TCL X11L SQD-Mini LED TV review – Premium style and picture power by Google TV

At almost $8,000, there’s no question the TCL X11L SQD-Mini LED TV is the pinnacle of TCL’s range in 2026. This is their best attempt at picture quality. This is their best attempt at colour reproduction. This is the TV they want you to aspire to, but there’s something missing from the TCL range in 2026. The question is, do we notice?

EFTM Snapshot: While every other TV brand seems to be talking about R-G-B, TCL has just improved what was already there, bringing more brightness, better colour and an all round improved experience – is it enough to counter the RGB domination? At it’s RRP this might be a stretch, but as the market moves I think this SQD-Mini LED TV is a good option against strong competition.

What is SQD-Mini LED?

I’m going to go into this assuming you’ve heard of quantum dots, something that’s been in the TV game for a while. Essentially, it enhances colour, makes it more accurate, and takes what is a white or a blue light and ensures that you’re seeing the colour that you want to see. I’m also going to assume you know what Mini LED is. It’s been around for a few years as well. Essentially, it’s creating far more backlights than we used to have, meaning better contrast.

While all the other TV brands have gone down a different path this year, TCL has put all their eggs in continuing to evolve what was an already good TV technology. They’ve gone with Super Quantum Dot, essentially enhancing that quantum dot, making it better than it has been, giving it a higher level of brightness, and allowing them to create even more dimming zones with those Mini LEDs. Better brightness, better colour, and more dimming zones.

In some ways, it’s the same thing that’s being spruiked by other brands with RGB, but in this case, it’s not quite RGB. It’s still relying on that quantum dot layer to ensure that you get the best colour, so there may be a disparity there.

For me, though, I think what’s critical is, as I often say to people when they’re asking me for TV advice, you’re only taking one TV home. You’re not going to sit this next to any other TV technology. You’re going to enjoy this TV for what it is in your own lounge room. I think, on that basis, it’s still well worth looking at something like this technology.

Design

One thing you will not be disappointed in is how this TV is designed. This oozes premium on every corner, every bezel, every edge.

It’s a bronze copper-looking colour along with an inbuilt soundbar. Even the exterior edges, the bezels of this, are brushed metal. The legs that you attach are plastic mixed with metal, but they look premium. The way they sit is fantastic, down to the little details, like on the edge of the soundbar where the Bang and Olufsen logo is displayed. The speaker grate is just chamfered off on an angle rather than being a hard-cornered edge.

I love what they’ve done to make this look premium and make you feel like you’re getting the value for what you paid.

Sound

I don’t think I’m ever going to be satisfied with the sound that comes from a television, given that these things are a couple of centimeters thick. In this day and age, you can expect far more from a full big sound system, but what we have to accept is that TCL has done everything possible to make this sound great.

When you see the words “Audio by Bang & Olufsen,” we’re taking it seriously. On the rear of this are what look like four rear-firing or subwoofer speakers to give us a bit of bass and a bit more oomph. Critically, along the front of this, several centimeters at the bottom of the TV is an inbuilt forward-facing or forward-firing sound system.

I listen to everything from basic YouTube videos to live TV, right through to a full Hollywood movie. It sounds excellent. It’s outstanding. Is it the best sound I’ve ever heard from a TV? No, because I’ve seen much bigger front-firing speakers in a TV. They also change the design of a TV dramatically.

I think among most of the 2026 range, I can’t think of a TV from any brand that has sound that’s as specific as this, except if we go into the maybe 115-inch size TVs that can really pack a bit more oomph, just based on their pure size and mass.

One thing I did notice was that, watching Top Gun Maverick, if I wanted to really pump it up through some core action scenes in that last third of the movie, even putting it at 100 (that’s right, pumping the volume up to max), it never quite felt like I was overwhelming my room with sound.

It’s funny because that’s actually a good thing to know: my maximum isn’t overwhelming, which is good, but I think we always want to be left with something more. I think I was disappointed that it didn’t max out at 75 instead of getting to 100 and having no more. That may be a silly observation, but in the end, what I’m saying is it’s loud, it’s got great sound, but I personally would probably still pair this with a surround system of some sort. If you’re paying $8,000 for a television, I think you can stump up for something that’s going to give you some solid subwoofer on the floor and some rears that are going to really bring your content to life.

Connectivity

Connectivity on the TCL SQD Mini-LED X11-L is pretty much on par with most premium TVs in the market today. Obviously, there’s:

• 4 HDMI ports
• an antenna
• a couple of USBs
• an optical audio out
• an Ethernet

Then, of course, there’s Wi-Fi because all of these TVs are going to be connected via Wi-Fi so that you can get all your favorite streaming apps.

