My Favorite Affordable QLED TV Is $320 Off Right Now
Mid-range TVs have gotten so good over the past few years that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify spending two to three times the price of an OLED TV. This was TCL’s goal as their business model is essentially to destroy OLED TVs by mastering QLED technology at a relatively low price. TCL’s QM7 is the best and most recent example of this that I’ve reviewed and tested . The 55-inch model costs just $479.99 (it was $799.99 at launch), which is amazing value for its current price. The 65- and 75-inch models are also much cheaper than their starting prices, according to price tracking tools .
When it comes to mid-range TVs, QLED technology is the best before moving to the much more expensive OLED side. QLED may never reach the picture quality that OLEDs can achieve, but for most people it can get close and be much cheaper. For now, the Hisense U7N and TCL’s QM7 are the best QLED TVs you can buy right now, and you can’t go wrong with either of them.
The keyword most QLED buyers are looking for is “dimming zones”: the more there are, the better deep blacks will look next to bright highlights. The QM7 has up to 1240 local dimming zones, which is much more than the 384 local dimming zones of the Hisense U7N. It can also be very bright, up to 2400 nits at maximum brightness. Of course, you get 4K resolution and HDR support (HDR ULTRA with Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG). As a gamer, I enjoyed the 120Hz refresh rate and 6 millisecond input lag with Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro making my Halo matches run smoothly.
Google TV OS is the icing on the cake as I love the ease of casting to my TV from my phone. The QM7 is my favorite non-OLED TV I’ve ever tried, and for its current price it’s the best non-OLED TV you can get.