IFFALCON U85X vs TCL RM7L

iFFALCON U85 handles HDR in a rather dual manner – on one hand, it can surprise with a solid peak brightness of around 650 nits, which places it significantly above average in this price segment. This is particularly evident in bright, full-screen scenes. Examples from movies like Life of Pi or the final test sequences from The Meg prove that the television can maintain the power and essence of the HDR effect when the entire panel needs to “ignite,” providing truly satisfying experiences. However, problems arise in high-contrast scenes, where smaller, bright details appear on the screen; the dimming algorithms prioritise black depth so much that they can crush the brightness of small bright points down to just 100 nits, drastically lowering the image dynamics and depriving us of the real “bite” we expect from HDR standards. However, the question of colours remains a sweetener, as thanks to the use of the PFS phosphor filter (marketed as QLED by the manufacturer), they look very good, achieving nearly 94% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, which allows for a rich and vivid image in most content.

TCL RM7L is a bright TV. In our measurements its peak brightness hovered around 1600 nits. That’s noticeably less than the C7L, which can get close to 2600 nits, but in real-world film scenes the difference between the models isn’t that large. In less demanding shots, where plenty of bright elements appear on screen, the RM7L can sustain around 1000 nits, and sometimes even a bit more, approaching 1500 nits. It performs worse in dark scenes with small points of light; then their brightness can fall to about 500 nits. This behaviour isn’t random. The TV deliberately dims small elements to better control the backlight and preserve higher contrast. This comes at the expense of their intensity, but it’s typical for TVs with local dimming in a similar price range.

Colour gamut coverage

In HDR brightness isn’t the only thing that matters, colour does too. Here the RM7L has a lot to show. Colours are strongly saturated and the wide colour gamut is one of its main strengths. In our measurements it reached about 96% of DCI-P3 and around 83% of BT.2020. It’s worth remembering, though, that on a TV with this kind of backlight the result can vary depending on the scene. On test patterns colours look best, while in films their saturation can be a little lower than on SQD Mini LED or QD-OLED TVs. The backlight design itself is interesting. The RM7L doesn’t use the classic red, green and blue LED set. TCL used two green LEDs and one blue, with red produced via a PFS phosphor. You can see this in spectrometer measurements, but it doesn’t have a major impact on the picture. Colours are still rendered correctly.

We tested the factory colours in the iFFALCON U85X model in “Film” mode, which is definitely the most accurate among all available settings, although it is still far from perfect. The main issue that catches the eye in both SDR and HDR content is the improper white balance – an excess of blue and red contributes to a slight purple tint in the image, detracting from the naturalness of the film scenes. An even greater challenge is how the television manages its brightness. Analysing the gamma chart for SDR signal, we noticed significant instability: instead of adhering to the standard value of 2.4, the device oscillates around 2.2, then suddenly makes an unnatural jump to around 3.0. In practice, this leads to confusing effects – large, bright surfaces on the screen appear too dark, while smaller elements are unnecessarily brightened. A similar characteristic can be found in the EOTF curve, which makes the image unpredictable and loses its cinematic authenticity.

Factory colours were checked in Filmmaker Mode, the best picture setting available to the user. TCL has been using it in its TVs for two years, and its purpose is to reproduce the image as faithfully as possible to the filmmakers' intent. On the RM7L it was indeed the best calibrated mode, though not without faults. The biggest issue was the white balance. An excess of red and blue made the image shift slightly toward pink tones. This was visible in both SDR and HDR. In addition, the brightness response was slightly boosted, so the picture looked a little brighter but at the same time less contrasty than it should.

After professional calibration of the movie mode, we must admit that the effect is more than satisfactory – the iFFALCON U85X undergoes a true transformation here. Colour errors in SDR content have dropped to a level below 2, making them practically undetectable to the human eye. We managed to set the white balance almost perfectly, and brightness management (gamma) has become almost exemplary. As a result, with standard quality materials, the television simply looks perfect and it's hard to fault it.

In the case of HDR signal, the situation has also improved significantly, although here the nature of the device is a bit more noticeable. Colour errors have been reduced to around 3, which is an outstanding result in this price range. It's worth taking a look at the EOTF chart (available on the right side of the screen in filters: 4K HDR, gamma / EOTF) to see what is not immediately apparent regarding brightness management by the U85. Though the reference line looks decent, in actual film scenes the television still interprets the signal “in its own way” due to very aggressive local dimming zone algorithms. Does that disqualify this model for watching HDR content? Absolutely not. It’s simply a typical issue with nearly every Mini-LED that has to balance high brightness with the attempt to maintain deep blacks. One just needs to be aware of these technical limitations, which are unavoidable in this segment.

