TCL P755 vs Samsung S85H

TCL P755 provides average HDR effect quality. The maximum brightness of the TV is slightly below 300 nits. Such brightness limits the intensity of bright areas in HDR content. In practice, this means that bright elements may not be sufficiently pronounced, affecting the overall impression of contrast. However, the TV offers wide coverage of the DCI P3 colour gamut, reaching about 93%. As a result, colours are vibrant and saturated, significantly improving colour reproduction quality in HDR content. Despite the limited brightness, the wide colour range allows for richer and more realistic shades.

Interestingly, the new WOLED SE panel has brought a slight improvement in brightness to the S85 lineup. In the same film scenes last year’s model sat closer to about 700 nits, while the S85H can reach roughly 800 nits. That’s not a change that completely transforms the HDR experience, but the extra headroom is noticeable, especially with point highlights, reflections or stronger special effects. Around 800 nits is a very good result for an entry-level OLED and in most films it’s enough for HDR to have the necessary punch. Bright elements can clearly stand out against perfect blacks, and that contrast is still doing most of the work here. However, you need to remember the typical limitation of OLED technology. When a very bright scene covers a large portion of the screen, brightness can drop to almost half. This is the result of panel protections that limit its output with large bright areas.

Colours

The S85H can deliver very pleasant, saturated colours and in most HDR films it looks really good in that regard. We measured around 95% coverage of DCI-P3, so the palette most commonly used in films is reproduced to a very high degree. Skin tones, greens and stronger reds still have appropriate intensity and under normal viewing it’s hard to have major complaints. Only when you look more broadly at BT.2020 do the limitations of the new WOLED SE panel become apparent. Coverage was about 70%, a bit less than WOLEDs of the previous generation and noticeably less than QD-OLED panels. In films this isn’t a big loss, since most productions rarely use such heavily saturated colours. You’re more likely to notice it in games, where developers more often opt for more intense colours.

The colour reproduction in the P755 in "Cinema" mode, although it is the best factory setting, leaves much to be desired. The biggest issue is the white balance, where the chart clearly shows a spike in the red colour and a drop in the green colour. This leads to a shift in colours towards red, causing the colours on the screen to appear less natural and may look incorrect, especially in scenes with a white or neutral background. This is confirmed by the "Colour Checker" test, which reveals that the colours are indeed shifted towards red, affecting the realism of the image and reducing the perception of colour depth. In terms of contrast, the gamma chart analysis shows significant fluctuations, particularly in the dark areas of the image, where values drop below the optimal level of 2.4. As a result, darker areas may be displayed brighter than they should be. Additionally, the EOTF curve, responsible for brightness reproduction, sits slightly above the reference curve. The graph shows a slight increase in brightness to about 50%, after which there is only a minor drop. This leads to excessive brightness enhancement in the mid-range of the image and may result in loss of detail and distortion in brighter scenes.

To evaluate colours we of course used Filmmaker mode, and in SDR our S85H unit was set very well from the factory. The largest deviation appears in the white balance, where as brightness increases it starts to lose a bit of blue. In practice this means whites and greys have a slightly warmer tint than they should. However, it's not a big fault and during normal viewing it generally isn't very noticeable. Gamma also stays close to the reference value, so the picture is neither overly bright nor unnecessarily dim. The S85H's SDR picture therefore looks really good straight out of the box. A few more imperfections appear in HDR. Here the white balance shifts more with rising brightness, with blue starting to dominate and the red component clearly lacking. This also results in larger errors in some colours. These aren't yet colour errors that completely change the character of the picture, but in direct comparison with the reference the difference is easier to spot. Overall, Filmmaker mode is a very good starting point before professional calibration.

After calibration, the colour reproduction on the television significantly improves when it comes to SDR content. The colour curves are now close to the ideal value, and the gamma is more stable. Although the dip at the beginning of the graph to the values is still present, the overall accuracy of colour reproduction is much better. The “Colour Checker” test shows that most colour samples have errors below level 2, indicating improved colour fidelity. A few deviations are present, but generally, the colours are now more realistic and consistent with reality.

Calibration also brings improvements in HDR content. The white balance has been corrected, translating to more natural colour reproduction. The EOTF curve, although now closer to the reference curve, still shows a slight boost in brightness at the beginning of the graph. This leads to minor distortions in very bright scenes, but the overall tonality and detail have been enhanced. Dynamic tone mapping works more effectively, improving image quality in bright areas and preserving more details.

Although the image from the device does not achieve full perfection, calibration brings significant improvement. After adjusting the settings, the television performs much better, offering more realistic and accurate colour reproduction in SDR and HDR content. While some shortcomings can still be noticed, calibration effectively eliminates many previous issues, ensuring better image quality and more natural colours.

