TCL has demonstrated the capabilities of its latest Mini LED TV tech, with an incredibly bright display that exceeds 10,000nits in small window size tests. This should allow it to maintain great colour vibrancy in brightly-lit living rooms, while also making for dazzling HDR content, beating OLED and traditional LCDs to the punch.
Measured by Vincent Teoh from the HDTVTest review channel using a professional Jeti spectraval 1511 spectroradiometer, TCL’s 85in X11L TV was able to blast 10,931nits using a 3% test pattern. This puts it above the 10,000nits ceiling of the PQ HDR standard, far exceeding current HDR content mastering.
For reference, most HDR10 movies target around 1,000nits of brightness on small highlights, reaching 4,000nits on some Dolby Vision productions. In other words, this TV is so far ahead of its time that you’re unlikely to take full advantage of its capabilities any time soon. Speaking of which, the X11L supports Dolby Vision IQ, Dolby Vision, HDR 10+, HDR10, and HLG formats.
That’s a grand technical achievement, yet here I am reducing the brightness to 50% on my budget IPS LCD monitor that can’t exceed 400nits. With that TCL X11L TV at full capacity, you’d better not play FPS games, because a flashbang would probably dazzle you in real life.
While the brightness of this TV will be limited by the maximum mastering luminance of the content, its colour reproduction and contrast will be untethered. According to TCL, the X11L series covers 100% of the BT.2020 colour gamut, while delivering great contrast thanks to its 20,000+ dimming zones.
Yes, you heard that right, the X11L packs 11,520 zones on the 75in model, 14,400 zones on the 85in screen, and an impressive 20,736 zones on the flagship 98in TV. Note that the smaller 75in model is ‘only’ rated for 9,000nits peak. That said, considering that the 85in and 98in exceed their rated 10,000nits, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the 75in screen surpass its official specs too.
The X11L series uses TCL’s SQD (Super Quantum Dot) Mini LED technology, which the company says will remove colour shift, halo, and crosstalk. Combined with a sharp 4K resolution and a fast 144Hz refresh rate, this TV should be fine for movie watching, HDR gaming, and more. TCL even claims that this is the pinnacle of Mini LED TVs. Considering the 98in model’s $10,000 price tag, it had better be.
On top of that, you may need to brace yourself for your next electricity bill, as the largest model is rated to consume up to 780W. Thankfully, the average consumption is more reasonable, hovering between 128W and 186W, depending on the model.
Will this super-bright tech ever make it to the PC monitor market? Innovations in the TV world often trickle down to PC displays in good time, although you’d probably need a trip to the optician if you had your eyes up-close to a 10,000nits screen for spreadsheet work.
