South Korean IT news publication ETNews published a report on testing that showed three TCL quantum dot TVs, marketed as QD TVs, did not have quantum dots present.

Hansol Chemical, a Seoul-headquartered chemicals company, commissioned the testing. SGS, a Geneva-headquartered testing and certification company, and Intertek, a London-headquartered testing and certification company, performed the tests.

 The models examined were TCL's C755, said to be a quantum dot Mini LED TV, the C655, a purported quantum dot LED (QLED) TV, and the C655 Pro, another QLED. None of those models are sold in the US, but TCL sells various Mini LED and LED TVs in the US that claim to use quantum dots.

The tests found the key components of a quantum dot, indium and cadmium, were not detected in three TCL QD TV models.

In response to the results from SGS and Intertek, a TCL representative told ETNews and The Korea Times that TCL is "manufacturing TV sets with QD films supplied by three companies" and that "the amount of quantum dots... in the film may vary depending on the supplier, but it is certain that cadmium is included."

TCL also published testing results on May 10, commissioned by Guangdong Region Advanced Materials, one of TCL's quantum dot film suppliers.

Interestingly, SGS, one of the companies that found that TCL's TVs lacked quantum dots, performed the tests. This time, SGS detected the presence of cadmium in the TV films at a concentration of 4 mg/kg (an image of the results can be seen via ETNews here).

TCL also said it "confirmed the fluorescent characteristics of QD," and provided a spectrogram purportedly depicting the presence of quantum dots in its TVs' quantum dot films.

Some analysts and publications have pointed out that Hansol Chemical might have a reason to make the claims against TCL. Hansol supplies TCL rival Samsung.

Ars Technica reasons that it's possible that TCL is indeed using quantum dots but is using them in a small amount alongside phosphor. If true, the performance may not be as high as it would be with other designs, but it would also mean that TCL's quantum dot TVs aren't bogus."