TCL's 98-Inch Mini-LED TV Offers Immersive Experience Despite Flaws
Translated & summarized from Ynet by baba
The TCL 98C8L 98-inch Mini-LED television offers an immersive viewing experience with impressive picture quality, deep blacks, and vibrant colors, enhanced by its high brightness. While it excels in cinematic and gaming applications, potential buyers should consider its limited viewing angles, reflection issues, and the impact of 4K resolution on lower-quality content. The TV also exhibits some motion blur during gaming, and its integrated sound system, despite a Bang & Olufsen collaboration, is only adequate. Priced at approximately 15,000 shekels in Israel, it targets consumers willing to pay a premium for superior image technology.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- The TCL 98C8L's 98-inch Mini-LED display provides an immersive cinematic and gaming experience.
- Its Mini-LED technology delivers impressive contrast, deep blacks, and vibrant colors with high brightness.
- The TV's 4K resolution spread over a large screen may reduce sharpness on lower-quality content.
- Compromises include limited viewing angles, reflection issues, and some motion blur during gaming.
- Priced around 15,000 shekels, it's a premium option for those prioritizing image quality.
- The integrated Bang & Olufsen sound system is adequate but may require an external upgrade.
The TCL 98C8L television, with its massive 98-inch screen, fundamentally alters the viewing experience, making movies more cinematic and games more immersive. While initially seeming excessive, the sheer size quickly becomes natural, making smaller screens feel inadequate. The television combines its expansive display with TCL's SQD-Mini LED technology, which uses numerous small LEDs divided into separate lighting zones for precise control of bright and dark areas. This results in impressive contrast, deep blacks, and rich colors, particularly noticeable in dark scenes where light sources are clearly defined against black backgrounds. The Mini-LED technology allows for high brightness, reaching up to 6,000 nits, which is beneficial even in brightly lit rooms, enhancing HDR content with vibrant and lifelike images.
However, the 98C8L is not without its compromises. Color accuracy can slightly diminish when the 'Peak Brightness' is set to high, and viewing angles are not particularly wide, with colors losing intensity when viewed from the side. Reflections from light sources can also be an issue, especially in dark scenes, necessitating careful placement relative to windows. Furthermore, the 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) is spread across a much larger area than on smaller TVs, meaning lower-quality content may appear less sharp, with visible noise and blur.
For gaming, the TV offers a native 144Hz refresh rate at 4K, with an acceleration mode up to 288Hz, along with VRR and HDMI 2.1 support. Despite these features, some motion blur was observed in 2D games, potentially affecting the experience for some gamers. The TV runs on Google TV, providing access to streaming apps and voice control. Its integrated sound system, a collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, is adequate for daily viewing but doesn't match the visual quality, suggesting an external sound system would be beneficial for a full home cinema experience.
Retailing in Israel for around 15,000 shekels, the TCL 98C8L is positioned as a premium option. While cheaper 98-inch and 100-inch TVs exist from other brands, the C8L's advanced Mini-LED system, high brightness, and gaming features justify its higher price for those prioritizing picture quality and exceptional brightness over sheer size for the lowest cost. Ultimately, the TV delivers an impressive visual experience that makes its large footprint worthwhile, though it may make returning to smaller screens difficult.