Focal has unveiled its latest product: the DIVA UTOPIA, a wireless, active loudspeaker that marks a new milestone in their product lineup. Developed over a span of five years, this loudspeaker is Focal’s first foray into combining advanced wireless technology with high-fidelity sound in an active speaker format. The DIVA UTOPIA is not just another speaker; it’s a luxury product designed for audiophiles who seek exceptional sound without the complexities of traditional wired setups.

The DIVA UTOPIA aims to provide users with a seamless listening experience by eliminating the need for extensive cabling and external amplification. This three-way, bass-reflex floorstanding loudspeaker incorporates Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology, co-developed with a partner company. UWB is a crucial feature that enables high-resolution audio transmission between the two speakers, surpassing traditional CD playback and delivering sound quality that approaches professional studio standards.

This speaker system offers multiple control options, including a dedicated app, a remote control, and compatibility with popular voice assistants such as Google and Apple. As a result, users can easily manage their listening experience whether playing music, watching movies, or gaming.

Focal has prioritized user convenience by ensuring that the DIVA UTOPIA supports a wide array of connectivity options. These include Bluetooth, AirPlay 2, Google Cast, and UPnP, giving users access to various streaming platforms such as Spotify, TIDAL, and Qobuz. Additionally, the loudspeaker can be connected to home entertainment systems, including televisions and turntables, offering flexibility for various audio setups.

The speaker integrates seamlessly with Focal and Naim’s ecosystem, allowing for multiroom configurations, controlled via a single app. This makes it possible to spread high-quality sound across different rooms, enhancing the audio experience throughout the home. The DIVA UTOPIA also has the potential to be incorporated into home automation systems, enabling it to work as part of a smart home environment.

Focal’s reputation in the audio world stems from their focus on innovation, and the DIVA UTOPIA is no exception. The loudspeaker utilizes a 'W' cone for its midbass drivers, a proprietary technology that Focal has developed to enhance sound precision. The high-frequency range is handled by a beryllium 'M'-profile tweeter, which is designed to produce crisp, detailed highs.

To complement Focal's audio design, the DIVA UTOPIA integrates Naim electronics, including a built-in 400 watt amplifier and a new streaming architecture. This combination ensures that sound reproduction is detailed and nuanced, capturing the subtleties of each audio track. The speaker’s ability to handle high-resolution audio (up to 348kHz/32bits) sets it apart from many competitors in the high-end speaker market, promising audiophiles a premium listening experience.

The system's UWB technology allows wireless signal transmission with minimal latency and no compression losses, maintaining high fidelity between the two speakers even when they are placed up to 10 meters apart. This makes it an ideal choice for those who desire both freedom in speaker placement and uncompromising audio quality.

In terms of design, the DIVA UTOPIA features a sleek, modern aesthetic, with subtle bass speaker drivers positioned on the sides. The floating side panels, combined with the backlit logo, contribute to a refined look that will complement any luxury home setting. 

A unique feature of the design is the signature red and black double grille on the tweeter, which is framed by a brushed aluminum ribbon. This detail symbolizes the harmony between Focal's technical expertise and artistic design.

The speaker’s side panels are crafted from OEKO-TEX-certified felt, a sustainable material chosen for its minimal environmental impact. This further shows Focal’s dedication to creating products that are both high-performance and eco-conscious.

The DIVA UTOPIA is set to be priced at $39,999 per pair, with availability expected in October 2024. In Canada, the speakers will be priced at CAD 51,999 per pair. Interested buyers will be able to find the DIVA UTOPIA at select retailers such as Dreamedia.

OLED has been the darling of display enthusiasts for years now, but with companies like TCL getting closer and closer each year in terms of image quality, are buyers better off saving big or getting a much larger Mini LED for the same price, or is OLED still worth the premium? Today let’s find out by taking a close look at the brand new 2024 TCL QM851G.

