TCL has quickly become one of the biggest producers of smart TVs in the United States, thanks in no small part to it adopting the Roku OS. (Which, by the way, makes Roku TV the No. 1 smart TV OS in the country.) And its 2021 lineup of smart TVs, just announced at the virtual CES 2021, is only going to cement that.
TCL has announced its third-generation mini-LED backlight system, dubbed "OD Zero", which will be available on TVs later this year. The "zero" part of the equation stands for the distance between the backlight layer and the display layer, which is measured at zero millimeters, to help keep things that much thinner. So now you'll have thousands of individual backlights thanks to mini-LED, in an even thinner panel.
That's the inside baseball, though. It's the new sets you really want to hear about.
The new 2021 TCL 6-Series Roku TV will be available in 8K resolution. That means native 8K content is going to look incredible on it, and upscaled content should look that much better. Those new sets won't land until later this year, TCL says, and the current 4K-ready TCL 6-Series sets will remain available in the meantime.
Then there's the big stuff. TCL's new "XL Collection" is, as the name implies, big. It comprises three 85-inch televisions running the Roku operating system, starting with the 4-Series , with a QLED panel to a an 8K mini-LED model, the idea is to get some series size available across multiple budgets. (Or incomes, as the case may be.) The 85-inch 4-Series model will land later by April for $1,599. TCL didn't give pricing for the 85-inch 85R745, which also is a Roku TV and will sport a variable refresh rate and 120Hz HDMI input for smoother gaming, or for the 85-inch mini-LED model.
“Last year was a unique one for TCL but through it all, the team never lost sight of its goal to become America’s preferred consumer electronics brand and maintain its status — the number two selling brand of television in the United States. Not only did consumer needs propel us toward that achievement as people looked to their TV for entertainment more than ever, but large screens were in demand and picture performance became even more important. As a result, technology like mini-LED and QLED made so much more sense as we approached CES,” said Chris Larson, Senior Vice President, TCL. “And thanks in no small part to TCL’s advantages as a vertically integrated company, while our TVs are getting bigger, better, brighter and more accessible, our other categories like audio, mobile phones and home appliances continue to thrive as well.”
