TCL C8K vs Samsung QN90F / QN92F

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

Samsung QN90F can really shine with brightness. In our measurements, it reached even over 2200 nits, which directly translates to the viewing experience. In practice, this means that when a very bright scene appears in a film – for example, a sunrise in The Meg – the screen looks as if natural light is actually shining on us. This isn't just a number from a table, but a real sense of image intensity! However, the TV can't always deliver its full power. With smaller details, such as spotlights or lamps, brightness drops to 500–700 nits. This is a deliberate decision by the algorithms – by doing this, the contrast between large and small elements is better controlled, and the image doesn't lose balance. Importantly, this is still a huge improvement compared to last year's QN90D, where similar details were almost invisible, shining at just 200 nits. Here, the HDR effect is much more cohesive and credible. The only downside is the colours. The coverage of the DCI-P3 spectrum has plateaued at 91%, which can be considered a rather average result in this price range.

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.

The colour reproduction in the QN90F was tested in Filmmaker mode and, as is usually the case with Samsung TVs, this mode proves to be the best starting point straight out of the box. However, this does not mean that we are dealing with an image free of flaws. The white balance in SDR and HDR content was surprisingly good – colours didn't drift in any direction and even in its factory settings it looked solid. However, a problem arose with the gamma and EOTF curves, which determine how the TV manages brightness. Here, the QN90F significantly brightened the entire image, causing the black levels and colours to lose their intensity, and the overall effect resembled that of an applied milky filter. Fortunately, Samsung, unlike many competitors in the miniLED world, provides users with plenty of tools to control settings that we won't find in other manufacturers, such as Chinese brands. Therefore, we decided to see if we could squeeze the full potential out of the QN90F because we know that such a high series is capable of much more.

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 our adjustment of the settings, the QN90F showed what it’s really capable of – and we have to admit, it’s one of the best images we’ve seen on a miniLED screen this year. As we mentioned earlier, the white balance wasn’t a big issue even in the factory settings, but it was only after gamma calibration that we were able to get close to reference values. The same goes for HDR content, where the EOTF curve post-adjustment presents mature and consistent results. Indeed, in some films, you can notice that the smallest elements of the image are slightly brightened, and with a limited number of local dimming zones, there's still a risk of halo effect. However, it’s important to remember that such phenomena are characteristic of all miniLED TVs and it’s difficult to expect miracles even from the QN90F. The most important thing is that after calibration, the television displays an image that confidently competes with many OLED screens available on the market in terms of expressing the director's vision.

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.

QN90F handles upscaling very well. Materials in lower resolutions, even SD, are enhanced to a clear and sharp image, where a lot of background detail can be seen. This is a big advantage, as the TV makes older content or everyday television look significantly better than on most budget screens. However, the issue of overscan remains, which is the cropping of the screen edges that cannot be turned off on Samsungs. This can cause some subtitles on the screen to disappear or Auntie's face from the wedding on a VHS tape to be slightly cropped. 😉

The digital image processing also performs well. In the menu, we find a feature called "noise reduction," which can smooth tonal transitions and improve the viewing of lower quality materials, such as those from YouTube. In the medium setting, the effect is most beneficial – it doesn't heavily interfere with details while simultaneously eliminating the problem of "banding" in colours. However, it's worth noting that the feature can be quite aggressive and removes natural film grain in older movies, so it's best to use it sparingly.

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.

QN90F has been equipped with a panel that has a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, and while this advantage will mainly be appreciated by PC gamers, it’s still worth highlighting. In movies or sports broadcasts, we are limited to the classic 120 Hz, but this is not a cause for concern. In practice, the additional motion smoother is more significant here. Thanks to the "Motion Clarity" setting, we can adjust the picture to our own preferences. The blur reduction option is responsible for fluidity and ghosting in sports. Meanwhile, the "judder reduction" function improves motion fluidity in productions recorded at 24 frames, namely films and series. If we set it high, the film looks smoother and more fluid than it was actually shot. Lower values, on the other hand, preserve its cinematic "rawness" with the visible film frame.

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.

QN90F has almost everything to become the perfect TV for gamers. Things like four HDMI ports, VRR, ALLM, and a refresh rate of up to 165 Hz need no reminder. It deserves high praise for the Game Motion Plus mode, Samsung's proprietary motion smoothing for games. Thanks to this, you can add a few "artificial" frames and make the image generated from the console look smoother than it should. This is a very unique solution in the world of TVs – competing systems usually do not offer this – and that’s why Samsung has had a strong selling point among gamers for years, even despite the lack of support for the still niche Dolby Vision in games.

So why do we refer to it as an "almost" perfect screen? Unfortunately, similar to previous Samsung models, we noticed an issue with the lack of HGiG functionality. This solution allows the TV to leave tone mapping control to the console, so that games look exactly as intended by the developers. What’s worse, this feature was present before and disappeared after software updates. Instead of minor fixes, we got a step back. It's a shame, because without this lack, the QN90F could really be the ideal choice for gamers in the miniLED category.