TL;DR

TCL has been making big improvements to the brightness and contrast levels of their Mini LED TVs, and in 2024 the line between OLED and mini LED has been further blurred by the QM851G. Not only can it reach an incredible 5000+ nits (a number OLED can’t come close to reaching), but with a 144Hz 4K and 240Hz 1080p gaming mode both movie enthusiasts and gamers should find this TV to be an excellent value option, especially when it's on sale.

Pros

• Extreme Brightness
• Clear glossy coating
• Excellent ambient light handling
• Higher 144Hz refresh rate 
• Good price on discount

Cons

• Poor viewing angles
• Blooming can still be noticeable at times
• Average TV motion performance

Testing Methodology

Now in order to review a serious OLED display like this you need some serious equipment, which is why I’ll be using an X-Rite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, Color Checker Display Plus colorimeter, Calman Ultimate, Portrait Displays Video Forge Pro 8K pattern generator, a Sony RX100 VII 1000fps camera, an SM208 Screen Luminance Meter, & a Sony Cinema Line FX3 mirrorless video camera. All together at least $12,000 worth of testing equipment alone and of course years of experience testing displays.

Disclaimer: This unit was sent by TCL for this review, but I can and will share my unfiltered opinion.

Specs & Price

Overall the specs are solid, especially the 144/240Hz modes which will be of great interest to PC gamers.

Unboxing & Setup

Let's be honest, the 75” 2024 QM8 is an absolute beast that will likely require at least two people to take out, though I was able to package it back up alone; a feat I recommend nobody tries to repeat. I found the best way to unpack this TV is to pull the top off, and use the cardboard cover with styrofoam inside to slowly lean the TV down and then attach the stand. Then I slowly tilted it back up with the box cover and set it on my TV stand.

Performance - Color

Alright, now it's time to jump into the meat, and let's start off by talking about the color. And I gotta say right away, my first impressions are that it's very good. It's not quite as rich or saturated as QD OLED can get at times, but it can deliver much higher color luminance than W-OLED,allowing for a more faithful representation of bright HDR scenes. When the content asks for it, it's just absolutely excellent in terms of color, and If you've never seen a modern mini-LED display, this one is surely going to wow you.

Now for you film buffs and creators out there, below I have all the Calman data on color accuracy and performance.

Test Data - Deep Dive

sRGB Gamma 2.2

HDR DCI-P3

Overall TCL has ok sRGB and HDR accuracy. It's not as good as some competing brands, but some buyers may prefer the extra brightness that TCL affords. Personally I would like to see TCL dial in modes for movie and gaming that improve the HDR accuracy especially. 

Performance - Brightness

Now, in terms of the brightness and the HDR experience overall, this thing is insanely bright, and I'm saying that in the best way possible. It blows most OLEDs out of the water in terms of brightness, especially in SDR. And HDR pops off the screen in a way that even the best OLEDs will struggle to match. And certainly that's gonna be the case in higher APL scenes. However, OLED definitely has its own strengths that we'll go over later. 

If you’ve never seen a Mini LED before you will see what I mean when you pull up HDR video on YouTube. One particular video I run shows rocks in the sun and on this TV it really felt like I could almost reach out and touch them because of the insane contrast afforded by such high brightness.

Overall the 2024 TCL QM8 is by far the brightest display I’ve ever seen, which is great for HDR viewing.

Performance - Shadow Detail & Blooming

Now Unfortunately one issue that still plagues Mini LED is crushed shadow detail, and the QM8 is no exception. It’s certainly not a deal breaker, but there may be times when some small details are missing in very dark areas.

Additionally blooming can still be a small issue especially at an angle. Now thankfully I counted 4,032 local dimming zones, so for the most part blooming was almost invisible, but it can still happen, and more importantly there just aren’t quite enough zones to match the micro contrast of OLED, at least not yet. I calculate that roughly 20,000 zones are necessary for the average viewer to find the differences almost unnoticeable in terms of contrast between OLED and Mini LED in most scenes.

Performance - Gaming

But what about gaming? Can you use this TV for gaming? The answer is yes. It's a little bit slower in my testing than some of the fastest OLED TVs that I've measured, but it's nearly margin of error here, guys. And this is gonna feel very, very fast in the 144 Hertz mode. Likewise, 120Hz, yeah, it'll be a tiny bit slower, but for console gaming, also excellent.

