New TVs from TCL and Hisense, like the TCL X11L, are closing the performance gap to those from Sony, LG, and Samsung. For all the time that I've been covering technology, there's been a hierarchy when it comes to TV brands. The big three - Sony, Samsung, and LG - have been on top for a while . Pioneer and Panasonic were up there with plasma TVs, and Panasonic is getting back in the game in the States. Hisense, TCL, and Vizio battled it out as midrange tiers for years before Vizio pivoted from hardware profits to an ad-centric model under Walmart, leaving the other two to one-up each other by offering the most bang for the buck. But over the past couple years, both TCL and Hisense have made impressive strides in performance, bringing them closer and closer t … Read the full story at The Verge. ...read more read less