PHILPS PUS9060 vs TCL C7K / QM7K

The One is bright enough to enjoy films recorded in HDR format. The average brightness of this model is around 500 nits, so we can easily expect a pleasant viewing experience with films from streaming platforms. Of course—there's always room for improvement, because when it comes to brightness, you can never have too much for this type of content. Unfortunately, a disappointing surprise may be the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut that the PUS9060 offers. Although the manufacturer boasts the use of a QLED filter here (it’s actually PFS LED), it's hard to speak of any positive effects from its operation. 85% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut is certainly not a level to brag about in 2025—especially in a television marketed as QLED.

TCL C7K is one of the brightest MiniLED TVs in its price class. Under optimal testing conditions, the screen can achieve over 1200 nits, resulting in impressive, at times dazzlingly bright scenes. And most importantly – this isn’t just a theory from measurements. In practice, even the brightest moments in movies can shine with true cinematic grandeur. Home HDR cinema fans should be really pleased.

The impression is fantastic, especially in scenes with large areas of brightness – a white sky, explosions, sun reflections, or magical sunsets can surprise with an intensity of light that rarely appears in this price range.

However, things get a bit worse when more challenging scenarios appear on the screen, previously described in terms of contrast – that is, images full of details, with small bright elements on a dark background. In such cases, the C7K often opts to preserve black at the expense of brightness. An example? Scenes from movies like Sicario 2 or Life of Pi, where small light sources (like a distant lantern) may become less visible, and details in the lights are simply dimmed or blend into the background.

For many viewers, this may be an acceptable compromise – as we achieve deep blacks and pleasant image depth. Nevertheless, it’s important to recognise that the visibility of small details in bright areas is not this model's strong suit. It’s simply a technological limitation that still exists – even with over 300 zones.

We tested the PUS9060 in the best factory mode applied to it – of course, we're talking about the movie mode. Unfortunately, the best in this case does not mean good. The image in this mode was clearly yellowish and leaned towards orange tones. The white balance on this television was definitely too warm, giving the entire scene an artificial, somewhat "tanned" appearance. This directly resulted in significant colour inaccuracies, which in the worst cases exceeded a delta E value of 6 – thus, they were visible to the naked eye. The situation was reversed in HDR mode, where the image became too blue and too cool in perception. Additionally, there was a slight boost in brightness – the gamma curve and EOTF suggested that the television slightly brightens the image, which was also evident in the comparative image below.

A new feature in TCL televisions for 2025 is the long-awaited Filmmaker mode, which until now has been found in most competing brands. This is great news, as this mode is considered the most faithful to the original vision of the creators and is often recommended by enthusiasts of quality visuals. Unfortunately – as is often the case – the mere presence of it does not guarantee perfection. The Filmmaker mode in the TCL C7K is not without its faults. There are issues with inaccurate white balance, particularly a slight blue tint that resulted in cool, somewhat greyish skin tones. But that wasn’t the biggest problem. The main complaint was excessive brightness exposure, which is clearly visible on gamma and EOTF charts. The image was simply too bright, at times even blown out, which affected not only the texture of scenes but also the overall viewing experience. Some details were just lost, and the entire image looked as if someone had overdone the brightness slider. As always, we decided to see what could be squeezed out of it after calibration. And this is where things started to get really interesting…

Thanks to calibration in movie mode, we managed to completely eliminate the yellow-orange tint, which significantly improved the reception of the entire scene. The image has become much more visually pleasing, though it still falls short of reference settings. It may now appear slightly bluish, but it is still a considerable improvement compared to the factory settings.

Unfortunately, we could not significantly improve the brightness characteristics, but this is more about the design of the television itself - the lack of local dimming limits the possibilities for precise brightness management. The PUS9060 simply cannot dynamically adjust luminance like more advanced models do. Nevertheless, after calibration, the overall reception is much more enjoyable, especially in film material.

After calibration, the TCL C7K showed itself in a really good light, especially when it comes to SDR content. We managed to precisely tune the white balance, colour gamut, and brightness characteristics so that the colour errors on the ColorChecker palette fell below a value of 2. For the uninitiated – this is nearly a perfect result, which means that the image is very close to what the creators intended. Unfortunately, it was a different story with 4K HDR content. While we were able to slightly calm down the white balance and correct its earlier errors, it was still evident that the TV has some "MiniLED traits", particularly in brightness management. When we checked how the C7K handled the EOTF curve on real film scenes, rather than just on synthetic test patterns, it turned out that the screen still had a tendency to slightly brighten the entire image. This affects the overall experience – the black loses some depth, and the image becomes less contrasty than it should be. Despite these minor issues with HDR content, the overall reception of materials – especially in SDR – is really very good. After calibration, the C7K can display an image that can successfully compete with much more expensive models. Good colour tuning, natural skin tones, and pleasant brightness make movie watching and everyday content viewing more than satisfactory.