And speaking of speed, let's take a look at the motion performance. Here is where it definitely pales in comparison to OLED. OLED just simply smacks LCD in terms of its motion performance. It has near instantaneous response times. That's not the case for mini-LED. 

As you can see, you can’t quite make out that this is supposed to say better than 60 Hertz, even at 144 Hertz on this TV. And at 120 Hertz, it gets even more blurry. And at 60 Hertz, it's very blurry. Now, it's certainly not horrible. I think this is acceptable, especially for a TV that's mostly gonna be meant for a lot of watching and some light gaming, but it's not going to be as competitive as OLED. 

Performance - Clarity

Now, to terms of the text clarity in the subpixel layout, overall, I think it's very good. It's not quite as good as a regular RGB layout as it appears to be blue, green, red. However, it's in that one, two, three type of layout that most applications would expect, leading to some pretty good overall text and clarity.

Now, in terms of the finish and perceived clarity, I got great news. It's excellent. TCL has chosen a great glossy finish that leads to excellent clarity, amazing color pop, and great ambient light handling, but it can have some rainbow-like reflections if it's hit with certain light sources.

Viewing Angles & Uniformity

Now, in terms of the viewing angles in uniformity, like a lot of mini-LED displays, it's not great. Off angle, you will start to lose some brightness, color saturation, and contrast. Now, this is unlikely to be a big issue for most movie rooms, but if you do have some chairs or sofas far to the left or right, it definitely could be leading to a non-ideal picture. 

Also, the uniformity, I did see some areas of the display that were a little bit darker than others. It wasn't quite perfect, and it's certainly nowhere near as good as QD OLED, but it wasn't noticeably bad. It was certainly acceptable, something that I would expect to see on this type of technology. 

Performance - Audio

Now, in terms of the sound, I actually got good news. It's pretty good for a TV. There was no major rattling. It wasn't overly muddy. It does have some body and bass, and the timbre is okay, but it does have a slight delay, which might not make it great for gaming. You certainly could get by with the TV audio itself. You don't need to buy anything, but hey, if you're spending a lot of money on a TV, it might be worth it for the extra oomph and detail.

Menu & Firmware

Now, in terms of the menu and firmware, it's actually excellent. It's probably the fastest menu I've ever used, and it's almost entirely bug-free, leading to a pretty great experience. And then finally, VRR Flicker. Thankfully, I did not notice any major flickering, so that's great.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it. TCL has definitely come out swinging this year with their brand new mini LED TVs, and I gotta say, I was actually overall very impressed. Now OLED certainly still does have its advantages versus mini LED. It's gonna be faster. It's gonna give you better contrast, and of course, it's just gonna look almost perfect as long as it can get bright enough, and that's where Mini LED does have its strengths. In fact the brightness on this year's QM8 is so good that some buyers may want to consider it not only based on value, but also for its ability to create a great looking image even in a very bright room. Something OLED still struggles with.

Overall I certainly would recommend picking one up, especially if you can find it on sale, which I do recommend taking a look at the affiliate links in this article to see if it is on sale, as I've noticed mini LEDs do tend to get some pretty large discounts, and if you can find one even lower than MSRP, well, you could be in a situation where you could buy, say, a 75-inch mini LED for the same price as a 55 or 65-inch OLED, or maybe a 98-inch mini LED for the same price as something like a 65 or 77-inch OLED TV, depending on how expensive that OLED is and the discounts available.

If you're looking for the best OLED TV in 2024 the LG G4 simply has to be part of the conversation, and I don’t say that lightly. In the last year alone I’ve reviewed a whopping 23 OLEDs, and I can safely say that LG’s 2024 G4 series not only pushes the boundaries of OLED technology once again, but with the use of their new Alpha 11 AI processor, which works in tandem with LG's MLA (micro lens array) technology LG has once again improved their brightness and color performance while adding new impressive features to their OS. In today’s review I’m going to explain exactly why the LG G4 sets itself apart from the competition, and whether or not you should buy one.

