TCL C8K vs Samsung QN80F 100"

TCL C8K is a really bright television. In synthetic conditions – that is, during tests with brightness charts – it was able to achieve even 3500 nits peak brightness in movie mode. That's an impressive result and brings the C8K close to the market leaders, at least when it comes to panel brightness. More importantly – these aren't just numbers on paper. In films with a lot of bright scenes, such as Life of Pi or The Meg, the brightness clearly exceeds 1000 nits, providing a true sense of HDR effect. The picture in those moments looks very dynamic, colors are saturated thanks to excellent coverage of the color palette, and the lights are – spot on and intense. Exactly how it should be.

However, this doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. Just like in contrast tests, here too, in more demanding scenes, compromises appear. In sequences with very fine light elements – such as stars in the night sky or reflections in dark rooms – the local dimming algorithm can… get confused. Instead of bringing those details up, the television sometimes decides to dim them significantly – down to around 300 nits – to maintain deep blacks. On one hand, this is quite a sensible approach (better deep black than a grey/navy blue screen), but on the other – there may be moments when certain elements of the picture become difficult to see or even disappear into darkness.

TEST UPDATE (20/08/2025): The brightness control algorithm in this model is quite problematic – attempting to calibrate the picture so that it doesn’t drastically overexpose the brightest scenes results in unnatural shifts: improvement in one part of the image results in deterioration in another. The television may achieve slightly higher readings in brightness measurements, but in practice, this comes with a heavily overexposed image that looks very unnatural!

For the record, we provide brightness values without this adjustment:

1. 1463 nits

2. 640 nits

3. 1368 nits

4. 468 nits

5. 1025 nits

When it comes to HDR in Filmmaker mode, the QN80F can make a great first impression. Our lab tests showed that under the best conditions, the TV can achieve brightness exceeding 1200–1300 nits. These are truly remarkable results that make HDR effects in many films look incredible. The TV is simply bright enough that it doesn't have to artificially adapt the image – the bright parts of the scene have the right 'power' and actually look like a light source. Of course, the lab is one thing, and everyday viewing is another. In practice, during film scenes, brightness typically hovers around 700–1100 nits. These are still excellent values that, in most cases, provide a strong sense of realism and make the lights on the screen truly blinding. The problem arises in exceptionally difficult sequences, where, like almost every mini-LED, it reveals its limitations. A good example is Sicario 2: scenes with the helicopter in the night sky look much weaker, and the lights lose intensity, dropping to around 370 nits, making it hard to speak of serious awe. Additionally, there's the issue of colours. Although we are dealing with a QLED, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut is about 90%. This is a rather average result for a quantum dot TV. In practice, this means that some colours may appear less saturated than we would expect, especially in demanding HDR productions.

In the C8K, a new picture mode has appeared: Filmmaker Mode. This is something we've known for years from televisions of other brands – a mode designed to deliver the director's vision as faithfully as possible, without unnecessary image enhancements. Unfortunately, at TCL, it seems to still be in the "to be refined" stage. Right from the first glance, the screen appears too warm – the image veers into reds, which may not appeal to everyone. The white balance was markedly skewed – the screen looked distinctly warm, and the red colour dominated almost every scene. There was a lack of blue, which led to an unpleasant yellowing and distortion of the image. But that’s not all. Regardless of whether we were watching regular TV, YouTube, or HDR films – the television had a clear tendency to excessively brighten the image. In tests of gamma curves and EOTF, the lines strayed instead of adhering to the standard, resulting in an overly bright and less contrasting image. Additionally, in colour reproduction tests, significant deviations were noticeable – on the colour wheel, some points were actually "drifting away." It must be said plainly: Filmmaker Mode in the C8K, in its current form, is not very cinematic.

Samsung QN80F performs best in Filmmaker mode, which is designed to faithfully reproduce the creators' intentions. And indeed – this is the mode where the TV shows its potential. But let's not fool ourselves, it’s far from perfect. In SDR content, a significant issue emerged with white balance. Slight deficiencies in green and a clear excess of red caused the screen to take on a pinkish hue. You don't even need measuring tools to notice this – in everyday viewing, the subtly shifted colour palette could be quite noticeable, and in colour checker tests, the colours nearly "jumped" outside their reference fields. With HDR content, the situation looked a bit better, as the white balance was closer to ideal, but another problem emerged – brightness management. The EOTF curve often caused the image to become too bright, which spoiled the impression of contrast, and in dynamic scenes, it led to a slight "flicker" in perception. We've actually mentioned this before in the sections about black levels and HDR. The good news, however, is that Samsung provides plenty of tools for improvement. The QN80F allows for very detailed calibration, including a 20-point white balance. And since the manufacturer has left us with so many options, we decided to see how the TV would perform after a solid correction.

After professional calibration, the TCL C8K has made a huge leap forward. In SDR content, the white balance has been almost perfectly set – the screen has finally stopped being too warm and has taken on a neutral character. The gamma curve, which is responsible for how brightness is represented, now looks very good – the image is more coherent and realistic. In HDR content, we also improved the white balance – within the limits of what the television itself allows. Unfortunately, the C8K still interprets brightness management a bit "in its own way." When we look at the EOTF chart in films, it’s clear that the television brightens entire scenes more than it should. Before calibration, this effect was quite bothersome – now the situation is much better, although it still falls a bit short of perfection. This, however, is a limitation of the device itself, which – despite our efforts – does not allow us to fully tame its nature.

