Compare: TCL A300W NXTVision vs TCL A400 PRO

At first glance, it’s clear that the TCL A300 NXTVision aims to be more than just an ordinary television. It offers a picture display mode that – unlike competitors from Korea, Samsung The Frame – is completely free. Additionally, just like its rivals, extras are included at no charge. In the packaging, alongside the television, we find extra frames that mimic light wood and a flat wall mount, allowing the television to truly resemble a gallery piece. When it comes to everyday use, the standout feature is the Google TV system – comprehensive, fast and offering access to a massive number of apps. And if we feel like stepping out of the digital museum and jumping straight into the gaming world, the A300 can surprise us. With two HDMI 2.1 ports, 144 Hz, VRR, ALLM, and a very low input lag, even demanding gamers can feel at home here. Well... perhaps except for those sensitive to motion blur – as this remains one of the bigger issues with this model. There are also downsides. While the picture mode is free – which is commendable – the actual quality of the available graphics falls noticeably short compared to what Samsung offers in its paid ART Store. The displayed images resemble photos rather than realistic reproductions of artworks. Unfortunately, the A300 – much like the competing Hisense S7NQ – performs poorly here and additionally has some software issues. The brightness of the television itself also leaves much to be desired – it’s the dimmest of the “framed trio,” which translates to average daytime viewing and limited HDR effect. Nevertheless, the TCL A300 NXTVision is a reasonably sensible alternative to Samsung The Frame or S7NQ – especially if we are looking for a cheaper solution without additional charges for access to the “gallery” mode and with an operating system that doesn’t limit us in any way regarding the number of apps. However, it’s important to remember that this is a proposal with a lot of compromises. If we want to save a bit and don’t expect top-notch picture quality, the A300 can hit the visual bullseye. Otherwise, it’s worth looking at its competition.

TCL A400 Pro is one of the most interesting lifestyle TVs we've tested so far. And not because it turns the whole idea of the "TV as a picture" upside down. In that respect it does roughly what the competition does: it should look good, blend into the interior and not be just another black slab in the living room. Its real strength lies elsewhere: in picture quality. This is the first TV of this kind that actually gives us an image built on solid blacks and high contrast. Full Mini-LED backlighting combined with a VA panel means the A400 Pro can show a depth that has simply been missing from lifestyle TVs until now. Of course it's not Mini-LED that you'd put shoulder to shoulder with the best LCDs on the market, but in its "picture" category the A400 Pro does something really important: it proves that an art TV doesn't have to mean a big compromise in picture quality. Importantly, it doesn't stop at blacks and contrast. The A400 Pro has very good colours, supports Dolby Vision and runs on Google TV, so in everyday use it is simply a convenient, full-featured TV for films, series and streaming. On top of that there are very strong gaming capabilities, so it easily finds a place with a console or PC. And I think it's this versatility that's its biggest surprise. It looks like a lifestyle TV, but it doesn't force you to give up the functions you expect from a regular TV.

The biggest reservations, paradoxically, are not about the picture itself. Sure, the number of local dimming zones could be greater and the upscaling doesn't stand out from the usual. But given the character of this model, what bothers us more are decisions connected with the concept of a picture on the wall. The lack of a slim mount in the box is a strange move, because that is exactly the type of installation that should be standard here. In addition, the wood-effect bezels are permanently attached, so they don't offer the same freedom of personalisation as on other models of this type. And because the casing is thicker, the A400 Pro doesn't always deliver as flat and subtle an effect as you might expect from a TV in this category.

And that's the biggest paradox of the TCL A400 Pro. In terms of image it may be one of the strongest lifestyle TVs on the market, but at the same time it loses a little where such a product should charm the most. Still, the balance is very positive. If the design decisions mentioned earlier don't bother you, the A400 Pro makes a lot of sense. It's a TV for people who want something nicer than a classic television but don't want to pay for looks with a major compromise in picture quality. That's why the TCL A400 Pro is one of the most interesting models in its category.

TCL A300, also known as NXTVision, uses a VA panel, so from the outset, decent contrast could be expected. On our test screens, the television indeed showed typical results for this type of panel – in the best case, the contrast reached around 5000:1, which is not a bad result for this segment.

However, it should be noted that the model is not equipped with any local dimming technology, which unfortunately is evident in practice. Black, although at times quite deep, often turns into navy blue or grey – especially in darker scenes. In short: for a television without local dimming, it’s not bad, but it shouldn't be compared to models that already have such a feature on board.

