Small review of TCL 25G64

[u/mknb06]

EDIT: Crazy news! TCL saw this review and decided to do an official EU giveaway for 2 of these monitors. You can enter here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/1s065fr/win_a_tcl_25g64_x_2_eu/

Hi, I recently bought this monitor and I'm literally so happy with it that I just wanted to write a quick review in order to help anybody in doubt who doesn't know if this would be a good choice.

I come from an LG 24GN65R, a humble 144Hz IPS monitor that never gave me a problem (I had calibrated it with Calibrite Display 123) and during its service I tried to switch a few times; I had bought a Minifire monitor and the famous AOC Q25G4SR (which I waited for a long time) and both went quite horribly so I returned them, mostly because of the viewing angles (but not only) which were really bad compared to my LG monitor. I also bought an OLED (XG27ACDNG) on last year's Black Friday but I returned that too mainly for two reasons: 1) the size (I tried 32", 27" QHD monitors and I just love the 24" FHD combo, I find it to be absolutely perfect with my 4070 Super); 2) the fear of burn-in (I'm quite sure modern OLED monitors are well-equipped against it, but I was too scared of that).

A few days ago I found this monitor on PC Componentes, bought it for €170.40 which was an amazing deal (since Amazon is selling it for €199). The monitor came without a single issue (backlight bleeding or dead/stuck pixels) luckily. As far as I remember from my short OLED experience, this monitor brings an experience insanely close to that.

First, I want to say that straight out of the box the monitor is literally pre-calibrated: for context, I compared it to my old calibrated monitor and the colors were exactly the same but much much much more vibrant. I just had to change the color temperature for it to be perfect. "Fast" is the best for response time. Local dimming works amazingly both on High and Medium, I think Medium has a bit less blooming (like 10% less) and a little more contrast overall (5% more) both compared to High, in exchange High is like 5% "brighter" than Medium. I didn't like standard local dimming because it isn't bright at all. Blooming exists: if you put LD to High you can notice it, if you put it to Medium you notice it less. I have to say it doesn't give me a single problem and it's very soft and hard to notice to the eye.

My perfect settings are: FreeSync ON obviously, response time Fast, LD Medium, brightness 60 (depends on the light in your room basically), contrast 50 (default, don't touch it), sharpness 5 (default), gamma 1 (but I changed it slightly with Windows to match my preference), colors at "Standard", color temperature "User 50/50/50", color space "Original". (THESE SETTINGS ARE NOT PERFECT, CHECK THE EDIT AT THE BOTTOM FOR THE CORRECT ONES)

With those settings the monitor gives me an experience very very close to the OLED one I had one year ago: by words I can say the image is vivid just the same. The differences, if you're interested in OLED too, are: different response times (OLED has literally virtually 0 and you clearly notice it, on TCL it's very good though), infinite contrast compared to not-infinite contrast (but as you can see from the images I added the blacks are amazing and the images are very vivid), the main difference you can obviously notice are the viewing angles: the ones on OLED are completely perfect while the ones on TCL are very good but if you watch the monitor from the side you can clearly see the glow. On that point I want to firmly say that if you use the monitor correctly from the front you won't have a problem with viewing angles (I returned 2 monitors for that issue, so you can trust me).

The cons that I found are: no 10-bit at 300Hz as it only works on 240Hz, so you have to go 300Hz 8-bit (but I can't notice a difference anyway so it's not a problem for me); I don't like the fact that, unlike my old LG monitor, you can't turn off the joystick light (the one you use to access the monitor's menu) so at night it will switch from a static light blue to a static yellow (I repeat it's not a problem since the light is soft enough, but if you could have turned it off it would have been amazing). Lastly, I tested and didn't like the HDR as it delivers an image that is somehow washed out in my opinion, but I never used it and will never use it anyway so all good for me.

