TCL P8L (65P8L-UK) review

While it’s always a thrill to review the latest and greatest flagship TVs, there’s something really satisfying about discovering an affordable model that punches above its weight.

That’s precisely what we have here. Having tested myriad budget sets as part of our Awards judging process, one model stands head and shoulders above its rivals: say hello to the TCL P8L.

Price

The 65-inch TCL P8L we’re testing launched with a price tag of £849, but it can now be bought for an even more attractive price of £749.

If you want to go a little smaller and/or cheaper, there’s a 55-inch P8L with a price tag of £649, and the range goes up to a whopping 98-inch model, although pricing for that one has not yet been revealed.

The P8L series is designed to offer a more budget-conscious alternative to LG's C-series, but the specs still look very attractive for the price, with Mini LED backlighting, Quantum Dot colours and 4K/144Hz gaming all on the menu.

If you’re wondering about US and Aussie pricing, there isn’t any, as the P8L isn’t available in either of those regions. We understand that the US QM6K model is at least very similar, but the potential for differences means this P8L review shouldn’t be considered as also applying to the QM6K.

Design

The TCL P8L is a pretty good-looking TV for its price. Plastic features heavily, of course, but it’s been largely successfully disguised to look like metal.

The thin bezel is black on three sides, with a slightly thicker silver lip at the bottom. There's a TCL logo at the centre of this bottom lip, and another badge that says ‘Premium QLED’ close to the top of the right edge. It looks rather like a cuff at the top of someone’s ear, and it really bothers some of our reviewers.

In the box are two silver feet that can be positioned either fairly close together, giving the TV a footprint that’s just 56cm wide, or further apart to make more room for a soundbar. The amount of clearance beneath the bottom of the screen is just 6.5cm, though, so do bear that in mind.

At its thickest point, the TV is a not inconsiderable 7cm, but this tapers at the edges in a fairly attractive way. This thickness serves a purpose, too, as in the centre of the rear of the TV is a large Onkyo-branded ‘Ultra Bass’ subwoofer that will hopefully give the TV’s audio some low-end heft.

Features

Also on the back of the P8L is a recess for the physical connections, which include four HDMI sockets, through two of which the TV can handle 4K/144Hz (and 4K/120Hz) gaming. VRR, ALLM and Dolby Vision gaming are all supported, too, even via the two 4K/60Hz ports.

Dolby Vision is of course supported for movies and TV shows, too, but so are HLG, HDR10 and HDR10+, which means the P8L scores a clean sheet of high dynamic range format support – something that no TV from Samsung, Sony or LG offers, regardless of price.

As is the norm for TCL TVs, the P8L runs the Google TV smart platform, which brings with it a huge app selection. TCL has also gone out of its way to support all four of the UK’s terrestrial catch-up apps.

In fact, of the 32 apps we check every TV for, just four are absent from the P8L: the Amazon Luna and Xbox cloud gaming apps, Apple Music and Amazon Music. Not only is everything else on board, but every app that should support 4K, HDR and/or Dolby Atmos does so.

In terms of core panel tech, the P8L is of course an LCD set, but it features Quantum Dot colours and a Mini LED backlight with, according to our count, 72 independent dimming zones.

The P8L also boasts one of TCL’s HVA panels, which launched last year and have quickly garnered a reputation for providing better viewing angles and less blooming than typical VA panels. TCL says that this is backed up by a ‘Bionic Lighting Algorithm’ that is designed to optimise details of light and dark scenes.

‘Transient Response’, meanwhile, is designed to reduce ghosting caused by backlight lag, and there are, as is the norm in 2026, umpteen AI picture processing features on board, though we elect to avoid these in favour of a more authentic picture that’s truer to creative intent.

It’s worth noting that the P8L’s panel features quite a reflective glossy coating that can prove a little troublesome in very brightly lit rooms. Of course, that also means it doesn’t have the raised black issue that is common with TVs with matte coatings.

For sound, TCL has teamed up with Onkyo, which has produced a 2.1-channel system comprising the aforementioned rear-mounted, 15W subwoofer, and two 10W speakers built into the TV's underside. Dolby Atmos is supported via this speaker system and the HDMI eARC port.

