TCL A300W NXTVision vs Philips OLED820

When it comes to brightness, the TCL A300W is definitely the dimmest TV among all frame-style models, such as Samsung The Frame or Hisense CanvasTV – and unfortunately, you can see that right away. In our measurements, peak luminance reached only around 400 nits, and on test movie screens, this value dropped to 350 nits. That’s definitely too little to feel the real "magic" of bright HDR effects. As a consolation – the TV is equipped with a PFS LED coating (which is something like QLED), which provides very good coverage of a wide colour gamut, both DCI-P3 and BT.2020. In addition, there is full support for all popular HDR formats – HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision – which somewhat compensates for the shortcomings in brightness and helps improve the overall experience of materials in this quality.

When it comes to HDR quality, the Philips OLED820 uses the same class of WOLED panel found in its biggest rivals – the LG C5 and the Samsung S90F. This means we can expect really solid results. This year, mid-range OLED panels can exceed the threshold of a thousand nits, and the tested model reaches around 1300 nits in some films. This is an outstanding result, allowing the director's vision to be conveyed with incredible precision, as this is the brightness range in which modern productions are mastered. Of course, there are situations where even the OLED820 has to compromise. Full-screen scenes flooded with white, like those in the film The Meg, can drop brightness to 400–500 nits, which clearly diminishes the effect. This is a characteristic of OLED technology that has not yet been fully eliminated. Despite this limitation, it's hard not to appreciate the HDR in this model – high luminance and a wide coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette at 99% make the image look simply fantastic.

TCL A300 offers several picture modes, but without a doubt, the movie mode performs the best. Unfortunately, even though it is the best option available, it is not free from errors. Both in HD and HDR content, the image has a noticeably too warm hue – it has a slight pink tint, which is particularly noticeable in snowy scenes. Instead of pure white, we get a pinkish coating that spoils the natural perception of colours.

The management of brightness is also lacking. In the case of older HD materials, the image often seems too dark – confirmed by an elevated gamma value. Conversely, with HDR content, the effect is the opposite – the image is overly bright, as we observed in scenes from the film Pan. Such a lack of consistency also affects colour accuracy – a test with a ColorChecker showed that many samples clearly deviate from reference values.

Fortunately, TCL allows for manual adjustment of settings, so we decided to check how the television would perform after our professional calibration. The effects of this adjustment are described below.

The colour reproduction in the factory settings really surprised us, and in a positive way. The Philips OLED820, switched to Filmmaker mode, immediately showed that it was quite well tuned in terms of colour. The white balance was relatively accurate, although there was a slight deficiency in the blue hue, which sometimes gave the image a slightly yellowish tint. However, this is not a drawback that particularly interferes with everyday viewing. A bigger problem arose with the brightness characteristics. The gamma chart clearly deviated from the ideal, as the line was below the expected values, causing the image to be excessively brightened, and the colours looked as if they were covered with a light milky filter. This effect was also noticeable in tests using the Colour Checker pattern, where more pronounced errors appeared.

After our professional calibration, the TCL A300 has literally been given a new lease on life. The image has stopped being too warm, and the colours finally look as they should – as confirmed by the ColorChecker test, where the colour samples finally started hitting their marks, at least to some reasonable degree. It was also possible to partially correct the brightness management – the image is now more balanced and less "wobbly" between different types of content. Of course, certain limitations can't be bypassed – a slightly visible blooming effect still occurs, but that's a characteristic of the technology, not something that can be eliminated even after professional settings.

Generally: after calibration, the A300 looks significantly better and gains a whole new quality.

After calibration, both the Filmmaker mode and the gaming mode improved quite a bit. A slight adjustment of the white balance and enhancement of the brightness characteristics yielded excellent results with SDR content – the image looked nearly perfect, natural, and very close to the reference. For HDR material, the situation was similar; the colours looked fantastic, and it was hard to find fault with anything. However, we did notice a certain characteristic, which we had already pointed out when comparing scenes from the film Billy Lynn. The analysis of the EOTF curve showed that the TV has a slight tendency to dim details in the blacks, meaning that the darkest parts are not always displayed exactly as the director intended. Nevertheless, the effect after calibration is superb, and the OLED820 is emerging as one of the more interesting screens in its class. A little bit of fine-tuning is all that’s needed, and there’s really nothing to worry about.

