The TCL Q6/Q651G QLED is an entry-level TV released in 2024 and replaces the 2023 TCL Q6/Q650G QLED. It sits below the TCL QM7/QM751G QLED and the TCL QM8/QM851G QLED. It's a pretty basic 60Hz TV and doesn't have features like local dimming and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, but it does support up to 1440p @ 120Hz with VRR using TCL's Game Accelerator 120 feature. It still has some other features like DTS audio support and Dolby Vision. The TV runs version 12 of the popular Google TV smart interface, so it also has smart features like voice control and is loaded with a ton of streaming apps. The TV has a built-in 30W 2.0 channel speaker system. We bought and tested the 75-inch model, but it's available in seven sizes total: 43, 50, 55, 65, 75, 85, and 98-inches.
Our Verdict
The TCL Q65 is decent for mixed usage. It's not the best TV in terms of overall picture quality, as it doesn't get bright enough to use in a well-lit room and doesn't have the contrast ratio needed to look great in a dark room. It's also not very suitable for use in a group setting since it has a narrow viewing angle. However, it's a pretty good choice if you need a cheaper TV to game on since it supports up to 1440p @ 120Hz with VRR and also delivers a responsive gaming experience.
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Very good response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
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Reflection handling and SDR peak brightness aren't good enough to use the TV in a bright room.
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Narrow viewing angle.
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Mediocre HDR brightness means highlights don't stand out the way they should in HDR content.
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No local dimming to improve contrast.
The TCL Q65 is just okay for watching TV shows. The built-in Google TV interface is loaded with apps, so it's easy to find the newest shows to watch. The TV has decent SDR brightness and reflection handling, so it's not bright enough to use in a well-lit room and performs best in a moderately lit room. It has only mediocre low-quality content smoothing, so low bitrate content has noticeable artifacts, and its sub-par upscaling means low-resolution streams look too soft. Finally, the TV has a narrow viewing angle, so the image quickly degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen.
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Very good SDR pre-calibration accuracy.
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Reflection handling and SDR peak brightness aren't good enough to use the TV in a bright room.
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Narrow viewing angle.
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Mediocre low-quality content smoothing.
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Sub-par upscaling means low resolution content looks soft.
The TCL Q65 is just okay for watching sports. Unfortunately, the TV's narrow viewing angle means it isn't well-suited for use in a group setting since anyone seated to the sides of the screen sees a degraded image. The TV has alright gray uniformity, but you do see some dirty screen effect when watching sports that have large areas of uniform color, like football. The TV's SDR brightness and reflection handling are only decent, which means it doesn't overcome glare in a bright room; it's best suited for a moderately lit room. Fortunately, it has a very good response time, so fast-moving players and objects have minimal blur behind them.
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Very good response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
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Reflection handling and SDR peak brightness aren't good enough to use the TV in a bright room.
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Narrow viewing angle.
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Mediocre low-quality content smoothing.
The TCL Q65 is very good for playing video games. Its very good response time means there's minimal blur behind fast motion, and its incredibly low input lag delivers a responsive gaming experience. The TV's SDR brightness and reflection handling are only decent, so it's best suited for use in a moderately lit room. Using Game Mode doesn't negatively affect the picture, so you enjoy the best performance without sacrificing image quality. The TV doesn't have modern gaming features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and 4k @ 120Hz, but it does support VRR and up to 1440p @ 120Hz gaming, which is great for a cheaper model.
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1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz with VRR.
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Incredibly low input lag.
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Very good SDR pre-calibration accuracy.
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Very good response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
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Reflection handling and SDR peak brightness aren't good enough to use the TV in a bright room.
The TCL Q65 is satisfactory for watching movies in a dark room. Its contrast is unremarkable, so blacks are deep during purely dark scenes, but they do become grayish anytime brighter highlights are also on screen. It only has mediocre HDR brightness, so some highlights stand out a bit during darker scenes, but HDR content lacks impact for the most part. Fortunately, it does support a wide color gamut, so colors are vibrant and lifelike. The TV also removes 24p judder from any source, so you get a judder-free moving-watching experience regardless of how you watch them. Its pre-calibration SDR accuracy is very good, so colors in SDR are accurate without needing calibration.
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Wide color gamut for vibrant colors.
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Very good SDR pre-calibration accuracy.
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Dolby Vision support.
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DTS audio support.
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Removes 24p judder from any source.
