Chinese electronics firm TCL has moved lifted some of its laser focus on dominating the bargain basement (though, it's still there, natch), with its first Quantum Dot 4K TV. Announced at CES 2016 and known as the TCL X1 line, the curved, 65-inch 4K screens are set to land in the second half of 2016 in the US.
The new TVs are said to bring all the usual advancements, like a wider color gamut, brighter highlights up to 1,000 nits, a deeper contrast ratio and a new 4K upscaling engine known as 4K Creative Pro. Powering all of that is a quad-core processor and a hexa-core graphics chip, and the set pumps out sound through a Harman Kardon sound system with six discrete audio drivers.
But the most notable of the features within this 65-inch, 15.4mm-thin frame is DolbyVision HDR technology. And the whole package is wrapped into a new, proprietary television platform that TCL calls "QUHD". (As if we needed any more acronyms.)
Now in … DolbyVision
TCL has teamed with audio and video pioneer Dolby Laboratories to bring HDR performance to its X1 line of TVs, catching the firm up with its biggest rivals. The biggest driver behind this tech is, simply put, more brightness.
The firm claims that DolbyVision HDR allows the X1 to shine 40 times brighter than today's standard sets. This is enabled in part by the X1's whopping 288 zones of direct LED local dimming for a reportedly top-notch contrast ratio.
To make sure you have stuff to watch in HDR, Dolby and TCL are also enlisting the major streaming service providers, namely Vudu, to provide the X1 with direct access to its HDR programming.
TCL has yet to say how much its flashy new X1 TV will cost when it hits the US later this year.
The first 4K Roku TVs are here
Already teased lightly by Roku itself, TCL is the first of the set-top box maker's partners to release 4K Roku TVs. More specifically, the Roku OS-running TCL sets are known as the US5800 and the UP130 - the latter of which being a new line for the firm.
Roku also worked with TCL to bring its 4K Spotlight Channel to the TVs, serving up everything within Roku's library that supports 4K viewing. The TVs will come in 43, 50, 55 and 65-inch sizes, though the former kind of misses the point of 4K.
All of TCL's 4K Roku TVs will hit the US starting this spring for an undisclosed price. There's still no word on when, if ever, TCL will expand beyond the North American and Chinese markets.
TCL's got a giant TV, too
Finally, TCL will show off its answer to Samsung and LG's enormous television sets with a 110-inch, curved 4K TV on the CES show floor. The TV seems to incorporate much of what's inside its X1 model, but at a gigantic scale. The thing seems to be so new, it doesn't even have a name yet much less a price and release date.
- Catch all the latest on CES 2016