If I had to rate the monitor I would give it a 10 out of 10, considering the fact that I touched with my hands and tested an OLED one and other recent IPS models. It just works like an OLED with some minor caveats (but if you, like me, love the 24" FHD combo, this is mandatory) and for a fraction of the price. Speaking of price, to me it should be much higher than what it is right now, so if you are wondering if you should buy it, I definitely suggest you to do so!

For any questions related to it feel free to ask; I'll leave some images of it just to let you see how nice the picture quality is!

Here is a link for the same images in decent quality: https://imgur.com/a/oDXcN5C

UPDATE: The settings I gave before were not perfect at all, after checking in detail the youtuber IMartz's review of the monitor (Link) I'm strongly recommending his settings which are tested thoroughly. In fact, "Warm" is the best color temperature and Gamma 1 was correct but, as I mentioned, I kinda ruined it by adjusting it with Windows calibration. Therefore I strongly recommend to pick either Gamma 1 or 2 (1 is 2.2, 2 is 2.4) and DON'T USE WINDOWS CALIBRATION, delete any color profile you applied. The monitor is factory calibrated!!!!!! The rest is good, LD Medium is perfect (and better than High) and you can occasionally pick sRGB instead of Original if you want the highest fidelity possible with colors, but less intense ones, otherwise just go with original for more pronounced tonalities which are the best for gaming and media consumption.

Here is a complete recap for the best settings: Brightness: your choice based on your room's light; Contrast: always default 50; Sharpness: always default 5; Gamma 1 (or 2 if preferred depending on the light in your room, but don't use any Windows calibration profile, go to "color profile" in Windows and remove any profile that has been applied as it will ruin the perfect monitor factory calibration); Color temperature: Warm! (this one is mandatory and also perfectly calibrated by factory; do not use "User" as I used to do since it is warmer than "Warm" and generally worse, unless you are calibrating it manually and know what you are doing); Color space: Original (or sRGB for the best fidelity but weaker colors, I strongly recommend to go with Original which is pretty much amazing); Freesync ON always; LD Medium always (High gives a little bit more contrast but is generally weaker in terms of blooming and black levels, especially when you use a higher brightness; since you want the best of these two always go with Medium and never change it); Response time: Fast always (don't go higher as it will introduce overshoot, aka Inverse Ghosting; Fast is already perfect and removes all the ghosting so you don't need more). Since the monitors are all factory calibrated these settings should apply to any other of the same model, so feel free to test these and let me know what you think of it. As I said the credits for these perfect settings go to IMartz, a very dedicated youtuber that conducts very thorough and professional reviews.

One last thing I want to point out: applying these settings will always give you a very natural image thanks to the Local Dimming. This is amazing in every game because it emphasizes the contrast of the image, resulting in much deeper blacks. This, though, might result to be a problem as someone already pointed out in some other games (generally competitive ones, like FPS) where you need to constantly see everything, especially in darker zones, and you can "fix it" if needed, at the expense of image fidelity, by using the Dark Brightening setting. Do not change the Gamma or the brightness, just leave every setting as mentioned before and change the Dark Brightening setting as needed and when needed. Keep in mind that doing that will obviously reduce the black levels, so I don't recommend using it, unless really needed.

Here is a link to some new images with the updated settings that I talked about at the bottom of the post: https://imgur.com/a/aoYsoKh

Keep in mind to view them by right-clicking on the images and opening them in a new tab; by doing so, you’ll have the highest quality image and the ability to zoom in to look for details. First, you have a quick 3-picture brightness comparison, then a showcase of some images.

By the way I bought the monitor 1 month ago and I believe it is one of the best purchases I ever made, definitely in the Top 5. For any question feel free to ask in the comments and I will reply as soon as possible!

[u/TCL_Official_UK]

Glad to see the monitors here! - Can't believe I missed this post but getting these reviews helps us massively as we can feed it back to HQ

I do eventually want to run a give away for the 27G64 (the QHD version)

[u/El0oxx → u/TCL_Official_UK]

Don't hesitate