LG UA75006LA (IPS) vs TCL P7L / P79L

It looks even more modest in the version with an IPS panel, where the peak brightness only reaches 250 nits. In practice, this means that a real sense of HDR effect is out of the question, and the materials being viewed resemble regular SDR. Similar to VA panels, the image behaves stably across most test patterns, but in demanding scenes with fine details, the television tends to slightly dim the picture. As a result, blacks appear a bit better, but at the cost of losing detail in bright elements. The absence of additional colour filters is also noticeable here. The UA7500 in the IPS version is neither a QLED nor a PFS LED panel, and the DCI-P3 colour gamut stops at 80%, which means that HDR films lack significant colour depth and appear quite flat.

The biggest limitation of the TCL P7L in HDR is simply brightness. The TV doesn't have much luminance headroom, so strong highlights, sunlight or small light sources can't clearly "pop" out of the image. As a result, even well-produced HDR material looks fairly restrained and, in terms of dynamics, is closer to good SDR than to what brighter models show. That doesn't mean the P7L completely fails at HDR; the issue is mainly a lack of sufficient backlight power. Looking at colours, the situation is a bit better. The TV covers roughly 91% of the DCI‑P3 gamut and about 68% of the wide BT.2020 space, so for its price class the colour range is quite decent. TCL markets this model as QLED, although the nature of the solution used is closer to a PFS phosphor‑based backlight than a classic quantum dot layer. What matters most to the viewer is the effect: more saturated colours are on offer.

The Filmmaker mode on the LG UA7500 performs better than you might expect from such a budget television, but let’s not get carried away with admiration. The picture is put together quite sensibly and at first glance is not irritating; however, its weaknesses quickly become apparent. This is most noticeable in scenes with bright points – lamps in the background or reflections of light on skin are clearly oversaturated. The faces of characters often appear unnatural, as if they have been "blown out." Additionally, the default gamma setting brightens even the slightest details and causes the picture to lose subtlety in the darker areas. That said, for its price range, the UA7500 in factory mode provides a pretty decent starting point. However, it is clear that without additional adjustment, these issues won't be avoided, which is why – as with other televisions – we decided to see what could be achieved after calibration.

In Film mode the TCL P7L performs quite decently without major tweaks, especially with ordinary SDR material. The white balance is relatively even, although as brightness increases there’s a slight rise in red and blue and a bit too little green. That doesn’t create a strongly visible colour cast and most colours remain close to their reference points. The Colour Checker confirms this, with a large portion of errors falling below the level that should particularly bother during normal viewing. We have more remarks about the gamma response. In the darkest parts of the image the TV drives it noticeably above the reference, so some shadow detail may be a little too dim. The curve then settles and for much of the range it’s close to the intended targets. As a result SDR generally looks natural, but in dark scenes the P7L can lose some subtlety.

In HDR the factory setup is less precise. As brightness increases the excess blue becomes more pronounced, so the picture can look cooler than it should. The number of larger colour deviations also rises, especially in brighter colours. The EOTF curve itself is handled fairly conservatively, with the TV showing the image darker than the reference over much of the range. For such an inexpensive model, the factory Film mode settings are not bad.

The biggest improvement we noticed was when calibrating the mode intended for everyday SDR content. We managed to smoothly adjust the white balance in an acceptable manner and tame the issue of excessive brightening of small elements due to the gamma characteristics. As a result, the image gained consistency and a naturalness that was lacking in the factory settings. After such a correction, we can confidently say that for everyday television content, programmes, or materials from YouTube, the LG UA7500 performs really well – especially after professional calibration. The situation is somewhat different for HDR content. Here, calibration did manage to tame the white balance and slightly improve brightness management, however, the design limitations are immediately apparent. The lack of additional filters that expand the colour palette means that the most vibrant colours appear flat, and the image lacks the intensity one would expect from good HDR. In SDR, the UA7500 performs quite well, but in HDR – despite the corrections – it remains far behind, and this is a characteristic that one must accept when choosing this television.

After calibration the TCL P7L can produce a genuinely pleasant picture, especially with conventional SDR material. We managed to even out the white balance very well, and the gamma curve now tracks close to the target value of 2.4. This is also evident in the colour measurements, as most errors have fallen significantly and in everyday viewing it’s hard to notice any major inaccuracies. Films, series, YouTube and regular TV therefore look more natural, without unnecessary warmth or a cool tint. For a model at this price point the SDR result is really very good.

