The TCL C835 Mini-LED TV is the premium mini-LED providing from TCL. Available in 55/65/75” for $1999/2999/3999, it affords nice colors, efficiency, and sound in comparison with its QLED and QUHD cousins.
Let’s begin with the tech. Mini-LED is brighter and has a denser backlight system behind an LCD panel. Tens of 1000’s of mini-LEDs (precise numbers not revealed, nevertheless it has 240/288/360 controllable dimming zones) shine by means of a Quantum Dot (QLED) color enhancement layer after which by means of an LCD TV panel.
The result’s an order of magnitude extra brightness than a Full-Array LED backlight (FALD) or Edge-lit backlight LCD. The QLED layer amps up the colors, and the LCD layer controls sub-miniature gates that allow the sunshine by means of. You can be taught extra Confused about TV tech? That’s simply what they need! (information).
Many commercials and publications declare mini-LED is an OLED killer. That is simply advertising garbage. 4K OLED has 8,294,400 self-emissive pixels (gentle bulbs) that may individually activate or off, producing true black and true white. Until the brand new LG evo panels (within the 2022 C2 and G2 ranges), mini-LED had the brightness benefit suited for massive open plan Aussie lounge rooms. But OLED had the benefit in every thing else.
In order of picture high quality
OLED is the undisputed king for TV/Movies and has Dolby Vision/IQ.Mini-LED/QD/LCD is brilliant and vibrant and decodes Dolby Vision. Quantum Dot provides good, saturated colors however is lower than OLED HDR capabilities.Full Backlit Array Local Dimming (FALD) LCD provides you with a greater picture than Edge-Lit LCD. The costlier ones could assist Dolby Vision however usually tend to assist HDR/10/+.Edge-Lit is what 90% of customers purchase as a result of they’re low-cost.
And it’s most likely slightly unfair to TCL as a result of the final TV we reviewed is the LG C2 OLED evo TV – superior OLED at a extra reasonably priced value (assessment). While mini-LED is the perfect LCD TV know-how, there’s a seen distinction facet-by-facet. TCL is sweet, superb, however LG C2 is great.
But then it’s all about bang for buck. If you’ll be able to’t afford OLED, that is an eminently watchable substitute.
Australian assessment: TCL C835 Mini-LED TV (specs primarily based on 55” mannequin as examined)
WebsiteProduct Page and ManualPrice55/65/75” for $1999/2999/3999FromHarvey Norman, JB-Hi Fi, Good Guys, Bing LeeWarranty3-years ACLCountry of originChinaCompanyTCL Technology (initially an abbreviation for Telephone Communication Limited) is a Chinese electronics firm headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. It designs, develops, manufactures, and sells shopper merchandise, together with tv units, cellphones, air conditioners, washing machines, fridges, and small electrical home equipment.MoreCyberShack TCL information and critiques
We use Fail (beneath expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the category chief) in opposition to lots of the gadgets beneath. We sometimes give a Pass ‘+’ score to indicate it’s good however doesn’t fairly make it to Exceed.
First impression – The TCL C835 Mini-LED TV is effectively made – Exceed
Mini-LED is a backlight sort, so the panel is barely thicker (30mm) to accommodate that. It has very slender high and facet bezels and a strong black aluminium edge. The rear is effectively-completed with energy on the left and all ports on the fitting. The centre pedestal stand is peak-adjustable to accommodate bigger sound bars (no troublesome facet legs). An influence button is effectively hidden and might flip it on/off and produce up a fundamental on-display begin menu.
Its IR/Bluetooth distant management is logical and has devoted buttons for Netflix, Stan, Prime Video, Disney+, YouTube and TCL Channel. It isn’t backlit.
Setup – Google/Android TV 11 – Exceed
Google/Android 11 TV is straightforward to make use of. Log in by way of your Gmail account, arrange Wi-Fi (or ethernet), and conform to signal your privateness away (all TV manufacturers now wish to know every thing). TCL additionally needs you to register for TCL added-worth options, and you’ll’t keep away from it. If you need privateness, arrange a junk Gmail account.
We gained’t go into Android TV 11 besides to say that it has all Australian digital free-to-air channels and an unlimited array of apps. It additionally makes use of Google Assistant to permit for Google Home and voice management. A pleasant characteristic is Chromecast assist, however PCs might want to use a Miracast dongle.
