Good News: 65” TCL Q6C is semi glossy with excellent reflection handling and picture quality. Photos from actual TV in the India Market.
I had posted before about the Q6C vs C6K and wondered if the two TVs are different in any way. Consider this as my update because I needed to upload photos to show the reflection handling effect. I am of course open for discussions.
I feel like an idiot complaining about the super glossy mirror like screen of my 65 inch TCL Q6C TV purchased from Amazon India website. It turns out that I had not removed the plastic film on the screen. Once I removed it, the actual display screen is semi glossy. You can still see reflections, but they are not like a mirror, more like a faded grainy 25% to 30% reflection. I can say I am very happy now.
What you see in the photos is not intended to show picture quality; it is intended to show the reflection handling of the TV in Mumbai India at 12:30 pm in the afternoon with a strongly lit window to the right side causing the seating area to be very brightly lit up. Even though you see some reflections, they are actually greatly minimized thanks to the semi-glossy nature of the sophisticated HVA screen of the TCL Q6C TV. I must congratulate TCL for being so considerate and diligent in their design for a “premium” tv that is 3 levels down from the top of the line 9 series models. In other posts TCL_Official_UK has confirmed that the 85 inch C6K / Q6C and 95 inch C6K / Q6C have a matte finish which should look even more sharper in a bright room. Larger TVs are harder to tilt and dodge ceiling reflections so a matte finish is crucial for a good experience. I am speculating that the newest L series, as a successor to the K series, must be even more well thought out.
PS: I intentionally left the photos a bit pixelated to protect privacy, but the photos should give you some sense of how good the reflection handing is, and the description is accurate.
The OS is still Android 12 (I believe some newer or premium TVs run the more “efficient” Android OS 14 or 15). At least one user has reported TCL providing them with a software link that can be installed / upgraded via a USB drive, but it is not available as an OTA update. I tried calling TCL support but no luck for me. If someone gets in touch with TCL support, please repeat to them to make this an OTA update, so it can benefit everyone.
Update based on official response from TCL:
Q6C (Amazon and online) and C6K (retail stores) are the exact same TV. Sizes 55”, 65”, 75” use semi gloss finish HVA panels and sizes 85” and 93” use matte finish HVA panels.
The C6KS is a “reduced” feature model to make the TV more affordable by removing 1 HDMI port, reducing the number of illuminated “zones”, reducing the audio output by a small fraction, and reducing the RAM to 2GB (vs 3GB) which could affect future performance of the TV as the software gets more bloated over time.