China’s TCL will, like Samsung, rebrand its high-end LCD TVs to ”QLED”. At IFA 2017, the company launched its X2 range with quantum dots and Android TV.
Chinese-Korean QLED Alliance
It is hardly a surprise that China’s TCL has started pushing ”QLED”. Together with its rival Hisense and South Korea's Samsung, the three companies have formed the ”QLED Alliance” as a front against OLED.
QLED, in its current form, is not a new display technology but a marketing term for LCD technology with quantum dots. The displays have the same fundamental advantages and disadvantages as conventional LCD TVs, except for higher brightness and a wider color space. At IFA, TCL said that X2 is the first ”QLED Android TV”.
- ”Thanks to Quantum Dot technology, TCL QLED enables the X2 to display richer colors in stunning detail, with contrast optimized with Ultra Micro Dimming. The result is a cinema-quality picture with stunning colors and subtle variations from full light to complete darkness, thanks to the reactions of its 10-bit screen. The X2 XESS Series benefits from HDR Pro technology, which produces dazzling pictures and delivers 103% DCI-P3 color volume with precise light and dark shade reproduction,” the company said.
The X2 range was first unveiled at CES 2017 in Las Vegas in January. Back then, it was unveiled as a ”QUHD TV”.
360-degree design & Android TV
TCL says that X2 features a 360-degree design. The TV is ”edgeless” and just 7.9 mm at its thinnest point. The integrated 3.1-channel soundbar has been developed in collaboration with JBL.
X2 is based on Google’s ’Android TV’ operating system. At launch it will run Android version 6.0 and will later be updated to version 7.0. The Netflix and YouTube apps will support 4K HDR streaming. It also features built-in Chromecast.
TCL says that X2 has a peak brightness of 800 nits and that it supports HDR (High Dynamic Range).
TCL X2 will launch in Europe this fall in 55 and 65 inch formats. Pricing details were not announced.