After calibrating the QN80F, it immediately showed that it has much more to offer. The pink hue that used to spoil the viewing experience has disappeared, and the white balance finally looks as it should – natural and without excessive deviations. The colours have gained depth, and the image has become more saturated and coherent, making movies simply more enjoyable to watch. It's a bit like taking a light mist off the screen – suddenly everything appears sharper and clearer. Brightness management has also improved. The TV no longer gets lost so easily in dynamic changes, and the EOTF graph shows that the curve tracking is significantly more stable. Of course, there are no miracles – the limited number of zones still means that small, bright elements can be slightly washed out, but that's just a result of the design rather than the settings. After this adjustment, the QN80F feels like a more mature piece of equipment, and watching movies finally provides the satisfaction expected from even a higher-end television.

How does the TCL C8K handle lower quality materials? One could say: fairly well, though without much enthusiasm. The television offers a tonal transition enhancement feature designed to smooth out unwanted gradients. In practice, there's a slight improvement visible, but it's not at a level that eliminates all imperfections. The feature subtly softens harsh transitions, but it doesn't work miracles. Film grain isn't completely suppressed, and subtle banding on grey backgrounds can still be noticeable. But maybe that's for the best? – at least the image doesn't lose its texture or depth, as is often the case with televisions that overdo digital processing. When it comes to upscaling, which is enhancing picture quality from lower resolutions, the C8K performs quite well. The image is sharp, and details – though sometimes a bit softened – remain discernible. However, it's not on par with the best picture processors from the competition. On the plus side, there's no issues with overscan, which is the artificial cropping of the image that can still surprise in some models from other brands.

With lower quality materials, such as YouTube videos or older television recordings, the QN80F can show both its strengths and weaknesses. If strange colour transitions or artefacts start to appear on the screen, it's worth reaching for the noise reduction feature. The best setting is at the "medium" level – it smooths out problematic segments while not blurring the entire image. However, one compromise must be kept in mind: this feature always removes film grain. If someone enjoys its presence in older productions, it's better to leave the reduction off, as regardless of the setting, the grain simply disappears.

Resolution scaling, or upscaling, is another strong point for Samsung. The QN80F may not be the best television on the market, but it performs very well in its price class, which is crucial for such a large size as a 100-inch screen. Even low-quality materials can gain a second life – the image becomes sharper, more readable, and overall, much more pleasant to view. A weak point remains overscan, which is slight cropping of edges in very low resolutions (e.g., 576p), something that has been a longstanding issue for Samsung. Fortunately, in everyday viewing of HD and 4K content, this is practically of no significance anymore.

If you're planning a weekend with the Champions League or a marathon of F1 racing – the TCL C8K won't let you down. The television is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, so it should inherently handle fast motion well. And indeed – it performs very well. The fluidity of motion is at a very good level here, and the "Motion Clarity" feature with two sliders (blur reduction and flicker reduction) allows you to easily adjust the effect to your own preferences. Want to slightly smooth things out – no worries. Prefer a cinematic look – no problem.

QN80F features a 144 Hz panel, and this is evident in practice – with full refresh, the image is incredibly smooth, and motion blur remains at an acceptable, barely noticeable level. However, this mode is mainly aimed at PC gamers. The most important point of reference in everyday use remains the 120 Hz refresh rate, and here a certain crunch arises. During the UFO test, we noticed ghosting of rapidly moving objects – it looked as if the television had the BFI (Black Frame Insertion) feature permanently enabled, which in practice led to an unpleasant effect of double edges. We still don't know if this is a software issue or a peculiarity of this model, but in its current state, it's hard to commend such behaviour.

TCL C8K offers practically everything we could expect from a screen for gamers. It has variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic game mode (ALLM), Dolby Vision in games, and a well-functioning implementation of HGiG, which helps preserve the creators' intent in HDR titles. The TV also supports 120 Hz in lower resolutions without any problems, and it can even display a staggering 288 Hz in Full HD – a figure that will surely appeal to fans of dynamic shooters and sports games on PC.

On board, we also find the GameBar – a graphical interface that somewhat resembles an elongated Nintendo Switch console. Thanks to this, we gain quick access to information about the current game mode, frame count, HDR format, and other little details that really make life easier for the gamer. We obviously couldn’t resist and ran a couple of races in Forza Horizon on the C8K – and we must admit, it looked and worked really well.

However, there is a slight drawback – in such a fast and clearly gaming-oriented device, it's a bit unfortunate that the manufacturer opted for the implementation of only two HDMI 2.1 ports. For some users, who use several next-gen consoles and, for example, a soundbar with eARC, this could be a limitation that’s hard to overcome.

Samsung QN80F gives the impression of a TV designed for gamers. On the list of advantages, we have a 144 Hz panel, four full-featured HDMI 2.1 ports, full support for VRR and ALLM, and one of the best-designed gamebars on the market. Additionally, there’s the Game Motion Plus motion smoother, which also works in games without actually increasing input lag, making the QN80F an absolute standout in this category. In practice, this means you can enjoy smoother visuals without losing responsiveness, which is a dream for many console gamers!

As is usual with Samsung, there’s no Dolby Vision in games, and that’s nothing new. However, we were much more surprised to find that in the models from 2025… the HGIG function has disappeared. This feature allowed consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X to perfectly match HDR tone mapping to the TV's capabilities. In the current firmware, the QN80F simply doesn't have this option – it seems more like an oversight than a conscious decision by the manufacturer, but as of the day of testing, HGIG is not available. Due to this one absence, the QN80F shifts from an almost perfect TV for gamers to a device that is only "nearly" ideal. It's quite a pity because apart from that, Samsung has created a model that truly raises the bar in the gaming hardware segment.