Blaupunkt UGC5500S vs TCL A400 PRO

We won’t beat around the bush here – if you’re looking for a TV strictly for cinematic HDR experiences, then you’ve come to the wrong place. Unfortunately, the Blaupunkt UGC5500S is not a machine built for such challenges. This is primarily due to its very low brightness, which we measured during our tests. A result of around 250 nits on movie screens speaks for itself. It’s simply too little to even consider any real HDR effect. To be honest, everything displayed in this format can confidently be seen as a somewhat “enhanced” SDR mode. We expected this, as practically every device in this price range falls short in this area, but we feel it’s our duty to warn you. Manufacturers love to brag about HDR compatibility on the boxes, but in reality, this format simply doesn’t exist here – it lacks the “fuel” in the form of brightness.

The situation is further complicated for Blaupunkt, as we’re dealing with a panel that has very basic coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, reaching only about 80%. You won’t find any advanced coatings to expand these capabilities (like quantum dots), which means scenes that are supposed to burst with richly saturated colours appear simply underwhelming on this screen. Therefore, we have a particular piece of advice for you: don’t force HDR mode on this model. If you have the option in the streaming app settings – just turn it off. By sticking to the classic SDR mode, you’ll be sure that the TV won’t try to “enhance” something that it can’t handle hardware-wise.

The TCL A400 Pro is a moderately bright TV. Its peak brightness reaches around 600 nits. That level already allows for a real HDR effect and in many films it does deliver a noticeably more appealing picture than in SDR. However, it’s not a level that dazzles by brightness alone. The A400 Pro is not one of those TVs that bombard the viewer with a powerful flash in every dramatic scene. The biggest limitation is visible with small bright elements on a dark background. Because of fairly aggressive zone control, the TV can significantly reduce their brightness, in extreme cases down to around 100 nits. That means small lights, sparks, stars or single highlights can be much less visible than they should be. It should be added, though, that this isn’t done without reason. The A400 Pro does this to keep black levels as deep as possible and to limit the halo effect around bright objects. It’s a deliberate compromise: the TV more often opts for deeper blacks rather than maximising point highlights. On the one hand this is understandable, especially given a limited number of dimming zones, but on the other you should be aware that the HDR effect won’t always be as strong as the peak brightness alone might suggest.

On the plus side, the colours are a strength. The PFS LED filter used here, marketed by the manufacturer as QLED, delivers suitably saturated colours. Our measurements showed about 94% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut and around 74% of BT.2020, which is a solid result for this class.

We also took a close look at how Blaupunkt handles colours in movie mode, and here the matter is, to put it simply, twofold. We must once again clearly separate what we see in the standard SDR format from what happens when HDR is switched on, as they are two completely different worlds. Let's start with the better side of the coin. If you're planning to watch traditional TV, YouTube, or older films on this television, you can count on really well-tuned colours. In our test sample, the white balance in movie mode performed exceptionally well, which honestly surprised us. Of course, to avoid being too rosy, we noticed some drawbacks. Looking at the gamma charts, we observed that the processor struggles with properly dimming the image in its brightest areas. Additionally, there is quite a strong, at times overly aggressive, red saturation, which resulted in visible errors in reproducing certain shades. Despite this, overall, the image in SDR is simply solid and watchable without a grimace on your face. Unfortunately, the magic fades when we re-enter the world of HDR. Here, Blaupunkt behaves as if we suddenly switched it to store mode, and in its worst rendition. The excess blue in the white balance is so significant that it’s glaring, ruining any realism in the scene. Furthermore, the television interprets brightness very loosely, which, upon analysing the EOTF curve, clearly showed that for most of the time, colours simply appear washed out and lacking depth. This is also perfectly evident in the colour errors that become apparent in this mode. Once again, we are left with the same conclusion: Blaupunkt in SDR mode looks significantly better and more natural than in HDR, which seems to be forcefully added without proper refinement.

