With the RM9L RGB-Mini, TCL doesn’t skimp on HDMI 2.1 ports. There are four in total, and each can support a 144Hz refresh rate for low-latency PC gaming or whatever you want to watch on your TV. One of the HDMI 2.1 ports is for eARC pass-through audio to active speakers or a receiver. I added an Xbox Series X and a Google TV to test and connected the Klipsch the Nines II speakers. There are two USB ports (one coaxial), an Ethernet port for wired connection, and a digital optical port. The TV uses Wi-Fi 6, which is fast and compatible.

I liked the remote control in general because it is clean and easy to use. The brightness controls are on the right side, which is a surprisingly bright design choice. For nighttime gaming sessions, you can quickly lower the brightness or raise it when sunlight comes in. Small notches on the remote control for volume and channels help you locate them without looking. The buttons for free TV channels and a few others seemed excessive. Additionally, the Home button is not centered, making it harder to find. Fortunately, at this price, the remote control is backlit.

Real-world test results

Two movies that I always test right away, especially to see if the contrast and brightness are as exceptional as they should be for the price of a TV, are Awake on netflix and The Creator in the Fandango at Home app. This is because these movies have poorly lit scenes during the night or before dawn. Even some OLED models appear washed out during a cycling scene in Awake in which actress Gina Rodríguez passes by a boy in a blue shirt. Only after selecting the Vivid picture mode could I see what was happening. I find Mini RGB technology to be complicated at times and requires adjustments to image quality.

For The Creator, One of the early oceanside scenes just didn’t have the vibrancy I would like for the price, and seemed slightly washed out without enough deep blues or blacks. Even after using the Vivid or Dolby Vision IQ picture modes, the scene still seemed too dimmed.

As for the skin tone tests, the RM9L underperformed the LG Micro RGB Evo. I noticed a lack of tonal variation, but in a side-by-side test against the LG TV, there was more of a difference. That meant the RM9L more closely matched the mid-range Sony Bravia 7 Mark II and the Hisense UR9 which also benefited from Mini RGB technology.

In a demo reel test, there is a difficult challenge involving white fog over a snowy mountain. Admittedly, the Leica Cine Play 1 projector is not a fair test (even though it is cheaper) because that model has an exceptional lens, but the fog was much clearer on it. Green grass near a fence in winter was more noticeable and obvious than on the Hisense UR9, and the two TVs were about the same during a segment with buffaloes in a field, showing different shades of brown. The LG Micro RGB Evo rendered several scenes with more color, including a yellow flower, a red cactus, a purple butterfly, and dark trees in a night scene.