Katarzyna Petru
TCL loves to surprise again. Instead of fireworks at the Berlin IFA fair, the Chinese giant showcased its new televisions… at home, in its own backyard. And it immediately brought out the heaviest artillery: 10,000 nits of peak brightness, over 20,000 dimming zones, and the first-ever LCD with RGB LED. It sounds like a manifesto: “OLEDs, watch out and tremble.”
X11L – flagship with a cosmic specification
The new X11L is set to replace the X11K and starts off sounding like a show of strength. 98 inches, 10000 nits, 20736 zones, 100% Rec.2020. On top of that, it has a thickness of only 2 cm and an improved WHVA Pro panel, which is supposed to enhance viewing angles. The only thing is… there’s no RGB LED yet. The flagship uses “Super Quantum Dot” miniLED, while the real experiment with TCL's coloured backlighting has been left for the lower series.
RGB LED – the holy grail of LCD?
TCL has been playing with RGB LED since 2018. And finally, after seven years, we have the first results. The Q10M Ultra and Q9M series are hitting the market. The former aims high – up to 9000 nits, several thousand zones, full Rec.2020. The latter is more affordable but still impressive. Even the "budget" Q9M is said to offer up to 2000 nits and thousands of dimming zones.
Hopes and concerns after testing this year's models
However, we are already familiar with this scenario. This year, TCL also boasted record values, and when it came to testing, reality turned out to be less impressive. Sure, we saw progress – especially in contrast management – but problems still arose: aggressive dimming, halo effects, and sometimes overly dark scenes.
That's why when we hear about 10000 nits, instead of popping the champagne, we prefer to keep a healthy reserve. Because what's the point of a screen shining like a lighthouse if the algorithms can't keep up with lighting control?
Europe will wait for CES 2026
For now, the new products will only be available in China. It won’t be until CES 2026 in Las Vegas that we will see versions intended for Europe and the USA. Until then, we are left with the question: will TCL finally prove that LCD still has a future, or will we once again be talking about a cosmic specification that looks beautiful on paper but requires a lot more work in practice?