As usual, we carried out colour measurements in the best‑tuned picture mode, Filmmaker Mode, the one intended to be closest to the creators’ intentions. The A400 Pro, of course, also offers other picture modes, but in practice they show much larger colour errors and interfere more with the image character. So we won’t cover them in detail in this part of the review. How does the factory colour reproduction fare? In short: really very well. In fact, looking at our measurements, it’s excellent. Both the white balance and the luminance response were set surprisingly precisely. The errors were so small that during the measurements we genuinely rubbed our eyes in surprise. Such good factory settings don’t happen often, even in televisions running Filmmaker Mode. All the more reason to praise TCL, because the A400 Pro straight out of the box can produce an image very close to how the source material should look. The results were so good you could easily think someone had already given this unit extra attention and tried to calibrate it. Our one bit of nitpicking comes down to a single issue. In SDR material the image was slightly brighter than the reference for a dark room, because the factory gamma was set closer to 2.3 than 2.4. It’s not a large error and most viewers probably won’t even notice it. We should note, however, that we are talking about our specific test unit. There can always be some variation in factory colour between individual units, production batches or screen sizes. We do not assume every A400 Pro will look identical straight out of the box.

It may sound like a joke – pulling out professional measuring equipment for a TV that costs around a thousand złoty / 250 dollars, but we wouldn’t be ourselves if we didn’t check it. The question is: does such cheap gear give us any leeway in terms of calibration? To your surprise, the answer is: yes, absolutely. In the Blaupunkt UGC5500S menu, we found surprisingly many options that allowed us to effectively work on the picture. These aren't just empty sliders; these are concrete tools that enabled us to make use of our measurement sensors and software. In SDR mode, the effects were visible to the naked eye. We successfully eliminated the problem we mentioned earlier – that excessive, almost artificial saturation of reds. We also fixed the issue with the incorrect dimming of the brightest parts of the image. After calibration, the picture in standard format became significantly more balanced and simply correct. When it comes to HDR, the situation was more complicated again. While we managed to “tame” that aggressive blue tint in the white balance, it was clear that we were fighting a bit of a losing battle. Even after changing the settings, the TV still tried to interfere with the picture in its own way, as if the electronics knew better than we did how the scene should look. To top it off, there's the hardware barrier that no slider can overcome – colours in HDR still remain undersaturated. This simply results from the quality of the panel itself; it physically cannot produce the most vivid colours. To summarise this point: if any of you ask whether it’s possible to calibrate a TV for “a grand”, we respond with complete conviction: it is possible.

Despite the outstanding factory tuning, we couldn't resist checking how the TCL A400 Pro would respond to professional calibration. With such a strong starting point, we were especially curious whether we could squeeze even more from this TV. And here we have to boast: we managed to bring our sample to absurdly low colour errors. Results below 1 are something you don't see every day, even on very good TVs. Such outcomes are more often associated with professional reference monitors than with a lifestyle TV for the living room. In terms of white balance and colour reproduction, the A400 Pro after calibration simply excelled. The only thing we can pick on after closer analysis concerns the brightness response. The TV can vary the luminance level depending on the content being displayed, and quite often the picture is a little darker than it should be according to the reference. This most likely stems from the way the Mini-LED backlight and the local dimming algorithms work in this model. That said, it doesn't ruin the overall impression, because in terms of colour precision the A400 Pro after calibration reached a level that was genuinely hard to expect.

If you're hoping that the processor in this model will magically "fix" the poor quality signal from your cable TV or old movies from YouTube, we must disappoint you. The capabilities of this television end at absolutely basic upscaling, which is simply stretching the image to a higher resolution. It does this correctly in that the image is not blurry, but there is no mention of any intelligent sharpening or adding details. Worse still, Blaupunkt is completely devoid of any functions to reduce unwanted tonal transitions. If the material being viewed shows what is known as banding (ugly "steps" instead of a smooth transition of colours, e.g., in the sky), this television will display them in all their glory. Additionally, the television has a tendency to slightly crop the edges of the image. Instead of displaying 100% of what the source sends, Blaupunkt slightly zooms in on the frame, causing us to lose details that are at the very edges of the screen. In summary: in the category of digital "enhancement" of the image, Blaupunkt simply performs poorly. We receive a raw, unprocessed signal, with all its flaws.

