98-inch TVs enter households, the threshold is not high, and the performance is surprising

As the most important visual center and entertainment hub in the living room, the choice of TV has always been an important topic when decorating a new home. With the evolution of display technology, LCD, OLED, Mini LED and other factors must be considered when choosing a TV. However, when choosing a TV for the living room, size is almost never a problem. You only need to adhere to the principle of "bigger is better".

Especially in the "three years of the new crown", when more and more users bring scenes such as watching movies and TV series, distance education, fitness, and games back to the living room, a large-size, high-definition, and highly immersive TV has become more rigid. For this reason, in the context of the overall entry of the TV industry into the stock market, the demand for giant-screen TVs has soared with new and replacement models.

When it comes to giant screen TVs, the TCL brand is an unavoidable topic. According to the cumulative market share ranking data of 98-inch TV brands in the first half of 2022 compiled by CMM, TCL's market share is as high as 40.96%, firmly ranking first in the industry.

TCL's advantages in the field of large-screen TVs come from its complete supply chain layout and continuous technological innovation. TCL owns CSOT, which focuses on the R&D and production of display panels, and has realized a vertically integrated industrial chain closed loop from semiconductor display materials, panels, modules to branded whole machine assembly production.

At the same time, TCL is also a leader in the now popular Mini LED technology track. This technology combines the advantages of LCD brightness and OLED light control, while also solving the shortcomings of LCD contrast and OLED life defects. It is gaining more and more recognition.

The Q10G series released by TCL earlier this year uses Mini LED screens. Because of its ultra-high sound and picture quality, it is affectionately called "the most worthwhile TV series to buy in 2022" by consumers. As of now, sales have exceeded 60,000 units. However, at that time, Q10G was only available in four sizes: 55, 65, 75, and 85 inches, which is a big pity for friends who want to experience the giant screen of the cinema at home.

Of course, TCL did not let this "regret" last too long. At a recent press conference, the 98-inch 98Q10G was finally released, allowing the excellent picture quality of Mini LED to be presented in the form of a giant screen.

I also got the TCL 98Q10G giant screen TV as soon as possible. So, has this popular TV subverted the TV experience in the 20,000 yuan price segment? Can it bring users a cinema-level audio and video experience? What new living room scenes can it provide for users? Without further ado, let's get to the point!

It is very convenient to enter the giant screen

Oh, by the way, before talking about the user experience of this giant-screen TV, it is necessary to add an extra link to answer a question that many people have - is there any threshold for buying a 98-inch TV?

After all, a 98-inch TV has the area of ​​four 50-inch TVs. The dimensions of TCL 98Q10G are 2182mm-101mm-1261mm, which is larger than a single bed. I believe many users have heard of the news that large-size TVs cannot enter elevators and corridors and have to be removed from windows for hanging.

The good news is that most residential elevators can accommodate 98Q10G "naked" installations. Unless it is a very old residential area, even the door-to-door size arrangement step can be omitted. This TV was delivered to the door by the logistics company after a phone call to confirm that someone was at home.

Along with the TCL 98Q10G TV, there were five dusty TCL installation masters who disassembled, installed and transported it in an orderly manner. From arrival to installation and commissioning, it took less than 30 minutes in total.

It is no exaggeration to say that the 98Q10G placed on the floor is like half a wall, and the TV cabinet in the living room and the 60-inch TV placed on it can be completely blocked by it. In photos and videos, the 98-inch TV may not look much different from the 75-inch and 85-inch TVs due to the lack of reference, but in actual viewing, the 98-inch TV is a qualitative leap compared to the 85-inch TV.

Choose this giant screen TV for floor-standing installation. Even if the 98-inch TV is installed on the floor, the viewing experience is still excellent. The cylindrical metal double-leg base is beautiful and the low center of gravity support of the TV is very solid. If you choose to hang it, you need to pay attention to the wall material.

It is also worth mentioning that according to TCL's installation master, for a huge device like 98Q10G, the initial installation and transportation cost of the new machine is free of charge.

First look at the giant screen: shocking viewing experience and thoughtful remote control

In terms of appearance, TCL 98Q10G adopts a full-screen design with a screen-to-body ratio of 98%. From the front, the ultra-narrow bezel is only 3mm thick, which looks very impactful.

The back of the TV uses a metal body, which is also very slim when viewed from the side. The bottom that carries the configuration components is slightly raised and is designed with a grille to assist in heat dissipation.

In the middle of the bottom is an Onkyo-marked speaker, the power port is designed separately on the right, and there are various interfaces on the left.

From top to bottom are the USB2.0 interface, RJ45 network cable interface, three HDMI 2.1 interfaces, another USB2.0 interface, traditional antenna interface, and AV input interface.

