PHILIPS PUS9010 (IPS) vs TCL A400 PRO

In the Philips PUS9010 version with an IPS panel, the HDR brightness sadly performs worse than in the previously tested 55-inch variant with a VA panel. The difference reaches about 100 nits, which is noticeably significant given the relatively low values. While the VA version could exceed 500 nits, here the maximum brightness reaches around 400 nits. This level still allows for watching movies and series in HDR, especially on streaming platforms, but the effects are clearly more subdued. Bright elements don't have the same impact, and scenes requiring high luminance are less impressive. On the plus side, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut is commendable. The IPS version offers about 91%, which is roughly 5% more than the variant with a VA panel. This translates into slightly better colour saturation in HDR content, despite the lower brightness. Colours can appear more vivid and cohesive, especially in colourful scenes.

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 evaluated colour reproduction, as always, on factory settings, focusing on the movie mode, which in the case of Philips usually offers the best starting point. This is also a good moment to show how much the same model of TV can vary depending on the panel used. Looking at the white balance, the overall tendency remains similar to the version with the VA panel. There is still excessive red in the whites, however, in the tested unit with the IPS panel, there are also losses in the blue channel. As a result, the picture has a slightly different colour character, which is well illustrated in the comparative materials. This is a very good example showing why ready-made settings downloaded from the internet do not always work even within the same model.

However, returning to the assessment itself, this unit performs quite well, especially in SDR content. Colour tests show correct saturation and colour consistency, without glaring errors that could hinder everyday viewing. In HDR materials, it is possible to notice slight losses in reds, but these are not flaws that completely spoil the image perception. The biggest limitations do not stem directly from the colours, but rather from the whites and blacks. The use of an IPS panel and slightly lowered gamma means that the image is slightly boosted in brightness, and weak blacks further affect perceived contrast. This makes everything look brighter, but at the same time, it lacks depth, especially during evening viewing.

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.

After calibration, the picture has been brought to a really reasonable level. The whole thing looks cohesive and natural, and when it comes to colour reproduction, it's hard to definitively say whether we're dealing with a VA or IPS panel. This is a good sign, showing that the television has a solid foundation for further adjustments. The larger colour gamut in this variant is a plus, as it can subtly enhance the depiction of colourful scenes, especially in HDR content. However, this advantage is largely offset by the boosted blacks resulting from the use of an IPS panel. The limited depth of black affects perceived contrast, particularly when watching in a dark room. As a result, despite noticeable improvement post-calibration, the final rating remains the same as that of the variant with a VA panel. Better colours are not able to fully compensate for the weaker blacks.

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.

In the Philips PUS9010, we find another iteration of the P5 Perfect Picture image processor, which aims to improve the quality of lower-grade materials. One of the components of this system is a distortion reduction function that smooths tonal transitions. It works effectively and actually reduces visible banding. Unfortunately, it does so quite aggressively. In practice, it can mute details such as material textures or film grain. This is a clear compromise, so we wouldn't particularly recommend it for movie sessions. For more casual content, like YouTube or regular television, it performs much better. The P5 processor also handles lower resolution materials quite well. The image is soft, at times even too soft, but it can easily be corrected using the sharpness slider, adjusting the effect to personal preferences. A positive aspect is also the absence of edge cropping in SD materials, which is still not standard in this class of televisions.

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.

Philips PUS9010 has a 4K panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which will be appreciated mainly by sports fans and gamers. This is especially noticeable in dynamic scenes where the motion is sharp, and annoying blur is almost non-existent. When it comes to movies (standard 24 fps), Philips offers us a proven set of settings known from its higher series. Two sliders are used to control motion. “Smoothness” allows you to adjust the picture to your liking: at low settings, it maintains a cinematic character, while moving the slider to the right gives us a perfectly smooth, albeit slightly “theatrical” effect. Meanwhile, “Motion Blur Reduction” is a feature designed for sports – it ensures that fast-moving objects do not lose detail and remain clear.

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.

Philips PUS9010 is a solid machine for gaming. It has everything that’s important: VRR, automatic game mode (ALLM), and support for HGiG. The latter is fantastic – it allows you to set HDR in games exactly the way the developers envisioned. The TV handles 120 Hz refresh rates effortlessly at every popular resolution (1080p, 1440p, and 4K). It doesn’t matter if you connect a PS5, Xbox, or a powerful PC – everything runs smoothly and just as it should. Gamers will also appreciate the Game Bar. It’s a quick, clear menu where you can immediately see if the low latency mode is active. This is especially useful when frequently switching between different consoles. The whole experience is enhanced by Ambilight. Evening sessions with this backlighting create a whole different level of atmosphere; the image seems larger, and dynamic scenes are even more impressive. Even if someone isn’t a fan of such “gimmicks,” it’s hard to deny that it makes an impression.

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.