8.6/ 10
SCORE
TCL QM6K
Pros
Excellent picture quality
Deep black levels
Affordable
Cons
Brightness and color saturation could be better
In the past year, TCL's QM851 became one of our favorite televisions by combining great picture quality, high brightness and a relatively affordable price. It's great so what is the company to do as an encore? It follows up with a TV that's half the retail price and yet almost as good.
As TVs like the TCL QM6 continue to advance picture quality, it makes me wonder whether we need an equivalent to Moore's Law. I'm just spitballing here, but instead of doubling the number of transistors in a CPU, it could be a doubling of LEDs in a backlight. Eggheads, look into it! Nevertheless, the QM6 is capable of an excellent performance for an affordable price and you can't ask for more than that. While I'm yet to review the equivalent Hisense or even Samsung for 2025, the TCL sets an early great precedent for picture quality below $1,000 (for a 65-inch).
As I write this, the QM6K is available for a few hundred off, which makes it more compelling against the aforementioned QM851 -- a TV that has also tumbled to a similar and competitive price. If you have to choose between them though, the QM851 is the better TV.
TCL QM6K series TV sizes
I performed hands-on testing of the picture quality of the 65-inch TCL QM6K but this review also applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All sizes have similar specifications and should exhibit similar picture quality.
The QM6K exists toward the budget end of the company's lineup, one that is capped by a 115-inch monster and the smaller members of the QM851. With the TCL lineup as it stands, the feature list increases as does the the number of mini LEDs in the backlight. For instance, the QM6K has a 500 zone mini LED backlight while the QM751 series has 1,500 and the QM851 has more than 5,000 in the largest sizes. The number of dimming zones is not the only indicator of potential picture quality for an LCD TV but it is an important one.
Design of the times
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Ty Pendlebury/CNET
With TVs, there's just not much left to design any more as they're largely all screen -- consisting of a big, black slab with a choice of either a single, pedestal stand or two legs.
Unlike the pedestal stand on the flagship QM851, which is height-adjustable to accommodate soundbars, the QM6K's legs attach directly to either side of the TV and are not adjustable. Most of the design work of any TV is at the rear and you only see when you plug stuff in. However, the TCL does have a FullView 360 Metal Bezel-less Design that is, despite the name, a small quarter-inch silver and black bezel.
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Ty Pendlebury/CNET
The included remote is a clunky-feeling bolt of plastic. While it won't win any design awards it does include several content shortcuts and a built-in microphone for Google Assistant. It's not worth upgrading to the 8 series just for the remote but that clicker is notably sleeker.
Google TV is the name of the game
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The TCL QM6K features the Google TV interface Ty Pendlebury/CNET
With Roku largely taking development of its TVs in-house, the majority of TCLs now feature Google's smart TV interface instead. It does a great job of surfacing content as well as apps, in a similar way to Fire TV, although you can set your own app shortcuts as well. Google TV is generally cleaner than Fire TV.
The latest version of Google TV will work with a Nest-based smart home and can display your cameras on the Home tab as well. Furthermore you can ask your Nest mini to play the latest episode of Agatha All Along, for example, and it will play on the TCL.
Using the TCL's Google TV interface I found loading individual apps to be relatively zippy. If you want more power or customization, you could add a separate set-top from Apple or Roku -- although most users won't need to.
If you long for the simplicity of Apple TV or Roku, there is an apps-only mode but, sadly, this is quite restrictive of all. It looks super simple with a main carousel image and rows of apps but search is weirdly disabled.
Features
The TCL QM6K is a QD-mini LED that sits in the middle of the company's lineup of TVs -- above it sit the 7 and 8 series while below it is the 4 series, which is also the only remaining Roku TV. The QM6 includes a number of features that should make it attractive to gamers and movie fans alike. The panel features a 120 refresh rate, promising fluid motion, while also including an Auto Game Mode (up to 144Hz VRR) with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro.
As a 4K set the QM6K is able to reproduce most high contrast formats including HDR10 and 10+, HLG, Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision IQ. It's worth noting here that Dolby Vision IQ uses a light sensor and can limit the maximum brightness of your set.
New for the 2025 model is Filmmaker mode and while I found it to be virtually identical to Movie mode, its addition is helpful for people familiar with the benefits of Filmmaker mode from other TVs.
The TV boasts TCL's Halo Control System processing, which is designed to eliminate backlight haloing and includes up to 500 dimming zones for enhanced contrast.