Moving on to the image quality tests, it’s immediately clear that the biggest change compared with typical lifestyle TVs is what the TCL A400 Pro brings to blacks and contrast. This is all thanks to full-fledged Mini-LED backlighting placed directly behind the panel. That allows the TV to locally dim selected parts of the image and not be limited solely to the panel’s native contrast. In the 65-inch sample we tested, we counted 180 dimming zones. That’s not an impressive number compared with conventional Mini-LED TVs, where there can be many more zones, but for a lifestyle TV it’s already a very big step forward. Especially since competitors often either lack advanced local dimming or use much simpler edge-lit backlighting.

In practice this delivers very good results. In simpler scenes where bright elements are clearly separated from a dark background, the A400 Pro can effectively dim the black areas and show genuinely deep blacks. It’s one of those things that immediately sets it apart from many conventional "picture-first" TVs. Of course, that doesn’t mean TCL completely avoids the limitations of Mini-LED LCD technology. 180 zones is still relatively few, so in more complex scenes, for example with small bright elements on a dark background, a halo effect can appear. It also happens that blacks in those conditions take on a more navy-purple tint, because the TV cannot dim the background with the same precision as OLEDs. Despite these limitations, we think the A400 Pro brings a significant breath of fresh air to this category. For a lifestyle TV that’s primarily meant to look good on the wall, the black level and contrast are a very strong selling point.

NOTE. It’s worth noting that the number of local dimming zones depends on the screen diagonal. Larger variants should have more zones, but because the number of zones increases with panel size, we don’t expect major differences in black level and contrast between the Mini-LED versions. The exception is the 32- and 43-inch models, in which TCL did not apply local dimming. These are much simpler LCD designs, so our review does not directly apply to those diagonals, and the prices given in the review should be treated as indicative only.

Number of dimming zones in the TCL A400 Pro

Screen size	Backlight type	Number of local dimming zones
32"	PFS LED	None
43"	PFS LED	None
55"	QD Mini-LED	112 zones
65"	QD Mini-LED	180 zones
75"	QD Mini-LED	240 zones
85"	QD Mini-LED	264 zones
98"	QD Mini-LED	448 zones

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

TCL A300 NXTVision is another frame-style television that really manages well with the smoothness of tonal transitions. It's hard to find distinct bands or sharp transitions between shades of one colour – it all looks natural and smooth.

However, it's fair to say that among the three tested models (The Frame and S7NQ), TCL performs the weakest in this category. In darker and lighter scenes, you can notice slight imperfections. Nevertheless, looking at it as a whole, for a television in this range – it really presents itself solidly. It might not be the best of the bunch, but it holds a very good standard.

The TCL A400 Pro handles tonal transitions very well. Tonal gradation in most content is smooth, and any imperfections only appear in extreme cases, mainly on subtle grey transitions. It's worth noting that the vast majority of TVs struggle with scenes like these. What's also very good news is the lack of gradation issues in Dolby Vision. The A400 Pro did not introduce extra banding or visible artefacts in that format, which lately you can't take for granted. That's another factor that positively affects the viewing of films and TV series in HDR.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In terms of input lag, the TCL A300 performs really well. Values below 10 ms at a refresh rate of 120 Hz are something many gamers dream of – such low lag is practically unnoticeable, both during everyday gaming and in more demanding esports titles. One could nitpick about the result of 23 ms in Dolby Vision mode at 60 frames, but it's still low enough that serious objections are hard to come by. In this category, the A300 truly excels.

Input lag on the TCL A400 Pro is very low. With a 120 Hz signal we measured about 11 ms, and about 15 ms at 60 Hz. These aren’t as low as the few milliseconds seen on some OLEDs, but in practice it doesn’t make much difference. The lag is small enough that controls remain quick, responsive and entirely comfortable both on a console and when connected to a computer.

If we plan to use the TCL A300 as a computer monitor, we may be pleasantly surprised. The television performs really well in this role. It is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, supports G-Sync, and, as we mentioned, offers very low input lag, so gaming on it with a connected PC is pure enjoyment.

Working with text is also possible, although with some limitations. The TCL A300 has slight issues displaying dark fonts and thin lines – this is due to the construction of the subpixels, which in everyday use can be a bit annoying, even though it looks better in photos than in reality.

