Need advice on buying a 75" mini LED TV (TCL C72K? Q6C? Hisense U7Q?)

[psychotropic]

Hi folks, it's been years since I posted here but I am back for pretty much the same reason I joined these forums in 2008, I am looking to buy a TV (back then I ended up buying a 42" Samsung plasma TV). I want to get a 75" mini LED model, and the TCL options seem the most enticing. I wanted to get the Q6C, but then I saw many bad reviews on Amazon and another thread here about a defective piece and that spooked me.

I went to the TCL store here (CIT Nagar, Chennai), and they quoted 1,06,000 for the mostly comparable C6K (mini LED, 512 zone dimming, and apparently 3 GB RAM unlike the Q6C which has 2 GB, according to the guy in the store.

He also has the C72K (way better specs and very well reviewed), for 1,35,000, but with a cashback on my credit card it comes down to 1,27,000 - so effectively a 21k premium over the C6K (no cashback on that). I need advice on the following:

1) Does it make sense to buy it from the store despite the price not being that much better than online? The chap said they'll directly help with service requests etc.
2) Are there better deals available for these models? Is there any other place I should be looking?
3) Is the C72K worth the 21k premium over the C6K?
4) Are there in fact other models I should be considering, such as from Hisense? (I looked at the Hisense U7Q and that seems pretty good as well, even though with fewer dimming zones than the C6K. should i consider that?)

Thanks in advance for all your help!

 

[psychotropic]

Okay friends, as an update, I am leaning towards the C72K, but the TCL showroom guy says he won't do extended warranty, I have to do it directly from oneassist. Does anyone have any experience with this? I am going to check at a different TCL showroom today to compare prices and see if they will help with extended warranty etc, but if any of you have had any experience in this regard, please do share. Thank you!

 

[argho]

Following the thread.

 

[psychotropic]

Just going to keep updating my process, in case anyone reading later finds it useful.

I went to TCL showroom No. 2, in Pallavaram, there the situation seems a bit different. They also have athe C6K available, but they said C72K is "not available anywhere in Chennai". This place has 10,000 rupee cashback on the C6K, whereas the other shop said no cashback (they had said cashback only for C72K).

These guys also say they will arrange the TCL extended warranty, can be availed for 3 years over and above the 2 years default warranty (it costs roughly 20k though). Since I am jobless enough I might go and visit one more TCL showroom (in Tambaram), to see if they have anything else to say.

After mulling over it, i might just go for the C6K since it will still be a decent upgrade over my 2020 model Hisense 65"U7Q (FALD, 700 nits peak brightness).

 

[argho]

Do you already have a Hisense U7Q ? I thought its a new model ?

 

[SatMumbai]

IMO, this is a price based decision between various brands. I bought the 75" U7Q for 85K via amazon on the las sale which I think is worth it. With TCL you get Google TV and slightly better calibration out of box (subjectively) and I put this at 5k to 7K range but you may have more value on this. If you are able to tell the differences between various price brackets of TCL / Hisense model, it is good for you. I couldn't so I chose the one that matches the budget / VFM. Though we spend alot of time today in making sure that we make the right decisions, few months down the line it does not matter too much, I guess! U7Q from Hisense is amazing in brightness but it took a while for me to get used to their color science. I am about 90% satisfied with it. I still have preference for Sony colors but not at the cost of the premium they are asking for !!

 

[psychotropic]

Do you already have a Hisense U7Q ? I thought its a new model ?

No no, this old 2020 television also happened to have the same model number as the new one!

 

[psychotropic]

IMO, this is a price based decision between various brands. I bought the 75" U7Q for 85K via amazon on the las sale which I think is worth it. With TCL you get Google TV and slightly better calibration out of box (subjectively) and I put this at 5k to 7K range but you may have more value on this. If you are able to tell the differences between various price brackets of TCL / Hisense model, it is good for you. I couldn't so I chose the one that matches the budget / VFM. Though we spend alot of time today in making sure that we make the right decisions, few months down the line it does not matter too much, I guess! U7Q from Hisense is amazing in brightness but it took a while for me to get used to their color science. I am about 90% satisfied with it. I still have preference for Sony colors but not at the cost of the premium they are asking for !!

Thank you for that, yes that's how I am trying to look at it as well. The Hisense U7Q also seems to be at a similar price point, but I can't seem to exactly understand which is the equivalent model in the US/UK, so I can check the reliable review sites for some useful reviews. Could you let me know, in case you know?

 

[psychotropic]

Oh I forgot to mention, the Pallavaram TCL store's price for the C6K is 1,03,990, so after CC cash back it'll come down to 93,990, which seems to be a decent price. Has anyone come across meaningfully better prices for this model or equivalents?

 

[mr_grump5]

@psychotropic what's the best price you got quoted for C72K? many got 75" C8K around 1.30L-1.40L during Flipkart sale, also jump in quality from C6K to C8K is huge, C8K with B&O speakers are lot better and you can also upgrade to firmware used by rest of the world with C8K rather than being tied down with India specific firmware with C72K.