Thanks to a fairly extensive calibration menu we managed to correct the vast majority of the issues described earlier. The biggest change was the white balance. After calibration it looks very good, so the image has lost its pinkish tint and become much more neutral. The luminance response has also improved. Both the SDR gamma and the HDR EOTF curve are now much closer to the reference values. The picture is no longer unnecessarily bright, and darker parts look more natural and have greater depth. Better luminance accuracy has also affected the colours, which after calibration are noticeably more accurate. Not everything could be set perfectly though. In HDR material the RM7L still interprets part of the signal in its own way and doesn’t always stick exactly to the reference curve. You can see this mainly in some darker scenes, where the TV can either slightly lift the shadows or darken them completely. That’s where the earlier impression of a slightly brightened, less contrasty image came from. Even so, the calibration delivers a very good result here. It removes the most visible errors and, above all, makes the picture much closer to how it should look.

When it comes to scaling images to 4K resolution, the iFFALCON U85X performs solidly. The device effectively boosts low-quality signals, making even older materials look clean and clear on the 4K panel. At extremely low resolutions, such as 480p, you can notice slightly jagged edges (especially on thin lines), but let’s be honest – this is a scenario you'll only encounter while watching very old recordings, so in everyday use, it’s not a real issue.

On the other hand, the digital processing aimed at smoothing tonal transitions performs significantly worse. Although the menu features a function called “Gradual Smoothing”, its effectiveness is at least debatable. In practice, it does not effectively eliminate banding (colour stepping) and, worse yet, can cause more harm than good. This filter can be too aggressive where it shouldn’t be, artificially smoothing out details that shouldn’t be touched, such as the natural texture of the face or the fine details of skin texture. Instead of improving quality, this function can give the image an unnatural, “plastic” look, so it’s best to use it with caution or, preferably: leave it turned off.

Upscaling and digital image processing are not the RM7L’s strong points. TCL has used a MediaTek Pentonic 700 chipset here, labelled MT5896, which isn’t among the best processors at handling lower-quality sources. The biggest issues appear with heavily compressed content from YouTube or regular broadcast TV. The processor can’t effectively hide posterisation and the characteristic banding between shades. The feature meant to smooth these issues does little to help and can also interfere with the picture too much, smoothing faces and fine textures, for example. For that reason it’s best not to use it.

Plain upscaling to 4K looks better. Lower-quality sources are reasonably sharp and retain a sufficient amount of detail. It’s not on a par with the best processors on the market, but for everyday viewing the result is perfectly acceptable.

Unlike budget constructions that can resemble a slideshow in dynamic sports scenes, the iFFALCON U85X is a heavyweight player equipped with a panel featuring a native refresh rate of 144Hz. It's worth remembering that in the realm of movies, series, or sports, we'll predominantly operate at 120Hz due to the specifics of image enhancement systems. Such a fast panel is excellent news for gamers and sports fans, as it opens the door to advanced motion settings that simply aren't available in cheaper 60Hz models.

Everything is managed from the menu “Motion Clarity”, where instead of using ready-made, often overly aggressive modes, we strongly recommend a custom configuration based on two sliders. The most important of these, Flicker Reduction, is responsible for fluidity in films – here, it's best to aim for a value around 4, which helps maintain the natural, cinematic character of motion without falling into the artificial “soap opera effect.” Meanwhile, the first slider, Motion Blur Reduction, is key to success in sports broadcasts. In this case, it's worth going all out and setting it to maximum, ensuring that the image remains sharp during fast-paced action on the field, while annoying ghosting is eliminated.

The RM7L uses a 144 Hz VA panel, so right from the start it's well prepared for sports, games and other dynamic content. The high refresh rate also gives the motion interpolation more room to work, so it can generate additional frames. On the RM7L it performs well and, when set correctly, can noticeably improve motion smoothness without producing an excessive soap opera effect.

iFFALCON U85X is an outstanding piece of gear for gamers that has pretty much everything you could ask for from a modern screen for console or PC. It features two full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports with a full bandwidth of 48 Gbps, which opens the door to key technologies such as VRR and ALLM, ensuring smooth gameplay without screen tearing and with minimal lag. The TV effortlessly handles high refresh rates at various resolutions, and a real curiosity is the mode that allows for up to 240Hz when dropping down to Full HD quality. Everything is managed by the Game Bar (which is a faithful copy from TCL), allowing for instant switching of picture modes, personalization of the interface appearance, or even adding a virtual crosshair in the middle of the screen.

When it comes to gamer-focused features, there's almost nothing but praise for the RM7L. The TV supports ALLM, VRR, Dolby Vision Gaming and works correctly with HGiG, so it's hard to point to any major gaps in that area. In practice that means automatic switching to a low-latency mode, smoother motion with variable frame rates and accurate brightness reproduction in HDR games. There's also a handy Game Bar. From it you can quickly check the frame rate, VRR status, signal format and aspect ratio, and change key settings without leaving the game. TCL has added a few extra options too, such as an on-screen reticle and brightening of dark areas, which can be useful in some titles. The biggest downside comes from using the Pentonic 700 processor. Only two of the four HDMI ports support the full HDMI 2.1 standard. With a single console that won't be a big issue, but if you hook up two consoles and a PC you might run out of ports, especially since one of those ports may also be needed for eARC and a soundbar.