TCL is dramatically undercutting Hisense with the launch of its newest 115-inch Mini-LED TV, which is going on sale in the U.K. for the astonishingly low (for a model of this size) price tag of just £7,500
The new TV in question is the TCL 115C7K, and as the name suggests it’s a 115-inch 4K Mini-LED model with a 144Hz refresh rate and the Google TV platform. It’s launching in the U.S. and in Europe as well as the U.K. In the U.S. it’ll be known as the TCL QM7K, and it’s going to be priced at $14,000, while in Europe (same model name as the U.K.) it’ll go for just €8,888, the company said.
With the launch, TCL is joining Hisense in pushing the boundaries for “ultra-sized” LCD TVs, having previously made televisions in the 98-inch and 100-inch categories relatively affordable.
This isn’t TCL’s first 115-inch model. The company debuted its flagship ultra-sized television, called the QM891G (X955 Pro in the U.S.) earlier this year, but it carries a price tag of $17,999 (around £13,400) and it’s not available in the U.K. We also saw the launch of Hisense’s first 116-inch television this year in the shape of its 116UX RGB-MiniLED model, which boasts the latest RGB LED display technology and costs a staggering £24,999.
Hisense was the first to try and make ultra-sized TVs more affordable. Earlier this month, it debuted the 116-inch U75QG ULED Mini-LED TV, marketing it as a “mid-range” model with a price tage of just $19,999 (around ₤14,800), but of course, that’s still more expensive that TCL’s QM891G flagship.
TCL can therefore stake a claim that the 115C7K is the first ultra-sized TV set that’s genuinely not terribly pricey, considering what you’ll get for your money. It’s a big deal because 115- and 116-inch TVs are significantly larger than the 98- and 100-inch models that currently dominate the large-size category. With these models, TVs now match the cinematic chops of home projectors, which have traditionally been favored by anyone trying to recreate a theatre-style experience in their homes.
The advantage is that TVs offer much better picture quality than projectors in general, they’re a lot easier to set up, and there’s not really any need to worry about ambient lighting. So now they can almost match projectors in terms of picture size, we could well see TVs begin to threaten their dominance in home cinema environments.
We haven't yet seen TCL's 115C7K up close, but to get an idea of just how large 115-inches really is, check out the size of HDTVTest's Vincent Teoh, compared to Samsung's new Micro RGB TV:
Of course, we understand that TCL’s £7,500 price tag is still expensive for many consumers, but it’s also within the means of a significantly larger audience than earlier ultra-size TV models.
Prices for ultra-size TVs have been declining for a while. For instance, TCL’s flagship 115-inch TV from last year, the TCL X955 Max, is now available in U.S. stores for less than half of its initial price tag. And that explains why Omdia is confident that we’ll see an explosion in sales of TVs over 80-inches over the next five years.
The question now is whether or not TCL and Hisense are planning to go even bigger. Last year, TCL told FlatPanelsHD that it has already developed the capability to manufacture even bigger LCD panels of 130-inches and 148-inches, though it said the costs would be significantly more expensive. It has not yet released such massive models, however, and it's not clear yet if it will, or if consumers even have an appetite for such enormous screens.
