TCL MQLED85 / C765 vs Samsung S90H (WOLED)

The television TCL MQLED85/C765 performs well in handling HDR. In the tested movie scenes, where the screen is at 100% brightness, the model achieves impressive results around 1000 nits, providing intense and realistic rendering of HDR content. However, similar to contrast, the dimming algorithm may show some limitations. Despite a large number of Mini LED zones, the television does not always manage to "wow" the user with brightness in very challenging test scenes. For instance, in the scene from the film "Life of Pi," where a bright moon appears against a dark background, and in another scene from "Sicario 2," where a very bright light effect is visible against a dark background, the television did not reach maximum intensity. For users expecting a perfect HDR effect in such extreme cases, the TCL MQLED may come up a bit short. However, in terms of colours, the television stands out with a very high coverage of the DCI P3 colour gamut at 95%, which is an impressive result comparable to much more expensive models. TCL MQLED85 / C765 offers support for various HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+, which is crucial for cinema image fans. Although this model achieves brightness over 1000 nits, the TCL MQLED85 may struggle to reflect details in very high-contrast scenes. For better HDR quality control, the C765 is equipped with dynamic tone mapping, making the image more realistic and natural depending on the content.

The Samsung S90H in the WOLED variant is still an exceptionally bright TV for its price bracket, although it is slightly dimmer compared with the QD-OLED version. That difference is not as pronounced as in last year’s F series, where gaps sometimes reached 500 nits. Here the parameters of both panels are very similar, with differences in peak brightness of only about 100–150 nits. In small-window measurements the S90H with the WOLED panel easily reaches close to 1,500 nits. That headroom lets it phenomenally convey the dynamics of HDR effects — blooms, light reflections and explosions have the right punch, exactly as intended by the studio creators. As with most OLED displays, when a very bright scene fills the entire screen, panel protection systems kick in and brightness naturally falls to around 700 nits. It’s worth stressing that this is still an excellent result on the market, often noticeably better than many Mini LED screens in the same segment.

Colour gamut coverage

The biggest difference between the two S90H variants lies in colour reproduction and saturation. This stems directly from the different construction of the WOLED panel, which uses an additional white subpixel. As a result, very high-brightness colours don’t achieve quite the same saturation, and the wide-colour volume is slightly more limited than with QD-OLED. That said, in everyday use these differences will be hard for most viewers to notice. Our measured DCI-P3 coverage on the WOLED panel reaches almost 99%, meaning that for the vast majority of real film scenes both variants will present an almost identical image. The real gap only appears in rarer, especially demanding productions that use the ultra-wide BT.2020 gamut. Because of the WOLED panel’s construction, coverage of that standard is roughly 15% lower compared with the S90HAT with a QD-OLED panel, so the brightest, heavily lit HDR colours may appear a touch less vivid.

The television TCL MQLED85/C765 was tested in movie mode, which, while seeming to be the best setting from the manufacturer, is not without its flaws. The colour reproduction in HD/SDR mode MQLED85 shows certain shortcomings. In the analysis of white balance, there is a significant lack of blue colour, which can affect the overall image quality, particularly in bright scenes where blue shades are crucial for natural representation. The overall image may then appear too warm. As for gamma contrast, the graph shows that there is a large jump above the reference line of level 2.4 at the beginning, which may suggest significant dimming of brightness in darker areas, leading to loss of detail in blacks. Then for most of the time, the values are below this line, which can lead to loss of detail in the brighter parts of the image. Such a distribution may negatively impact the perceived image quality, especially when watching regular TV in HD quality.

In the case of the 4K HDR image quality of the TCL MQLED85/C765 television, there is a noticeable excess of red colour in the analysis of white balance. This excess can significantly impact the viewer's experience, leading to several notable effects. First and foremost, an excessive amount of red can make other colours, such as green or blue, appear muted or unnatural. This distortion of colour balance can result in an overall impression of "oversaturation," which detracts from the image's naturalness and authenticity. In terms of contrast, the EOTF (Electro-Optical Transfer Function) graph indicates that most values are above the reference line, suggesting an intense boost in brightness in the bright areas of the image. However, the exception is the start of the graph, where the EOTF line is below the reference, which may lead to excessive dimming of small light elements.

