Gemini has taken over Android phones like the Pixel 10, and soon enough the AI chatbot will invade Google TVs. First on the list to get AI-ified is the budget-end brand TCL with its new flagship mini LED 4K TV, the QM9K, freshly announced at IFA 2025. If you hate the idea of a chatbot attached to your TV, maybe good picture quality is enough to distract from the proliferation of AI into every product category.
In the same vein as Sony’s TV push last year with its Bravia series, TCL has a habit of trying to combat the popularity of OLED by positioning QD-mini LED—which uses a layer of quantum dots in front of a high-quality LED backlight—as a flagship alternative to organic light-emitting diode screens. TCL says its QM9K—the big daddy of the QM6K, 7K, and 8K—can get very, very bright at a max of 6,500 nits, even more than the previous peak of 5,000 nits on the QM8K. The new 4K TV also has 6,000 dimming zones, which is more than Sony’s previous-gen Bravia 9 flagship, and promises better contrast between dark and light colors. Additionally, the QM9K supports refresh rates up to 144Hz, which you’ll appreciate if you’re a gamer.
The company told me the QM9K will be available later this month, but we still don’t know its price point. I sat in front of the TV, stared deep into its blacks, and I still have to give the edge to OLED in terms of pure inky darks. The QM9K comes close. The name of the game with this 4K TV is movie-accurate colors, and from what I could tell staring at it, the screen could replicate nice brights and vibrant colors. Better yet, the TV supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ high dynamic range standards for higher brightness and better contrast. For comparison, Samsung TVs still only support HDR10+.
If TCL was selling its new QD-mini LED 4K TV on the merits of its screen quality, it would already have a leg to stand on. But the TV maker wants to position its television as an all-in-one entertainment setup. The QM9K comes packed with around 350 art pieces you can use as a screensaver or as a faux canvas if it’s hanging on your wall. The new TV also has an automated wakeup feature that turns the screen on when you walk within its vicinity. You can even customize it to delay wakeup if you’re merely cruising through your living room.
And then there’s Gemini. The TV is built with Google’s AI chatbot, which allows users to ask questions with a shout of “Hey Google.” These can be about movies or whatever inane queries you have. The TV guessed correctly when offered vague descriptions of movies like The Color Out of Space and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water. Inevitably, you’ll find the TV makes a mistake. And hell, you may not want the TV to be your next chatbot. TCL told us that users can disable the AI voice by axing the “Hey Google” assistant function, but users can’t choose to eliminate the AI-generated summaries that will appear in front of movie descriptions in the main Google TV screen. The company further promised that the AI doesn’t keep a log of conversations, in case you don’t want your partner or children to know what kind of content you were searching for. The AI will have a memory of your conversation in a 10-minute span, but after that it won’t be able to recall what silly questions you had just asked it. Just know that you can’t escape the AI if you opt for the cheaper QM8K. That TV will be getting Gemini at a later date.
TCL isn’t the only company promoting AI as a new way to search for content on your TV. Samsung recently introduced Microsoft Copilot onto its TVs and smart monitors. TCL’s new screens run on Google TV, which means they can work with other Google Home products. How well that works depends on whether Google’s smart home ecosystem is on the fritz or not.