Thank view for being a spend

If you want to gaze into a properly high-end telly, you're spoilt for choice... as long as your bank balance is up to it

- Chris Hall

What's the story?

Upstart brand TCL is out to shake up the status quo by pushing sets loaded with specs and really focusing on Mini-LED mastery. The C8K is a premium Mini-LED at the top of its range, and it's a real challenger to the OLEDs in this test.

Mini-LED is inherently brighter than OLED - great for HDR performance and brighter spaces - but doesn't have quite the same skill with rendering absolute black because it dims in zones.

This is a bit of a chunky telly but it has a high-end feel, with a pedestal stand that's finished in metal and looks pretty similar to that of the LG C5 on p69.

A 'ZeroBorder' design means the screen runs all the way to the edges without the usual black border... but it does still sit in a metal frame.

Is it any good?

The C8K is one of the best Mini-LED TVs you can buy. The huge brightness can cut through reflections so things remain visible, and I also love how bright and engaging the Google TV home screen is.

TCL has worked to beat the biggest problem with Mini-LED-blooming - and the results are spectacular, with precise highlights and shadows. Still, with HDR content the colour does look a little washed out. But that's easily countered by bumping up the colours, which is very much the story of this TV: with a wide range of controls, there's usually something you can do to tweak things.

The Beosound audio system is robust, but big soundtracks will still benefit from a soundbar; and while there's 144Hz support for gamers, only two of the HDMI sockets support the full 2.1 spec.

LG OLED65G5

What's the story?