TCL’s NXTVISION TV has good gaming but falls short on streaming and art display at premium prices
Santa Clara: TCL’s new NXTVISION Art TV works well for video games but has problems with movies and art.
When I watched test movies, the pictures looked dull with bad contrast. A scene with horses in morning fog looked faded next to Samsung’s Frame Pro TV showing the same images. Skin colors were too flat in nearly every test video.
The time travel movie “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice” looked muddy. When I streamed from my iPad to the TV, the video kept stopping and starting. My internet is fast—600 Mbps fiber connection—so the problem was with the TV. After I stopped the stream myself for a few minutes, it worked better. In one house scene, I could barely see people’s faces.
The Harry Potter trailer on HBO looked like it lacked color and life. The TV couldn’t show art images well either, making them look plain.
But there was one good thing. The NXTVISION worked great for video games because of its Game Master mode. I love playing Crimson Desert right now. When I turned on Game Master mode, the mountain scenes looked bright and colorful, almost like using expensive OLED TVs that cost over $2,000. The TV can show 144 pictures per second, which is fast for gaming.
Why such a big difference? My gaming computer made the difference. I connected an Acer Nitro 60 computer using a cable, and with Game Master mode and 144-Hz speed, the game looked amazing—the same or better than on Samsung’s Frame Pro. But problems remain for regular TV watching and art display.
My bottom line? This TV costs $1,800 in April, which is more than the Samsung Frame Pro at $1,600. The Hisense Class S canvas TV is only $900 and has a matte finish, 144-Hz speed for games, and over 1,000 art pictures. The TCL NXTVISION doesn’t look that great for streaming or art, so it’s hard to recommend when others offer much better value for people who want art displays and good picture quality.