TCL C755 75-inch Review — Monster Mini-LED TV Bringing a Cinema Experience Into Your Home

The average TV size of a household is said to be 55-inches. Now, in the South African context, we’re sure that number varies greatly, but the reality is that our sport-loving, video game-playing, and movie-indulging audience knows how to appreciate a sizable TV unit. Thankfully, TCL is making owning one a much more feasible reality.

In years gone by, a 70-inch+ TV would hurt your wallet quite substantially, but TCL’s range of high-end, mini-LED TVs keep the cost down while delivering some serious bang for your buck — and the C755 is the perfect example of that.

Coming in at 75-inches, the TCL C755 is a QD-Mini-LED TV that utilises quantum dot technology (hence the ‘QD’) and Mini LEDs as opposed to regular LEDs. What does this actually mean? Well, the Mini LED technology has found its way into more and more TVs in recent years, as manufacturers can now make smaller LEDs and therefore squeeze more of these tiny lights into each TV panel, giving greater control over the image. This is because the higher number of LEDs mean that the display is able to darken or brighten more ‘accurately’ based on the picture that is being shown, as the panel has more areas of the display to adjust.

While small, the result is noticeable. The TCL C755 has an incredibly bright display, having a high dynamic range (HDR) of 1,300 nits (an average TV is around 600-1,000 nits). This does make a difference when watching closely or comparing it to an older-tech TV, especially when the C755 is able to deliver a bright image in a movie, or a darker, more vivid image without losing any clarity. There’s no ghosting or double-imaging when those fast-moving and darker movie scenes get rolling, allowing you to watch a dimly lit horror or CGI sequence without wondering what the heck you’re looking at.

Making the image even cleaner is the TV’s 144Hz refresh rate, giving you video that is silky smooth without any frame-rate issues. This is particularly noticeable when playing games on a PS5 or Xbox Series X. A high-frame-rate game looks stunning when in motion, especially using the TV’s built-in ‘Game Mode’ (which TCL calls ‘Game Master’), which we’ll elaborate on.

Most TVs use processing techniques and a little bit of backroom magic to display an image in a certain way, especially when trying to optimise compressed visuals from a streaming service or media box, for example. While it’s helpful with most video coming into your TV, you don’t really need this when utilising the processing power of a gaming console, and in some cases, this processing can even hamper or downgrade the image quality coming from your Playstation, Xbox, or Switch. TCL’s Game Mode bypasses the TV’s native processing for the TV to run the image with the least latency optimum refresh rate, as the console or input device intended.

It works well and gives you the most uninterrupted or ‘edited’ version of the game you’re playing, allowing you to tinker with any setting as you see fit, rather than having to switch features off or tinker around in menus every time you switch from your console to watching sport, for example.

One of the most overlooked elements of modern TVs is the sound, and thankfully C755 delivers the boom in spades. Despite being fairly thin, the C755 does include some punchy speakers that work with Dolby’s Atmos spatial audio technology, giving you the impression you’re using a hefty soundbar. A useful feature for those who don’t have a full speaker set-up. Using it for movies, gaming, or watching sport, there was no need to utilise an external speaker system to elevate the sound — it worked excellently, gave great surround sound, and didn’t even require any adjustment for a great cinematic experience.

Most people these days have some sort of a media box or video player, but the C755 comes with the latest version of Google TV, which runs incredibly smoothly, has a very intuitive UI, and gives you the flexibility to download more apps and use your TV for a variety of other things (video calling, for example). The hardware running the TV allows clicking and scrolling around Netflix or other apps a seamless experience, with no hiccup, slowdown, or stutter, which makes the experience from A-Z a lot more enjoyable.

The build quality of the actual TV is impressive, and its almost bezel-less design gives you a very sleek and futuristic-looking display. The 75-inch is fairly heavy, though, so mounting it to a wall is possible, but probably not recommended. Of course, you get a stand with the TV, which is a bit of a mixed bag. In terms of appearance, it looks great, as the stand itself is plastic but features metal support to withstand the weight, and it’s got a zig-zag design that makes the appearance of the TV set-up incredibly cool, minimalist, and architectural.

However, if you’re assembling the TV on your own, you’ll have to lay the TV down on its display (using a mattress or blankets to protect it) while you mount the stand on its back panel. You could use two people to hold the TV upright while you mount it to the back, but how many people have two extra (strong) friends floating around their house? It’s a good-looking stand, is sturdy, and works well — but its design and the fact it attaches to the back instead of under the TV is a bit bizarre.

Verdict

TCL’s C755 75-inch is a stunning TV that has all the bells and whistles you could ask for. The Mini-LED display is gorgeous and vivid with colours, the standard built-in audio is excellent in comparison to other competitors on the market, and, while the stand is a bit strange (despite working well), the unit is incredibly priced for its specs and quality. You don’t need a TV this big, but once you’ve experienced it, you don’t know how you lived without it.

The TCL C755 75-inch TV is priced at R24,999.