In the PUS9060, we find another version of the image processor known by Philips as P5 Perfect Picture, which aims to enhance the image – especially the imperfect ones. The TV includes a distortion reduction function, which serves to smooth tonal transitions, meaning those "colour joins" we mentioned earlier. This function does its job very effectively – there’s no strong gradation of colours, but unfortunately, it operates quite aggressively, occasionally dimming desired elements like material textures or film grain. So, it can be seen as a bit of a compromise. We wouldn’t generally recommend using this function for movies, but for more casual content – like YouTube or regular TV – it’s absolutely suitable.

The P5 processor also enhances the quality of lower resolution images, and it does this quite effectively. The test image with the model is very soft – sometimes almost too soft – but this can be easily improved with the sharpness slider, adjusting it to one’s own preferences. It’s also pleasing to see that the TV doesn’t clip the edges in SD materials – which unfortunately still happens in some TV models.

TCL C7K has a feature that, according to the manufacturer, is meant to smooth out undesirable colour transitions – something like a rescue for less successful tonal shifts. It's called "Gradual Smoothing," and... well, it sounds ambitious, but in practice, it works very poorly. Regardless of whether we set it to low or high, the difference is minimal. Worse still – the feature can cut out elements from the image that should remain. Fortunately, film grain remains untouched, so at least it doesn't smooth everything indiscriminately, but even so – it's better to simply turn this option off.

When it comes to upscaling lower resolution content, it's already better. SD and HD materials look quite decent, although at times we had the impression that the image loses sharpness and becomes too soft – as if something took away its clarity. Fortunately, with very low sources (e.g., 576p), there was no overscan effect, meaning the image wasn't artificially cropped – everything fit on the screen as it should.

PHILIPS PUS9060 is equipped with a 4K panel featuring a 144 Hz refresh rate, so we can confidently say it’s suitable for both watching sports and gaming. And indeed it is. But what about movies, which are most often recorded at 24 frames? As with most of the TVs we’ve tested with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and above, the PUS9060 offers two sliders in the motion smoothness options. The “Smoothness” slider allows you to adjust the effect in films – you can set the picture to be smoother, resembling a theatrical effect (higher settings), or more cinematic, with a slight “judder” (lower settings). Additionally, there is a feature called "Motion Blur Reduction," which limits motion blur – and this is a very useful feature, especially when watching sports.

TCL C7K handles motion fluidity really well. The panel it uses offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which suggests that this TV is more than just a standard "60 Hz" panel. Furthermore, if we connect the C7K to a computer and set the resolution to Full HD. But we will write more about this in the paragraph on gamers and PC compatibility. Returning to everyday use – both sports and movies look very good here. Thanks to the fast panel and the well-functioning motion smoother, the C7K is great for watching matches, but also for movie screenings. In the menu, we find two sliders – motion blur reduction and flicker reduction – that allow you to adjust the fluidity effect to your own preferences. At lower settings, we get a more cinematic effect, with slight judder. At higher settings – the image becomes more theatrical, fluid to the point of excess. Whatever your preference – everyone can set it their own way.

PHILIPS PUS9060 is a true gaming monster – it has practically everything you could expect from a modern gaming television. It features VRR, ALLM, and also includes HGiG implementation, which helps set up HDR in games as intended by the developers. The television supports every possible resolution at 120 Hz, including 1080p, 1440p, and full 4K – so regardless of whether you're playing on Xbox, PS5, or PC, everything works as it should. It also comes with a simple Game Bar, a special menu for gamers that allows you to quickly check if the ALLM mode is indeed working in low latency mode.

And of course – Ambilight TV. Let’s face it – without LEDs on the back, it’s not a true gaming rig. 😉 The multicoloured backlighting really adds to the atmosphere, especially in the evening. It may not appeal to everyone, but younger gamers will be thrilled – it just looks impressive.

TCL C7K is a television that on paper looks like the perfect equipment for gamers – and most importantly, it performs well in practice too. Here's some good news: we have two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, so we can easily connect both a console and a computer, using all their capabilities. The panel itself supports a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which provides a significant advantage in dynamic games. Additionally, it comes with a full set of gaming features: VRR (variable refresh rate), ALLM (automatic low latency mode), and support for Dolby Vision in games. There's also an HGiG mode that allows for HDR effects that align with the creators' intentions. GameBar, which is an information bar for gamers. It operates quickly, looks clear (like a Nintendo console👌), and shows what's most important: the current frame rate, VRR status, and even HDR parameters.