In HDR the situation becomes more complicated. Calibration improved the white balance and corrected some deviations, but here the panel’s limitations become increasingly apparent. The P7L has relatively limited brightness and can’t sustain appropriate luminance for more saturated colours, so some errors remain even after careful tuning. In other words, settings can improve how the TV interprets the signal, but you can’t overcome its physical capabilities. That’s why calibration is most worthwhile for SDR on this model.

The version with the IPS panel performed noticeably worse here. Image scaling was uneven – this was especially evident in lower quality materials, where edges became jagged and the image looked less detailed. At times, there was also a sense of slight blurriness, which took away sharpness and made the overall picture seem less refined than in the VA version. The tonal smoothing function turned out to be a rescue. On medium settings, it worked quite well – it did not ruin the image with excessive softening, while also smoothing out colours in such a way that everyday content gained consistency. The difference was particularly noticeable with TV programs or streaming materials of poorer compression quality, where the television with the function enabled presented itself much better. This is one of those additions that are worth keeping active, as they significantly improve the reception of everyday materials.

In this respect the TCL P7L performs surprisingly well, especially for such an inexpensive TV. The banding reduction feature, which in many budget models does little or nothing, actually manages to improve the picture here. It doesn't remove all banding completely, but it can noticeably reduce posterisation and make trickier gradients look more natural. In this price segment that's a genuinely pleasant surprise.

The upscaling itself also looks good. Lower-resolution material is upscaled properly, without excessive sharpening or adding artificial edges around objects. Of course the P7L won't turn a very poor source into a 4K-quality picture, but for regular TV the result is simply solid. For a model at this price point there are few major complaints to make.

LG UA7500 is a television with a 60 Hz panel, so it's hard to expect any excitement in this category. It's more of a screen intended for daily content or an evening movie session rather than for following fast-paced sports events or playing action games. It’s clear that the manufacturer designed this model specifically for that audience – and it performs well in that regard. We have the TruMotion function available, which is a motion smoother. It’s simple, has only one slider, but can make a noticeable difference. At the lower range, the image looks more raw and cinematic, while at higher values, the motion becomes smoother and more pleasurable to the eye.

TCL P7L uses a native 60 Hz panel at 4K resolution, and that's how it should be treated in everyday use. For movies the TV mainly offers frame interpolation, so it can smooth motion and reduce noticeable judder, but it doesn't deliver the smoothness typical of true 120 Hz panels.

LG UA7500 is a TV that can be confidently recommended to "casual" gamers. While it doesn’t feature a 120 Hz panel or HDMI 2.1 ports, making full use of the potential of modern consoles isn’t something we can expect. However, the manufacturer has included several additions that can enhance the gaming experience. Notably, there's the Game Bar – a very nicely designed panel that allows quick access to and changes of the most important settings. From this panel, we have access to the ALLM mode (automatic switching to game mode), as well as frame synchronization, or VRR. The range of VRR is limited – it works from 48 to 60 Hz – but the mere presence of this feature in such an affordable TV leaves a positive impression.

Additionally, it also supports HGiG, which is a HDR calibration mode for games. It sounds good, but from our testing experience, we know that for the UA7500 this option doesn’t make much sense. The TV doesn't perform well with HDR, so paradoxically, we achieved better results with this mode turned off. This is another signal that the UA7500 is more of a screen for occasional gamers who value simplicity and convenience rather than for those looking for the full experience from the latest consoles.

For such an inexpensive TV, the P7L has quite a lot to offer gamers. It has ALLM, VRR and Dolby Vision in games, and TCL also includes its Game Bar, where you can quickly check key information or change some settings without leaving the game. Not everything is perfect, though, because HGiG doesn't work here as it should, but at this price point it's hard to complain much about the feature set. The most interesting part comes when you give up 4K. At that resolution the TV runs at up to 60 Hz, but at 1440p and 1080p it can already display at 120 Hz. And that's not just a spec-sheet curiosity. In fast-paced games that support that frame rate the difference in smoothness is genuinely noticeable, so if you care more about smoother motion than maximum image sharpness, that mode can make a lot of sense. Of course, that doesn't make the P7L a true 120 Hz TV. Still, it's precisely these extra modes that make the P7L perform really well for gaming.