TCL 65-Inch Q7 QLED 4K Smart Google TV (

There's not as many professional reviews out there on this one as compared to the older 5 and 6 series TCL TVs, which are rated really well by the sites out there that do reviews. But they are getting harder to find and since they are scarcer than the current 2023 production models, the prices are high. When the current 2023 models had a discount for the first time we decided to take a closer look. The QM7 is about the least expensive native 120hz panel with local dimming that's out there right now, so for us it was worth a look. We saw the QM7 TV in person at a local B&M retailer before purchasing in on Amazon. The B&M retailer had it on a TCL specific showcase display with both QM6 and QM7 TVs running content that really highlighted the TV's performance. I can tell you that the QM7 is definitely worth the extra cost over the QM6. The price for the QM7 75" was the same both places, on sale roughly 30% off list MSRP which may be more or less the normal price from this point out since the newer models have been out a few months now. Amazon's shipping was faster as the B&M did not have the 75 inch in stock, so that took the cake for buying it from Amazon. One of the reasons we chose this TV besides the picture was the minimalist bezel, it is silver on the outside but it is barely noticeable when you're looking at the TV. We had previously considered an Amazon Omni-QLED 75" TV, but upon seeing it at the aforementioned B&M retailer on a prior visit, it had a large silver bezel that is super noticable as compared to the TCLs. That was not wife acceptable, and as we all know, happy wife equals happy wife. I chose the delivery and unpack in the room of my choice and the service was great, really nice folks, they unpacked it, put the feet on, and stood it up on my TV stand. Suprisingly the somewhat stocky woman of the unpack duo hoisted the TV on her shoulder and carried it by herself from the truck outside into the house and to our living room. She didn't struggle at all to do it either and the TV never looked like it was going to fall off her shoulders. As for the TV itself I'm pretty happy with it so far. It's our first time with the Google TV interface and it's very responsive. I was a little apprehensive about bringing yet a third smart TV platform into the house, but, the Google interface is really easy to use. The menu setup is somewhat similar to the FireSticks where recently used apps are in a horizontal row near the top, so I don't think it will take the others in the household long to adapt. We are also heavy Google users anyway and have multiple Google smart speakers around the house, so I really think this is a better fit for us long term than Roku or FireStick. The TCL remote also has Google Assistant buttons on it and I think we will use those. Some folks said the setup took a long time but I really didn't think so. I was initially unable to sign in from my phone through the Google Home app so I just skipped that step, it allows you to set up from your phone or set up using your remote. The TV asked for a software update so I did that and then the reboot took about 5-10 minutes and then it didn't ask for any further updates. It also asked me what apps that I used so I chose all those and it installed them automatically. After the update it asked me to sign in directly to Google so I did that instead of trying to pair it with my phone and it worked this time. The picture quality is excellent, although like any TV it's somewhat source dependent on how good the picture is. If you give it content that lets it shine, it will wow you. For example, the LG OLED store demo loop is on YouTube at 4Kp60 with HDR 10 and it looks awesome on this TV. I am super impressed with the lack of motion lag as well, watching some sporting events. This TV upscales SD content better than other TCL TV's I've had in the past, although if you're some kind of upscaling purist you might think it's not quite enough. It's perfectly fine for my needs. I purposefully avoid trying to watching SD content in the first place, if I can avoid it. When I buy a TV, the overall performance with the very best content is my first consideration, ie, 4K HDR content. Everything else is secondary or tertiary. I have not calibrated it yet and I'm hoping that there are more review sites out there soon that have this TV along with their recommended calibration settings. Out of the box it's pretty good, the colors are vivid, but not oversaturated like on many Samsungs. (if you want something that looks like a Samsung, buy a Samsung, I think it makes things look cartoonish, but anyway) It has some kind of AI picture mode chooser and I can see that it's already choosing different than I would choose, like for example it chose something that looked like a movie mode when I was watching one of those David Attenborough documentaries on Netflix. I would not have chosen a movie mode for a wildlife documentary, but anyway. I think I will probably disable this setting and calibrate it more to my liking as I get more time with it. Since reviewers have dinged it on it's brightness compared to the older TCL 6-series, I can say that I have it in a room that's pretty bright with 6 windows and it doesn't have a problem overcoming reflections and so forth. I have it right between two 3x5 windows and it's plenty bright enough, I'm not seeing any reflections. To step up with something with a lot more brightness like a Samsung Neo-QLED would cost a LOT more. Some sites say the Hisense U8H is the best choice in this price range for brightness based on what's currently out there and easily obtainable, but that set in a 75" was 25% more money than this one and I was not able to see it anywhere locally with decent content on it. The B&M store I visited had some Hisense models on display but they were only showing low resolution store ads on them. The WiFi performance seems excellent with this set, looking at the "Stats for Nerds" feature on YouTube I was seeing up to 115Mpbs throughput on 4Kp60 videos. I do have a business class WiFi network using Ubiquiti ceiling mounted access points but even so it seems really fast to load streaming videos and so forth compared to my other TVs and sticks. I tried out the "TCL Channel" which is a list of IPTV channels similar to the Roku Channel and IPTV functionality that other platforms have as well, my LG upstairs has an IPTV app as well but I don't remember what they call it. I like the TCL Channel app better than the Roku Channel and the equivalent LG app as they have things sorted by category which makes it easier to find the content you are looking for. The TCL channel app is also a little more intuitative than the others, I was able to pick it how it worked in about 15 seconds and find some interesting channels more quickly than on the others. The category list on the far left really helps with this. Anyway, pretty happy with this TV, it's a solid value at the price point. I think most people would be happy with it. If money is no object and you want a TV that is bright as the light from a thousand suns, buy a Samsung Q90C. If money is no object and you watch movies in pitch black rooms all day long, get an LG G3 OLED. Otherwise, for the rest of us, this is a great TV with a great picture at a good price. Will update with my experiences, I've only just got this TV recently.