CES 2025: TCL pushes big-screen QD-Mini LED TV to the Max

We reviewed some very large televisions from TCL in 2024, but none were quite as big as the 115in TCL X955 Max the brand showed off at CES earlier this week. 

To date, we’ve been very impressed by what TCL has brought to market in its bid for large-screen supremacy. The 85in TCL C855K received a five-star rating and our Best Buy award from Stephen Withers in November and that success was followed up by the 98in TCL Q9BK, which picked up four stars and a Recommended badge from John Archer. 

Both of those TVs are dwarfed by the 115in TCL X955 Max. Unveiled last year, the TV has now officially been launched and is being touted as the “world’s largest QD-Mini LED TV”. It’s not the largest Mini LED TV outright, with TCL’s Chinese rival Hisense unveiling a 116in Mini LED TV – the 116UX – but that uses independent red, green and blue Mini LEDs instead of a quantum dot filter to create its range of colours.

Even still, this is an enormous and extremely well-specified 4K television. The panel is said to hit a blazing peak brightness of 5,000 nits and has a whopping 20,000 local dimming zones, while the 6.2.2-channel Onkyo audio system supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X.

In addition to showcasing the X955 Max, TCL unveiled its flagship QD-Mini LED option for this year: the TCL X11K. This particular model won’t be available in such an extravagant size – TCL has confirmed 85in and 98in options – but has plenty going for it. For starters, it’s even brighter than the X955 Max, with a stated peak brightness of over 6,500 nits. It’s not quite as well furnished with dimming zones, although 14,000 should still enable it to deliver supremely precise contrast control, while its 144Hz refresh rate is great for current-gen gaming.

Most interestingly, TCL has enlisted luxury Danish brand Bang & Olufsen to deliver “bespoke sound solutions” on the X11K. What impact this will have on the price remains to be seen, but given B&O’s high-end reputation, the partnership seems like a statement of TCL’s intent to show that it’s not only interested in undercutting the competition with aggressively priced TVs in a wide range of sizes.

Those wanting a more space-efficient way of enjoying large-scale entertainment at home are also eating well following the announcement of the TCL Playcube. This funky-looking portable projector is only the second such product from the Chinese brand and details about its specifications are very thin on the ground.

It’s battery-powered and can be used either indoors or outside, but those things aside, all we know about it is that it sports a novel “Magic Cube design” with modular rectangular sections, one of which can be twisted to adjust the angle of projection. 

Projectors have boomed in popularity of late; we saw countless launches at IFA and several more enticing alternatives have debuted at CES. The Playcube is undoubtedly one of the most striking – if its performance and price are right, TCL could be onto a winner.