TCL C655 / C69B (43" - 50") vs LG OLED B6

The quality of the HDR effect on the TCL C69B / C655 television is quite average. A brightness level of 350 nits, while not the worst, still does not allow for a full enjoyment of the HDR effects that require higher luminance to showcase their power. Additionally, the television, despite using a quantum dot coating (QLED), offers average coverage of the wide DCI-P3 colour gamut at 91%, which may limit its colour richness in HDR content.

LG B6 is a moderately bright OLED. After calibration it reaches around 800 nits, roughly 200 nits more than last year's B5. That's down to LG Display's new budget OLED SE panel. In practice this simply provides a bit more headroom and makes HDR look fuller in many scenes than on last year's lower-end OLEDs. That doesn't mean the B6 has no limitations. In very bright shots, when a large part of the screen is brightly lit, brightness can fall below 400 nits. This behaviour is typical of OLED TVs (especially in this segment), and it's then you see the biggest difference compared with pricier models. All the same, we rate the B6's results as really solid. It's still not a TV built to break brightness records, but the HDR effect is strong enough that films really feel like a step up from ordinary SDR picture.

Colour gamut

Using the OLED SE panel has had some impact on wide colour-gamut coverage. Compared with last year's model the figures have dropped by a few percentage points. DCI-P3 reaches about 96%, and BT.2020 around 71%. That doesn't mean the colours on the LG B6 are weak. In most films and TV series they look vivid, well saturated and simply pleasing to the eye. You only notice the difference in very bright, highly colourful scenes. Then colours lose some intensity compared with QD-OLED panels. This is due to the WOLED panel structure. In addition to the red, green and blue subpixels it also uses a white subpixel that helps boost brightness. This comes at a cost: at very high luminance some of the colour is effectively 'diluted' by the white light, so saturation of some hues can be slightly lower. Day-to-day it's not a big problem, but you can see it in the most demanding scenes.

Tested in film mode, the television TCL C69B / C655 unfortunately does not meet expectations regarding colour accuracy. Although the film mode suggests better representation, it has as much in common with film as nothing at all. There are numerous errors, particularly in the white balance – for both HD and 4K HDR content – where the dominance of blue is very apparent. For the viewer, this means that the image becomes unnaturally cool, affecting the overall perception of colours and the visual impression. The colour checker confirms these errors, showing that colours shift towards cooler shades.

When it comes to brightness characteristics and related contrast, gamma is very unstable for the material, making the image potentially slightly darker. The EOTF curve for the 4K material shows some errors, with significant deviations towards the end of the graph, which negatively affects the perception of darker parts of the image.

We tested the LG B6 in Filmmaker Mode, the best picture setting available straight out of the box. ISF modes give very similar results, but in our tests we always stick to Filmmaker Mode for better comparison with other TVs. Each of them is a far better starting point than Vivid or Eco, where the picture is heavily boosted and noticeably less natural. For SDR content the factory settings perform really well. Colour errors are small, gamma behaves correctly, and the picture looks natural during regular viewing and does not seem overly enhanced.

It's a bit worse with HDR. Once you start playing that kind of content it's quickly apparent the white balance isn't perfectly set. Too much blue and red makes the image take on a slightly pink tint. Colour gamut measurements and the ColorChecker confirm this, with samples clearly shifting in that direction. It's not a defect that completely ruins the picture, but you can notice it with HDR films. So anyone who wants the most faithful image should consider calibration, which we cover later in the review.

After calibration, the movie mode on the TCL C69B / C655 television improves in quality. The most significant enhancement can be seen in tonal reproduction, and the white balance presents itself much better – without major errors. We will no longer see the excessive dominance of cool shades. The gamma has also been improved, resulting in a more stable representation of brightness and contrast. However, due to limitations in the average colour palette of the television, Colour Checker tests for 4K materials did not achieve outstanding results. Despite these technological limitations, the image became more authentic, positively impacting the reception of film content.

