TCL C855 vs Philips OLED820

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.

When it comes to HDR quality, the Philips OLED820 uses the same class of WOLED panel found in its biggest rivals – the LG C5 and the Samsung S90F. This means we can expect really solid results. This year, mid-range OLED panels can exceed the threshold of a thousand nits, and the tested model reaches around 1300 nits in some films. This is an outstanding result, allowing the director's vision to be conveyed with incredible precision, as this is the brightness range in which modern productions are mastered. Of course, there are situations where even the OLED820 has to compromise. Full-screen scenes flooded with white, like those in the film The Meg, can drop brightness to 400–500 nits, which clearly diminishes the effect. This is a characteristic of OLED technology that has not yet been fully eliminated. Despite this limitation, it's hard not to appreciate the HDR in this model – high luminance and a wide coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette at 99% make the image look simply fantastic.

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.

The colour reproduction in the factory settings really surprised us, and in a positive way. The Philips OLED820, switched to Filmmaker mode, immediately showed that it was quite well tuned in terms of colour. The white balance was relatively accurate, although there was a slight deficiency in the blue hue, which sometimes gave the image a slightly yellowish tint. However, this is not a drawback that particularly interferes with everyday viewing. A bigger problem arose with the brightness characteristics. The gamma chart clearly deviated from the ideal, as the line was below the expected values, causing the image to be excessively brightened, and the colours looked as if they were covered with a light milky filter. This effect was also noticeable in tests using the Colour Checker pattern, where more pronounced errors appeared.

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.

After calibration, both the Filmmaker mode and the gaming mode improved quite a bit. A slight adjustment of the white balance and enhancement of the brightness characteristics yielded excellent results with SDR content – the image looked nearly perfect, natural, and very close to the reference. For HDR material, the situation was similar; the colours looked fantastic, and it was hard to find fault with anything. However, we did notice a certain characteristic, which we had already pointed out when comparing scenes from the film Billy Lynn. The analysis of the EOTF curve showed that the TV has a slight tendency to dim details in the blacks, meaning that the darkest parts are not always displayed exactly as the director intended. Nevertheless, the effect after calibration is superb, and the OLED820 is emerging as one of the more interesting screens in its class. A little bit of fine-tuning is all that’s needed, and there’s really nothing to worry about.

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.

Fortunately, the earlier effects of the mentioned posterisation can be quite effectively mitigated. The "distortion reduction" feature set to medium handles unwanted colour banding well, improving the smoothness of tonal transitions. It does sometimes work a bit too aggressively and smooths out some details – such as the minor imperfections of the actors’ skin – but despite that, it can be considered worth using without major compromises. The upscaling in the OLED820 also performs well. The test image with the model is exceptionally soft, sometimes perhaps too much, although this can be remedied with a slight increase in sharpness in the picture menu – that's a matter of individual preference. The absence of overscan issues with very low-resolution content is also commendable, allowing us to not worry about the image being unnecessarily cropped.

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.

Motion fluidity is an area where OLEDs always shine, and the Philips OLED820 confirms this rule. The panel itself offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which will mainly benefit PC gamers, but even with standard TV sources or consoles, where it operates at 120 Hz, motion is fast, sharp, and simultaneously smooth, without any signs of smearing. This is thanks to the remarkable response time between pixels, which ensures the image maintains clarity in every dynamic scene. The manufacturer has also added their own smoothness enhancer called "Motion Style." In the menu, we find two sliders – the first, responsible for smoothness, allows for the adjustment of the number of artificially added frames in films. This way, we can choose a raw, cinematic character with clearly visible film frames or a more theatrical image with smooth motion. The second slider is for motion blur reduction, particularly useful in sports broadcasts. Here, we definitely recommend setting it to the maximum value, as the effect is truly excellent.

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.

The Philips OLED820 is one of the most comprehensive TVs for gamers. Onboard, we find practically everything one could expect: two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps (shame there aren't four), Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), support for Dolby Vision in games, and a good implementation of the HGiG mode. The TV also handles lower resolutions at 120 Hz without issue, so you can count on great flexibility when choosing different picture modes on your console. Philips also adds a Game Bar – a panel that allows you to change picture modes, add a crosshair, or preview parameters. Although it looks a bit clunky and is less refined than its competitors, it gets the job done. In practice, therefore, the OLED820, in addition to a full set of four HDMI 2.1 connections, offers almost everything a gamer could need.