TCL C7K / QM7K 55"-85" vs Panasonic W85

In terms of brightness, the models ranging from 55 to 85 inches in the C7K series are truly impressive. Under optimal testing conditions, the 65-inch screen exceeded 1200 nits, which in practice means that the brightest scenes can dazzle with almost cinematic brilliance. These are not just dry figures from measurements – during screenings, bright skies, explosions, or reflections of light on water looked incredibly striking, often giving the impression that the television exceeds its price range. This is particularly effective in scenes with large areas of illumination, where the screen fills with intense brightness – for instance, in sun-drenched shots or during dynamic action sequences. Viewers looking for strong HDR will definitely be satisfied.

However, scenes that require precise backlight control – with tiny points of light against a dark background – prove to be more challenging. Here, the C7K, despite having over a thousand zones, can still dim brightness to maintain deep blacks. The effect is that in films like Sicario 2 or LIFE of Pi, some details, such as a distant lighthouse or single reflections, may appear less distinct or blend into the surroundings. This is a compromise inherent in MiniLED technology – it provides excellent image depth and blacks at a level not offered by standard LCDs, but this comes at the cost of limited visibility of the tiniest lights.

Unfortunately, we don't have good news here. The Panasonic W85B is quite a dark television – its peak brightness doesn't exceed 300 nits, making it hard to talk about any real HDR effect. In practice, this means that scenes which can 'shine' and impress on other screens simply look like regular SDR with a slight colour boost here. Our measurements and film tests confirmed this – regardless of the content, the W85B won't draw anything more from HDR. So if someone is looking for a television specifically for HDR, it's better to look at other models. On a positive note, the W85B does quite well in terms of colours. It's a QLED television, so its colour gamut coverage is wide, and most films and series look natural, without a noticeable 'faded' effect. The colours are saturated, so in everyday viewing, there's no feeling that something is seriously off.

The new feature in TCL TVs 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 regarded as the one that best represents the original vision of the creators and is often recommended by enthusiasts of good picture quality. 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 flaws. One could critique the incorrect white balance, particularly the slight dominance of blue, which caused cool, slightly greyish skin tones. But that was not the biggest issue. The main complaint was the excessive brightness exposure, which is clearly visible on the gamma and EOTF graphs. The picture was simply too bright, at times even blown out, which affected not only the richness of the scenes but also the overall viewing experience. Some details were simply lost, and the whole image looked as if someone had overdone the brightness slider a bit. As always – we decided to see what could be squeezed out of this after calibration. And that’s where it started to get really interesting…

Testing the Panasonic W85B, we obviously started with the Filmmaker mode, as it's the gold standard for watching content "the way the director intended." The problem is that this TV is quite far from those intentions. The biggest issue turned out to be an excess of red – both in SDR and HDR. The image often looked too warm because of this, and in some scenes, it was almost "on fire." Added to this is the issue of brightness management. When we looked at the gamma and EOTF charts, it was clear as day that in most scenes, the TV brightens the image more than it should. The effect was easy to predict. Details can get lost, leading to flattening and clipping across the entire screen. We obviously know how to fix this, but to be fair, it does require a lot of calibration work. Out of the box, the W85B doesn't produce an image close to reference quality – it's more of a TV that, without professional adjustments, will always interpret colours and brightness a bit "in its own way." Unfortunately, this is to the detriment of the viewer.

After calibration, the TCL C7K put on a really good show, especially when it comes to SDR content. We managed to precisely tune the white balance, colour gamut, and brightness characteristics, resulting in colour errors on the ColorChecker palette dropping below a value of 2. For the uninitiated – this is an almost perfect score, meaning the image is very close to what the creators intended. Unfortunately, things didn’t look as good with 4K HDR content. While we managed to slightly calm down the white balance and correct its previous errors, it still shows that the TV has some "MiniLED traits," especially in brightness management. When we checked how the C7K handles the EOTF curve on actual movie scenes, rather than just synthetic test patterns, it turned out that the screen still has a tendency to slightly brighten the entire image. This affects the overall experience – blacks lose some depth, and the image becomes less contrasty than it should be. Despite these minor shortcomings in 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 tuning of colours, natural skin tones, and pleasant brightness make movie sessions and everyday content viewing more than satisfying.

