TCL A300W NXTVision vs Samsung U8000F (IPS)

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.

Better doesn't mean good – and that's exactly how you can sum up the capabilities of the U8092F when it comes to displaying bright movie scenes in HDR mode. The brightness of the panel is just under 250 nits, which is definitely too low to enjoy any light effects. An interesting situation was observed during measurements of the fourth scene from the movie Sicario 2 – the television clearly dimmed the entire screen in an attempt to achieve better black levels (which still remain weak). One could even suggest that the device employs some form of "global dimming," but unfortunately – the effects are still very poor. To make matters worse, the television does not support a wide colour gamut – the coverage of the DCI-P3 space is around 80%, so don’t count on truly vibrant colours. The HDR image here looks more like slightly brightened SDR, and that’s the approach we would suggest you stick to when it comes to this television.

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.

Samsung U8000F has been tested in the best possible built-in picture mode on the television, which is Filmmaker Mode. This mode should – at least in theory – provide a cinematic, reference image without unnecessary enhancements. For SDR content (mainly HD/SD), the television presented itself surprisingly well out of the box. White balance errors hovered around a value of 3, which is roughly on the edge of perceptibility. The only criticism could be directed at brightness management – the gamma chart showed a slight tendency to brighten or darken certain sections, but overall it performs quite well for this price segment.

Unfortunately, it looks much worse in HDR mode. Although the white balance was not terrible, the television had significant colour errors – particularly evident on the Color Checker chart, where almost every sample fell outside the target point. The image in HDR simply looks unnatural, and the colours can be shifted, muted, or too cool. This largely stems from the fact that U8000F does not support a wide colour gamut (DCI-P3). The television is physically unable to display correct colours in the HDR standard – and this is unfortunately felt in every more demanding material.

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.

Even though the U8000F already offered a fairly good picture in SDR straight out of the box, we managed to tweak it a bit more. We were able to remove a slight purple tint and adjust the gamma to a more reasonable level. However, the television still tends to over-brighten the smallest and brightest parts of the image – the gamma chart shows a characteristic "dip" that is hard to fully straighten out.

Unfortunately, the situation looks worse in HDR. It's difficult to talk about any significant improvement here – the television simply isn't designed for HDR content. We tried to adjust the picture in the advanced settings, but despite our efforts, the colour errors remained quite noticeable – a delta E above 7 is already significantly visible deviations. It's a bit unfortunate, but that's the charm of a budget build. In SDR, the U8000F performs reasonably, whereas HDR is simply not its league.

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.

When it comes to how the Samsung U8000F handles lower quality materials, we must admit that Samsung has made progress compared to its predecessor from last year – the DU7192 model, which theoretically occupies the same place in the offering.

This year's model has been equipped with a function to improve the smoothness of tonal transitions, which has been implemented significantly better than last year. Yes, the TV still uses quite strong algorithms that can distort details or remove film grain, but even so – it can be confidently said that it operates effectively.

However, not everything has gone perfectly. The U8000F has noticeable issues with slight frame stuttering when watching very old content in very low resolution. If someone plans to play their old VHS tape, they must be aware that the picture may appear slightly "choppy".

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.

Samsung U8000F is equipped with a 60 Hz panel, so right from the start, it's clear that we shouldn't expect miracles. This is simply the standard in this class – sufficient for everyday viewing, but without any fireworks.

The television offers one motion smoothing slider – a feature called “Motion Blur Reduction”, which allows us to adjust the smoothness of the image in movies. Higher settings provide a more “theatrical” and smoothed effect, while lower ones maintain the original character of the film with a slight 24p effect. An interesting feature is “Clear Motion LED”, or BFI mode – which inserts black frames between the image frames to enhance motion clarity. However, in practice, the screen flickers significantly when it's activated, and it's better viewed as an experiment rather than something that truly enhances gaming comfort.

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.

Samsung U8000F offers a basic set of features for gamers, which may still be sufficient for less demanding users. It has an automatic game mode – when a game is launched on the console, the TV automatically switches to low latency mode, which significantly improves response time. It also includes a VRR function, or variable refresh rate, which works within the range of 48 to 60 Hz. This means that both Xbox and PS5 won't produce the "tearing" effect – as long as we stay within this range.

And unfortunately, that's about it for the advantages. Additional features like Game Bar or higher refresh rates are reserved for higher models of Samsung’s 2025 line. In theory, the TV also supports the HGiG function, which should adjust the HDR image to the intentions of game developers. Unfortunately – although this function appears in brochures and store materials – its setup on the Xbox console turned out to be... impossible in practice.