooms where this is unnoticeable. Finally, the latency and input lag just can’t measure up to the best OLEDs which could be an issue for some games.
Ultimately despite those issues, especially at larger sizes like 85” I think the TCL QM6K is likely going to be the best TV money can buy and its price range is a shockingly good offer from TCL. In fact, I think all manufacturers will have a very hard time competing around this price point and I’m going to say right now that.
The 2025 TCL QM6K right now is my choice for the best value TV in 2025 and I highly recommend it to buyers who are price conscious and trying to get the best bang for their buck.
Picture: 3.5/5
Value: 5/5
Total: 4.25/5