Fortunately, calibration made a significant difference for the Panasonic W85B, especially for SDR content. Here, the improvement was quite evident – we managed to even out the white balance and reasonably tame the TV's tendency to overly brighten the entire image. The picture became more coherent and the colours gained the naturalness that was lacking in the factory settings. Admittedly, the results from the Color Checker are not perfect, as the W85B has noticeable issues with green saturation, but overall, we rate the post-calibration effect in SDR quite positively. The situation with HDR is a bit different. Here too, we managed to reduce the tendency to warm up the entire scene, so the image performed definitely better than in the factory settings. However, there is still the same problem we mentioned earlier – the TV interprets the image too strongly "in its own way" and brightens the whole screen. And the lack of local dimming only exacerbates this effect. In summary, briefly, in SDR content, the W85B performs really well after calibration and is perfectly suitable for everyday viewing. However, in HDR, even after adjustments, it is still difficult to unambiguously recommend it for more serious viewing.

TCL C7K comes with a feature that, according to the manufacturer, aims to smooth out unwanted colour transitions – something like a rescue for less successful tonal changes. 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. And worse still – the feature can cut out elements from the image that should remain. Fortunately, film grain is left untouched, so at least it doesn't smooth everything indiscriminately, but even so – it's best to just 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 felt that the image loses sharpness and becomes too soft – as if something had taken 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.

With native SDR content, the Panasonic W85B performs very well – tonal transitions are smooth and natural, without artificial bands or clear outlines. However, the situation is worse with lower resolution materials. This is where the TV has the biggest problem with "beautifying" the image. The lack of any menu option to improve gradation means that with older films or materials from YouTube, one can sometimes notice slight issues with colour blending.

Fortunately, upscaling, or enhancing the quality of lower resolution content, performs much better. This is definitely a strong point of this model – the image is scaled cleanly and in detail, and the TV handles this better than one might expect from such an inexpensive setup. This is thanks to the HCX processor, which Panasonic has been developing for years, and it shows that even in the lower series, it can do a good job.

TCL C7K handles motion smoothness really well. The panel used in it offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which alone suggests that this TV is more than just a regular "60 Hz" panel. Moreover, if we connect the C7K to a computer and set the resolution to Full HD. But we will write more about this in the section for gamers and PC compatibility. Returning to everyday use – both sports and movies look very good here. Thanks to the quick panel and the well-functioning motion smoothening feature, the C7K is great for watching matches as well as for movie screenings. In the menu, we find two sliders – blur reduction and flicker reduction – that allow adjusting the smoothness effect to personal preferences. At lower settings, we get a more cinematic effect, with a slight judder. At higher settings – the image becomes more theatrical, smoothly even to excess. Whatever your taste, everyone can set it to their liking.

At first glance, everything looks good – the Panasonic W85B has a 120 Hz panel and even a 144 Hz mode, so it seems like it should handle smooth motion really well. The problem starts when we delve into the settings. The options for improving fluidity are supposedly present in the menu, but in practice… they don't change anything. No matter what we choose, the image looks the same. On top of that, there’s a lack of BFI, or black frame insertion, which in many TVs helps sharpen motion. And suddenly, it turns out that despite the strong panel, the W85B doesn’t give us any real tools to adjust that motion to our needs. It’s only good when the source itself operates at a higher frequency – for example, games at 120 Hz. But when it comes to movies or sports, we just have to accept what the TV shows us because there’s nothing more that can be done about it.

TCL C7K is a TV that on paper looks like the dream gear for a gamer – and most importantly, it also holds up in practice. First, the good news: we have two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth, so we can easily connect both a console and a computer, making use of all their capabilities. The panel itself supports a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which gives a considerable advantage in fast-paced games. On top of that, it comes with a full suite of gaming features: VRR (variable refresh rate), ALLM (automatic low latency mode), and Dolby Vision support in games. There’s also an HGiG mode that provides an HDR effect aligned with the creators' intentions. GameBar, which is an information bar for gamers. It operates quickly, looks clear (like a Nintendo console👌), and displays what matters most: the current frame rate, VRR status, and even HDR parameters.

On paper, the Panasonic W85B looks really solid. It has two full HDMI 2.1 ports, support for ALLM, variable refresh rates, Dolby Vision in games, and of course, a high refresh rate for the panel itself. Additionally, there's the characteristic Panasonic game bar, which allows you to view key parameters with a single click and quickly change them if needed. It sounds great, but the problem arises when we enable HDR. Here, the W85B really struggles because the implementation of HGiG is practically nonexistent – the TV poorly manages brightness, and instead of faithful images, we get scenes that are too bright, sometimes even blown out. The solution? The simplest one – turn off HDR in the console settings and keep everything in SDR. And here it gets really interesting, because in this scenario, the W85B shows its better side. Low input lag, high smoothness thanks to 120 Hz – all of this makes gaming look phenomenal. Yes, HDR can be skipped, but if responsiveness and smooth gameplay are the priorities, the W85B provides plenty of fun.