A devoted TCL channel contains dwell channels plus tons of of on-demand reveals.
Tests
From July 2022 we’ve got invested in testing gear that enables us to direct display seize as a substitute of photographing the display. The result’s a extra correct illustration of the check outcomes.
The TV performs inside accepted Dolby Vision parameters reaching 1023 nits and can show blacks as little as .4nit
Image high quality – Vivid mode Exceed
Out-of-the-field, its colors are slightly off – washed-out and never pure. There are pre-units for Vivid, Low Power, Smart HDR, Sports, Movie, Game, and PC, and it defaulted to Low Power mode. This is OK at evening, however you wish to choose Vivid (highest energy mode) for regular daylight viewing. Our exams use this.
It reproduces 1.07 billion 10-bit colors. Our exams’ main colors, purple, inexperienced, and blue (RGB), have been 100% correct. Secondary and tertiary colors (like pores and skin tones) have been largely correct. It has about 93% DCI-P3 gamut assist on Vivid/Smart HDR settings.
Subjectively the LG C2 OLED colors are extra saturated with out being overly vivid, however not appreciably so till you see these facet-by-facet.
For the value these colors are nearly as good because it will get.
Contrast – Pass+
The distinction is 6000:1 – the distinction between its whitest white and blackest black. By comparability, OLEDs are infinite ∞:1, and most LCD TVs are round 1000 to 1500:1 as you by no means see pure black (solely OLED can flip every pixel on/off).
Excellent distinction
So, that is fairly good, and you’ll see the 1% increments within the check. While it doesn’t produce inky blacks like OLED, it’s method forward of some other current QLED/UHD TV we’ve got examined.
Brightness – Pass+
Out-of-the-field, its brightness was not good. There are pre-units for Off/ECO/Brightness+, and like the colors, you must go from Eco (default) to Brightness+ (at the very least in a brilliant room). Our exams use this.
The panel is rated at 500 nits most brightness over 100% of the panel. Our exams affirm that it reaches between 400-500nits, so it could actually simply show SDR (customary dynamic vary) free-to-air and FHD streaming.
The subsequent step is HDR10, which wants at the very least 1000 nits in a small portion of the display. This TV passes that check in a 20% window.
Dolby Vision IQ (adjusts brightness and gamma to ambient gentle ranges) could be as much as 10,000 nits (however no TV does this). On the Brightness+ setting, it could actually attain 1500 nits in a tiny a part of the display, however that’s the place a darkened room could make it look significantly better. Our exams present it could actually maintain 1000 nits in a 2% window.
1000 nits is fairly effectively the utmost for basic viewing
HDR/10/+/HLG – Pass+
As it could actually do Dolby Vision, it could actually simply do the subset of HDR as much as HDR10+. We discovered the colors, particulars in highlights and shadows and tones pleasing, though not fairly to OLED requirements.
Note the outgassing on the entrance of the meteor
Note the outgassing that you simply don’t see on SDR or HDR
The centre strip is Dolby Vison in comparison with SDR
Colours are barely washed out however the element in highlights and shadows are wonderful.
Motion Smoothing – Pass
While it claims to have as much as 200 clear movement charges (that’s not Hz), the panel is native 100Hz. It provides BFI (black body insertion) between precise frames. We observed some tearing above 100fps (Hz), and the judder check reveals the picture breaking apart. Don’t fear – you can not see that along with your eyes.
While your eyes can not see the sword’s juddery flame a it’s there. We discovered it was higher to show movement smoothing off in motion pictures
Off-angle viewing – Pass(ready)
Unlike OLED, the place you will get near a 180° angle to the display, this VA LCD panel tends to clean out colors and particulars previous about 135°. All this implies is that you must be slightly extra entrance-on in viewing than off to the facet.
Reflectivity – Pass
The display is sort of reflective, significantly for off-angle viewing. It is greatest to have affordable ambient gentle management (curtains) to regulate the sunshine from the perimeters and rear of the viewing place.
This is a strong black display that reveals the reflectivity through the day. Ambient gentle management behind your sitting place is required.
Sharpness – Pass+
The textual content is crisp. But it fails the Moire check, the place transferring white textual content is overlaid on black textual content with a good diploma of tearing because it passes over the gaps between the dimming zones. This isn’t a vital check however reveals that gentle management on mini-LED can not match OLED.
