TCL V6C vs Samsung OLED S95H (S99H) (QD-OLED)

When it comes to HDR, the TCK V6C clearly shows that it is not its strong suit. A peak brightness of around 200 nits makes it difficult to talk about true HDR effects – the picture simply remains too dark to bring out details in bright scenes or convey the appropriate dynamics. Although the television formally supports many HDR formats, it is not practically equipped for such demanding content. The lack of additional layers that enhance colors, such as QLED or PFS LED, further limits the appeal of the image – in more spectacular productions, the colours may seem washed out compared to more expensive models. Therefore, the V6C will primarily serve as a television for everyday viewing, YouTube, or SDR content, rather than as equipment for high-quality cinematic experiences.

When it comes to pure brightness, the S99H is an astronomically bright TV. Its peak brightness in film scenes can exceed 2,800 nits. Whatever the scene, you can expect powerful HDR effects that are almost blinding, which is exactly what we want from a top‑tier display. By nature, an OLED panel can't maintain that extreme brightness in very bright, full‑screen frames the way it can with small bright highlights, but the results are still excellent. In a bright scene from The Meg the sun still exceeded 2,200 nits. That means the S99H was able to hold a higher brightness than most Mini LED screens on the market. In terms of brightness the S99H is currently the best OLED TV we've tested.

Colour gamut coverage

The S99H also handles colours exceptionally well, thanks directly to the QD‑OLED panel used here. Whether the test used synthetic test patterns or measurements with film material in the background, the results remained very high. The S99H easily covers almost 100% of the DCI‑P3 gamut, and in the most demanding space, BT.2020 it reaches nearly 90%. That's absolute top‑tier performance. These results match what we saw in the new SQD‑Mini‑LED displays, and in real film scenes they even surpass RGB Mini LED displays.

We started colour reproduction tests with the Filmmaker mode, which in theory should be the best choice straight out of the box. It certainly performs better than the Eco or Dynamic modes, which heavily interfere with the image and spoil its natural character. As you can see in the graphs, the factory tuning of the V6C is not ideal, although it's not a disaster either. The biggest issue turned out to be a lack of red – the TV clearly "cools" the image, which is especially noticeable on human faces, giving a "zombie skin" effect. This particular issue was the most bothersome during everyday viewing. Looking at the colour palette in HDR content, the shortcomings in red are also noticeable, and their source is the relatively narrow coverage of the colour space. Of course, every TV can be calibrated, so we decided to check how the V6C would perform after such an adjustment.

Samsung offers a whole host of picture modes and features, but we traditionally recommend choosing FILMMAKER mode, especially if you want the most faithful rendering of the creators' intent. Out of the box the TV is tuned very well, though it has minor flaws. These are mainly a slight deviation in white balance in SDR content and a slightly low gamma. As a result, the picture in a dark room can be a little too bright compared with the reference value of 2.4, which is the standard for watching films with the lights off. These are, of course, small issues, because overall colour reproduction remains very good and the errors in ColorChecker measurements are not large. However, we know that for a screen of the S99H's calibre you can and should expect even more, so we subjected it to professional calibration.

My dear friends – we haven't faced such a difficult "calibration battle" in years. The V6C turned out to be one of the most stubborn TVs we've dealt with in the office. The calibration trials alone took us several hours of work and required a lot of patience. We finally managed to slightly warm up the skin tones, which made faces stop looking like they were pulled straight out of a horror film, a common issue with the factory settings. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of it – the TV reacted to our adjustments in white balance in a completely unpredictable manner. Where we expected stability in the image in a certain area, new errors appeared, and Color Checker measurements showed deviations that couldn't be rationally explained. It's hard to say whether the fault lay with the software or the design itself, but one thing is certain – the V6C put up exceptionally strong resistance. Ultimately, the calibration brought improvement, especially in SDR content, where the image became more pleasing and natural. However, it must be clearly stated that the design limitations remain. The TV still flattens the image in HDR materials and has noticeable deficiencies in colour reproduction. This is equipment more suited for everyday TV watching or SDR content rather than for cinematic experiences in the highest quality.

After professional calibration, FILMMAKER mode looks practically perfect. Because Samsung offers a rich set of advanced calibration controls, we were able to tune the colours to an almost perfect level. Above all, we managed to even out the white balance and the gamma curve, which resulted in noticeably improved contrast and correct image modelling. In a profile prepared like this there really isn't a single thing to pick apart or call a fault. After calibration, the S99H can deliver an essentially reference-quality picture.