Among them, three HDMI 2.1 interfaces support different bandwidths. The top one supports 4K 120Hz. Audio, video and game enthusiasts should remember to use HDMI 1 first, and don’t forget to turn on the high-bandwidth option in the settings. This is also the usual practice of TV manufacturers, with the aim of improving the compatibility of the interface with daily devices.

In terms of hardware, I have to praise the TCL 98Q10G's remote control, which provides some surprises at a time when Internet TV remote controls are highly homogenized.

From the appearance point of view, this remote control is more slender than other common brands of remote controls. The rounded curve makes it feel excellent to hold, and the light changes brought by the two different matte finishes on the top and bottom make it look more high-quality.

Above the directional keys, the remote control provides three custom buttons, red, green and blue. Users can set them to "screenshot", "historical collection", "one-key acceleration", or set the buttons to one-key start of a certain APP, thereby reducing the level of some commonly used operations by users, which is very practical.

On the right side of the remote control, TCL also provides brightness plus and minus keys, and a "settings key". When the ambient light changes, we no longer need to exit the app to adjust the brightness. One-click opening of settings also makes switching WiFi, connecting Bluetooth, and other operations more convenient.

Above the volume button, the remote control also provides dedicated buttons for screen projection and audio mode, which are also high-frequency scenarios when using smart TVs today.

In fact, there is not much differentiation in remote controls of different brands nowadays. Against this background, TCL's polishing of the remote control shows its greater thinking about the industry and product usage scenarios.

The core of the giant screen: powerful configuration brings rich functions

The system is also a plus point for TCL 98Q10G. With the support of MediaTek MT9652 chip, 4GB+128GB large memory, sixth-generation wireless network WiFi 6 Pro and other hardware configurations, the TV system interface is intuitive to operate and the software installation speed is excellent. The screen projection experience is smooth, the content loading and playback is smooth, and there has never been any lag or freeze during the multi-day use.

In terms of content, TCL's default system is mainly in cooperation with Tencent. Of course, in the app store, iQiyi, bilibili, and Youku are all available, and users can choose their favorite content platform. And with the large capacity of TCL 98Q10G up to 128GB, software applications can be installed freely. I believe that as long as you don't put a lot of local photos and videos in it, the 128GB capacity will never be used up.

WiFi 6 Pro may be another important configuration that is easily overlooked. The function of projecting the screen of a mobile phone or tablet to a TV is becoming more and more common, especially the mirroring function, which requires a high upload bandwidth. In addition, cloud gaming applications have extremely high requirements for network latency and also require a stronger network configuration. 2.4G network basically cannot be used for normal play.

In addition to watching movies, TVs should also provide users with richer living room scenes. TCL 98Q10G can provide remote education, classroom synchronous tutoring, AI fitness, square dance teaching, karaoke and other functions. The 98-inch giant screen can bring a stronger sense of immersion and presence to these scenes.

TCL 98Q10G is a gaming artifact. It has the essential skills of a gaming TV, such as low latency, VRR, ALLM, 120Hz refresh rate, etc., combined with top-level picture quality and ultra-large screen, which can give players an immersive gaming experience.

For the fitness ring and NS Sports games, the 98-inch giant screen can also give them a cyber fitness atmosphere.

For daily TV usage scenarios, the "big" feature of the giant screen alone can often bring a completely different viewing experience.

Giant screen and deep "screen": technological innovation creates excellent audio-visual  

Of course, the TCL 98Q10G is more than just big.

Mini LED, a technology regarded as the next generation of display technology, gives TCL 98Q10G excellent picture quality performance.

Currently, many high-end TVs use OLED panels. The biggest advantage of OLED panels over traditional LCD technology is the self-luminous organic material, which gives OLED pixel-level light control capabilities. When the picture displays black, the corresponding pixels can be completely turned off, greatly improving the contrast between light and dark in the picture and bringing an ultimate black field performance.

However, OLED technology itself has many defects, such as the short life of organic light-emitting materials, OLED screens are prone to burn-in, and therefore the brightness is generally not high. In addition, OLED light-emitting materials become unstable at low voltages, which can cause distortion of dark images and loss of details.

Traditional LCD TVs that use surface light sources will inevitably have backlight leaking through when displaying black scenes, causing the black picture to be impure.

However, Mini LED upgrades the surface light source of the LCD screen to a point light source, using hundreds of times more 50-300 micron lamp beads to achieve OLED-level precise light control, while also being able to solve the defects of OLED itself.

TCL's Mini LED TV uses three times more backlight driver chips than ordinary Mini LED TVs to independently control partitions, which can achieve better picture light control and provide higher brightness, contrast, color gamut and lifespan than OLED.

Not only that, TCL's 98-inch Q10G has a peak brightness that is better than other Q10G products released before, from 1200 nits to 1600 nits, and the corresponding contrast ratio has also increased from 12000000:1 to 16000000:1, and the picture quality has also reached a new level. .