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Mediocre HDR brightness means highlights don't stand out the way they should in HDR content.
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No local dimming to improve contrast.
The TCL Q65 is very good for gaming in HDR. The TV doesn't have HDMI 2.1 bandwidth or 4k @ 120Hz, but it does support VRR and you can choose to game in either 4k @ 60Hz or 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz. The TV's contrast is unremarkable, so you only get deep blacks in very dark scenes, and its mediocre HDR brightness is just good enough to make some highlights pop out during darker moments. The TV's incredibly low input lag means there isn't a noticeable delay between the actions on your controller and what happens on screen, and its very good response time means fast motion has minimal blur behind it.
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1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz with VRR.
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Incredibly low input lag.
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Wide color gamut for vibrant colors.
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Dolby Vision support.
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Very good response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
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Mediocre HDR brightness means highlights don't stand out the way they should in HDR content.
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No local dimming to improve contrast.
The TCL Q65 is good for use as a PC monitor. The TV delivers a responsive desktop experience thanks to its incredibly low input lag, and its very good response time means there's minimal blur behind quick cursor movements and other fast motion. The TV's SDR brightness and reflection handling are only decent, so it's best suited for use in dark and moderately lit rooms if you want to avoid reflections on the screen. Its gray uniformity is only okay, so you do see some dirty screen effect when looking at bigger areas of uniform color, like when browsing the web. Unfortunately, the TV's viewing angle is narrow, so the edges of the screen aren't consistent with the center when you sit close. The TV displays chroma 4:4:4 properly, but it uses a BGR subpixel layout, so there are some readability issues with text that can bother some people.
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Incredibly low input lag.
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Wide color gamut for vibrant colors.
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Very good response time for minimal blur behind fast motion.
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Reflection handling and SDR peak brightness aren't good enough to use the TV in a bright room.
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Narrow viewing angle.
- 7.3 Mixed Usage
- 6.8 TV Shows
- 6.8 Sports
- 7.9 Video Games
- 7.4 HDR Movies
- 7.9 HDR Gaming
- 7.7 PC Monitor
- Updated Aug 30, 2024: Review published.
- Updated Aug 27, 2024: Early access published.
- Updated Aug 19, 2024: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jul 15, 2024: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Jun 25, 2024: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 75-inch TCL Q6/Q651G QLED, and these results are mostly valid for the 43, 50, 55, and 65-inch models. The 85 and 98-inch models use a 120Hz panel, so our results aren't valid for those, although most should be similar. Note that the smaller sizes don't have TCL's Game Accelerator 120 feature, which allows you to drop your resolution in favor of a higher frame rate. The larger sizes have TCL's Game Accelerator 240 feature instead.
| Size | Model | Refresh Rate | Game Accelerator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 43" | TCL 43Q651G | 60Hz | No |
| 50" | TCL 50Q651G | 60Hz | No |
| 55" | TCL 55Q651G | 60Hz | 120 |
| 65" | TCL 65Q651G | 60Hz | 120 |
| 75" | TCL 75Q651G | 60Hz | 120 |
| 85" | TCL 85Q651G | 120Hz | 240 |
| 98" | TCL 98Q651G | 120Hz | 240 |
Our unit was manufactured in February 2024; you can see the label here.
Compared To Other TVs
The TCL Q6/Q651G QLED is a decent TV, but it's nothing special in terms of overall picture quality. It's similar to a TV like the Hisense U6/U6N, but that TV has a local dimming feature that improves its contrast and increases its black levels, which makes it look much better than the TCL in a dark room. The U6N is also brighter overall, so it's more well-suited for use in a room with the lights on and delivers a more impactful HDR experience. However, the TCL can output 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz with VRR using TCL's Game Accelerator 120 feature, so it's the better option for gamers looking for the best performance from a cheaper model.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best TVs, the best QLED TVs, and the best gaming TVs.
The LG C4 OLED is better than the TCL Q6/Q651G QLED. The LG has perfect black levels, so it displays deep and inky blacks with no blooming. The LG also gets brighter in SDR and has much better reflection handling, so it’s better suited for a room with the lights on. Additionally, the LG has much better HDR brightness and displays more vibrant colors, leading to a more impactful HDR experience. Regarding gaming, the LG has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and 4k @ 144Hz support, making it fully compatible with modern consoles.
