Big screen TVs, and by that we mean 65-inch screens, with a QLED panel are not an easy choice these days. Simply because you have the choice. QLED, or Quantum Dot LED, is a panel display technology that strikes a near-perfect balance on the tightrope between cost-effectiveness and performance. Far superior to the basic LED panels that littered the smart TV ecosystem until a few years ago, and more cost-effective than OLED panels typically found in much more expensive TVs, you have some interesting choices.
Samsung’s QE1D (retails for approx. ₹1,06,990), the Xiaomi Mi QLED TV (but in 75 inches; around ₹1,09,999) and the HiSense Q7N series (the 65-inch TV costs approx. ₹69,999) are some nice options. If you don’t mind saving a little more money on an entertainment-quality 65-inch TV, there’s a new option to consider. That’s Skyworth’s 2024 update to the Coocaa 65Y73 Pro. This will retail for around ₹47,999 and it does a lot of things right from the start. First of all, they changed the fundamentals of the QLED display and in practice, those changes seem to have worked.
QLED+ is what the company is calling this display, and the key changes are in the structure of what’s behind what you’re watching. Traditionally, QLED panels have the display later, behind which is a quantum dot film, a diffusion plate, and the backlight – all different layers. Skyworth’s labs finally merged the quantum dot film and diffusion plate, then replaced a standard backlight screen with a layer of blue light and colored phosphors. It might not seem like it right away, but this panel is a tiny bit brighter than most other QLED panels. Differences become apparent when afternoon sunlight streams into the room.
The other major upgrade is the matte finish on the screen, which significantly reduces reflections. The results of all these changes have proven to be effective. The Coocaa 65Y73 Pro reproduces beautiful colors once you adjust the picture settings to suit your viewing habits. The blacks are deeper than other QLED TVs, further narrowing the technology’s gap with the more advanced OLED panels.
In the background, the Chameleon Extreme engine uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to adjust the backlight based on data from the ambient light sensors. Unlike most TVs, there is no noticeable flickering during this transition.
One downside I noticed with the Coocaa 65Y73 Pro’s picture is the inability to accurately reproduce skin tones when you increase the backlight level (found in the picture settings) by more than 10 (this goes up to 100, mind you). Skin tones look unnaturally white and overexposed, which also affects the overall color representation. You’ll need to tweak the picture settings to get the most out of this panel, although this shouldn’t be too difficult due to unoptimized image processing algorithms, as the hardware used seems to be top-notch.
Could this be resolved by a future software update? Time will tell. On that note, during our testing period of the Coocaa 65Y73 Pro, we already saw the TV receive a fairly large software update (which was around 900MB in size; one downside of Google TV is that it doesn’t display release notes). We can only hope that the company actively provides software updates and patches for the TV – something that many TV manufacturers have struggled with over time.
I keep thinking about the rather simple design of the table stand. This is now common even for TVs that cost as little as ₹15,000. A little creativity was perhaps called for. I have to mention Haier’s efforts with their new Google TV range, with rather sleek centre-aligned table stands that allow more flexibility in terms of table width and look good too.
Google’s mess with Google TV continues, something we’ve also pointed out in previous TV reviews. Curation and suggestions scattered across different tabs make navigation sluggish, which hurts the overall experience. Your best bet is to head to Settings and enable App-only mode to keep the home screen optimized and not impact app performance.
The Coocaa 65Y73 Pro’s remote is said to be antibacterial (there’s a large graphic printed on the front of the remote), and you might like that. However, the remote itself feels like it was made on a low budget – and the design also bears similarities to older Xiaomi TVs. Button presses feel soft, too soft, and you’re not always sure if a button press has registered. The layout is minimalistic, which is certainly a positive.
Having undercut most other 65-inch QLED TVs currently available and also revamped the fundamentals of a QLED panel, the Coocaa 65Y73 Pro seems to have it working. Picture quality is really good once some effort has been made to tweak it. 4K and HDR movies and TV shows (Dolby Atmos and HDR10+ are supported) come across really well, while lower resolution content retains a good level of sharpness. The only real complaint about the experience is the limited sound (that’s almost always true of built-in TV speakers), which perhaps could have been overcome with a soundbar-like implementation.
