TCL C7K 55C7K (55")

This is my review on the TCL C7K 55" Mini-LED TV, at the time of this review, the 55 inch version of the C7K currently sells for about $1195, this price was seen on The Good Guys Website and was also the Store where this TV was purchased from. I recently started the research for a TV upgraded from my Sony X8500F from 2019 and came across the TCL… Read more

C7K which seemed like a great value pick, I purchased the TV on the 10/08/2025, upon receiving it, I unpacked it and got it all set up, which was pretty easy to get up and going thanks to easy to follow on screen prompts, after that I started tuning the picture to get as close to an accurate picture as possible through the "Film Maker Mode", this did take a while as other picture modes seem to oversaturate colours or in the case of "Film Maker Mode" too warm.

Once Dialed in I started watching some content through Youtube, Prime, Netflix and even played some 4K Blu-ray discs and wasn't dissappointed with the performance from the C7K, especially in 4K content, colours were quite nice and blacks came out looking deeper than I expected for the price, contrast is very good and didn't see much in terms of blooming, overall movies and TV shows looked great when streamed in 4K and then there is the gaming performance, playing Halo through my Xbox at 120Hz looked great, there was not much delay in HDMI switching and no issues with VRR, ALLM. In comparison with my old Sony (X8500F), the performance, especially in the category of deep blacks and contrast blew the old Sony away, this realistically shouldn't be a surprise as the Sony is an Edge Lit TV and the TCL is a Mini LED TV with local dimming and when came to the audio quality through the C7K's TV's speakers, they were not bad either, it definitely outperforms the ones on the old Sony, however please note that while the audio has been tuned in collaboration by "Bang&Olufsen" and sounds good, it is not a full replacement for a soundbar or a dedicated sound system, but it does sound a lot better than many TV's on the market and should be good for casual watching or listening and because the C7K has sound by "Bang&Olufsen" it gives you the some adjustment options that you would usually get on "Bang&Olufsen" speakers which is a nice touch.

While the C7K has done well, this TV is not perfect and here are some things that I did find as concern for the C7K, first off while I did mention the audio performance was good for a set of TV speakers, they are limited when it comes to louder volumes, this is where they can start to distort if the bass is set too high or start to sound thin, for this reason I suggest that if you do require performance at louder volume, it is best to get a sound bar or a dedicated speaker system. The second con is that the C7K starts to show its budget friendly approach when it comes to lower quality content, it's OK with 1080p upscaling, however when it is 720p and below the C7K struggles with keeping up, this was especially evident when comparing it with my much older Sony (X8500F), seeing the TCL and the Sony side by side, the Sony still did a better job at upscaling content at 720p and lower than the C7K. The third con is that I found EARC via HDMI a bit buggy with my Yamaha AVR (RX-A2080), when the TV is on and the AVR is on everything works as expected, however when the AVR alone is turned off, the TV starts to blare audio through the TV speakers, however before the AVR was turned back on again I made sure that the TV speaker volume was all the way down, but when I turned on the AVR and turned it off again, the TV speakers started blaring audio again, this can be quite annoying at night, especially if you are trying to do things quietly. Another thing to note, I find that adjusting the picture to taste isn't as easy to get the best results as it is on my old Sony TV, I understand that this more of a subjective thing, but thought to include this experience in this review if there is anyone that likes playing around with the settings. Lastly this is just the C7K that I had and after having it for a little while, it no longer worked, the C7K would not turn on anymore (suspect possible power supply issue), I'm sure that it was just my unit, but thought to also include this in my review as well, I did end up contacting TCL, customer service was ok, but depending who I was talking to, I found the TCL customer service hard to understand, it did take a couple of days to try and get a solution, in the end I gave up and took the C7K back to the store (The Good Guys) myself and getting another TV.

Overall, this is a pretty good TV, especially for the money the performance overall is surprisingly capable and very solid, now if you are buying this TV thinking that you are getting something that beats more expensive brands like Sony, if its a much older tv like my Sony X8500F, then yes it does beat it where it counts, 4K streaming, colour levels and being a mini-led, the contrast and black levels are night and day, however if you play low quality content and require a TV with good upscaling, then I highly recommend looking at brands like Sony, Samsung and LG, as those brands in my experience demonstrate better upscaling performance than the C7K, but they do cost more.

It is a shame really that my unit did not last very long and for the price, its hard to say no to maybe getting a replacement, but due to the TCL warranty process taking a while for a TV that doesn't turn on which should just be to get it transported to the store and get a replacement, refund or credit instead I had to go through a process which as mentioned before took a fair few days. After this experience I found it hard to get another replacement C7K and ultimately bought a different TV.

Do I still recommend the TCL C7K? Yes, only on the basis that it lasts a lot longer than my unit did and you would not have to go through the TCL warranty process.

Pros: > Very nice picture quality especially with Contrast and Blacks > Good Gaming Performance > Good Value for Money with great set of features > Good performance for general 4K and 1080p viewing > Better TV Audio than many other TV's in the same price.

Cons: > TV speakers have limits > Not that great at upscaling low quality content > EARC Possible audio bug (read review for more info) > Took a while to adjust picture settings to get the best experience. > Not Very Reliable. (My unit died)