The Hisense U6/U6N is better than the TCL Q6/Q651G QLED. Thanks to its local dimming feature, the Hisense displays much deeper blacks, so it looks better in a dark room. The Hisense also looks better in a bright room since it overcomes more glare, and it provides a more impactful HDR experience thanks to its wider color gamut and better HDR brightness. The Hisense allows you to drop your resolution to play in up to 1440p @ 120Hz, but VRR doesn’t work when you do that. However, the TCL can output up to 1440p @ 120Hz with VRR active, so it’s the better option for gamers.
The TCL QM7/QM751G QLED is better than the TCL Q6/Q651G QLED. The QM7 is significantly brighter, so it overcomes a lot more glare in a bright room and displays much brighter highlights in HDR. Colors are also more vibrant, lifelike, and bright on the QM7, and its local dimming feature makes displays much deeper blacks that stay deep when highlights are also on screen. The QM7 is also much better for gamers due to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, 4k @ 144Hz, and faster response time.
The 2023 TCL Q6/Q650G QLED is better than the 2024 TCL Q6/Q651G QLED in several ways. The Q650G is the brighter TV overall, so it overcomes more glare in a bright room and displays brighter highlights in HDR content. You also get deeper blacks on the Q650G since it has a better contrast ratio. The Q650G is also more accurate in HDR. On the other hand, the Q651G has a faster response time for less blur behind fast motion, has much better pre-calibration SDR accuracy, and supports DTS audio formats.
The Samsung Q60D QLED and the TCL Q6/Q651G QLED are better than each other in different ways. The Samsung is the brighter TV, meaning it overcomes more glare in a bright room and displays brighter highlights in HDR. The Samsung also has better black levels, so it looks a bit better in dark rooms. However, the TCL is the much better gaming TV, as it supports 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz, VRR, and a much faster response time. The TCL also supports Dolby Vision HDR and DTS audio formats.
The TCL Q5/Q550G QLED and the TCL Q6/Q651G QLED are better than each other in different areas. The Q5 displays deeper blacks thanks to its higher contrast ratio, is brighter in both SDR and HDR, is more accurate in HDR, and has slightly better upscaling. However, the Q651G has much better pre-calibration SDR accuracy, less banding in color gradients, better low-quality content smoothing, a faster response time, and supports DTS audio formats.
The TCL Q6/Q651G QLED and Hisense A7N trade blows, as they are evenly matched, except for gamers. The TCL is a bit brighter overall, but the Hisense has better reflection handling, so they look similar in brighter rooms. The Hisense has the much better upscaling, so it performs better when watching low-resolution content from DVDs, but the TCL has better low-quality content smoothing, giving it the edge when watching low-bitrate content from streaming apps. Now, for gaming, the TCL has a trick up its sleeve: it supports 120Hz at 1080p and 1440p. This definitely makes it the better choice for gamers. For everyone else, just get the cheapest one you can find.
Test Results
The TV looks the same from the front as 2023's TCL Q6/Q650G QLED. It has thin black bezels on three sides and a slightly thicker bottom bezel that's silver. It looks pretty good overall. There's branding near the top corner on the right bezel that uses reflective writing that is distracting in a well-lit room.
The TV has a set of plastic feet, which you can place at two distinct positions. The first position, pictured above, sets the feet in a wider position and has a footprint of 53.4" x 14". The narrow position brings the feet closer together, which works well for smaller tables. In this position, the feet have a footprint of 28.6" x 14". The screen sits about 3.58 inches from the table, so most soundbars fit underneath without blocking the screen. In the narrow position, the protruding feet get in the way of putting a soundbar directly in front. Note that the 98-inch model (TCL 98Q651G) has different feet than the rest of the sizes.
The back of the TV is made of metal and plastic. The power cable comes out of the left side of the TV, and the inputs are housed in a recessed cutout on the right side when facing the front. The cutout is fairly shallow, so the inputs are pretty easy to access if you have it wall-mounted. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with clips and has no form of cable management.
The TCL Q65 QLED has decent build quality. Most of the TV is made of plastic, but the metal borders give it a fairly solid feel. There are no issues with quality control. The metal legs hold the TV well, so there are no issues with stability. There's some flexing on the back, but it's not unusual and is nothing to worry about.
The TCL Q65 has unremarkable contrast. Its native contrast ratio is good enough that blacks are somewhat deep during purely dark scenes, but since it lacks local dimming, blacks become raised and grayish when brighter highlights are also on screen.
The TV doesn't have a local dimming feature, so there's no blooming around bright objects or subtitles during dark scenes.