 

[SatMumbai]

Thank you for that, yes that's how I am trying to look at it as well. The Hisense U7Q also seems to be at a similar price point, but I can't seem to exactly understand which is the equivalent model in the US/UK, so I can check the reliable review sites for some useful reviews. Could you let me know, in case you know?

If I have both TCL and Hisense at similar price points, then I would go for TCL for the reasons mentioned above! It is funny that in Germany there is U7Q which is sold at a premium than entry level TCL. I am not sure if there are any version differences but I would guess we are splitting hair here at this price range and with these brands. Chinese brands can do one thing amazing, that is to launch so many products with small variations that in the end, a non savvy person, just gives up and picks the one that is easily available. If I can give any piece of advice, it is about the screen size. I am comfortable with larger size and with the current information I have, I would have gone for 85" (if not 98/100"). This gives a bigger difference in the immersion / experience than minor tweaks in PQ amongst the brands, these days. In the past, about 15 years back, the entry level Toshiba was really poor PQ compared to Sony but today the gap is so much smaller.

 

[argho]

I somehow assumed that Hisense is better than TCL.
I know that Hisense makes their own panels.

Does TCL also manufacture their own panels ?

 

[SatMumbai]

I somehow assumed that Hisense is better than TCL.
I know that Hisense makes their own panels.

Does TCL also manufacture their own panels ?

Probably.. but as an end consumer the things that matter to me are price, easy of set up of PQ, required features and reliability. Reliability (and customer support) is no more as it was in the past even with biggger brands. Unless there is a special use case all of them offer similar feature set. Based on the rest of the two items, which are tangible for me, I feel that TCL has edge but I didnt enough of each to make a sweeping recommendation, one way or other. Generally google TV means it gets supported for longer time with upgrades but with home brewed OS it always feels like I am a beta user.
And finally when I purchased there was a clear 10-15K price difference between the two and I set that money aside for the next purchase which made me more at ease towards Hisense. Funnily, at 85" size both brands were at the same price (and I would have chosen TCL, flip of coin). I think I would have a tougher time deciding a 98" TCL vs 100" Hisense (given the extra 2" and ego satisfaction of a 3 digit number), when the time comes to that !!!

 

[psychotropic]

@psychotropic what's the best price you got quoted for C72K? many got 75" C8K around 1.30L-1.40L during Flipkart sale, also jump in quality from C6K to C8K is huge, C8K with B&O speakers are lot better and you can also upgrade to firmware used by rest of the world with C8K rather than being tied down with India specific firmware with C72K.

After CC cashback it comes down to 1.26 lakhs for the C72K. I know it's substantially better than the C6K but the fact is I am actually very happy with the picture on my 5 year old TV also, so I am not so keen on spending 30k premium for that improvement. C8K anyway i am not even considering although yes it does sound like an amazing TV! The OS I am not too concerned about since I use an Apple TV 4K as my source, so I just use the TV as a dumb display.

 

[psychotropic]

I somehow assumed that Hisense is better than TCL.
I know that Hisense makes their own panels.

Does TCL also manufacture their own panels ?

I've been quite happy with my Hisense so far, but as things stand the TCL seems to be a bit more appealing to me, mainly because i can't find the equivalent global model of the Hisense to read proper reviews of its performance (also seems to have fewer dimming zones than the TCL, and by all accounts Hisense's local dimming algo is not as good as TCL's). TCL has its own manufacturing facility somewhere in Andhra, but overall what I've heard is that both Hisense and TCL the QC for their India-made stuff is not quite at the level of their China-made stuff.

If I have both TCL and Hisense at similar price points, then I would go for TCL for the reasons mentioned above! It is funny that in Germany there is U7Q which is sold at a premium than entry level TCL. I am not sure if there are any version differences but I would guess we are splitting hair here at this price range and with these brands. Chinese brands can do one thing amazing, that is to launch so many products with small variations that in the end, a non savvy person, just gives up and picks the one that is easily available. If I can give any piece of advice, it is about the screen size. I am comfortable with larger size and with the current information I have, I would have gone for 85" (if not 98/100"). This gives a bigger difference in the immersion / experience than minor tweaks in PQ amongst the brands, these days. In the past, about 15 years back, the entry level Toshiba was really poor PQ compared to Sony but today the gap is so much smaller.

My viewing distance is about 10 feet from the screen, so at this distance, 65 itself feels pretty nice and I figure 75 will be a nice upgrade. I feel like 85 might be a bit too imposing!

 

[mr_grump5]

I somehow assumed that Hisense is better than TCL.
I know that Hisense makes their own panels.

Does TCL also manufacture their own panels ?

Hisense stopped bringing their latest models to India, BOE and TCL CSOT are the top 2 panel manufactures in the world now, TCL CSOT supplies to TCL. LG, Sony, Samsung, Haier and Xiaomi. Hisense gets it from BOE.

 

[mr_grump5]

@psychotropic I recently got C8K from local distributor, will ping him about C72K 75".