TCL C855 vs Haier M95E

TCL C855 delivers a highly varied HDR effect. On one hand, the television truly shines, while on the other, it resembles a lower model with FALD backlighting. Such a state of affairs is regularly observed with this brand, so it was not a surprise for us. The first and last scene, which has large light elements, looks phenomenal, "shining" with brightness levels of 1470 and 1820 nits respectively. Such effects will certainly make many people squint, while simultaneously feeling the extraordinary dynamism of the scene itself. You can truly feel as if you were inside the movie. The situation drastically changes when small or minor elements with high luminance surrounded by black appear on the screen. The TCL C855, to avoid the halo effect, significantly reduces brightness to a level of even 240 nits, which is a disappointing outcome, causing the film to not look like it was shot in HDR. The HDR effect in TCL C855 makes watching dynamic scenes more engaging, and the viewer can feel like they are part of the action. Even with smaller elements of high luminance, the television manages to maintain details without excessive dimming. Moreover, the TCL C855 test shows that the brightness of the image is adapted to scenes with a large amount of detail, increasing viewing comfort.

If there is one category where the Haier M95E absolutely shines, it is the HDR effect, powered by the raw power of the backlight. This television cannot be denied its reputation as a truly bright device. In both most film scenes and during our synthetic measurements, the panel easily reached, and often exceeded, the threshold of 1200-1500 nits. This directly translates to the viewing experience – the image has punch and truly allows one to feel the magic of materials recorded in this format. However, one must be aware of a certain compromise. When particularly demanding shots filled with small but intense bright points appear on the screen, the M95E, while not losing its resonance and not dimming, pays a different price for it. A very strong and noticeably distracting halo effect is generated around these bright elements. It is evident that the algorithms controlling dimming have been programmed to prioritise brightness and the visibility of the smallest details, even if this comes at the cost of perfect black levels. We are not entirely convinced that this is the healthiest approach; nonetheless, it must be admitted that the general capabilities of the M95E in this regard are indeed substantial. A huge positive is that we are dealing with a Mini LED QLED construction. The use of a quantum dot layer brings measurable benefits in the form of wide coverage of the colour palette, which in our tests reached nearly 96% of the DCI-P3 space. This guarantees that the television has full predispositions for displaying vibrant and appropriately saturated colours.

The best factory mode for the TCL C855 is "Film," and it is on this mode that we conducted all our tests. However, like every mode predefined by the manufacturer, it had flaws that are worth correcting to achieve an image that is as close as possible to what the film producer intended. We will look at the colour characteristics in both SDR and HDR materials. Taking the former into account, we see a clear dominance of green in the white balance, which, as you might guess, gave an unpleasant greenish tint to the entire image. Examining a very important gamma chart, responsible for the contrast of the image, we see a significant deviation from the reference line marked at 2.4. From the left, we can observe a strong spike in the measured value, which at this point caused contrast exaggeration and blending of details into a dark blob. This state of affairs persisted for quite a while, up to 20% of the chart’s value, before then diving below the reference. This, in turn, meant that the image was brightened and contrast decreased significantly. The factory mode performed somewhat better in HDR materials, as the white balance looked quite good, except for the second half, where green again took over. Looking at the EOTF curve, which, unlike gamma, shows the rate of brightness increase, we see primarily two errors: the darkest scenes were too dark, and the brightest ones were overexposed. This, by the way, could be observed in the scene from the film "Pan" in the check paragraph for the TV's HDR.

Each TV is evaluated primarily based on its default cinematic mode – in this case, "Movie" – which theoretically should be the "best" and most accurate straight out of the box. Unfortunately, with the Haier M95E, the word "best" is absolutely not synonymous with the word "good." Even during SDR viewing, the picture revealed evident issues: white balance skewed too far towards red, and excessive, unnatural colour saturation led to noticeable colour deviations. Worse still, the M95E also struggles with brightness management (gamma curve), excessively darkening the entire scene. Such behaviour is hard to commend, as it directly leads to the merging of details in shadows, which irretrievably disappear into a black void.