Upscale – Pass+
All video content material is intelligently upscaled to 4K. It makes use of a deep studying AI that recognises a variety of objects and helps to foretell what the body ought to be. We examined from 480 to 10-80p content material, and it was wonderful.
Connectivity – Pass+
Wi-Fi 6 AX twin-band (wants a Wi-Fi 6 AX full-duplex router, or it reverts to half-duplex Wi-Fi 5 AC) or Gigabit ethernetBluetooth 5.2 (newest)HDMI 2.1 eARC 2.0 4K@60Hz – not eh full HDMI 2.1 implementation, e.g., not 120Hz/VRR/ALLM/QMS, so be sure you don’t plug different gadgets right into a soundbar1 x HDMI 2.1 4K@144Hz 48GbpsHDMI 2.1 4K@120HzHDMI 1.4b 4K@60Hz2 x USB-A 2.0 5V/.5A/2.5W (solely for playback – can’t be used for recording)AV outOptical audio out3.5mm HeadphoneRF antenna for a single tuner
While HDMI 2.1 eARC 4K@60Hz is ample to move by means of uncompressed Dolby Atmos to the soundbar, it’s not sufficient to move Dolby Vision as much as the TV. Plug any exterior content material gadgets straight into the TV.
We are slightly dissatisfied that whereas it has 4 HDMI ports, solely two are the complete implementations of the two.1 requirements.
If you solely have Wi-Fi 5 AC (or earlier), you might get 4K streaming points. It works fantastically on a Wi-Fi 6 AX router.
The USB-A ports are solely 2.5W, which is sufficient for keyboard/trackpad and flash drives however too low for exterior SSD drives or Google/Fire TV dongles.
Gamers – Pass
Having 1 x HDMI 2.1 4K@144Hz (this solely works at 144Hz on PCs – not video games consoles) and 1 x HDMI 2.1 4K@120Hz (consoles) ports means you’ll be able to direct join Xbox X and PlayStation 5 consoles. We didn’t check this, however these ports assist ALLM, VRR, and FreeSync premium. It doesn’t assist HGiG.
The panel is rated for as much as 144Hz (solely with a current PC), however it’s a 100Hz panel that tends to judder when pushed tougher.
The panel has a 6.5m2 G-t-G response time in Game Mode (Game Bar). You ought to be capable of play cloud video games by way of a BT-linked controller.
Voice management – Pass+
It can assist Google Assistant (devoted mic button on the distant). Alexa and Siri (HomePackage/Airplay 2) require an exterior smartphone or speaker.
Sound – Pass(ready)
We had such excessive hopes for this 2.1 40W (2x10W +1 x 20W) Onkyo tuned system. Regrettably, Onkyo has not too long ago filed for chapter after being delisted from the Tokyo inventory change. This doesn’t have an effect on the standard; the title will dwell on licensed to Sharp (Foxconn) and Voxx.
To be blunt, the sound out of the field isn’t good. Its pre-units embrace Standard/Movie/Music/Voice/Game/Sports/Dynamic and a bass enhancer has On/Low/Middle/High pre-units. I actually can’t advocate any of the pre-units as a result of, in our exams, they made little distinction. For instance, the Voice pre-set ought to recess bass, emphasise 1-4kHz mid, and recess treble – solely it doesn’t. For most use, Dynamic is your best option.
The most quantity is a good 84dB. As anticipated from two down-fixing TV audio system, the sound stage from a 2.1 system could be very entrance and ahead-targeted. The Sub-woofer factors backwards, and that will be a difficulty if wall-mounted.
It will decode PCM mono-5.0 and Dolby Digital codecs (as much as 5.1), DTS codecs and Dolby Atmos. Invariably these all come out as 3.1.
Now to Dolby Atmos
All this implies is when the TV encounters Dolby Vision and Atmos (DA) metadata, it decodes the 128 channels to the TV’s three channels. You don’t get 3D spatial peak nor encompass – only a barely wider sound stage. If you need the complete DA impact, you want a DA soundbar. We will probably be testing the TCL 8132 3.1.2 DA soundbar individually, however trace; you want a soundbar to get pleasure from clear and immersive sound from this TV.
Read How to purchase a soundbar that meets your wants? (information) and Five suggestions for higher TV sound – Dolby Atmos for newbies (information)
With all of the pre-units adjusted correctly (we often check on default settings), bass begins at about 50Hz and builds very slowly as much as 300hz (excessive-mid) earlier than flattening to 6kHz (then a dip to keep away from harshness) however the mid-and-higher-treble drops off pretty rapidly.