Users should be aware that despite using the best mode, which is movie mode, the television is not free from flaws in the context of image settings, so it is worth considering adjusting the settings to achieve better results.

In Filmmaker mode, which we strongly recommend switching on straight out of the box, the S90H offers very good factory colour tuning. Colours are natural and faithful to the creators' intent, without the annoying oversaturation seen in more aggressive profiles. However, as is often the case without full calibration, there is unit-to-unit variation. In our test the white balance was a little deficient in the blue component, so the image leaned slightly towards warmer, yellowish tones. This was most noticeable in bright scenes, such as the snowy sequences from Star Wars. Additionally, the gamma curve was slightly low at around 2.2, which caused a small lift in shadow detail. In HDR mode the tuning was a bit better, showing only a slight undersaturation in the red region.

After professional calibration of the television TCL MQLED85/C765, its colour properties in film mode have significantly improved, resulting in much more satisfying visual experiences. Both in SDR and HDR modes, the white balance shows no serious errors, and the graph appears to be much better harmonised. Users can now enjoy natural colour reproduction, which is crucial for achieving an authentic experience while watching films. It is worth noting that in HDR content, there may be minor colour reproduction errors at the end of the graph, but these are significantly smaller than before calibration. As a result, characters and landscapes become more realistic, enhancing the depth of immersion in the story.

Regarding contrast, the gamma curve, responsible for HD quality, has been completely free of drops below the reference line, which means better visibility of details in dark scenes. However, there is still a slight boost at the beginning of the graph, which may affect the perception of bright elements. For HDR content, the EOTF curve also shows fewer errors, although some issues with reproducing mid-tones may still be noticeable. The EOTF curve measured on real film scenes still shows a significant brightness boost, so the image may appear more intense but artificially brightened. This is a typical problem for TCL brand televisions, which may appeal to untrained viewers but can frustrate those more familiar with an ideal image.

What benefits does professional calibration bring to film enthusiasts? Thanks to it, viewing becomes even more realistic and immersive, allowing every scene to be experienced fully, preserving details and natural colours.

After full calibration, you can safely say the S90H in the WOLED version looks almost perfect. In SDR mode colour errors fall to ultra-low levels and Delta E values very rarely exceed 2. That's a phenomenal result, so if perfectly faithful colour reproduction matters to you, it's definitely worth getting it calibrated. The calibrated HDR mode also performs very well, where the white balance was stabilised and previous deviations eliminated. After professional tuning it's really hard to fault anything, because the TV delivers an image with almost exemplary naturalness and three-dimensionality. The slightly lower score in this category compared with the QD-OLED variant is solely due to the saturation limitation in extremely bright scenes, while the tuning potential and colour fidelity are at the highest level.

We will now take another look at the tonal transitions on the TCL MQLED85/C765 TV, but in the context of lower image quality. Despite the presence of the "Gradual Smoothing" option, when set to "low", the effects are practically invisible, disappointing users who expect an improvement in image quality. On the other hand, the "high" setting yields minimal results, and worse still, it can blur important details, negatively impacting the sharpness and clarity of the displayed image. However, in the context of image scaling, the TV successfully displayed the image without overscan, meaning we do not lose any part of the view. The image looks quite decent, and details such as tree branches or the outlines of models do not show significant jaggedness, which positively affects the visual quality.

When it comes to banding reduction itself, Samsung has kept the same solutions known from last year’s models. The dedicated gradient-smoothing function works quite well and can effectively mask unwanted tonal transitions, which can be useful on a WOLED panel that’s somewhat more prone to banding. However, it’s important to remember it acts aggressively. This mechanism, aside from the artefacts themselves, can remove fine film grain and subtly soften detail. Ultimately it’s a trade-off, but if you want perfectly faithful image reproduction, it’s safer to leave this option off.