The television supports chroma 4:4:4, but only up to 120 Hz. Therefore, we noted that this feature is available, but with a limitation – if we care about perfectly readable fonts, it's worth sticking with the refresh rate of 120 Hz. At 144 Hz, the clarity of the text may suffer somewhat.

TCL A400 Pro also performs quite well as a large PC monitor. Helping with that is, of course, the full suite of gaming features: VRR, FreeSync, G-Sync compatibility, a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz and very low input lag. If someone wants to connect a PC and play from the couch or at a desk, the TV is perfectly suited to that. Importantly, it also handles regular computer work well. At 120 Hz fonts are very clear, so browsing, working with documents or using the system doesn't strain the eyes. It looks a bit worse after switching to 144 Hz. Horizontal parts of letters become slightly darker. However, that's not something that seriously affects everyday use. Overall, text readability is very good.

The viewing angles on the TCL A300 NXTVision are, let’s be honest, average. The TV is equipped with a VA panel, which inherently has quite limited angles, and unfortunately, this is evident here. The video below speaks for itself – even a slight deviation from the centre results in a noticeable drop in contrast and colour saturation. It’s a shame that this is yet another frame-style TV that has done absolutely nothing about it. After all, we don't always have the option to sit perfectly straight on – especially if the device is also meant to serve a decorative function in the living room.

Viewing angles are not the strongest suit of the TCL A400 Pro. This is mainly due to the use of a VA panel, which brings advantages like better contrast but naturally performs worse when viewed at an angle. Just move further off the screen's axis and you'll notice a drop in brightness and colour saturation. So it's not on the level we're used to from IPS/ADS panels, and even less so compared with OLED screens, which in this respect still remain out of reach for conventional LCDs. The A400 Pro is simply best viewed as straight on as possible. That's when its picture looks its best.

The TCL A300 NXTVision is equipped with a matte panel very similar to the one found in one of its Chinese competitors – the Hisense S7NQ. This type of surface does quite well in reducing reflections, although it must be admitted that it performs worse than Samsung's The Frame, which offers a significantly higher level in this regard. As is usually the case with matte displays, blacks during the day lose depth and appear more grey than black – and this is no different here. Unfortunately, the fact that the A300 is the darkest TV of the three tested doesn’t help either. This gives it a real problem in breaking through in heavily sunlit rooms.

TCL A400 Pro does quite well in a bright living room. The biggest help is the matte screen finish, which very effectively mutes reflections and means you don't have to battle every window or lamp reflecting off the panel during the day. Add a decent SDR brightness of around 600 nits, so in terms of daytime image visibility it's really good. You should remember, though, that the matte coating has its price. In a brightly lit room the picture can lose a bit of depth, and colours don't look as punchy as they do in the evening. Reflections are much less visible, but at the same time colour saturation clearly drops. It's still a good TV for a bright living room; it just performs best when viewing comfort is the priority rather than the most eye-catching picture.

TCL A300 is a television styled as a painting, which in everyday use can successfully pretend to be a work of art hanging on the wall. It is equipped with a special image display mode, additional frames in a light wood tone, and a flat wall mount that allows you to hang the television like a real painting – without any gap from the wall.

A significant advantage of the image mode is that it is completely free. We have access to several dozen works from which we can choose one to be displayed while in standby – instead of a black screen, the image we selected remains on the wall. The quality of graphic reproduction is okay, but it must be admitted that it clearly falls short of that from Samsung's ART Store. Although access to images there is paid, the quality of the scans is significantly better – you can see the texture of the paint, canvas, and details. In the TCL A300, it resembles high-quality photos rather than realistic reproductions of artworks. Additionally, the implementation of the image mode in the system leaves a lot to be desired. For example – if we set the brightness to 10% in image mode, that same value automatically transfers to the regular viewing mode, where we could easily set the brightness to 50% or even 100%. It also works the other way around – when we set the brightness to 100% in regular mode, after switching to gallery mode, the images are displayed with the same maximum brightness, shining too intensely and losing the whole effect of a “picture on the wall.” These are minor but irritating errors that can spoil the experience of what was supposed to be visually subtle and elegant.

Moving on to more classic functions – the A300 runs on the Google TV system, which currently offers by far the largest selection of applications (full list available below). The responsive voice assistant with support for the Polish language also deserves a big plus. As standard – as with most TCL televisions – the USB recording function or picture-in-picture (PiP) mode was missing.

