I just witnessed the brightest TV ever made.
The TCL X11L, which was just announced here in Las Vegas, is TCL’s big new TV for 2026. This is a TV with 10,000nits of peak brightness – that’s double what the QM9K has, which launched last year and was one of my favorite TVs ever. That’s a lot of brightness. In fact, in these photos that I took during my preview a couple of days ago, it was hard to keep the camera from getting blown out.
My life had already been changed after using the TCL QM9K last year with its 5,000 nits of peak brightness. But now TCL has doubled it, and I think I need this TV. It won’t be cheap, though, with the 98-inch model costing $10k.
Of course, brightness isn’t the only thing that the X11L has going for it. This also has an incredible picture quality. This is using SQD MiniLED and LD20000, which essentially means brighter and better colors, with way more local dimming zones – up to 20,000. This allows the X11L to have bright colors next to deep blacks without any sort of blooming effects.
The picture below is a really good example of that. You have the eye-searing white Vegas sign, as well as the white TCL logo in the corner; the rest of the display is black. And there’s almost no blooming here. And as someone who was there in the room, this was incredibly bright; it almost blinded me, to be honest.
TCL didn’t skimp on sound either
The TCL X11L is a pretty pricey TV, so of course, TCL did not skimp on the sound here. Again, partnering with Bang & Olufsen for the built-in speakers. There are down-firing speakers included, so you get the full Dolby Atmos experience here, which is mighty impressive. You don’t really need to plug in a soundbar to this TV, but if you do want to use one, TCL has you covered with the new A65K Soundbar. This is also from the Bang & Olufsen partnership, and sounds really good.
