Review: TCL C82 55″ Mini LED TV – Jam-Packed Style

In 2021 there are collaborations (the cool kids call them “collabs”) all over the place. The Toyota truck I’m driving this week has a banging sound system from JBL and the Hublot watch we reviewed last year had its quartz heart replaced with Qualcomm Snapdragon chips running Google Wear.

We recently received the incredible TCL Mini LED TV to review and as far as surrounding yourself with great people being the pathway to success, TCL is the cherry-picking champion. The operating system is from Android (Google) and the sound system is from ONKYO.

Out of the box, this is the most stylish TV we’ve ever seen. For once, my interior designer wife approved of our temporary house-guest being set up in the dining room.

Out of the box and with the stand attached, the TCL Mini LED TV is up and running in no time. Old-school TV operating systems are on death’s door with Android getting into the TV business. If you’ve got a Gmail account, you’re not more than a couple of clicks of the remote away from a customised viewing experience thanks to YouTube. Unfortunately, corporate Google Workspace accounts won’t work.

Thanks to ONKYO there’s no need for an additional soundbar with the TCL Mini LED TV. Situated behind a stylish grey cotton façade with a brushed aluminium metal surround, and mated to a dedicated bass speaker located at the back of the TV, the ONKYO 2.1 sound system with integrated Dolby Atmos and twin 2x15W + 20W speakers, pumps out serious room-filling sound whether it’s The Wiggles, the Western Bulldogs, or Westworld.

We did find that taking the sound above 3/4 level with some serious bass-led music did make the plastic housing of the rear bass speaker vibrate.

Let’s face it, no one buys a TV for the sound. It’s all about the image and I have to say that is where the TCL C82 55″ Mini LED TV excels!

With a 3840 x 2160 pixel range, this is a serious 4K HDR screen. Thanks further to a 100Hz refresh rate, this is one of the most responsive LED screens that we have tested. The 4K video from YouTube above had brilliant clarity in the trees and on the water thanks to the TCL UHD SR neural networks – an area where other screen technology can struggle.

The HDR formats available on the C82 Mini LED are impressive: Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, HDR10, PQ10, and HLG – all with 1000 nits HDR brightness and auto-dimming.

The TCL C82 Mini LED TV also enjoys a super-slim bezel, maximising the surface area of the screen. Four HDMI ports, a Gigabit LAN port, two USB ports and optical audio mean all your devices and gaming consoles will have a place to call home.

Further enhancing the value of the TCL C82 Mini LED TV is the inclusion of a removable 1080P Google Duo webcam that slots into the top of the screen. Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are resident in the TV as well as Chromecast and T-Cast for TCL smartphones.

No longer does a TV have to be a lifeless black hulk on the wall. TCL shows us how you can bring style and function into any room for almost any purpose.

All in all, this is a very impressive LED TV with an equally impressive RRP of $1,895 from The Good Guys and other retailers.