TCL 65C7L Review

Design

• 56mm depth (without stand)
• Fixed stand with some cable management
• Branding is minimal

It probably goes without saying that TCL is breaking no new ground where the design of the 65C7L is concerned.

Its bezels are decently slim, branding is discreet to the point of invisibility, at 56mm deep it’s a definite candidate for wall-hanging, and the overall standard of build and finish is perfectly fine – but in terms of design, fundamentally it’s a relative affordable television just like all the other relative affordable televisions.

There’s nothing at all special about the feel of the plastics that make up the majority of the construction, although very few owners will find themselves touching their TV all that much once it’s installed.

If you’re the one who attached the C7L to its stand, though, you’ll know that ‘functional’ is about as complementary as it’s possible to be. There’s some rudimentary cable management built in, which is handy, and it raises the screen to the point that even a quite beefy soundbar will happily fit beneath it, but it’s fixed rather than swivelling and it feels even less luxurious than it looks.

Features

• Mini-LED panel with Super Quantum Dot technology
• Every HDR base covered
• Sound by Bang & Olufsen

The headline here is that the 65C7L is a Mini-LED TV that features Super Quantum Dot technology.

For the uninitiated, this means the TCL uses an LCD panel (an HVA 2.0 Pro panel to be exact, which has been specified thanks to its wide viewing angles and low reflectivity) that’s backlit by a huge number of tiny LEDs (in this instance they provide no fewer than 1152 discrete and individually controllable dimming zones).

Colour is generated by a massive number of Quantum Dots that use five, rather than the more usual two, layers of material to optimise their brightness, stability and efficiency. It’s a hugely complex arrangement that TCL has been perfecting, at no little expense, for some time – and the C7L is just the second range of TVs ever to feature it. The first, unsurprisingly, is also a TCL range: the more expensive C8L. 

The intention is to deliver a TV that hits big peak brightness numbers (TCL is claiming a whopping 3000 nits), delivers a vibrant and wide-ranging colour palette, keeps careful control of its backlighting, and offers a decent off-axis viewing experience at the same time.

Naturally, TCL has deployed a few exciting-sounding technologies to make the most of this eye-catching specification. The All-Domain Halo Control System, for instance, tries to ensure the remarkable brightness levels don’t cause haloing during high-contrast scenes – white text on a black background is the most extreme example, and very few backlit TVs can prevent a least a little haloing and light-bleed around the lettering in this scenario.

The Deep Colour System, meanwhile, attempts  to keep colours natural in every circumstance – and when you consider the potency of the C7L’s specification when it comes to generating colour, it’s almost certainly a good thing it’s in attendance.

Unlike the overwhelming majority of its rivals, TCL likes to make sure its TVs cover all the HDR bases – and the 65C7L is no exception. HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision (including Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Vision Game) are all catered for, and the screen is certified IMAX Enhanced too – in addition, the TCL is compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X spatial audio soundtracks.

When you consider a) TCL has been very forthcoming about specification as it relates the picture performance of the C7L, and b) the TV’s audio system is supplied by Bang & Olufsen, it seems a little odd that so very few details about the sound system are available.

Yes, it’s another product of TCL’s collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, and yes it can deal with Dolby Atmos soundtracks – but as to how many drivers are on board, how big they are and what they’re made of, or how much amplification is supplied to power them, no information is forthcoming.

About the only thing it seems safe to assume is that there are not enough individual drivers to create a true impression of Dolby Atmos sound, and that ‘compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X’ is, once again, not the same as ‘delivers spatial audio’.

Connectivity

• Two HDMI 2.1 inputs
• Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

Getting the audio and video information on board the C7L can, of course, be done in a few different ways – for most users, it’s the four HDMI sockets that will see the most action.

Two are at full-fat HDMI 2.1 standard and one is eARC-equipped – and with a games console plugged into one of those two you have access to AMD FreeSync, VRR and all the other usual goodies. And the screen not only supports 4K 144Hz but also 1080p 288Hz.

Bluetooth and dual-band Wi-Fi are available too, along with an Ethernet socket. Connect the TCL to your local network and you’ll find you’re in charge of one of the more successful implementations of the Google TV user interface I’ve encountered.

User Experience

• Google TV support
• No Freely

The fact that it includes every UK catch-up TV service (including iPlayer) puts it ahead of any number of alternatives, and in every other respect it’s Google TV business as usual – which means lots and lots of streaming services, easy navigation and only mild pushiness when it comes to trying to sell you things.