This TV doesn't have a local dimming feature, so it doesn't adjust the backlight of individual areas to brighten up highlights without impacting the rest of the image. This means that there are no distracting flickers or brightness changes as bright highlights move across the screen.
Switching to Game Mode doesn't result in any noticeable difference in dark scene performance.
The TCL Q65 has mediocre HDR brightness. Some highlights stand out a bit in darker scenes, but the TV's HDR brightness isn't good enough to display brighter highlights with impact.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
- HDR Picture Mode: Movie
- Brightness: 100
- Contrast: 100
- Gamma: 2.2
- Micro Contrast: Off
- Color Temperature: Warm -5
- Dynamic Tone Mapping: Off
The TV has a bug that prevents the 'Dynamic Tone Mapping' settings to apply. To fix this you must toggle the setting on/off.
Results with Dynamic Tone Mapping set to 'Detail Priority':
- Hallway Lights: 333 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 233 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 122 cd/m²
Results with Dynamic Tone Mapping set to 'Balance':
- Hallway Lights: 348 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 216 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 140 cd/m²
Results with Dynamic Tone Mapping set to 'Brightness Priority':
- Hallway Lights: 357 cd/m²
- Yellow Skyscraper: 218 cd/m²
- Landscape Pool: 163 cd/m²
There's no noticeable difference in HDR brightness when the TV is set to Game Mode.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
- HDR Picture Mode: Game
- Game Master: On
- Brightness: 100
- Contrast: 100
- Gamma: 2.2
- Micro Contrast: Off
- Color Temperature: Warm -5
- Dynamic Tone Mapping: Off
The TCL Q65 QLED has very good PQ EOTF tracking. Blacks and near blacks are displayed brighter than intended, but everything else is displayed dimmer than intended. There's a gradual roll-off near the TV's peak brightness to maintain detail in highlights that are brighter than what the TV is capable of.
The TV has decent SDR brightness, but it's not bright enough to overcome glare in bright rooms. It's better suited for a moderately lit room.
These measurements are after calibration with the following settings:
- Picture Mode: Movie
- Brightness: 100
- Contrast: 100
- Black Level: 50
- Dynamic Contrast: Off
- Black Stretch: Off
- Dynamic Brightness: Off
- Micro Contrast: Off
- Gamma: 2.2
The TV has a very good HDR color gamut. It has outstanding coverage of the commonly used DCI-P3 color space, but most colors are undersaturated. The TV has okay coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, but vibrant colors are inaccurate and undersaturated.
The TV has satisfactory color volume, but it doesn't do a very good job of displaying dark saturated colors due to its limited contrast. It also doesn't display most colors very brightly.
The TV has very good pre-calibration SDR accuracy. Its white balance is satisfactory, but there's too much red in darker grays and not enough green in most shades of gray. Fortunately, the TV's color temperature is almost exactly at 6500K. The TV's gamma is close to 2.2, but most scenes are displayed too dark, and bright scenes are too bright. Color accuracy is excellent overall, but there's some inaccuracies with whites, blues, and reds.
The TV has remarkable SDR accuracy after calibration, but it is a bit difficult to calibrate since certain adjustments affect areas they shouldn't. Still, the white balance is now outstanding, and the color temperature is essentially perfect. Gamma is now closer to 2.2, but bright scenes are still too bright. Color accuracy is better now, and whites are fixed, but vibrant reds, blues, and magentas are a bit inaccurate.
You can see our full calibration settings here.
The TV's gray uniformity is just alright. The corners of the screen are darker than the rest, and there's noticeable dirty screen effect towards the center. On a very dark or near-black screen, its uniformity is great, with only the edges being slightly lighter than the rest of the screen.
The TV has superb black uniformity, with uniform blacks across the entire screen.
The TV has an inadequate viewing angle, so it's not suitable for a wide seating arrangement. As you move off-center, there's significant gamma shifting, black level raise, brightness loss, and colors look increasingly washed out as you move further away to the sides.
The TCL Q65 has satisfactory reflection handling. Its semi-gloss screen finish significantly reduces the intensity of indirect reflections, like when glare from a ceiling light isn't directly facing the screen. Unfortunately, the TV's handling of direct reflections is only alright, so reflections caused by something like a lamp positioned in front of the screen are distracting.
The TV has decent HDR gradient handling. There's very apparent banding in dark grays, while dark reds and dark greens have noticeable banding. All other colors have minimal banding.