Google TV

TCL A400 Pro runs on Google TV, so in terms of Smart TV we get a very solid package. All the most important apps are there: YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, Max, Prime Video, Apple TV and the rest of the services you’d expect today. It also includes Chromecast, voice search and Google Assistant. The system itself runs smoothly and is convenient, although, as with Google TV, the home screen can be heavily filled with recommendations and promoted content. Some will like that, others might find it a bit annoying. Functionally, however, it’s hard to seriously fault it.

Digital art gallery

The most interesting part starts with the digital gallery, because this is what is meant to set the A400 Pro apart from ordinary TVs. TCL provides access to over 80 artworks that can be displayed when the screen isn’t being used to watch movies or series. That way the TV doesn’t have to hang on the wall as a black slab but can actually look like a painting. An ambient light sensor, which adjusts the screen to the room’s conditions, helps with this. And here’s some good news compared with the older NXT Vision A300: the annoying brightness issue in art mode has been improved in the A400 Pro. Gallery settings are now separate from normal viewing, so you can set a lower brightness for artworks without disturbing the settings for films or TV. It may seem like a small detail, but in practice it’s very important, because it helps the screen look more like an artwork and less like a glowing TV. TCL also adds the option to create your own images using artificial intelligence. The maker talks about over 100,000 available pieces and variants, so there’s plenty to choose from. You can stick with the ready-made gallery or pick something more in line with your own taste and room decor.

Traditional features

The traditional TV features are much less exciting. The A400 Pro doesn’t stand out here. You get standard broadcast TV, a channel guide and basic options, but no major extras that would change the way you use conventional TV.

The built-in player on the TCL A300 works as it should – most popular video and photo files play without any problems. It lacks support for Apple's HEIC format (which is quite common in many TVs), but most users still use AirPlay, so it shouldn't be a major issue. If someone isn't satisfied with the default player, the Google TV system offers plenty of options – you can easily install an alternative app that better suits your tastes. Nevertheless, it's worth noting that the factory solution is completely sufficient for everyday use.

Playing files from USB is one of the strong points of the TCL A400 Pro. The built-in player performs very well and can easily be counted among the best. It handles popular video, audio and photo formats without any trouble, so in most cases you just need to plug in a USB stick or external drive and play the content. That's good news, because you don't have to install third-party players straight away. The A400 Pro natively supports a really wide range of files and in our testing it had no major problems playing them.

When it comes to sound, the TCL A300W – like its competitors – sounds quite... flat, after all, we are talking about a super slim television. For everyday watching of news or series, this level is more than sufficient, but during movie screenings, we might noticeably miss depth and space. On a positive note, it’s worth mentioning that the television supports both Dolby Atmos and the increasingly rare DTS:X – which provides more options when connecting an external audio system. It’s also worth noting that the A300 PRO model is equipped with a dedicated, flat soundbar. And it’s no ordinary soundbar – it sounds better than most of the televisions we’ve tested.

Sound on the TCL A400 Pro is fairly average. The most important bit of good news is that the TV can play loudly. It easily reaches around 83 dB, so volume itself isn’t much of an issue. It’s also a plus that it supports formats such as Dolby Atmos and the increasingly rare DTS in TVs. But that’s about where the praise ends. The standard 2.0 speaker setup has its limits and it’s hard to squeeze much more out of it. What’s mainly lacking is bass and a sense of space. The sound is fine for regular TV or YouTube, but with films, series and especially music it quickly becomes too flat. For that reason we would definitely recommend buying at least a simple soundbar or a traditional home cinema system. Especially since the TV itself supports Dolby Atmos and DTS, it practically begs to be connected to external speakers that will actually use those capabilities.

TCL A300W NXTVision vs TCL A400 PRO

Advantages

Disadvantages

Our verdict

TV appearance

Where to buy

Contrast and black detail

Number of dimming zones in the TCL A400 Pro

HDR effect quality

Factory color reproduction

Color reproduction after calibration

Smoothness of tonal transitions

Image scaling and smoothness of tonal transitions

Blur and motion smoothness

Console compatibility and gaming features

Input lag

Compatibility with PC

Viewing angles

Daytime performance

Panel details

TV features

Classic features:

Smart features:

Sound connection options

Supported audio formats (external HDMI eARC audio):

Senior accessibility

Google TV

Digital art gallery

Traditional features

Apps

Playing files from USB

Sound

Sound Quality Test

Acoustic Measurements