You’re also in charge of some very nicely judged set-up menus, too. TCL has struck a very pleasing balance between ‘rapid’ and ‘in-depth’ when it comes to getting the C7L looking as you’d like – but naturally your options are worth investigating. Straight out of the box the 65C7L seems to be in show-off mode and it takes a minute or two in the menus to calm it down a little.

There are a few options when it comes to navigating the menus and the Google TV interface. The remote control handset, for instance, is thorough – but its buttons are small, the labels for them smaller still, there’s no backlighting and the feel is humdrum.

The TCL control app, too, is tedious in appearance – but it does everything you might realistically hope for and is very stable while it does so. Google Assistant is built in, which is handy – there’s a mic button on the remote and GA proves rapid and responsive when it comes to dealing with your requests.

Picture Quality

• Colourful, detailed and, above all, bright images
• Great gaming monitor and a pretty good upscaler too
• Not great to watch off-axis

It’s not unreasonable to be concerned that a TV capable of such remarkable brightness as this might overplay its hand and serve up searing images that have you reaching for your sunglasses. Happily, the TCL 65C7L is a bit more sophisticated than that.

Which is not to say the screen doesn’t deploy its prodigious brightness to good effect. There’s authentic intensity to the brightest scenes in HDR content like Spider Noir, but no little subtlety at the same time – detail levels remain high, and information regarding tone and texture is always available despite the straightforward punch the TCL can summon.

And while black tones, inevitably, lack the outright depth of those delivered by a comparably priced OLED TV, the brightness of the C7L doesn’t result in any washing out or fading of the darkest tones – even in scenes of stark contrast.

And in between the two extremes of ‘stark contrast’, the TCL’s colour palette is enormously varied, wide-ranging and convincing. The screen will punch hard when it needs to where colour is concerned, but it’s just as capable of delivering ‘miserable and muted’ if needs be – and there’s a huge amount of variation available, along with great insight into texture as well as tone.

Images are crisp and orderly, but not overly edgy – control of tight patterns is impressive, and it contributes no end towards the overall stability of images. Add in really worthwhile motion control (once you’ve taken a moment to investigate your options in the menus) and the C7L is a profoundly watchable television when given some 4K HDR content to work with.

It’s also a very adept upscaler – although naturally it has its limits. Full HD content like Match of the Day is a little softer and slightly less detailed, of course, but it’s nevertheless composed and convincing – and the TCL maintains its facility with brightness and colour fidelity even when asked to upscale these relatively complex, relatively fast-moving images.

Stepping down to standard-def stuff finds the TCL betraying the hard work it’s having to do – but if you purchased a relatively affordable 65-inch TV in order to watch daytime reruns then smearing, a lack of fine detail and wayward edge definition is just what you’re going to have to put up with.

Where gaming is concerned, the C7L is one of the better pound-for-pound great big monitors you can buy. Not only does it have the sky-high fresh rates, the super-low latency and the absolute motion stability that are all essential to a rewarding gaming experience, its brightness and colour fidelity mean games look a treat – especially where lighting is concerned.

If anything, gaming is an even more compelling demonstration of the control the TCL has over its backlighting than broadcast TV or 4K Blu-ray content.

Downsides are remarkably few, and are all performance-adjacent rather than directly about picture performance itself. The TCL is not above letting a hint of picture noise creep in – some of this will be to do with the source material it’s displaying, of course, but some is a by-product of how hard the screen has to work to upscale sub-4K images to fill its huge pixel-count. And the HVA 2.0 Pro screen is, despite its on-paper promises, both reflective and unsatisfactory when viewed at an angle – the TCL can betray its backlighting quite readily to anyone sitting radically off-axis.

Sound Quality

• Lacks width and height
• Thin presentation

As already mentioned, the details of the audio system Bang & Olufsen has specified are vague – there are a couple of exposed drivers on the rear of the panel (bass drivers by the looks of things), but there’s no other visual clues.

The lack of grille openings on the bezels, as well as the fairly restricted sound the TV makes, confirms that ‘compatibility’ with spatial audio is a long way from serving up spatial audio itself, though…

To be fair, for all the mystery surrounding the specification and the undeniable lack of width and height to the sound it makes, the C7L is not a terrible-sounding TV – which puts it ahead of any number of nominal competitors.

It’s quite detailed and revealing, and while it’s on the thin side where tonality is concerned it does at least gesture towards the bottom end of the frequency range. Wind the volume level up past modest, though, and it doesn’t take long for the C7L to start sounding a little stressed and effortful – so it’s not really sufficient to do justice to the lustrous and immersive pictures the TCL serves up.

It’s just as well there’s ample room for a soundbar beneath the bottom of the screen.  

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Should you buy it?