The TV has mediocre low-quality content smoothing. It does a decent job with preserving detail, but it's inadequate at smoothing out artifacts, so there's still visible macro blocking present in low-bitrate content.
The TV does a sub-par job at upscaling low-resolution content like DVDs or lower-resolution streams. Details are too soft, and finer details are incredibly hard to make out.
Sharpness processing was calibrated with no over-sharpening for low-resolution content with the following settings:
- Sharpness: 20
The TV uses a BGR (Blue-Green-Red) subpixel layout instead of the traditional RGB layout. For video or gaming content, this doesn't cause any issues, but for PC monitor use, it can be a problem as it impacts the text clarity, although not everyone will notice this.
The TCL Q65 has a great response time for minimal blur behind fast-moving objects, but it's slower when coming out of dark states, so there's some black smearing in dark scene transitions.
The TCL Q65 uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight, and it flickers at 150Hz, which is low enough to be noticeable by users who are sensitive to it, especially as it doesn't flicker in time with the TV's refresh rate. Fortunately, the TV is flicker-free at these brightness levels and picture modes:
- Movie/PC/Vivid/Sports/Game, with brightness levels 29-100
- Low Power, with brightness levels 34-100
- Smart HDR, always flicker-free
The TV doesn't have an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion (BFI), to help reduce persistence blur.
The TV has an optional motion interpolation feature to improve the clarity of motion, but it doesn't work very well. It does an okay job of smoothing out slower panning shots, but there are still some noticeable artifacts present. The TV really struggles with fast-moving scenes, and there are distracting artifacts around fast-moving objects.
Due to the TV's response time, there's some minor stutter when watching movies or TV shows, and it's most noticeable during slow panning shots.
The TV gives a judder-free experience from any source when the Natural Cinema setting is enabled.
The TV supports all three types of variable refresh rate (VRR) technology to reduce screen tearing. Its VRR range is very narrow in 4k, but when running in 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz, the VRR range is much wider.
This TV has incredibly low input lag when set to Game Mode with 'Game Master' turned on, which ensures a very responsive gaming experience with very little delay between your actions with your controller or mouse and the action on-screen.
The TCL Q65 supports all common resolutions up to 4k @ 60Hz. It displays chroma 4:4:4 properly when set to Game Mode and PC.
The TV can't take full advantage of the PS5, as it can't do 4k @ 120Hz. However, it can do 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz with resolution halving. Unlike on the Xbox consoles, the TV has no issues playing HDR games in 120Hz on the PS5.
It also supports VRR and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), so the TV automatically switches to Game Mode when it detects the console.
The TV can't take full advantage of the Xbox Series X or S, as it can't do 4k @ 120Hz. However, it can do 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz with resolution halving. Note that when launching a Dolby Vision or HDR game at these resolutions, the console automatically sets itself to 4k @ 60Hz, as the Xbox only supports HDR with 4k content. To game in 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz, you must turn off HDR.
The TV also supports VRR and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), so the TV automatically switches to Game Mode when it detects the console.
This TV is limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth on its three HDMI ports. Fortunately, it supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The tuner is limited to ATSC 1.0, so you can't stream 4k content over the air.
The TV supports eARC, which lets you pass high-quality, uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver or soundbar through an HDMI cable. It supports all major audio formats, so you don't have to worry about compatibility with external sources.
The TCL Q65 has an adequate frequency response. Like most TVs, it doesn't produce much bass, but it does get quite loud. The sound profile is balanced enough that dialogue is clear at most volume levels, but it does become more unbalanced near its maximum volume.
The TV's distortion performance is just okay. At moderate volume levels, the distortion isn't too bad. At its maximum volume, the distortion is very noticeable, so you will want to avoid using the speakers at maximum volume to avoid distracting distortion.
The TCL Q65 uses version 12 of the popular Google TV operating system. The interface is very smooth and easy to use.
Unfortunately, like almost all TVs on the market, the smart interface contains ads, and you can't disable them.
The TV has a fantastic selection of apps, so it's easy to find your favorite content. You can also cast content from your phone onto the TV or play videos directly from a USB stick.
The TV comes with the same remote as last year's TCL Q6/Q650G QLED. It has a motion-activated backlight and buttons for popular streaming services. You can use the built-in microphone to switch inputs, change apps, search within apps, and ask for the weather and time. Unfortunately, you can't change the settings on the TV using the voice controls.
