The world is full of acronyms…

Texts are fill of LOLs, ROFLs, OMGs.  Cars have BSM, ABS, and E-diffs.

Now we come along and add “QD Mini LED” to the lexicon of acronyms!

But when it comes to getting a new TV this year, I promise this is one acronym that should be among your “must-haves” in 2024.

TV Tech 101

Understanding the benefits of this revolutionary technology requires a little investment in learning a few basics of TV tech.  Fear not, this won’t be too painful.  A few basics:

  • The "engine" of our TVs is the backlight. Its lights within the back of the TV that shine through to the LCD panel at the front which "paints your picture." These backlights are made up of LEDs. The better performing the backlight, the better your picture will be.

  • A "color layer" is the part of our TVs that adds the color to the black and white portion of the image you see. Having a color layer made up of quantum dots (QLED) has generally come to mean the best color reproduction. Tiny bit of nerd tech: "Quantum dots" are nano crystals that when electricity is applied to them, they emit a very specific color, based on the size of the crystal (really!). That’s what makes QLED so awesome.  If the TV needs to reproduce red, it’s not pinkish-red, or ruby-red, it’s red.

True Performance

Those are a few key things to know that will help the next part make sense.

We all know that "not all things are created equal." The 1978 Cadillac 500 had a V8 with 178 horsepower. The V8 in the Ferrari SF90 has 986 horsepower.

So, when a manufacturer claims their TV has a "Mini LED backlight," it’s important to know these details to ensure that the product delivers the promise that the name implies.

At TCL, we avoid that pitfall. When a customer sees one of our new QD-Mini LED TVs, they know it will achieve certain, lofty, performance levels. Standards for brightness, contrast and color need to be met for it to be called a QD-Mini LED TV.

Layered innovations

But the more important part to me is what we do from an innovation perspective that leads to these high standards of performance. 

It all starts with Pangu, the Chinese creator God who is said to have formed the world out of chaos!

Well, it’s not directly about that, but about TCL’s Pangu Lab.

Fully established in 2021, it’s TCL’s Full Process Mini LED Development Lab. A staff of 40+ Engineers, Optical Experts, and Doctors, design, engineer, and test-manufacture, in-house QD-Mini LED TV technologies. 

When I say we are vertically integrated and, "we make our own stuff," it fails to capture the amazing work being done here, and in our manufacturing. It is this capability that has led to the newest innovations found in our 2024 QD Mini LED TVs.

This includes a HEXA Mini LED Chip, which is a brighter, better performing and more power efficient light source within our backlight. We also make our Ultra-wide Angle (UWA) Optical lens, which is smaller, more stable (than Organic materials) and even has a birefringent design which ensures even light distribution. Combined with our Optical Distance Reduction (ODR) technology, these advances increase performance, while virtually eliminating haloing and blooming. The holy grail of LED performance.

A Leap Forward in Home Entertainment

What all this means is that having an in-house lab staffed by the best in the industry who design, engineer, and test manufacture these TCL components of our Mini LED backlight, allows us to make sure all of our TVs’ components work seamlessly together, compared with brands that aren’t vertically integrated and have to buy off-the-shelf components that weren’t "vetted" in a way that in-house manufacturing allows us to do. 

Our 2024 QM751, QM851, and QM891, all use QD-Mini LED technology. Our vertical integration not only ensures that the promise of stellar performance is realized, but it also helps us maintain world-class quality, and avoids the added costs of paying a middleman to source parts.

When a car enthusiast sees a crinkle coat red painted valve cover stamped with the Ferrari brand, they know. When a chef lights up their Gaggenau stove, they know. When a man slips into his bespoke Thom Browne suit, they knows. 

And for 2024, TV enthusiasts looking for the best TV and ask for a TCL with QD-Mini LED, they know.