Google Built In

There’s plenty of TVs on the market that have Google TV as their operating system, but the only real rival to TCL at this top end is Sony. Everyone else in this space are sub-brands, supermarket brands, or online brands, and that’s frankly, for me, a great thing. I love the Google TV operating system. It probably adds several bonus points to any review on a TV because I love that it’s open, it’s free, and it’s got every app. I feel like, while Google is monetising their operating system with ads from streamers, they just don’t think they’re doing it as much as the other brands are doing with their proprietary operating systems.

One thing I did notice setting this up, which I hadn’t seen before, was essentially a custom install. This Google TV setup had the TCL logo on it. It felt like a TCL TV as opposed to just a TV running Google TV as the operating system. That felt like that integration made it feel more serious and made it feel like it wasn’t just a tick-box software download. It felt like it was a collaboration between TCL and Google, and that is a positive for TCL. The fact that they can co-brand this during the installation makes it a far more compelling thing for the owner, I think, to believe that this is a TCL TV through and through.

I guess the reason I love the Google TV operating system is that I can just log in with my email and my Google account, and it remembers my apps. It remembers all my settings. It remembers how I want this TV to be. It also allows me to very quickly set up things like photo gallery as wallpaper and things like that. It integrates the whole Google ecosystem. Frankly, anyone that has a Google account and uses Google Photos and other Google Home-style devices, this is a winner. This is a reason to choose this TV.

Another reason is Google Gemini. TCL are the first to bring Google Gemini to Australia. In a world of AI, in a world where all the other brands are talking about how their AI credentials are out of this world, we’ve got to acknowledge that Gemini is one of the biggest AI platforms in the world. If we can bring that to a television and create use cases within the TV that can activate Google Gemini, I think that’s pretty exciting.

In this review, I spent very little time with Gemini because, unfortunately, my Google account is what’s called a Google Workspace account that doesn’t love Gemini. As weird as that is, that’s the life I lead.

SQD-Mini LED Picture Quality

I must say I entered this with a bit of trepidation, worried that I’d been bamboozled by the RGB technology out there in the market. Again, what I did wasn’t switch straight from an RGB TV to this one. What I did was set it up like I always do, download the apps, and just look at the TV in my own space where I watch content. There was no disappointment from me at all.

I ran some stunning 4K loops on this: some beautiful scenery, some real contrast-heavy scenes, scenes that required strong HDR, scenes that pushed colour to the limit. While I’ve got no doubt you could probably put an RGB side by side with this and find a couple of centimeters of the screen space where the yellows were more yellow, I’m not sure the average viewer is noticing that yet. I don’t think the gap between RGB and this level of quantum dot is yet so big.

Of course, technically, on a colour-measuring spectrum, you will definitely get better colours from an RGB TV, but how much better? Is it incrementally better or far superior? At this point, I’ve got to say, as a viewer, I think this technology from TCL seems to tick as many boxes as any other TV would in a year-to-year evolution.

I watched basic content and extreme content: fast-moving vision, fast-moving movies, deep dark movie scenes, bright movie scenes. There was no disappointment. I loved this TV.

This picture quality was outstanding. It was a great viewing experience. Once again, because Top Gun Maverick is such a great movie, I started the movie with 25 minutes to go and just to sample a few key scenes. I ended up watching every second of it because there was no disappointment in how this TV presented itself.

How does the TCL SQD-Mini LED stack up in the market?

From a picture quality perspective, I’ve spoken to that. I think this is as good as anything you’ll see out there, except perhaps if you are the highest-level videophile in the market. But I want to look at this more from a retail price versus technology versus marketplace point of view.

I think the challenge here for TCL is the price. At $7,999, it is on par with LG’s very latest RGB technology at the same size. It’s also the same price as Samsung’s OLED TV. For me, I’ve always leant towards OLED. I love that picture quality, even in a world of RGB. It’s more expensive than a slightly larger LG OLED TV, again making it a challenge to hand over your money at that price point.

There hasn’t been much variance in the price of this TV. The EFTM TV picker and price tracker has seen this come as low as $5,945, and frankly, at that price, it starts to become super compelling. You’re getting a large TV with an outstanding picture and a brilliant operating system at a very competitive price, but at its retail price or close to its retail price, I think it’s a hard one to choose, given the big brands at this size with new technologies in this market.

Should I buy the TCL SQD-Mini LED?

On size, on picture quality, on sound, on operating system, TCL SQD Mini LED X11L ticks boxes. There’s no doubt. It’s an option for people in the market. The only place it falls down is price. I think, given prices fluctuate throughout the year, if you’re an astute buyer and you keep an eye on prices, you will find this at the right time in the year that will make this a great option.

Bottom line, for the right price, this is a great TV. I love it. Big fan of Google operating system. Hope that TCL sticks with that for many years to come because it’s one of their key advantages in the market.

Web: TCL