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Four HDMI including one eARC Ty Pendlebury/CNET
Connections include:
RF Input (NTSC, ATSC)
Ethernet
1 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0
4 HDMI (1 eARC)
Optical digital audio
1 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0
Roku Pro vs TCL QM6 vs. TCL QM8: Picture quality compared
I compared the $999 65-inch TCL QM6K against the price-comparable $798 65-inch Roku Pro Series as well as the flagship TCL, the QM8/QM851. I watched them side-by-side in bright and dark lighting. All TVs were set to their most accurate picture modes.
TV and movies
I watched a lot of material on the three TVs -- moody thrillers, canned picture quality demos and live streaming TV. While the TCL QM581 was in another league throughout testing -- with better brightness and contrast and the best color by far -- it was a close match between the QM6K and the Roku. While bright, saturated pictures looked better on the Roku Pro there is no one, apart from cartoon aficionados, who watches content like that exclusively. In the end, it was in watching movies where I was able to separate these two TVs. Movies, with their more muted color palettes and subtle shadow details, were where the TCL QM6K decisively pulled away from the Roku.
For instance, in the opening scene of It you watch Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) descend into the basement, and while the Roku was able to deliver some detail in the banister, the black levels were washed out. Even the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen were gray. Meanwhile, the QM6 kept the black background and looked the best here. Comparing the two TCL TVs on this scene, the screens looked similar, which is gratifying for buyers of the QM6K especially, although the specular highlights popped a little more with the more expensive TV.
In Oppenheimer the picture was again similar between the 8 and the 6 -- both had excellent contrast and shadow detail -- with the 8 adding extra pop. The one thing that impressed me here is that I never saw tell-tale blue black shadows (or haloing, for that matter) on the QM6K in this or any other dark scene, although I definitely have seen blue-blacks on the older QM8. Could it be the Moore's Law I talked about before?
Although the QM6 doesn't get as bright or as saturated as either the QM851 or the Roku it was the best for watching movies.
Gaming
While there's likely quite a few exceptions, if you're looking for a gaming TV it can pay to get one that's cheaper. The reason for this is that the more features and processing a TV does the more "lag" it introduces. Although gaming modes are supposed to turn all of this off, somehow it still sticks around. This is a way of saying that the Roku Pro and the TCL 8 Series demonstrated quicker responses than the QM6K. We're only talking a couple of milliseconds difference but the QM6's 14ms is closer to getting noticeable (which can happen at around 20ms).
I played a bunch of Xbox games on all three, including twitchy shooters, and didn't notice any appreciable difference in feel with the "laggier" TCL.
Bright lighting
Of the three TVs I assembled, the TCL QM6K was the most reflective when viewed with the lights on, although it was only a little behind the other TCL. The Roku managed to not only look a little bit brighter and more saturated than the 6 series but also less reflective with overhead lights on -- it has the most diffuse surface.
If you don't want to use Dolby Vision IQ it's worth noting that you can't access the control via the Settings button. Instead you need to press the three-striped Burger button to bring up a second menu and turn off Adaptive Brightness.
Settings and picture mode notes
Whether in HDR or SDR it was Movie mode that had the most accurate settings when testing the TCL QM6, although some of the gray error was only in the "average" range. The TCL QM851 had similar dips and the family resemblance continues.
In measurements, the Roku Pro showed a much higher peak brightness than the TCL QM6K -- 1320 vs only 655 in HDR, and while there was an appreciable difference in normal program material it didn't seem like it was quite as marked. The TCL seemed 80% as bright as the Roku.
Geek box for the TCL QM6K
Test Result
Black luminance (0%) 0.001
Peak white luminance (SDR) 644
Avg. gamma (10-100%) 2.23
Avg. grayscale error (10-100%) 3.07
Dark gray error (30%) 2.01
Bright gray error (80%) 4.43
Avg. color checker error 2.27
Avg. saturation sweeps error 1.99
Avg. color error 2.23
1080p/24 Cadence (IAL) Pass
Input lag (Game mode) 13.77
HDR10
Black luminance (0%) 0.000
Peak white luminance (10% win) 655
Gamut % UHDA/P3 (CIE 1976) 94.45
ColorMatch HDR error 6.33
Avg. color checker error 4.16
Input lag (Game mode, 4K HDR) 13.30
Check out how we test TVs for more details on the Geek box and our TV testing methodology.
Portrait Displays Calman calibration software was used in this review.