TCL A300 handles tonal transitions in high-quality films very well, but the question arises – how does it perform with weaker materials? The TV is equipped with a tonal smoothing feature; however, its effectiveness can be described in one word: “random”. In one scene, it may work and improve the gradation, but when turned off… the effect remains the same. There is a lack of consistency and predictability here.

Image scaling is also not one of A300's strong points. On the test pattern, the main character actually looked better than on the raw signal, but with thin lines – like fonts or background details – there was noticeable jaggedness and aliasing. On the plus side, the TV does not cut off the image and has no issues with overscan, but the overall quality of scaling is rather average.

Fortunately, the earlier effects of the mentioned posterisation can be quite effectively mitigated. The "distortion reduction" feature set to medium handles unwanted colour banding well, improving the smoothness of tonal transitions. It does sometimes work a bit too aggressively and smooths out some details – such as the minor imperfections of the actors’ skin – but despite that, it can be considered worth using without major compromises. The upscaling in the OLED820 also performs well. The test image with the model is exceptionally soft, sometimes perhaps too much, although this can be remedied with a slight increase in sharpness in the picture menu – that's a matter of individual preference. The absence of overscan issues with very low-resolution content is also commendable, allowing us to not worry about the image being unnecessarily cropped.

TCL A300 is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, which should instantly satisfy virtually everyone - both gamers and sports fans. Motion is fluid and the image is clear even during fast scenes. Additionally, the television offers a motion enhancement feature called "Motion," where we find two sliders on a 10-point scale. These allow you to adjust the effect to your own preferences - from a classic, filmic look with visible frames to a very smooth (though already unnatural) image reminiscent of a soap opera effect. This way, everyone can find a setting that suits them.

Motion fluidity is an area where OLEDs always shine, and the Philips OLED820 confirms this rule. The panel itself offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which will mainly benefit PC gamers, but even with standard TV sources or consoles, where it operates at 120 Hz, motion is fast, sharp, and simultaneously smooth, without any signs of smearing. This is thanks to the remarkable response time between pixels, which ensures the image maintains clarity in every dynamic scene. The manufacturer has also added their own smoothness enhancer called "Motion Style." In the menu, we find two sliders – the first, responsible for smoothness, allows for the adjustment of the number of artificially added frames in films. This way, we can choose a raw, cinematic character with clearly visible film frames or a more theatrical image with smooth motion. The second slider is for motion blur reduction, particularly useful in sports broadcasts. Here, we definitely recommend setting it to the maximum value, as the effect is truly excellent.

The TCL A300 is a television designed not only to transport us to a digital art museum but also into the full-fledged world of gaming. It offers practically everything you can expect from gaming hardware: two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, 144 Hz refresh rate, support for VRR and ALLM.

It also deserves credit for the proper implementation of the HGIG mode – something that competing Hisense sometimes struggles with. The television handles lower resolutions (e.g., Full HD) with ease while maintaining high refresh rates, which will be appreciated by owners of older consoles or PCs.

Additionally, there's an attractive and clear GameBar that facilitates quick access to settings for gamers. The A300 is indeed well-prepared for gaming at the highest level – it’s just a shame that issues with ghosting somewhat detract from its overall appeal as a gaming device.

The Philips OLED820 is one of the most comprehensive TVs for gamers. Onboard, we find practically everything one could expect: two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps (shame there aren't four), Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), support for Dolby Vision in games, and a good implementation of the HGiG mode. The TV also handles lower resolutions at 120 Hz without issue, so you can count on great flexibility when choosing different picture modes on your console. Philips also adds a Game Bar – a panel that allows you to change picture modes, add a crosshair, or preview parameters. Although it looks a bit clunky and is less refined than its competitors, it gets the job done. In practice, therefore, the OLED820, in addition to a full set of four HDMI 2.1 connections, offers almost everything a gamer could need.