Gold line: Shows mid-bass beginning at 50Hz however after 1khz issues get slightly uneven.
In addition, frequencies from 1khz upwards are considerably uneven, indicating the speaker has to clip or compress the sound, and there’s distortion. The result’s that bass is recessed (no ‘oomph’), mid is flat, however slightly uneven (muddy) and treble appears boring. There could be very little ‘directionality’ to the sound.
It is extra an Analytical signature (bass/mid recessed; treble boosted) – crisp however not nice for most music. You can learn extra about sound and the way we check How to inform if in case you have good music (a sound signature is the important thing – information.
Mounting – Exceed
It makes use of a regular VESA 400x 400 with M6 thread, so you’ll be able to select from an unlimited vary of third-get together mounts.
The desktop pedestal mount could be very effectively designed and permits for a reasonable peak adjustment to accommodate bigger soundbars.
The unit is 1446.6 (W) x 827.2 (H) x 68.5/319mm (D) x 23/26kg with out/with the stand.
Power – Pass
It has a 3-star score. We measured a mean of 100W and as much as 250W at occasions with Dolby Vision content material. At 30 cents per kWh, it’s only some cents per hour. In standby, it attracts .5W.
CyberShack’s view – Is the TCL C835 Mini-LED TV value it? Yes
After finishing a assessment, we examine different critiques to see if we’ve got missed something or are at odds with their findings. We are at odds with some vital outcomes that look like untested and regurgitated from press releases or different much less-knowledgeable critiques. We should be goal and use a broad vary of check software program and reference pictures.
At odds, are references to mesmerising sound (it’s not), brightness ranges of 1500 nits (barely if in any respect), pre-set defaults out of the field are good (not for brilliant Aussie lounges), and raves in regards to the 144Hz display (it 100Hz and solely 144Hz with noticeable tearing when used with a current, highly effective PC).
In accord with our findings, movement smoothing isn’t nice (flip it off); it doesn’t measure as much as OLED and is great worth.
I’ve seen a number of mini-LED manufacturers and fashions now, and the quick reply is that they’ve the perfect picture/brightness that any QLED/LCD-primarily based TV can produce. But facet-by-facet, the LG C2 OLED is healthier – its colors are genuine, its blacks inky, it’s now brilliant sufficient for Aussie lounge rooms, and the picture depth is extra immersive.
2022 Competition (costs are RRP and ignore 2021 run-out inventory)
The reply comes down to cost. Given that the TCL 65” RRP is $2999, and the LG C2 OLED is $4499 (not an apple with apple comparability), the reply is a convincing win to TCL if that’s all you wish to spend. Of course, RRP is a rubbery determine, and the LG is on particular (as we write) for $3490, so the $500 further is cash effectively spent.
LG has the mini-LED QNED80 and QNED85 fashions I noticed at a current launch LG 2022 TV vary – good, higher, greatest and superlative. The 65” is $2576/3376 respectively, and the QNED85 has higher specs than the TCL C835 Mini-LED TV.
Hisense has the U9G mini-LED sequence in 65/75” for $2499/3499. I reviewed the 2020 earlier mannequin, which was usually a very good performer. The 2022 sequence has 1000+ native dimming zones in comparison with 288 for the TCL C835 Mini-LED TV – that makes little distinction visually. The largest disadvantage is that the Hisense’s HDMI ports solely assist 4K@60Hz, so players is not going to have an interest. Hisense Australian 2022 TV vary – large!
Sony has the X95K mini-LED (not right here but and no value), however its closest match is the LG QN85.
Samsung has mini-LED, however because it doesn’t assist Dolby Vision, there isn’t any direct comparability.
TCL C835 Mini-LED TV, TCL C835 Mini-LED TV
TCL C835 Mini-LED TV
55/65/75” for $1999/2999/3999
Pros
Great picture and brightness (after you alter default pre-units)
Great worth for cash
Well-made and a 3-12 months guarantee
Cons
Default settings will not be meant for brilliant Aussie lounge rooms
In addition to Google Log-in, TCL needs your particulars
Add a soundbar for Dolby Atmos and much better total sound
https://cybershack.com.au/reviews/tcl-c835-mini-led-tv-bang-for-buck-review/
