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TCL ruled the most affordable TV in 2025.
The 65-inch C8K is the best premium TV we’ve seen from the brand so far, and the really cheap 50-inch C6KS took home the What Hi-Fi? An award to thank for its excellent image quality and low price.
Price
TCL has not yet shared pricing details for the C7L, but promises that it is coming soon. As long as it can get a price in line with the C7K, we’ll be happy.
We reviewed the 65-inch version of that TV for £899 earlier; however, at the time of writing, it can be had for just £749. That’s an impressive amount for a TV of this size and capability, so we hope TCL is just as aggressive with this next one.
Design
As you’ll see from our photos, TCL chose to display the C7L by mounting it on a wall. That makes judging build quality and design difficult.
We have seen photos of the TCL C7L with its stand attached, however, and it looks almost identical to the C7K.
That means we can expect a centrally placed kickstand and thin bezels around the screen; that said, the images we’ve seen suggest that this TV may be smaller than its predecessor.
To be honest, the build wasn’t the highlight of last year’s C7K. It’s a chunky and plasticky TV, however (as we said in our full review), what’s to be expected of a “premium TV priced at roughly mid-range”.
Features
This is where things get interesting.
TCL is introducing the next generation of its Quantum Dot Mini LED panel technology this year, and it sounds like the C7L will be among a few models (including the C8L and X11L) to get the big power upgrade.
The new panel technology is called Super Quantum Dot Mini LED (or SQD-Mini LED for short), and it includes several significant image improvements.
TCL highlights its new Deep Color System, which it says will help reduce color bleeding between bright and dark areas, so colors remain natural and true in scenes with challenging contrast.
In addition, TCL claims there has been a 33 percent improvement in color gamut performance and a 69 percent improvement in color dot accuracy, which should result in richer, more true-to-life colors and improved sharpness and accuracy, respectively.
On top of this, TCL is touting improved brightness control as part of its new SQD-Mini LED panels. It shines with its visibility, and says it aims to “effectively reduce” the presence of the halo effect with its All-Domain Halo control system.
Honestly, we’re not expecting an OLED-level experience here, but TCL promises a “more natural and immersive” experience when it comes down to it. i A very challenging obstacle for most TVs with backlight.
Speaking of backlighting, TCL has been coming up big with the C7L’s number of dimmed areas and higher brightness figures.
The 55-inch model will reportedly have 800 precise dimming points, the 65-inch version will have 1152 ultra-dimming points, the 75-inch model will have 1352 dimming points, the 85-inch version will have 1624, and the 98-inch screen size will shrink to 215 inch screen dimpress.
In terms of brightness, TCL says the 55-inch model will output 2700 nits, while other models (65- to 98-inch) will feature a maximum brightness of 3000 nits. For reference, the 65-inch C7K we tested has a claimed maximum brightness of 2600 nits.
TCL also coats the C7L with its HVA 2.0 Pro Panel technology, which should support viewing angles of up to 178 degrees, and significantly reduce glare, even in bright areas (making this, on paper, good for daytime living room viewing).
As with its existing lineup, the C7L continues the company’s HDR agnostic approach. This means it supports Dolby Vision (with Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Vision Gaming), HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG. Sound is also covered thanks to Dolby Atmos support, and this TV is among the few selected to support Dolby Atmos FlexConnect.
We’ll quickly touch on the built-in audio, too. TCL continues its relationship with Danish hi-fi brand Bang & Olufsen, and this TV (like its predecessor) sports a sound system tuned by B&O.
TCL didn’t go into much detail about the driver configuration or power output, but we expect the same thing with the C7K’s sound system.
Players should also feel at home in the C7L.
The TV sports a native 144Hz refresh rate with VRR, although TCL’s Game Accelerator feature will reportedly let you double the refresh rate to 288Hz (at Full HD resolution rather than 4K), while keeping VRR.
TCL also claims to reduce latency in this new model for improved response time, and ALLM is also supported.
Finally, the C7L will support Google TV with multiple streaming apps. Based on our experience with the C7K, we expect it to carry a version that supports all UK terrestrial broadcast platforms, as well as an ever-expanding list of international streaming apps.
Image quality
As is the case with many of the TVs we see at these production events, the C7L features a looping roll of demo content that isn’t entirely representative of real-world content.
Furthermore, it looked like the C7L was missing one of its truest picture modes, but that’s to be expected, as TCL wanted to showcase the new brightness and color of this TV to its fullest.
This seems to have worked, as the C7L is placed on a wall with several other TVs, yet it stands out among the group. This is due to the rich, vibrant colors displayed by the set, which is accompanied by improved lighting.
Although this created oversaturated colors – especially in the case of some neon foliage – we’re sure we can adjust these colors back to their natural state by switching to Filming Mode.
One of the demo images just showed the white TCL logo on a black background, and while it’s still early days, we were impressed by how much black people wanted a backlit TV.
The control of the bloom around the TCL logo was also impressive: although there was undoubtedly a white light around the company logo, it appeared to be in the right place and controlled.
We’ll have to test the C7L further, in a more accurate picture mode, to further test the color accuracy, motion and detail levels in real-life content, but we can certainly see where TCL is going with this SQD-Mini LED panel technology from this brief introduction.
Sound quality
Disappointingly, TCL didn’t drop the C7L’s built-in audio system. Although it carries the name of a prominent hi-fi manufacturer, we didn’t hear it at the TCL event, so we’ll have to reserve judgment in this category until we do a full review later this year.
What we can say is that the C7K sounded great during our testing, so we hope TCL continues this trend. We praised its clean, detailed sound, which conveys a wide mid-range and impressive treble, covering the requirements of everyday listening.
However, we found it to be a little slow when it came to producing low-end frequencies, which left the sound uneven, especially when it came to dense cinematic tracks.
On our C7L wishlist is more bass, which should help round out an already impressive sound system.
Early decision
We’ll have to test the C7L at our dedicated home cinema test site to reach a final verdict, but this so far makes for another impressive mid-range TV.
With a souped-up panel and a long list of specs suitable for cinephiles and gamers alike, the C7L could be another compelling Mini LED TV – as long as TCL gets the prices right.
MORE:
Read ours TCL C8L hands-on review
And ours TCL X11L hands-on review
Also check out our selection of Mini LED TVs are the best