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At home, I have a couple of 65-inch TVs. I thought that would be enough for quite some time. I live in a townhouse, so it’s not a particularly large place, but big enough. So, a 65-inch TV in the living room looks great. However, now that I have experienced TCL’s new 115QM89, which is their new 115-inch TV, I’m blown away and want one for myself. Do I need one? Of course not. No one needs a 115-inch TV; that doesn’t mean I don’t want one.
We’ve seen big TVs before. Many of you might remember Samsung’s The Wall, which debuted about six years ago at this same event. However, the biggest difference here is the fact that TCL is doing this with a single panel, versus Samsung, which uses smaller displays that connect to form really any shape you want at any size you want.
Another area where The Wall falls flat compared to the TCL QM89 is the peak brightness. Samsung tops out at 1,600 nits of peak brightness, while TCL goes all the way up to 5,000 nits. That is incredibly bright. And let me tell you, just from the demo that TCL showed on the TV (it was early software, so I didn’t get to see much else), even at that brightness, the blacks are still super inky. And that is thanks to what TCL is calling “QD Mini LED Ultra.” It has over 5,000 zones of dimming. In one demo, TCL showed the white TCL logo on a black screen, and it looked perfect, with no light bleed at all.
I sat there watching the demo, showing different videos and photos for a good 10 minutes because it was just so incredible. The pictures from my Sony camera definitely won’t do it justice.
Fun fact: In most of these pictures, I had to stand in the hallway to take in order to get the full TV in the frame. This was while using a 30mm lens. That’s just how large this TV is.
Are 100+ inch TVs the future?
This year at CES, we’re likely to see multiple TVs that are debuting with 100-inch or larger sizes. So, is it the future of TVs? Probably. As much as some other manufacturers are trying to push 8K, we just aren’t ready for 8K. There’s very little content available in 8K right now, which makes an 8K TV not really worth the price. However, a much larger TV screen, now that is something that everyone can get behind, especially those with home theaters.
I would really like to see someone compete with TCL on this particular TV and come out with a 115-inch TV with 5,000 nits of peak brightness. Some will argue it’s overkill, but when you’re watching something that’s dark, like Percy Jackson, you will definitely appreciate that much brighter picture.