Calibration delivers really good results on the S85H. First and foremost, we were able to set the white balance almost perfectly, which removes the slightly too-warm picture tone previously seen in SDR. Colour reproduction also improves significantly, with most errors falling to very low levels, and in everyday viewing it's hard to find any visible inaccuracies. You can also improve HDR quite a bit, although some issues remain that stem from the TV's inherent characteristics. The S85H doesn't always hold the luminance curve perfectly. The darkest parts are slightly boosted, while, as you approach the panel's limits, you can see small deviations in the brightest highlights. Add to that the limited coverage of the wider BT.2020 colour gamut, which of course cannot be overcome by any calibration. Despite that, the end result is very good, and after calibration the S85H can deliver a really well-tuned, natural image.

The “Gradual Smoothing” function works quite well, effectively eliminating visible boundaries between different shades of the same colour. Thanks to it, tonal transitions are smoother. Unfortunately, this function is not available in HDR mode, which can affect the quality of tonal gradation in higher dynamic range materials.

In the case of image scaling, the television does not perform its best. There are noticeable edge cut-offs, particularly evident on the model's figure and the branches of trees. The blurring of details in these areas affects the overall sharpness of the image. This may be noticeable when watching content in a lower resolution. Additionally, SD quality image is displayed with slight cropping at the top as well as the bottom.

Samsung's S85H uses the same proprietary AI processor, AI NQ4 Gen2, as last year’s S85F, and in terms of digital image processing it performs quite well. Upscaling is one of the model's stronger points. Lower-resolution material is well sharpened, edges look natural and the picture doesn't come across as overly artificial. Just remember a common quirk of Samsung TVs: at very low resolutions you can't completely turn off overscan, so the TV may slightly crop the left edge of the picture. The "noise reduction" function, that is smoothing weaker tonal transitions, also works very well. The processor can effectively remove posterisation and other artefacts visible in lower-quality material. However, be careful with the strength of this function, because Samsung can be fairly aggressive here. When it's activated, along with unwanted artefacts, fine details such as skin or clothing texture also start to disappear.

The television offers decent, though not perfect, results in terms of motion smoothness. In the case of movies, the television has a "Flicker Reduction" feature that allows for adjustment of motion smoothness on a scale from 1 to 10. With this option, we can tailor the image appearance to cinema or more theatrical preferences (with lower or higher speed).

The S85H uses an OLED panel, so it performs brilliantly when it comes to motion blur. Pixels respond almost instantly, so moving objects don't produce the characteristic ghosting seen on some LCD TVs. This is especially noticeable with sport or fast-paced games, where the picture stays very clean even during rapid motion. The panel itself runs at 120 Hz. That's more than enough for movies, TV shows, sport or console gaming. It's a shame Samsung didn't include a higher refresh rate aimed at PC gamers, as more and more TVs now offer 144 or even 165 Hz at 4K. However, that doesn't affect motion handling in films or sport.

There's also the classic motion smoothing feature with two settings: blur reduction and judder reduction. So you can choose whether films should keep their cinematic 24 frames per second, or whether you'd prefer to smooth them a bit. The S85H gives plenty of freedom here, and the interpolation itself works well and, with sensible settings, doesn't generate too many artefacts.

The device offers a range of features useful for gamers, such as ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), Dolby Vision for gamers, and Game Bar. ALLM automatically switches the TV to low latency mode, significantly improving responsiveness to commands from the controller and minimising input lag. VRR synchronises the screen refresh rate with the number of frames generated by the console, eliminating the tearing effect and providing smoother gameplay. Dolby Vision for gamers enhances picture quality by offering better colour and contrast reproduction in games that support this format. The Game Bar feature allows quick access to game settings and monitoring of key parameters such as response time.

However, the TV has some limitations. The 60 Hz panel prevents the display of signals with higher refresh rates at different resolutions, which may affect the fluidity of the image in dynamic games. Additionally, the lack of support for G-Sync technology for PC may impact the quality of gameplay on a computer. It is also worth noting that the HGiG mode, which aims to improve image quality in HDR games, does not work correctly on this model, negatively affecting the visual experience in HDR-supported games.

Samsung S85H is very well prepared for gaming, essentially regardless of whether you connect a console or a computer. The manufacturer didn’t skimp on connectors and all four HDMI ports support full HDMI 2.1. That means you can use 4K at 120 Hz, VRR and ALLM without worrying which input to plug your console into. With multiple devices that matters a lot, since you don’t have to choose between a console, a PC or a soundbar connected via eARC. The feature set itself is very complete. The S85H supports VRR, FreeSync and automatic switching to Game Mode, and Samsung also offers its expanded Game Bar, which lets you quickly view the key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. The only real omission is Dolby Vision, which will matter mainly for Xbox owners. That’s a typical trait of Samsung TVs. Game Motion Plus performs very well and it’s one of the features that has set Samsung TVs apart for years. It smooths motion in games running at 30 or 60 fps, but does so without as large an increase in input lag as a classic motion interpolator. In practice, for slower-paced games, racing or action titles it can genuinely improve motion perception, especially if you’re sensitive to low frame rates.