I’ve just emerged from a session of testing the 98-inch version of TCL’s C7K Mini LED TV, and at the risk of spoiling the upcoming review, I’m shocked by how good it is.
More specifically, I’m shocked by how good it is when compared to most projectors – and I think the manufacturers of said projectors should be very worried about the C7K and the future it represents.
This is a TV with 2000 dimming zones, Quantum Dot colours, and a claimed peak brightness of 3000 nits.
Of course, specs mean nothing if the tuning and processing aren’t up to scratch, but having now looked at four of TCL’s new models (again, spoiler alerts for future reviews), it seems that the Chinese brand has really stepped on in these regards this year.
Without going into too much detail on the performance (I really will save that for the review), the giant C7K is brilliantly bright, punchy and vibrant, but in the right modes (Filmmaker or Movie, in my opinion), it is also considered, consistent, and cinematically natural.
The local dimming is excellent, too, as it has to be at this sort of size. 2000 dimming zones is a lot when you’re looking at a 65-inch TV, but much less so over a 98-inch display, yet the C7K’s ability to produce bright highlights over black backgrounds with nary a hint of blooming is really impressive.
Of course, we’re not quite talking OLED levels of blackness, contrast and control, but no ‘normal’ person can consider buying an OLED TV of this sort of size. You’re still looking at £20,000+ for one of those.
Ah, yes, I’ve not mentioned the price of the 98-inch TCL C7K yet, have I?
It’s £2400. No, I haven’t missed off a zero. And that’s the launch price – I expect it will be available for under £2000 before too long.
And that got me thinking about projectors. You can get some very good projectors for £2000 or so – the recently reviewed BenQ W2720i is an excellent example – but the giant TCL C7K can do things that projectors costing similar money can only dream of.
In fact, few, if any, projectors costing less than £10,000 can go as bright or as black as this TCL Mini LED TV, or reproduce as many colours. A £2400 projector simply won’t get close.
And then there are the extra features you get from a TV versus a projector, such as 4K/120Hz-compatible HDMI 2.1 sockets (of which the C7K has two) and a smart platform packed with a full array of properly optimised apps.
Dedicated projector fans will point to the almost indefinable cinematic quality that a projector has over a TV, and I do understand that.
But I would argue that TVs are getting better at replicating that with things such as Filmmaker Mode presets, while projectors – particularly those around the TCL TV’s price – are losing some of that cinematic essence in their pursuit of living room-friendly brightness and colour vibrancy.
It’s not all bad news for projectors, though. One big advantage they still have is size.
Most models can project an image as large as 120 inches – many can go much larger still – and if you have the space for a screen that big, a projector makes vastly more sense than a TV. Primarily because televisions larger than 115 inches are currently very rare and extremely expensive (there is a 115-inch version of the C7K, but it’s priced at £13,000).
It’s also true that those who only occasionally want a massive screen are better served by a ‘coffee table’ projector and rollable screen that can be put away when not in use.
But if you’ve got space for a screen of about 100 inches and you don’t mind it being a permanent fixture, I think that a 98-inch TV such as the C7K now makes an awful lot of sense.
And, in all likelihood, these super-large TVs are only going to get bigger and more affordable in the years to come. Great news for buyers of big TVs; potentially bad news for projector manufacturers.
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