However, the real disaster arrived when switching to HDR content, still remaining in "Movie" mode. It's hard to guess who came up with such a fantastic idea – or perhaps it was simply a complete oversight by Haier's engineers during this stage – but instead of cinematic accuracy, the image started to resemble a vivid "Dynamic" mode. The white balance exposed significant issues with blue color, which in turn resulted in unnatural sharpness and artificial over-brightening of the entire scene. As if that wasn't enough, the EOTF curve's characteristics mercilessly revealed that the TV also had fundamental issues with managing the local dimming system in this setting. We haven’t calibrated many Haier TVs in our career, but we know for sure already that the M95E definitely needs it.

TCL, just like the vast majority of manufacturers, provides advanced calibration tools in its televisions. Here we find 2- and 20-point grey scale adjustments as well as an advanced colour management system. The results, as you can see, are very good and in SDR materials we have significantly approached the reference image. We eliminated both the green tint and the gamma issue, although there is still a slight "kink" at the very beginning. It went a bit worse with HDR materials, which the television ChooseTV C855 did not allow us to model properly. We only managed to slightly adjust the EOTF curve and significantly improve the colours themselves.

The calibration process left us with extremely mixed feelings. On one hand, we noted considerable success in the area of colour. By using the options available in the menu, we managed to tame the white balance and bring it down to an acceptable level. As a result, SDR content finally freed itself from the irritating red dominance, and the HDR image stopped resembling the vivid, retail demonstration mode. The entire colour palette and its saturation were also clearly corrected – maybe not perfectly, but to the extent that the software allowed, and the difference was visible to the naked eye.

And on this, unfortunately, our list of corrections pretty much ends, as M95E simply didn't allow for any more. As we signalled earlier, most settings related to the brightness of the image do not respond to our commands at all. This means that we were not able to control its fundamental characteristics in any way – neither the gamma curve nor the EOTF. In practice, the television still tends to darken details in SDR content, which was confirmed by the inflated gamma, merging details in the shadows. Meanwhile, the EOTF curve in HDR mode still mercilessly exposed all those previously mentioned problems with chaotic local dimming management. And although the calibration process itself achieved a lot, removing most of the colour issues, in the end, we had to capitulate.

Once again, we will look at the function of smoothing tonal transitions, but this time also image scaling. The latter is particularly important when watching materials of lower quality, such as some TV programs or older films. We will focus on the function responsible for tonal transitions. Interestingly, just like in the scenes in the previous test, it performed splendidly and smoothed out practically all the choppiness, but here it had problems. Using the menu responsible for the operation of this function, we found that none - not even the strongest - setting helped.

The image scaling in TCL C855 is characterised as one of the best we have had the opportunity to test so far. The image is sharp, but in a way that could be described as natural to our eye. Even small, fine branches do not have jagged contours, and there is no white halo around figures, which is characteristic of weaker scaling systems.

No worries, but what happens to those colour transitions when lower quality material with compression artifacts comes on screen? Unfortunately, we have some bad news for you. Even though in the menu we can find an option responsible for smoothing tonal transitions in older content, we definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND using it. Its activation causes an avalanche of additional, nasty artifacts, noticeably blurring the entire image, and ironically – it often doesn’t even remove those unwanted “jaggies” it was meant to tackle. This feature might as well not exist at all.

We can write many more warm words about the overall upscaling, which is the process of raising lower resolutions to the native 4K matrix. The image after upscaling looks really decent – it’s neither overly jagged nor artificially smoothed. In this particular area, the M95E really does the job.

