TCL 98C7K

A huge, brilliant and surprisingly affordable slice of home cinema heaven

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While TCL and fellow China-based brand Hisense aren't the only companies selling king-sized TVs, they are certainly working harder than their rivals to make the supersized screen market their own.

This is an all-out attack in terms of both the sheer range of TV whoppers these brands are producing, and the increasingly aggressive prices they are attaching to these potential home cinema heroes. With the 98C7K, though, TCL takes the massive-TV world to a whole new bang for your buck level.

A radically revamped panel design and a sound system crafted in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, all delivered at little extra cost over previous models, make this one of the most enjoyable TVs we have ever spent time with.

Getting any sort of 98in screen for as little as £2399 would be impressive; but, as we will see, the TCL 98C7K is far more than just 'A.N. Other' king-sized TV.

Delivering such huge pictures for so little money potentially represents a problem for the home-entertainment projection market. Especially as the 98C7K delivers high dynamic range pictures with a level of brightness and colour volume that projectors can only dream of.

Massive attack

To a large (literally) extent, the only thing you really notice about the 98C7K's design is how massive its screen is. It fills both your wall and your field of view, and so dominates the impressively slender frame around it and surprisingly slender blade-style feet beneath it (if you're not wall-hanging it) that you barely notice either of them. Basically, this TV is all picture - and that's fine by us.

It's reasonably trim around the back for such a huge TV, too, making it a compelling wall-hanging option. Provided you have a wall capable of supporting its 55kg weight, of course.