TCL C8K

TCL launches its 2025 range with a high-end bang (& Olufsen)

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Having established itself as a serious - but also great value - player in the TV world over the past couple of years, TCL seems to have decided the time is right to go full kitchen sink with its 2025 range.

The brand's new premium C8K range is stuffed to bursting point with new technology, including a new AI-powered processor and an all-new LCD panel design that brings with it all manner of fancy-sounding innovations - including a so-called Halo Control system that sounds about as far up our street as an LCD screen technology could.

The £1599 launch price tag is pretty aggressive for a TV that packs such a serious high-tech punch. While it comfortably undercuts 2025's similarly sized OLED TVs, though, it still finds itself up against some pretty stiff competition this year, not least from Sony's 65in Bravia 7 and LG's 65QNED93.

The C8K is both more attractive and better built than its TCL predecessors. The new 'ZeroBorder' frame around the screen really has been trimmed back to the point where it's one of the slimmest around, and there is practically no black border to be seen inside the screen area.

The near-uniform flatness of the rear panel together with a crosshatch pattern etched into it and neatly recessed connection bays and cable runs give the 65C8K true 360-degree design appeal, too, if you like that sort of thing. The premium feel is wrapped up by the gleaming silver brushed-metal finish that is applied to both the plate-style stand and the TV's slender side panels.

Add a sharply cut and metal-finished remote control to the package, and you've got a TV that manages to look and feel as though it is worth every penny of its asking price. And then some.

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