Philips PUS8079 vs TCL C655 / C69B (55"-85")

The maximum brightness in content with a wide tonal range at 202 nits is extremely low and practically prevents watching movies and series on streaming platforms in the highest quality. It's worth mentioning that in this case, using the HDR format equipped with dynamic metadata won't help either. Why won't it help? Because the only such format implemented in the television is HDR10+, which is extremely unpopular, and films recorded in this format are scarce. It’s also worth noting that PUS8079 uses WLED backlighting, which unfortunately is not the best solution, resulting in coverage of only 80% of the wide DCI-P3 colour gamut. The effect of this reality is significantly less intense colours in HDR content.

Overall, the quality of the HDR effect in TCL C655 / C69B looks quite promising. The average value in the test patterns is around 450 nits, which already allows you to feel the light effects and better image dynamics. However, as mentioned earlier, this effect may be somewhat subdued by slight differences in bright and dark shades, resulting from the lack of local dimming technology. However, the DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage of 94% deserves high praise, and this is possible due to the use of a quantum dot (QLED) panel. This makes the colours vibrant and well-reproduced when watching HDR content.

The best factory mode in terms of colour reproduction and fidelity to the director's vision was "Film". While it was the best of the predefined modes, it still had significant discrepancies between what the filmmaker wanted to convey and what the tested television displayed. In both SDR and HDR materials (though to a lesser extent in the latter), the white balance, which is the most fundamental element responsible for image purity, turned out to be somewhat of a repeat of the vibrant mode, with a blue tint reminiscent of what you see in retail displays. Moving directly to the SDR materials and what affects contrast, namely gamma, we see it being severely reduced. This leads to cutting off already minimal contrast resources and brightening the entire image. In the EOTF curve, responsible for the increase in brightness pace in HDR materials, we instead see a strong drop below the reference line, which, given the limited light output of the television, significantly impacted the perception of those contents, which were even more dimmed. We won’t separate the quality assessments of the colours themselves since, in both cases, they achieved astronomical deltaE values, being simply completely different from what they should be.

The TCL C655 / C69B television offers a film mode that has been tested for colour reproduction quality. Although this mode is called film mode, it unfortunately has quite a few errors that the director would certainly not want to see when filming their work. Starting with image analysis, it's worth looking at the white balance – both in HD content and 4K HDR, the white balance has significant issues. In both cases, the red colour dominates, resulting in colours that are too warm, with an overall pink or yellow tint. This can be seen in the image below from the film "Star Wars." The Colour Checker test confirms these errors – the colour samples stray into incorrect shades, affecting the overall colour fidelity. The brightness characteristics are a lesser issue. However, they are not without flaws either. The gamma chart shows a strong spike at the beginning, which can cause the image to be overly bright, and the EOTF curve responsible for brightness in 4K HDR content also has significant fluctuations – it's evident how the television tries to maintain appropriate brightness, but it doesn't always succeed effectively.

Luckily, Philips implements advanced image correction tools in all of its TVs. SDR content has benefited the most here, and the huge deltaE errors have been significantly corrected, with both white balance and gamma being substantially reworked. While we can't say it's reference-quality image, it's definitely better, and you can watch a movie or series without causing a headache, especially for your eyes. Naturally, HDR materials, due to the very low luminance of the TV, could not be corrected to the same high degree as those with a standard colour palette, but we managed to roughly straighten out the EOTF curve and the white balance. Unfortunately, that was all we could squeeze out of our unit, although it's worth noting that each unit is different and has entirely different errors, whether minor or major.

After calibrating the movie mode of the television TCL C655 / C69B , the white balance has been adjusted, and the colours look as they should – which is confirmed by only slight deviations in the Colour Checker test. The gamma is really good, which ensures that the television shouldn't have any issues with brightness in low-resolution material. Unfortunately, a similar EOTF characteristic is still noticeable, which is a natural occurrence in televisions that do not have local dimming – they simply struggle to "shine" brighter in a given part of the screen. Despite this design limitation, which cannot be bypassed, we recommend making adjustments in the settings, as the overall colour presentation looks really very good.