There’s also no breakthrough in scaling. The S90H uses the same NQ4 Gen3 processor as its predecessor, so upscaling quality was almost identical. The chip sharpens lower-resolution material very well, pulling a satisfying level of detail out of it. However, Samsung still hasn’t solved the old overscan problem. For some older recordings or archival footage the edges of the image can be slightly cropped. It’s a minor drawback, but it’s a shame the manufacturer still hasn’t fixed it.

TCL MQLED85/C765 is equipped with a standard refresh rate panel of 120 Hz, with the possibility of increasing it to 144 Hz when connected to a powerful computer. The television also offers a multi-level motion smoother, which is mainly aimed at users wanting to improve the fluidity of motion in films. It allows for adjusting the intensity of the effect on a scale from 0 to 10, enabling precise tailoring of the image smoothness to individual preferences. The response time of the panel is decent, but not perfect. We can observe motion blur occurring behind both dark and medium objects.

When it comes to motion handling the S90H is simply excellent. This year's panel offers its refresh rate boosted to 165 Hz, although in practice the benefit will mainly be for gamers connecting a powerful PC. For movies, TV series or sports broadcasts such a high refresh rate makes no difference and the picture looks exactly the same as at the standard 120 Hz. Regardless of the source, the OLED panel's lightning-fast response time does the job. Motion is clean, and the ghosting or smearing seen on LCDs simply doesn't occur here.

TCL MQLED85/C765 has achieved an impressive rating in the gaming features category, making it an excellent choice for gaming enthusiasts. The television supports all the latest technologies that significantly enhance the gaming experience. Among the key gaming features is ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), allowing the TV to automatically switch to low latency mode, minimising response time and ensuring smooth gameplay. VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) supported from 48 to 144 Hz eliminates stuttering and screen tearing in dynamic game scenes. Additionally, the TV supports the Dolby Vision Game Mode, which provides better image quality in games with exceptional depth of colour and contrast. TCL MQLED85/C765 also features a decent but not the best implementation of HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group), optimising the display of HDR games, however, in the case of TCL, it causes bright details to wash out, resulting in some elements merging into a white blob - more on this can be read in the colour reproduction section. It supports various resolutions such as 1080p@120Hz, 1440p@120Hz, and 4K@120Hz, allowing gamers to enjoy higher image quality and better fluidity. The Game Bar feature allows for easy switching between game settings and quick control of parameters, which significantly simplifies adjusting the TV to individual needs. With support for G-Sync and FreeSync technologies, users of NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards will be pleased with the refresh rate synchronisation capabilities, eliminating tearing and stuttering issues, ensuring smoother and more immersive gameplay.

MQLED85/C765 is a television that combines advanced technologies and excellent support for gamers, making it the ideal choice for those looking to maximise their gaming experiences.

Gamers should feel right at home with the S90H, because Samsung has left few reasons to complain in this area. The TV has four HDMI 2.1 ports, each supporting VRR, ALLM and high refresh rates. There's also the Game Bar, a handy menu that lets you quickly check key parameters and change settings without leaving the game. Importantly, Samsung has also improved HGiG. In last year's models it could cause issues when used with a console, but on the S90H it now works as it should. What really stands out against the competition is Game Motion Plus. It's a specialised motion-smoothing mode for games that works best with titles running at 30 or 60 frames per second. Motion becomes noticeably smoother and latency remains at a reasonable level. In our measurements it was under 50 ms, so gaming is still comfortable. That's important, because on many TVs enabling a similar smoothing feature causes such a big increase in input lag that controls become noticeably sluggish. Samsung has managed to find a good compromise here. There's still no Dolby Vision Gaming, but in practice Game Motion Plus may prove to be the more useful feature.