TL;DR

LG has returned with a serious attempt to retake the TV crown in 2024 via the use of their latest MLA equipped WOLED panels in combination with their brightness boosting Alpha 11 AI processor bringing significant advancements in picture quality, brightness, color, and overall performance, making it a compelling choice.

The G4's advancements extend beyond its image processing capabilities. LG has also paid close attention to the TV's design, opting for a glossy finish that offers some anti-reflective properties but exceptional clarity in light-controlled environments. While LG's OLED technology can't match the color volume and gamut of Samsung QD OLED tech, it is still very good and both HDR and SDR content look amazing.

For gaming enthusiasts, the G4 offers an unparalleled experience. With a native 144Hz refresh rate, the TV provides smooth and responsive gameplay, excellent motion performance, and extremely low input lag. Moreover, LG has addressed a critical issue that plagued its previous models—the suboptimal color performance in gaming mode. The G4 now delivers consistent color performance across all modes, ensuring that gamers can enjoy vibrant, true-to-life visuals without compromising on the competitive edge.

While the G4's impressive specifications come at a premium price point, it represents a worthwhile investment for discerning buyers who prioritize quality and reliability in their entertainment setup. The TV's ability to deliver deep, inky blacks, courtesy of OLED's self-emissive pixels, coupled with its remarkable brightness and color enhancements, creates a viewing experience that surpasses that of traditional LCD displays.

Testing Methodology

Now in order to review a serious OLED display like this you need some serious equipment which is why I’ll be using an X-Rite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, Color Checker Display Plus colorimeter, Calman Ultimate, Portrait Displays Video Forge Pro 8K pattern generator, a Sony RX100 VII 1000fps camera, an SM208 Screen Luminance Meter, & a Sony Cinema Line FX3 mirrorless video camera. All together at least $12,000 worth of testing equipment alone and of course years of experience testing displays.

Before we dive into the review as always here are the specs, which are not much different than the G3, but that doesn’t mean the performance won’t be.

Overall the specs look excellent, but the price as always from LG is quite high, so LG will need to bring incredible performance to pursued enthusiasts to drop a minimum of $2,600 on a TV in 2024.

Pros

• Excellent brightness 
• Clear glossy coating
• Higher 144Hz refresh rate and great motion performance 
• Much improved game mode color
• Great Film Maker Mode accuracy

Cons

• High price
• Slight magenta lift in bright environments
• Peak brightness locked in SDR
• Can’t match QD OLED color volume

Performance - Color

Let’s get straight to the performance, starting with the color—wow, LG has made an enormous leap in terms of color brightness on the G4. Last year with the G3, LG introduced their new MLA (micro lens array) technology, which sits above the subpixels to refocus lost light and massively boost image brightness. This year, it makes a return on the G4, further improved by the new Alpha 11 AI processor, which enhances brightness and colors even more. As someone who uses a 42” LG C4 as a monitor daily (and yes, the 55” & up are much brighter than the 42”), I must say, despite the impressive leap from the C3 to the C4, the G4 still puts the C series to shame when it comes to color brightness.

Of course none of this means anything if the color can’t be shown accurately, and out of the box these TVs do typically ship in power saving mode causing huge inaccuracies in white point, color balance, and EOTF tracking, but simply by swapping over to Film Maker Mode and making some minor adjustments to white balance, a very accurate result can be achieved for both sRGB and HDR.

Testing Deep Dive - sRGB Gamma 2.2 (click to expand)

Testing Deep Dive - HDR DCI-P3 Gamma ST.2084 (click to expand)

Now there are a ton of small adjustments you can make to get the G4’s image just how you want, or make it a better user experience, but overall LG has done very well with their Filmmaker Mode this year, and I would highly suggest using it for everything except gaming, where you can achieve these same results with some minor adjustments, however speaking of game mode a HUGE and I really mean huge improvement on the G series this year is that color luminance has now been fixed in game mode. 