When it comes to upscaling, the V6C doesn't bring anything groundbreaking to the table. Lower quality content is heavily sharpened, making the image look quite unnatural, at times almost artificial. This can be somewhat alleviated by reducing the sharpness level in the settings, but the effect isn't spectacular. The image still falls short of perfection. The digital processing itself performs better. The function responsible for smoothing tonal transitions works quite effectively, especially at the medium setting, where the image truly appears smoother. Unfortunately, its operation is rather aggressive – it heavily interferes with the overall scene, causing actors in the foreground to start looking like characters from super smooth soap operas. Therefore, we would not recommend using this option if a natural viewing experience is important to us.

Upscaling and digital image processing are handled by Samsung's proprietary NQ4 Gen3 processor. It copes very well with scaling lower-resolution content to 4K. The picture is clear without looking artificial or overly sharp. The only fairly specific drawback appears with very old material recorded at 480p or lower. In such cases the TV can slightly crop the edges of the image.

The processor also does a decent job with artefacts visible in low-bitrate material, for example in heavily compressed YouTube videos. The noise reduction function effectively smooths the picture and reduces posterisation, but it works quite aggressively. It can remove not only unwanted artefacts but also some fine detail, and even natural film grain. We, wanting to preserve maximum fidelity to the source material, chose not to use it. However, if someone values a clean, as-smooth-as-possible image more than keeping every detail, it may prove useful.

Smoothing and motion fluidity are areas where the V6C quickly reveals its limitations. It's a 60 Hz TV, so it was hard to expect miracles here. In dynamic sports scenes, the image performs rather mediocrely. This is most noticeable in darker scenes, where distinct trails and blurred "halos" follow moving objects, which can be quite distracting. This is definitely a weaker point of this model. Fortunately, there is also a small plus. The V6C is equipped with a motion smoother that works while watching movies. Thanks to it, productions filmed at 24 frames per second, which is practically all cinema titles and series, can look smoother than they were actually recorded. Importantly, the intensity of the effect can be adjusted to personal preferences – from slight smoothing to the full "soap opera effect."

Another major advantage of organic panels is very good motion handling. Thanks to the pixels' near-instant response time, the Samsung S99H shows virtually no smearing. Fast-moving objects don't produce visible halos or trailing artefacts, so the TV performs very well for both sport and gaming. One quirk of OLED screens compared with LCD is the way they render low-frame-rate material. With very slow camera movement the picture can appear noticeably more juddery. This can be quite effectively mitigated using frame interpolation. Samsung lets you adjust judder reduction and motion blur reduction separately, so it's easy to find a compromise between a smoother picture and preserving the cinematic feel of the content.

Even though the V6C is not a TV designed with avid gamers in mind, TCL has included a few features that may appeal to more casual users. You'll not find a 120 Hz panel or HDMI 2.1 ports here, but there is an ALLM mode that automatically switches the TV into low latency mode. There's also a quite practical Game Bar – a simple panel allowing the preview of basic parameters, changing the picture mode, or even enabling a virtual crosshair on the screen. Another interesting feature is the support for Dolby Vision Gaming, intended for Xbox Series S/X consoles – a nice addition, although in practice it doesn’t offer as much as in more expensive models. However, the biggest issue remains the HDR configuration. The HGiG function, responsible for adjusting the brightness and contrast of games to the capabilities of the panel, doesn't respond as we would expect – the picture can be overly dark or too flattened. As a result, a better solution turns out to be simply playing in SDR mode, where the V6C operates steadily and doesn’t try to pretend to be an HDR TV.

Samsung S99H is also a top TV for gamers. It offers almost every possible and useful feature... well, perhaps except the obvious lack of Dolby Vision for the Xbox console. It’s equipped with four full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports with the full 48 Gbps bandwidth. That makes it easy to use frame-rate synchronization VRR or automatic low-latency mode (ALLM). This year Samsung also has no issues with proper HGiG support, so HDR setup on a console is quick and free of unnecessary complications. Samsung is also known for interesting extras in its TVs. In the Game Bar menu you’ll find options to add an on-screen crosshair, enlarge the minimap, or change the aspect ratio of the displayed image (PC).

Particularly noteworthy is Samsung’s feature: Game Motion Plus. It’s Samsung’s proprietary motion-smoothing system that uses interpolation to boost smoothness in games. Input lag then rises to around 40 to 50 ms (depending on the strength of the setting), which, compared with the competition, is an excellent result. The system makes gameplay noticeably smoother. So if someone has their eye on a demanding game (e.g. GTA 6 😉) that runs on a console at only 30 fps, the S99H can display it much more smoothly than competing models.