TCL A400U adds Mini LED and 144Hz gaming to its art TV lineup

The series comes in 55, 65, 75 and 85 inch sizes

A400U TCL TCL’s TCL A400U Designer TV brings a QD Mini LED backlight to the company’s art TV lineup. Its slim, near flush design is meant to blend into a room when the screen is showing artwork or photos, while its display specifications put more emphasis on HDR and gaming than the frame style alone might suggest.

By Brody Wooddell

TCL is bringing QD Mini LED to its art TV lineup with the TCL A400U Designer TV. The television keeps the slim, gallery style design of the company’s other art models, but adds a Mini LED backlight and a native 4K 144Hz panel.

TCL rates the A400U at up to 2,500 nits of HDR brightness. Its local dimming backlight can adjust separate areas of the screen, with TCL listing 836 dimming zones on the 75 inch model. That combination could help bright highlights stand out without washing out darker parts of a scene, though the numbers alone do not establish how the picture looks in practice.

Mini LED is still an LCD technology: small LEDs behind the panel supply the light, while quantum dots help produce color. Dividing that backlight into dimming zones gives the TV more control than a single uniformly lit screen. The trade-off is that a zone can be larger than a bright object on screen, which can create a visible glow around it. That makes TCL’s halo control claims a useful target for testing, rather than a result the specifications can prove.

That approach differs from an OLED art TV, where individual pixels produce their own light and can turn off independently. OLED does not need dimming zones to render black areas of an image; the A400U instead relies on its Mini LED backlight to balance contrast with TCL’s stated brightness. Which looks better in a room will depend on more than the display technology alone, including reflections and how each TV handles HDR content.

A400U TCL TCL rates the A400U at up to 2,500 nits of HDR brightness. Its local dimming backlight can adjust separate areas of the screen, with TCL listing 836 dimming zones on the 75 inch model. That combination could help bright highlights stand out without washing out darker parts of a scene, though the numbers alone do not establish how the picture looks in practice.

Gaming gets more attention than it does on many TVs built around their appearance. Alongside the 144Hz panel, TCL lists variable refresh rate, FreeSync Premium Pro and automatic low latency mode. The higher refresh rate depends on a compatible game and source device; it does not make every show or game run at 144 frames per second.

The design side is still central to the A400U. Its low reflection HVA panel and near flush profile are intended to make artwork or personal photos look less like a conventional TV screen. It also has Google TV, AirPlay 2 and built in Onkyo audio.

TCL is entering a category where the picture-frame look is no longer the only selling point. Samsung’s 2026 Frame Pro also pairs a Mini LED-based display with art mode and support for up to 144Hz gaming. The A400U’s specifications put it in that conversation, though a direct comparison of picture quality will require testing both sets under the same conditions.

The TCL A400U Designer TV is listed in 55, 65, 75 and 85 inch sizes. It joins a growing group of art TVs built for everyday viewing and gaming as well as displaying artwork.