Picture quality

At the P8L’s level, we still see lots of TVs with no local dimming, and yet more with very poor local dimming. The TCL’s Mini LED backlight, though, is a breath of fresh air.

While blooming around bright objects on black or very dark backgrounds (studio logos at the start of movies, for example, and the spotlights during the bomb test scene of Oppenheimer) certainly isn’t non-existent, it’s subtle and diffuse enough not to distract, and while blacks certainly aren’t OLED-deep, the P8L skillfully avoids producing the flat, grey image that’s typical of similarly priced rivals.

In fact, this is a pleasantly dynamic performer that delivers punchy highlights and impressive depth for the money. It skilfully balances the requirements for sparkling stars and deep, dark space in the opening of Alien: Romulus, for example.

This knack for balance is evident in the way the P8L handles colours, too. The reds and oranges of the recovery ship’s cockpit lights are punchy and vibrant against their dim, metallic housings, but character skin tones are rendered in natural hues and shades.

This balance is achievable with very little user input required, too: the Filmmaker Mode has been really well tuned to deliver impressive cinematic authenticity without the lifelessness that can afflict this same preset on other budget-oriented TVs.

That said, if you prefer a bit more pop, the Standard preset provides a crisper, cooler, brighter picture that’s still surprisingly nicely judged – just remember to reduce the Motion Clarity setting to Low or Off if you choose this preset, as the default Medium setting over-smooths motion in that soap opera fashion we all know and loathe.

On the subject of settings to watch out for, be sure to delve into the TV’s Energy Dashboard to switch off Dynamic Brightness, as this can artificially dim the picture.

Even when uninhibited, the P8L isn’t the brightest TV. It’s bright enough to deliver the benefits of HDR, but in a very bright room, it can struggle somewhat to punch through, even in its brighter presets.

And while we’re talking flaws, while the P8L’s black levels are satisfyingly deep considering the price of the TV, there’s also a little black crush, with some fine details lost to dark shadows. Raising the Black Level setting just a touch can resurface this lost detail at the expense of some depth, but it’s tricky to find the perfect balance. We find 53 to be the sweetest spot, but it still doesn’t quite provide the perfect blend of depth and shadow detail.

These really are minor niggles considering the price of the TV and the overall picture quality it provides at that price, and that remains true when we drop from the 4K HDR movies used so far to an HD SDR stream of The Turkish Detective from BBC iPlayer, which once again demonstrates the TV’s considered approach to colours and contrast while also proving it to be capable of clean, detailed upscaling.

The P8L is a strong option for gamers, too, with those impressive specs being backed up by a punchy, responsive performance. Gamers looking for a big, budget TV to accompany their PS5 or Xbox Series X should put this TCL to the top of their lists.

Sound quality

Considering the down-firing nature of the drivers, the sound they produce is impressively well anchored to the screen, with the dialogue of The Turkish Detective appearing to come directly from the characters. And while voices aren’t projected particularly far out into the room, they’re still clear, relatively detailed and reasonably emotive by the standards of affordable TVs.

That said, there’s a bit of a lack of lower midrange that can make deeper voices sound a little more lightweight than they should.

Switch to a Dolby Atmos movie, and the P8L has a surprisingly successful stab at supplying cinematic width and height, with effects stretching reasonably far to the left and right, and even a little way above the TV. And while the lower-midrange might be a little lacking, the subwoofer provides a useful bit of upper-bass that gives the presentation some additional solidity.

Of course, while the P8L sounds pretty good for a TV in its price range and will do the job with everyday content, you really need to budget for a dedicated audio system if at all possible. One of the best budget soundbars will boost your overall movie enjoyment substantially.

Verdict

The TCL P8L is a rare find. It’s not the cheapest TV, but it punches well above its weight in terms of picture quality and specs, and it sounds good by general TV standards, too.

Those with super-bright rooms might find its unspectacular brightness and reflective coating a slight issue, but for everyone else, this is the new benchmark for large, sub-£1000 TVs.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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