The maximum refresh rate that we can set on TCL C855 is 144 Hz. Naturally, this is only possible when connecting the TCL C855 TV to a very powerful PC. Otherwise, we will operate at a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, which is recommended if we primarily want to watch sports or content with a high level of motion dynamics. For those who require high fluidity of image, the manufacturer has implemented a multi-level motion smoother. It has been divided into two separate sliders that adjust the sharpness of moving images (Blur Reduction) and judder (Judder Reduction). Both sliders can be set in the range of 0 to 10, with each level affecting the degree of smoothing, so everyone can find their sweet spot. We present a setting that allows for slight smoothness without the soap opera effect.

The panel of TCL C855 features a very good response time. This is especially important, as VA panels often have issues with so-called ghosting, which is the effect where a black halo can be noticed behind a fast-moving object.

In terms of motion fluidity and blurring, our feelings are quite mixed because the M95E is a paradox television. Let's start with absolute admiration: the heart of the device is its 144Hz panel, but what really impresses is its performance with 120Hz content, which is crucial for sports and console gaming. We must state with complete certainty that Haier has equipped it with one of the best VA panels currently available on the market when it comes to minimising blurring. It is rare to encounter an LCD panel that offers such clear, sharp, and ghosting-free motion. In this regard, the M95E is simply phenomenal.

And that is why the unpleasant surprise waiting for us on the software side is so painful. It turns out that this fantastic hardware potential is completely underutilised because the TV virtually offers no functioning options for improving fluidity. The smoothing systems that should help with lower frame rate content can indeed be found in the menu, but they essentially do not respond to our settings. The conclusion is brutally simple: if you intend to watch high fluidity materials, you must be sure that the source is broadcasting them in native 120. In every other case, you will have to come to terms with a rather harsh, stuttering image, as the M95E will not help smooth it out in any way.

The TCL C855 television is equipped with full HDMI 2.1 ports with a bandwidth of 48 Gb/s. During our tests, we confirmed the seamless operation of all functions that come with this standard. As you can see, all the checkboxes light up green, which will certainly be appreciated by gamers, both console and those using the television as a computer monitor. Additionally, the TCL C855 supports both AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA's G-Sync, which can be easily activated in the graphics card settings. Users with very powerful setups can provide a 144 Hz signal to the C855, which the television handles effortlessly. It's also worth mentioning the implementation of the HGIG mode, which, due to the shortcomings of the "Game" mode, is overly bright, making it difficult to configure properly on-screen. Fortunately, the television performs excellently with the Dolby Vision format.

The TCL C855, as one of the first manufacturers, has equipped its televisions with a special GameBar feature that allows extensive setting changes on the fly, without the need to exit the game. It includes functions such as an additional crosshair grid, black level correction, and settings for individuals with disabilities. In the photo, we see the next generation of this solution.

In summary, the TCL C855 television will be an ideal solution for those looking for a screen for any kind of electronic gaming. With all the features supporting such entertainment, it is incredibly engaging. It should also be emphasized that it has very low input lag, regardless of the selected settings, including with the Dolby Vision HDR format.

When it comes to features for gamers, the Haier M95E offers some strong arguments. First and foremost, it is fully prepared for the new generation of consoles and powerful gaming PCs. It comes equipped with two full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, which effortlessly handle 4K signals at 120Hz and even allow gaming at 144Hz. This is the foundation that guarantees us full utilisation of our available hardware. Furthermore, the key technologies work flawlessly here. The TV accurately detects the console and automatically switches to low-latency mode (ALLM), so we don’t have to fiddle with the settings. The frame syncing (VRR) also works efficiently, eliminating annoying tearing when the game’s smoothness slightly drops. Considering the exceptionally low motion blur of the panel, which we've already mentioned, the M95E creates a truly comfortable and responsive gaming environment. Of course, it's not a perfect package. A dedicated "Game Bar", which is a handy menu for gamers, would be useful, but that's really just a nice extra. A more serious omission is the lack of support for the HGiG standard, which impedes the perfect HDR configuration on consoles and can lead to overexposure. Despite these shortcomings, the core "gaming package" that the M95E offers is really solid and fully functional.