During calibration we focused mainly on HDR material, because that’s where the factory settings needed the most correction. We didn’t neglect SDR, though. After tuning it was brought almost to perfection. Colours are very accurate and brightness is controlled as it should be. The biggest change in HDR came from improving the white balance. After removing excess red and blue the pinkish tint disappeared and the image became much more natural. Skin tones, whites and all colours that had previously leaned towards pink improved. After calibration most errors fell below Delta E 2-3, the threshold at which an average viewer stops noticing differences with the naked eye. So the LG B6 can produce a very accurate picture, especially for the manufacturer’s entry-level OLED model.

The "Gradual Smoothing" feature works very well on the TCL C69B TV and, surprisingly, does not remove desirable effects like film grain – unlike some solutions from other manufacturers. Unfortunately, when it comes to image scaling, it looks poor. The TV artificially sharpens the image, causing the edges of objects to appear quite jagged. This situation may appeal to some users who prefer a more "hard" look to the image, but it is not an ideal solution for those who value naturalness and fluidity of details.

LG B6 copes very well with lower-quality material. Much of that is down to effective digital image processing, which can mask some source imperfections without excessively smoothing the whole scene. The "Smooth Gradation" feature proves particularly useful. It lets you noticeably reduce posterization mentioned earlier, especially in dark parts of the image. The safest choice is to set it to Low or Medium. The feature still effectively smooths out harsh tonal transitions, but doesn't yet interfere too much with fine details. Die-hard purists can of course leave it off. Upscaling to 4K also performs very well. Full HD and 720p content retain a fair amount of detail, and the image is neither overly sharpened nor heavily blurred. Some limitations are only noticeable with very poor sources below 720p, where the smallest text and fine elements aren't always perfectly sharp, but this is true for almost every other TV on the market.

Television TCL C69B / C655 in its smallest variants offers decent, though not perfect, results in terms of motion smoothness. For movies, the television features a "Flicker Reduction" function, which allows for adjustment of motion smoothness on a scale from 1 to 10. Thanks to this option, we can tailor the image appearance to either a cinematic or more theatrical preference (with less or greater speed).

One of the biggest advantages of OLED panels is their very fast pixel response time. That keeps the picture sharp and prevents visible smearing that often appears on LCD TVs. It does have a downside, though. During slow camera pans motion can look a bit choppier than on LCD screens, where the slower panel naturally masks some of that effect. Fortunately, on the LG B6 this is easy to tame with TruMotion. With the motion smoothing set correctly you can get smoother motion without giving the picture an exaggerated soap-opera effect.

The TCL C69B / C655 TV in its smallest variants offers a range of features dedicated to gamers, such as ALLM (Automatic Low Latency Mode), VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), Dolby Vision for gamers, and Game Bar. ALLM automatically switches the TV to low latency mode, improving responsiveness and minimising delays in control. VRR allows for synchronising the screen refresh rate with the frame rate generated by the console, eliminating screen tearing and providing smoother gameplay. Dolby Vision for gamers ensures better colour and contrast representation in games that support this format, resulting in better image quality. Meanwhile, the Game Bar provides quick access to game settings and monitors key parameters such as input lag.

However, the TV has certain limitations that may affect gaming comfort. The 60 Hz panel does not allow for displaying signals with a higher refresh rate, which can impact image smoothness in dynamic games. The lack of support for G-Sync technology for PCs can also be noticeable when gaming on a computer, especially in demanding, fast-paced titles.

LG OLED B6 has plenty going for gamers; it's a complete base for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S or a solid PC. It comes with four full-size HDMI 2.1 ports with 48 Gb/s bandwidth, so you can forget about annoying cable swapping when you want to connect several newer devices at once. We get a full package of sync technologies, from classic VRR to G-Sync and FreeSync. The panel effortlessly syncs its refresh rate to the frame pacing produced by your console or graphics card. Of course ALLM is present: the B6 automatically recognises when a game is running and immediately cuts latency to a minimum. HDR support is also excellent. The TV supports Dolby Vision, and a correctly implemented HGiG means that after an initial calibration in the console settings the picture won't suffer from blown-out whites or lost detail in bright areas. The icing on the cake is the Game Bar. Instead of digging through the full menu mid-game, a single click lets you correct shadow visibility, tweak chosen parameters or simply check the display's current mode. All of this makes the LG B6 a great choice for gamers.