The amount of time we spend connected to screens throughout the day is ever increasing. One in three of our waking hours—4.8 hours in all—are spent on our phones, according to App Annie, up 30 percent in the last two years. We read the news, catch up on emails, chat to our friends, and watch videos throughout the day through increasingly minuscule screens.
But all that time spent staring at minute pixels has helped kickstart a revolution at home. While the screens we interact with on a regular basis are shrinking, when we want to relax and kick back, we’re increasingly going large. The proportion of large-sized TV screens—measured as 60 inches and up—being shipped every year is increasing. 60-inch or greater screens now make up one in every five produced worldwide, according to market analysts TrendForce.
Such large screens help improve the at-home viewing experience, turning a living room into a home theatre. And while large TV screens of 60 inches and above are seeing an uptick in sales, purchases of extra-large TV screens, measured at 75 inches or more, are being supercharged as people begin to enjoy a fantastic universe of entertainment in the comfort of their own home. This is what TCL, a global No. 2 LCD TV brand, has envisioned.
With a plethora of streaming services available to users, and the average UK consumer subscribing to two paid offerings and accessing a larger number of free alternatives in addition to linear TV, viewers are keen to mimic the cinema experience while in the comfort of our own home. To do that, people are increasingly seeking out screens that provide a broad canvas onto which to display their favourite shows and movies. The business claims, “When you want to watch a movie, you want to feel like you're in the best seat in the house, immersed in the story. If you like sports, you want to take in all the action and feel like you're at the match alongside leading athletes competing in the world's greatest races.”
TCL is seeing an increasing demand for larger screens as customers seek out those immersive entertainment experiences, with the company producing a greater number of extra-large screens to meet that interest. Choosing an XL TV is not about watching more TV, it's about truly seeing the bigger picture and watching content on TV at the very best level of picture quality and sound possible for a very affordable price.
Among the models that TCL has developed are its group of 75- and 85-inch screens—called the 2022 XL Collection—and for those who want to feel like they’re in the heart of the action, an enormous 98-inch screen that harnesses the latest innovations in technology and hardware to provide unparalleled clarity and sound. TCL designs the new generation of XL TVs with slim edges to be as sleek and stylish as possible, blending in with furniture and décor and using every possible millimetre to display the picture. The 2022 XL screens are also light and narrow, and thanks to innovative design and materials, they are no heavier than considerably smaller TVs were 10 years ago.
TV technology is adapting at pace. Historically, consumers have had to trade off size for quality, with some larger screens struggling to replicate the full range of colour and clarity that smaller screens could provide. But advances in technology and improved hardware means it’s no longer an either-or situation. TCL’s 98-inch QLED TV C735 provides 4K and HDR content as it should be seen, with Quantum Dot colours and DolbyVision IQ ensuring a crisp, clear picture. The CES Best of Innovation award winning 85-inch X925 PRO features TCL OD Zero Mini LED technology and 8K resolution that ensures no detail is too small to be picked up by the viewer in their own home.
All of TCL’s 2022 XL Collection TVs support HDR technologies and formats including Dolby Vision IQ, Dolby Vision, HLG, HDR10 and HDR10+. Now, having the ‘best seat in the movie theatre’ experience at home is easy. “When you sit about two meters from the XL screen, you will have almost three times the field of view. It's the fully immersed viewing experience that film directors say you must have to feel like you are part of the movie.
The technology works just as well with wildlife documentaries as it does with live sports, animation and real-life TV shows. For those who prefer to game on their TVs, the XL Collection's Mini LED 75C935 and 75C835 TVs offer a smooth gaming experience with low input lag, a Variable Refresh Rate of up to 144Hz, auto game mode and both TVs support HDMI 2.1 input. They’re powered by Mini LED backlighting so players can keep watching or gaming, even in a bright room. The thousands of Mini LED lights surrounding the screen show off HDR content at its best by delivering brightness with richer light and shadows. The 75C935's 1,920 local dimming zones also ensure deep blacks, bright whites, vivid colours, and fine image definition even in difficult conditions.
But vision alone isn’t what helps replicate the cinematic experience at home. It’s also about sound. The industry is increasingly improving audio through a series of additional products. TCL has developed a series of audio products to enhance the XL screens' picture performance with better sound clarity than ever. The X937U and the C935U soundbars are the latest upgrades of TCL's exclusive award-winning Ray-Danz soundbars, providing even more spectacular sound stage design and audio decoding—all powered by Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
It’s about bringing the big screen into the front room—a tonic to the rise of the smartphone.
Discover more at tcl.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
