After really coming of age in the UK with its uniformly great value 2025 TV range, TCL has now revealed full details, including pricing, of arguably the two most important lines in the 2026 line-up.
The first thing to say about TCL’s new C8L-UK and C7K-UK TVs is that they’re both built around TCL’s new generation of Super Quantum Dot panels, which are claimed to offer 69% more color accuracy and 33% more color gamut than the old Quantum Dot panels, instead of the new RGB technology that makes TCL’s range Mini-LED.
These two series are also in the top half of TCL’s 2026 TV line-up for the UK, but retain the aggressive pricing that has seen TCL cause such an upheaval in the TV market in recent years.
The new TCL C8L-UK range of TVs features the brand’s new Super Quantum Dot panels and can deliver up to 6,000 nits of brightness.
Photo: TCL
The C8L-UK range will be available in 55-, 65-, 75-, 85- and 98-inch screen sizes and will feature the same ultra-slim ZeroBorder design found on the brand’s flagship X11L TVs this year, minimizing the black space typically found between the active screen areas and the TV bezel. This is a result of the SHVA panel technology introduced to great effect in the upper echelons of TCL’s 2025 TV range – a panel refresh that also introduced new technologies designed to reduce motion blur, halo and lost shadow detail in dark scenes while boosting colour, brightness and power output.
The C8Ls are claimed to be capable of ultra-high brightness peaks of up to 6,000 nits (on the 98-inch and 85-inch models), potentially adding massive amounts of color to their expanded color gamuts – gamuts that TCL says properly span 100% of the ultra-wide color gamut.
Brightness needs to be well controlled to contribute to good picture quality, of course, so it’s exciting to hear that the C8L-UK TVs’ rear backlight is joined by up to 4,032 separate local dimming zones. That’s another huge number by LCD TV standards that again bodes extremely well for their performance, especially given how efficient last year’s C8Ks were with fewer dimming zones to play with.
All this brightness can be applied to all four main high dynamic range formats: HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision. So, unlike LG and Samsung sets, the C8Ls will always get the best available version from whatever source you feed them. In fact, it’s now been confirmed that the C8L models will support the new Dolby Vision 2 format – though potentially not until after receiving a firmware update later this year.
Gaming support on the C8Ls is also impressive, with native 4K/144Hz support and Full HD/288Hz support along with variable refresh rates (including AMD FreeSync Premium Pro), automatic low-latency mode switching, and a dedicated Game menu that provides features such as support for ultra-wide aspect ratios and picture specification detail.
As with last year’s flagship TCL TVs, the C8L-UK’s sound is delivered by a 2.2-channel speaker system designed with flagship brand Bang & Olufsen.
The TCL C7L-UK series will be the cheapest way to get the brand’s new Super Quantum Dots.
Photo: TCL
Moving down the C7L-UK range, peak brightness on the brightest model is halved to 3,000 nits, while the maximum number of dimming zones (on the 98-inch set) drops to 2,176. Still, these are significant numbers for TVs that are going to be remarkably affordable for an upper-mid range. And C7L-UK will still provide 100% of the BT.2020 color gamut (although there is currently no content that can fully exploit it).
The C7L-UKs retain the same level of gaming support enjoyed by the C8L-UKs, and also benefit from Bang & Olufsen 2.2-channel sound systems – albeit ones that don’t offer as much power or quite as premium speakers as the C8L-UKs. However, right now it doesn’t look like they’ll be getting Dolby Vision 2 support.
Key details and prices for each C8L-UK and C7L-UK screen size are as follows:
The TCL C8L-UK Series:
55in: £1,199, 1,008 local dimming zones, 3,000 nits peak brightness
65in: £1,899, 2,040 local dimming zones, 5,000 nits peak brightness
75in: £2,299, 2,584 local dimming zones, 5,500 nits peak brightness
85in: £2,999, 3,200 local dimming zones, 6,000 nits peak brightness
98in: £3,999, 4,032 local dimming zones, 6,000 nits peak brightness
The TCL C7L-UK series:
55in: £1,099, 800 local dimming zones, 2,700 nits peak brightness
65in: £1,299, 1,152 local dimming zones, 3,000 nits peak brightness
75in: £1,699, 1,352 local dimming zones, 3,000 nits peak brightness
85in: £2,299, 1,624 local dimming zones, 3,000 nits peak brightness
98in: £3,299, 2,176 local brightness zones, 3,000 nits peak brightness.
—