As was found by YouTube creator Tech with KG the LG G3 had serious issues with color in game mode where it looked somewhat washed out when compared to Film Maker Mode. Well no longer. I can confirm both Game Mode and Filmmaker Mode have the same excellent color luminance and punch. My only gripe is that LG appears to have implemented some sort of minor sharpening by default, so it would be great for purests if we could completely disable it, though I’m sure many will prefer the slight clarity boost. 

Testing Deep Dive - Color Volume SDR and HDR (Click to Expand)

Additionally looking at color volume here, you can see LG is nailing it with about 96% DCI-P3 in SDR.

However in HDR the same cannot be said. Unfortunately the G4 still suffers from the WOLED issues of reduced color volume at very high brightness. This is definitely one area where Quantum Dot OLED still has a sizable lead, although LG is definitely getting closer each year in real world content, and unlike my experience with the S95B, S95C, and S90C, LG appears to use their color brightness responsibly giving more accurate skin tones and fine color detail especially on the G series when using FMM without needing major color correction.

Performance - Brightness

The main issue with OLED TVs today is brightness. Many OLED TVs in the past have struggled to display convincing HDR images when the content is meant to be very bright. Although OLED can turn each individual pixel on and off, leading to infinite contrast, the power requirements and heat generated by OLED have been enormous, meaning they simply could not compete with mini-LED in terms of brightness.

However, LG and Samsung have made a concerted effort to change that. The LG G4 can now compete with some of the brightest mini LED displays. This results in stunning HDR impact in movies and games that exceed 1000 nits. If you’re using a regular LCD TV today, the G4 is sure to impress you with its depth and tantalizing highlights.

Testing Deep Dive - Brightness Test (click to expand)

To prove just how impressive the G4 is here are some window brightness tests which do include some monitors I’ve reviewed on YouTube to give some perspective on just how bright the G4 can really get.

As you can see the LG G4 is so far the brightest display I’ve seen. Even a modified QD OLED S90C TV can’t quite match it in both the 100% and 10% windows which are the most important metrics for getting a rough idea on a display's HDR potential.

Though to get a good idea of just how bright it is in real content I decided to measure a high APL (Average Picture Level) scene in the game Baldur’s Gate 3 because it scales up to 4000nits and is a great way to separate the boys from the men per say when it comes to OLED.

Once again the G4 pulls ahead just outpacing the modified S90C proving that not only can the G4 get bright in window measurements, but even color luminance has been raised greatly leading to a punchy HDR experience in real world content of which few displays can truly compete with. In terms of HDR in my opinion this is likely the best of the best so far in 2024, but I would need to compare it directly with Sony’s A95L QD OLED TV to be sure.

Performance - Gaming

LG has always had a good reputation for gaming consistently pulling in the low latency and of course instantaneous response times leading to unmatched motion performance that OLED is famous for, but this year LG has stepped it up again. Not only has game mode color been fixed, but for the first time ever LG has finally matched Samsung and is offering a 144Hz mode for PC gaming. 

Now this only matters for PCs with a 48Gbps HDMI port for full 4K 144Hz gaming without DSC (Display Stream Compression), and only 24fps higher may not sound like much, but I can tell you 144Hz is a significant and noticeable jump over 120Hz, and really makes LG an excellent option for PC gamers looking for the best HDR they can get on PC. 

However, none of that matters if the latency is high. Thankfully that is not the case.

The LG G4 comes in at a total of 29ms of total system latency including the peripherals and a whole PC. While this does fall short of the fastest 240Hz OLED monitors I’ve reviewed, for a TV this is incredibly fast and is comparable to other good 144Hz monitors making it excellent not only for couch gaming, but even hard core online competitive gaming is no sweat on this TV. Personally I had a great time playing some of my favorite games on this TV when hooked up to a PC, and I think my wow moment was when I was speeding down the highway in Cyberpunk 2077 in excess of 100fps on a scorching day watching the piercing sun glint of my Porche 911 in all that OLED motion glory. This is something no other display technology has been able to match for me. Though of course if you're a professional gamer, you would likely be better looking at 360Hz OLED monitors, for that slight edge in motion clarity and latency.

Speaking of motion performance the LG G4 is also excellent in this area.