We will return once again to the issue of tonal transitions, but in the context of overall image quality improvement. As we can observe in the photo on the left, the gradation enhancement feature works brilliantly. Furthermore, it offers several settings, and each of them, even the lowest, provides a beneficial effect, and, what’s more, does not soften the film grain effect. We will repeat once again that this feature is the biggest advantage of the tested television.

Secondly, we will look at image scaling. Here, the tested television performed worse. We can notice, above all, the strongly jagged fine details and the characteristic white glow around figures. We must not forget about the significant artificial sharpening of the image.

Television TCL C655 / C69B handles tonal transitions in low-quality materials fairly well. The "Gradual Smoothing" feature on low settings effectively smooths out tonal transitions, but it also blurs important details, such as the texture of objects. A positive aspect is that it does not negatively affect film grain, which helps to maintain the natural look of the image. In terms of digital processing, the television adds artificial sharpness, which some users who prefer a sharper image might appreciate. However, for those who prefer a softer look, this may be a drawback. Another downside is that the image has been significantly cropped due to the so-called overscan, which reduces the field of view and cuts off the edges of the image.

This paragraph, unlike the others, will be extremely short. The reason for this situation is the lack of implementation of even the most basic motion smoothing function, which was to be expected given the price of the device. We also note that we are dealing with a VA panel, whose sharpness will not be the best under the sun. This type of panel is mainly associated with high contrast, which goes hand in hand with a relatively slow response time, as we can clearly read from the panel analysis results. As you can see, from the images captured in quick motion, the picture is blurred, typical for this type of panel. Although it may not be the ideal option, it can conditionally be used for watching sports, although one must keep in mind the less than optimal sharpness in motion. It's worth mentioning that movies will exhibit stuttering, as the television does not have any, not even the simplest, motion smoother.

The television C655 / C69B is equipped with a 4K@60 Hz panel, which means it's best suited for watching movies and less dynamic content. It also features a "Flicker Reduction" function, allowing users to adjust the smoothness of the image – they can choose whether they prefer smoother motion or a more cinematic, frame-like effect. The television can also adapt to lower resolutions, such as Full HD and 2K at 120 Hz, which will surely please gamers by offering a smoother image at the cost of resolution. It’s worth noting that this feature is available in sizes starting from 55"+. Additionally, the largest variant, 98", is equipped with a 144Hz panel with full motion smoothing.

Philips PUS8079 offers only the most basic support for gaming in the form of ALLM, VRR, and Game Bar. The most important information is that thanks to the implementation of the feature responsible for dynamic refresh rate adjustment, the image is actually quite smooth for this price range and does not 'tear' the image.

A slightly greater nod towards gamers is the introduction of the Game Bar, allowing for settings adjustments 'on the fly'. This means we won’t have to exit the game to make any changes to the image. Importantly, it hasn’t been stripped of options known from higher models. We can find features such as shadow enhancement for better visibility in shadows and a colour filter for players with visual impairments.

The TCL C655 / C69B TV offers an almost perfect set of features for gamers, supporting all the key technologies. It has an ALLM feature that automatically switches the TV to low latency mode, significantly improving responsiveness and minimising signal lag, which is especially important during dynamic gameplay. The VRR feature allows synchronisation of the screen refresh rate with the number of frames generated by the console, eliminating screen tearing and providing smoother gameplay.

The TV also supports Dolby Vision in gaming mode, ensuring better colour and contrast reproduction in games that support this format, and the Game Bar enables quick access to gameplay-related settings, such as response time, latency level, and other parameters. Unfortunately, the C655 / C69B does not support 4K resolution at 120 Hz (the 98" variant is the exception), which may be disappointing for more demanding gamers seeking the ultimate smoothness in high-resolution games. However, if we can forgo 4K, the TV offers support for Full HD and 2K at 120 Hz, providing a smoother image and serving as a great alternative for those who prefer higher refresh rates at the expense of resolution.