TCL looking at a smarter Smart TV as users push for more uses

He explained that the market for Smart TVs continues to be hit by the multiple waves of the pandemic in India. “April 2021 witnessed a 38 percent downward trend, compared to the same period of 2019,” he added.

The brand has three strategies to combat the situation. “The first is using the brand’s industrial capability, vertical integration capability and CSOT panel factory in India to strengthen channel relations. The second is  to bring technologies first of its kind via launch of new products, keep new technologies at an affordable price and finally to bring more advanced technologies to Indian customers.”

The brand is also looking at making the smart TV smarter by adding more personalised functions in new updates instead of just UI updates, he added.

TCL plans to strategise by focusing on the niche premium segment, while sister-brand iFFALCON continues making products targeted at the youth. “TCL is definitely in competition with the giants who are present from the past 10-15 years in the Indian market. I won’t be naming them, but a healthy competition is what we all need to excel in our technologies,” Qi added.

Qi said Indian customers are looking at two kinds of Smart TVs right now — the ones with a self-developed UI and others that are based on Android. Brands launching Smart TVs with their own UI include Samsung and LG, while brands using the Android platform include TCL and Xiaomi.

Qi said TCL’s new C-series, including the C825, C728 and the C725 TVs, will “set new trends in the market”. “We are positioned as an intelligent display brand, focused  not only on just watching, but also interacting with multi-visual elements like mirroring, magic camera, game center, and a game console with no additional gamepad required.”

TCL C-Series TVs

The new TCL C-Series TVs are India’s first Mini LED QLED 4K Android TVs. Mini LED displays use thousands of miniature LEDs that sit behind the LCD substrate, and each one of them is precisely controlled and smoothly distributed across the screen for granular control over light intensity.

“Customers will get a bright, vibrant picture in all lighting conditions, with the peak brightness reaching 1000 nits. Combined with our Full Array Local Dimming Technology, which groups these Mini-LEDs into different zones for precision contrast control; making the whole picture capable of displaying deeper blacks, brilliant brightness and greater contrast to maximize your viewing experience,” Qi explained.

“Also, in front of the Mini LED, we’ve added a layer of quantum dot filter, which reproduces over 1 billion colours, helping the TV to display over 100 percent colour volume, so customers will get the widest range of life-like colours, in all viewing conditions,” he added. All of the brand’s new C-series TVs will also be upgraded to Google TV later this year.