At 144Hz it does have a slight clarity advantage over 120Hz, mostly noticeable where the text becomes more clear, but this TV definitely shines at 120Hz and above. Even at 120Hz the LG G4 absolutely puts 144Hz Mini LED displays to shame as it shows very little ghosting or trailing. Overall gaming on the LG G4 has been greatly improved and is an excellent experience.

Performance - Clarity

Now text clarity is certainly a weak point for OLEDs these days, and the G4 is no exception. While it does a good job showing black text against a white background, the extra white subpixel and unusual GRWB subpixel arrangement leads to pretty bad text fringing against gray backgrounds, and this can also lead to some images even during normal viewing appear to have a form of chromatic aberration. Ideally LG will move their TVs to RGWB or even better a true RGB layout which would also improve color volume in HDR.

Despite that, LG uses an excellent glossy finish with minor anti-reflective properties, leading to overall great clarity at a 4K resolution. However, the G series, unlike the C series, does suffer from some magenta tinting in ambient light. It is best to use the G4 in a somewhat light-controlled room to preserve black levels. To my eye, the tinting is about half as bad as that on QD OLED panels, making it far more manageable. Overall, while this could be improved, I would say the G4 has a great coating and good clarity.

Viewing Angles & Uniformity

One issue I have had, and still have with LG WOLED is the bad viewing angles on their non-MLA panels. This is something I don’t see discussed often, but LG has had serious issues with their TVs appearing somewhat pink near the center and green near the edges, or just completely slightly green tinted when viewed off angle depending on your distance. Thankfully this issue has been almost entirely eliminated with MLA. 

There are still some very slight remnants of this issue if you look really hard, but it's effectively been all but eliminated on the G4. Now QD OLED’s have zero issues like this and are generally more clean and uniform as LG still suffers from vertical banding on gray screens and minor dirtiness which can be mostly cleaned with a pixel refresh, but regardless remains an area where LG needs to improve in order to catch QD OLED.

Performance - Audio

Look, or should I say listen… (stop me when it gets too funny) if you want really good sound I suggest investing in a high quality audio setup, but honestly LG has pretty great audio for speakers included in a TV. They don’t have the intense power or bass rumble many will be looking for, but they do deliver a relatively clean and detailed sound for what it is, and there is ok bass extension and power all things considered without the rattle I have experienced on displays like the S90C. Overall I'm pretty impressed, and there's lots of room to tweak it to your preferences.

Menu & Firmware

In my opinion, LG has a pretty solid software experience. I’ve never had an issue with them badly messing up features or performance with updates. There is a lot of room to customize your experience, and overall the speed is acceptable. Don’t get me wrong, it still feels fairly slow, and I know many people are getting concerned over ads, but thankfully LG does give options to disable ads.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, the LG G4 is an absolute treat for watching movies, TV shows, or even PC gaming thanks to its infinite contrast ratio, excellent peak brightness, fixed game mode color, higher 144Hz refresh rate, greatly improved viewing angles over regular WOLED, great color and shadow detail accuracy in FMM, and also advanced software adjustment capability allowing you to adjust the picture and sound to whatever you like, whether that be an extremely colorful and brightness boosted image, or true to the creator's intent. 

All things considered while the LG G4 is likely not to be a monumental leap over the G3 when it comes to watching movies, especially for gamers the G4 provides substantial improvements and fixes making it a far superior overall package. 

My biggest gripe is the high price of the LG G4, especially in comparison to the excellently priced 2023 S90C available for $1,000 less at the same size; which is also a great, but not quite as good TV in my opinion. Yet despite that, so far in 2024 I would like to say that the LG G4 may be the best HDR TV money (a lot of money) can buy, but I can’t say it with absolute authority yet, as I haven’t had a chance to directly compare it to last year’s champ the Sony A95L or the incredibly bright 2024 Bravia 9 which is somewhat of a wild card ditching OLED for mini LED technology. 

Regardless, I can wholeheartedly recommend the LG G4 as one of the best displays ever created, having the best display quality I’ve tested so far.