It isn’t always easy to get excited about large screen televisions. The massive display real estate aside (the experiential advantages of which cannot be denied), they’ve mostly evolved into a sea of similarity. The smartphone inspiration, perhaps. Which is why, more than anything else, the OnePlus TV 65 Q2 Pro gets our attention because it is bucking the trend of conventionality, from the outset. Most of it works to add to the experience too, though a few misses within so much experimentation, are par for course.
The OnePlus TV 65 Q2 Pro is the logical successor to the OnePlus TV Q1 Series, from a few years ago. The change now – instead of two variants in the portfolio (the Q1 also had a Q1 Pro), there’s just the more expensive “Pro” variant for the Q2. And it has grown in size – 65 inches instead of 55 inches. The specifications include a 3840 x 2160 resolution, 1200 nits peak rated brightness, complete HDR support, Google TV and Dynaudio’s sound tuning smarts. It’ll make you part with ₹99,999.
Within the same space, your choice includes the Xiaomi OLED Vision TV 55 (This costs ₹99,999 though you get a more advanced, but slightly smaller display). Samsung’s 65-inch Q60A QLED 4K Smart TV is priced ₹1,34,990.
For starters, the bezel-free design is on the lines of what you’d expect from a premium television. But there’s a lot that’s changed beyond that. The table-top stand (this is still relevant to a lot of people) is a welcome ode to the past, residing in the middle. It is secure, and the TV itself doesn’t exhibit any swaying motion.
Of late, the trend that’s become commonplace with TVs is that tabletop stands attach near the edges of the panel – a complicated fallout of that is you need tables as wide as the TVs themselves. In case of the OnePlus TV 65 Q2 Pro, I’ve placed this on a not-so-wide marble table, and without having to go furniture shopping.
Then there’s the integrated soundbar, which looks like it is flowing out from the panel frame itself. OnePlus calls it the Horizon Soundbar. Unlike the predecessor which used a motorised mechanism for the roll-out soundbar (it would slide back in when the TV was powered off), it is a simpler, static implementation this time. While a motorised soundbar is cool, that’s just one more moving part to worry about, in the long term.
There are dual front-facing speakers and dual side facing tweeters, for a wide spectrum. This almost hits the sweet spot with delivering audio that you’d expect from a premium TV. Turn on Dolby Atmos (as well as sound levelling; always keep that enabled), and this is better audio than most TVs can manage.
One thing to note here – the default settings do lean a bit towards sharper vocals, you’d need to tone those down in settings, for better listening comfort at higher volumes. OnePlus may have the secret ingredient here, which is the Dynaudio tuning, and this should hold it in good stead for any sound optimisation updates too.
This is when you must peek behind the TV and admire the art of integrating a 3.5 litre box, volume 30-watt subwoofer. That’s the potential. Yet, in its present state of tuning (all audio settings checked), this can’t replicate the sort of lower frequency punch that you would expect. What you have for now is a very capable soundbar for voice (which likely eliminates the need for a separate sound system) but still doesn’t have the bass you’d want from movies, for instance. That, I suspect, can be sorted with a software update.
The QLED display panel (that’s short for Quantum Light-Emitting Diode), is building on the expectation of being close to flawless. Beyond the panel itself, OnePlus has worked through a bunch of processing algorithms, which make a genuine difference – the image processing engine is Gamma Engine, alongside the complete spectrum of HDR support (that’s Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG).
There’s a very comforting warmth to colour replication and the overall picture tone. To get the best out of this panel, I’d recommend you deep dive into the advanced picture settings (you may need to do this separately for different sources, such as streaming apps and HDMI) to tweak black level, fast motion, contrast, and colour settings.
The 120Hz refresh rate of this panel shines through with some fast-moving content. That would ideally be good news for movie and sports scenarios. For instance, a Full HD resolution steam of Formula 1 on the new F1 TV Pro app is close to flawless (better than Disney+ Hotstar ever managed to stream). Yet, you’d need to be careful if the source quality is low – the jagged frames do tend to show up in low bitrate and resolution scenarios such as lower quality YouTube videos.
OnePlus has gone with the latest version of Google TV for the smart TV foundations. That is, instead of Android TV. The problem with Google TV (and this isn’t limited to OnePlus TVs only) is the home screen tends to get very cluttered after a while. The customisation options (including turning off recommendations) are incomplete. The trick I’d suggest is to keep the home screen in “apps only” mode for a cleaner welcome to the TV viewing experience.
In case you’re upgrading from an existing OnePlus TV, the one change you’d perhaps appreciate the most with the remote (apart from the slightly better ergonomics) is the introduction of the power button. No longer will the elders at home have to re-learn TV remote basics.
We leave you with a very simple observation – OnePlus’ first premium smart television efforts started a couple of years ago started on a strong foot. There is a growing confidence which is very clear with the OnePlus TV 65 Q2 Pro, a testament to that being the bigger display panel. The design experiment has worked too, and has my vote, with the present soundbar and woofer implementation. The little things matter too – a tweaked remote design, not compromising on image and audio format support as well as an array of connectivity options. This is one TV which should be on your shortlist, if that’s how big your budget is.