Samsung Neo QLED QN90D / QN92D vs TCL C7K / QM7K

During synthetic tests, Samsung QN92D showed its incredible capabilities in terms of brightness. The charts clearly indicate that the television can achieve an impressive 2000 nits, giving it a solid power base to compete with the best models on the market. Such a result places it at the forefront, especially in the context of displaying HDR content, where brightness plays a key role. However, what happens when we move the tests to real film scenes? In favourable conditions, such as the first scene from the movie Life of Pi or the last scene, where the image is completely flooded with light, Samsung QN92D can achieve almost laboratory results, impressing with its brightness. The situation looks different when small, bright objects appear on a dark background, as in the fourth scene from the movie Sicario. In such cases, the television doesn't perform as well – brightness drops several times, and maximum values in the best conditions are around 600 NITS. Similar to contrast, these limitations arise from the use of an aggressive local dimming algorithm. This algorithm aims to reduce the 'halo' effect around bright objects on a dark background, but often at the expense of overall brightness. As a result, while the television performs well in bright scenes, its ability to display full brightness is limited when it comes to small, vivid elements.

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.

The best mode that reproduces colours best on the Samsung QN92D has consistently been the Filmmaker mode for years. While it generally offers decent colour quality, it is not free from significant issues. Let's start with the analysis of HD/SDR image quality. The biggest challenge here is the white balance – the graphs show considerable instability, with a clear dominance of red making the image too warm. This distortion causes hues to be unnaturally shifted towards warmer tones, which can negatively affect the perception of materials with natural colours. Contrast, based on the gamma chart, although not the worst, remains far from ideal, impacting the overall image quality, especially in darker scenes.

This issue also persists with 4K materials, such as series or films of higher quality. In this case, the white balance also turns out to be faulty, with noticeable deficiencies in blue and red colour, leading to tonal shifts. Tests using the Colour Checker tool confirm these problems – all colours tend to skew towards yellow shades, further distorting the natural appearance of the image. Although the Filmmaker mode is one of the best available modes for watching cinematic content, it still requires improvements, especially in terms of colour accuracy and white balance.

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…

After calibration, the Filmmaker mode on the Samsung QN92D television shows significant improvement, particularly in the SDR content range. The white balance has been greatly enhanced – the previous colour misalignment and dominance of red have been eliminated, resulting in a more natural colour reproduction. In terms of brightness, although the gamma chart did not require significant adjustments, it has been stabilised, which affects the overall picture quality.

Regarding high-quality materials, the white balance has also improved in this case. However, it is worth noting the contrast. The EOTF curve, which illustrates the values in this area, appears correct at first glance. However, upon closer inspection, the television struggles to maintain appropriate contrast in film materials. The EOTF curve reveals some discrepancies, suggesting that despite the progress, there are still areas that require improvement in this aspect. The television continues to strive for excellence in contrast reproduction. A strength of this television is the saturation of colours. Skin tones are rendered very well, and although some colours may be slightly oversaturated, the overall effect looks really attractive – the colours appear rich and vibrant.

Despite some shortcomings in contrast, after calibration, the Filmmaker mode on the Samsung QN92D offers excellent image quality, with natural colour reproduction, making it a great choice for watching movies.

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.

Let's check how the Samsung QN92D TV performs with tonal transitions in very poor quality materials. The noise reduction feature shows good effectiveness, improving the fluidity of tonal transitions even in difficult conditions. However, it should be noted that, similar to other Samsung TVs, the effectiveness of this feature can lead to the removal of desirable elements, such as film grain, which can sometimes affect the authenticity of the image.

When it comes to digital processing, the Samsung QN92D TV also performs excellently. During tests, the image looked very good, with the model presented in a natural and correct way. Details, such as branches in the background, were reproduced with great precision, highlighting the TV's ability to enhance the quality of low-resolution materials.

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.

The Samsung QN92D television is equipped with a 144 Hz panel; however, when watching content using the smoothness feature, the maximum refresh rate is 120 Hz. As a result, both gamers and sports enthusiasts will be satisfied with the picture quality. It’s also worth mentioning the available options for image enhancement, such as the "motion blur and judder reduction" feature, which allows users to adjust smoothness to their individual preferences on a 10-point scale. Motion blur reduction increases the sharpness of fast-moving objects, while judder reduction smooths out motion, eliminating the "stutter" effect. With these advanced settings, one can achieve optimal visual experiences, making the Samsung QN92D perfect for both dynamic scenes and intense gaming.

In terms of motion blur, the television performs really well, and it’s hard to pick faults. The only note we might have is a slight overshoot effect noticeable on dark backgrounds during our test with "Ufoludkiem." Nevertheless, thanks to the advanced smoothness settings, the Samsung QN92D excels in both dynamic scenes and intense gaming.

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.

The television Samsung QN92/QN90 is an excellent choice for avid gamers, deserving of the highest recommendations. This model offers practically all the features available on the market in terms of gaming, making gameplay even more exciting. One of the key differentiators is the 120 Hz panel, which ensures exceptional motion smoothness, crucial during dynamic action games. The television also boasts low input lag, guaranteeing instant reactions to player commands. Additionally, technologies such as VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) adjust the refresh rate and automatically switch the television to game mode, translating to even better gaming experiences. Another advantage is the Xbox app, which allows gaming of favourite titles directly on the television, eliminating the need for a console. This is a typical feature of Samsung televisions, making them exceptional in the gaming world.

Auto Motion Plus Game is a feature that really deserves praise for Samsung. It is a motion smoother that works wonderfully in games, creating the impression of a higher frame rate – a 30 frames per second image looks like 45, and 60 Hz becomes close to 90 Hz. Importantly, this feature does not introduce significant lag (input lag does not exceed 25 ms), so it does not negatively affect gameplay comfort, unlike many other smoothers available on the market. This allows gamers to enjoy a much smoother image without compromising responsiveness.

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.