Digital image processing is unfortunately one of the weaker points of the TCL A400 Pro. That does not mean the TV performs badly, but it’s hard to call it anything clearly above standard. The upscaling itself is acceptable: edges are fairly well smoothed, the picture does not look overly sharp or “pixelated”, and lower-quality material can be watched without major discomfort. At the same time the overall image has a slightly soft character and you don’t see the kind of precision that the best image processors in more expensive TVs can offer.

Handling of tonal transitions caused by heavy compression is much worse. TCL equipped the A400 Pro with a “Gradual Smoothing” feature that in theory should reduce visible colour banding and artefacts in lower-quality material. In practice, however, its effectiveness is very limited. It does not improve tonal transitions in any noticeable way, and at higher settings it can further smooth image detail, giving it an artificial, slightly blurred character. For that reason we think it’s best to leave this feature off. The A400 Pro copes decently with basic image scaling, but if you often watch heavily compressed material with visible posterisation, this model will not be one of the best choices.

When it comes to motion fluidity, Blaupunkt has nothing to defend itself with. A 60 Hz panel at this price is standard, so none of us expected a perfectly sharp image in fast action scenes or during a match. However, the biggest drawback of this model is that you won’t find any digital motion smoothers in the menu. The manufacturer hasn’t given us any room for manoeuvre – nothing can be smoothed out or the image adjusted to our personal preferences. The picture is always "raw" and we receive it exactly as it is transmitted by the source. For fans of cinematic "jumping" images, this might be good, but the rest simply has to get used to the lack of any motion enhancement.

The TCL A400 Pro is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, but in practice we're most interested in how it performs at 120 Hz. That's the refresh rate most consoles, as well as many sports broadcasts and high-motion sources, are limited to today. In that range the TV performs quite well. Motion clarity is really good, especially after properly configuring the motion smoothing. The 'Motion Clarity' function improves smoothness. Its settings include two sliders that let you tailor the motion smoothing to your preferences, separately for low-frame-rate and high-frame-rate content. This allows you to achieve either a more cinematic look or a noticeably smoother image. If you don't want to fiddle with manual configuration, you can use built-in presets such as Low, Medium, High, Cinema or Nature.

When it comes to gaming on the Blaupunkt, we weren’t expecting miracles and indeed – the list of features isn’t very long. However, there are two interesting points worth mentioning, as they might be significant for some of you at this price. The first advantage is that the TV quite smoothly detects the connected console. Thanks to the ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) feature, the device knows when you start gaming and automatically switches to low latency mode. This is convenient because you don’t have to fiddle with settings every time to ensure input lag doesn’t spoil the fun. The second point is a real curiosity that surprised us. Despite it being a 60 Hz panel, the Blaupunkt can display a 120 Hz image at Full HD resolution. Sure, we lose 4K details, but for those playing more dynamic, online shooters where smoothness is more important than resolution, this is a really nice and unexpected addition in such an affordable device. Other than these two points, you won’t find anything more here. There are no advanced smoothness enhancement systems for gamers or extensive gaming menu bars. It’s a simple screen for occasional gaming.

In terms of gaming features the TCL A400 Pro performs brilliantly. The TV has practically everything you’d expect from a gaming TV today: support for 4K at high refresh rates, VRR, ALLM, correct implementation of HDR formats in games, including Dolby Vision, and HGiG. That means it works well with both next‑gen consoles and PCs. Another plus is the inclusion of a Game Bar, a dedicated panel with the most important settings for gamers. From it you can quickly check basic information about the signal, refresh rate or active features, and customise the appearance and behaviour of some settings to your preferences. It’s a solution that may not change picture quality by itself, but it greatly improves the convenience of using the TV while gaming. The only thing to criticise is the number of full HDMI 2.1 ports. The A400 Pro has only two such ports out of four, and one of them also serves as eARC. In practice this means that if you want to connect two next‑gen consoles and a soundbar you may run into some limitations. In that scenario you’ll need to either swap devices or use extra equipment, such as an AV receiver or a soundbar with HDMI inputs. Even so, it’s hard not to rate the A400 Pro very highly as a gaming TV. The gaming feature set here is genuinely powerful.