In addition, the entire Q10G series uses Mini LED golden partitions, which is the optimal number of backlight partitions that can maximize image quality. The number of backlight partitions of the 98-inch Q10G has also been increased to 672.

TCL 98Q10G also uses micro-lens Mini LED technology, which can increase the precision of light control by 260% under the same partitioning, and can achieve precise light control, with stronger penetration, greatly reducing halo, and enhancing picture quality.

What is lens technology? When lighthouses were first invented, their navigation distance was very short, and the energy would be exhausted within one kilometer. After scientists added special lenses to lighthouses, the navigation distance increased to tens of kilometers and they can still be seen.

TCL Mini LED lamp beads use a similar principle and are equipped with "lighthouse" optical imaging micro-lens technology. Compared with ordinary Mini LED lamp beads, they can more accurately achieve pixel-level point light control. This technology also caused us a lot of trouble in the subsequent tests, which we will talk about later when we talk about backlight partitioning.

Parameters do not represent the experience, let’s take a look at the picture quality test directly.

Let’s first look at the traditional 4K resolution test. You can see that the display is perfect, with pure colors in each area, clear lines, and even the smallest line of text is clearly discernible.

To prevent the image from being compressed by the website, here is a close-up.

The movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" has a long-range shot with excellent color performance. The light in the picture is not complicated, and TCL 98Q10G handles it with ease.

In the close-up picture, Captain Jack's face is rich in details, his pores are clearly visible, and his skin color is natural and transparent. In addition, this photo was taken from the side at a larger angle, and the colors are still accurate. It is not difficult to see that TCL 98Q10G has an excellent viewing angle.

A classic scene from "Up", with extremely rich colors, natural colors and no obvious transitions.

In "Life of Pi", Pi and Richard Parker, the sea and the sky meet, and every strand of the big cat's hair is clearly visible.

The following photos were taken at night, mainly capturing some high-contrast images. This was originally the strength of OLED screens, and the pure black field can restore the light and dark contrast in nature. However, the TCL 98Q10G, which uses Mini LED, can accurately control the backlight through partitions, achieve pixel-level light control, and provide highlight performance in the bright part that is far superior to OLED and closer to reality.

In "Life of Pi", there is a small boat floating on the sea. The sea surface is pure black, and the black background of the screen blends perfectly into the night. There is no light leakage or halo around the boat, which is beyond my expectations.

The borders of the TV screen can only be seen when the entire picture is lit up.

Still in the same scene as before, you can only see a little light from the backlight partition from the side when you get close to the screen. This is a relatively extreme viewing angle, not a normal viewing angle.

NASA demonstration video, a high-contrast scene, a pure white space station and a pure black space. The distant stars are clearly visible, but there is no light leakage or halo around the highlighted scenery.

The nebulas and stars with obvious light and dark contrast have sharp edges, clear boundaries, and extremely high contrast, which shows the level of light control.

This is a close-up side shot with a malicious angle, but the lighting control is still impeccable.

The end credits were shot at a close distance and from an upward angle. The pure white subtitles and the night sky were a great test for the light control ability of Mini LED, but TCL 98Q10G still performed well.

At this point in the test, I still thought that TCL 98Q10G had strong light control capabilities, until I came to the partition test.

Simply put, a small pure white square moves from left to right and from top to bottom across a pure black background. Generally, when a Mini LED TV conducts this test, we can identify how many horizontal and vertical partitions there are based on the switching of the backlight halo.

However, when conducting this test on the TCL 98Q10G, the lens with a higher exposure could not capture the halo around the square at all, and it was not even visible to the naked eye.

Only from a wide angle from the side can you barely see a little light from the partition backlight.

This should be the result that the microlens technology "light control lighthouse" has greatly improved the precision of light control. It is for this reason that TCL 98Q10G showed extremely excellent black field performance in the previous large light ratio test, easily surpassing the OLED screen.

Summarize  

For consumers who like the product power of Q10G and look forward to large-screen TVs, the arrival of TCL 98Q10G can be regarded as a victory for the "wait and see party". It has created a giant-screen product with picture quality exceeding that of high-end OLED TVs in the price range of 20,000 yuan. The quality-price ratio can be said to be a revolution in high-end giant-screen TVs.

TCL 98Q10G, the "King of Picture Quality", uses the quality-price ratio to explain what is "the most worthwhile TV to buy in 2022": TVs cheaper than it have far worse picture quality, and TVs with better picture quality are much more expensive than it. In addition to picture quality, TCL 98Q10G has a strong configuration, easy-to-use system, and a shocking giant screen. It is a product with extremely long strengths and almost no weaknesses. It is a high-end TV that can bring a new experience to the living room, and it is also a product that can reshape users' perceptions of audio and video, games, online classes, fitness, etc.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.