Maciej Koper
Can a television costing almost 100 thousand zlotys (£20K) have flaws? Thanks to the kindness of one of our viewers and a client skalibrujtv.pl, we can answer this question for the first time – independently and reliably. Before you is the first measurement and user experience of probably the most expensive television you can buy in a regular electronics store today. We are, of course, talking about the gigantic, 115-inch TCL X955.
This monstrous screen is not only about size, but also about powerful technology – our calibrated version offers as many as 20 thousand dimming zones! Sounds out of this world? You are probably wondering if such a colossus at such a price has any flaws at all? Let’s find out!
Let’s finally explore the capabilities of TCL X955
Not long ago, when compiling a list of the largest televisions, we could only speculate on what the TCL X955 was capable of. Today we finally know.
TCL X955 is currently one of the largest available LCD televisions – 115 inches, VA panel and Mini LED backlighting in an extreme version: over 20,000 dimming zones and a brightness of up to 5000 nits in Movie mode. So good reading, the 115-inch TCL X955 can generate such absurd brightness not just on marketing brochures! In comparison: the 65-inch C855 had "only" 1000 zones and 2400 nits. The difference between such televisions is gigantic – both in black level, contrast, and detail. It is a screen that can resemble an OLED, but on the scale of a cinema projector!
Problems with colour and image characteristics
SDR measurements before professional calibration
HDR measurements before professional calibration
Since we are already here, you are probably wondering if such an expensive television had any defects out of the box? After all, we are talking about equipment worth as much as a new "budget" car from the showroom – one would expect a perfectly calibrated unit straight from the factory.
Unfortunately, the reality turned out to be... surprising.
What we found after the first startup was more concerning than impressive. For us – the testers – this was almost absurd. How is it possible that a flagship model costing several tens of thousands has such obvious issues with image quality in factory settings? The biggest problems with the TCL X955 were in colour reproduction. In both SDR and HDR materials, even in the theoretically "best" cinema mode, there was a strong dominance of blue. The errors in reproducing the grey scale and colour could reach values exceeding DeltaE = 16 – let’s remind ourselves that differences above 2 are already noticeable to the naked eye. As a result, the image characteristic resembled cheaper models from a lower tier rather than equipment from the top league.
Brightness and EOTF Curve – Display of Power at the Expense of Quality
Gamma before calibration
EOTF before calibration
The same can be said about the brightness characteristics and how the television managed its backlighting. It was evident from the very first glance that TCL wanted to "show off" its power – it's a pity that this came at the expense of image naturalness.
Both in SDR and HDR materials, the image was clearly over-saturated. The gamma curves and EOTF, which should have been responsible for the proper gradation of brightness and contrast, resembled a rollercoaster rather than a stable reference line. You can already imagine the effect. Loss of detail in dark and bright areas and unnatural scene dynamics – all to make the image seem more "spectacular" at first glance.
Calibration X955 – Can such a screen be saved?
As you might guess, the client did not invite us over for no reason – and we fully understand this. After the initial inspection, everything was clear: with an image like this, the television simply could not remain as it came out of the box.
The technician who visited our client on site (a big shout out to Krystian! 😉) brought along measurement equipment worth several thousand and got to work. It was time to check what could be squeezed out of this 115-inch colossus when we start treating it seriously – as equipment from the premium segment, rather than as a showroom demonstration of brightness capabilities.
You can read about what professional calibration is exactly in the article below, which explains how it differs from the store's “optimisation” or popular ready-made settings from the internet. In many cases, such “treatments” not only fail to improve the image but actually worsen it!
TCL 115X955 – SDR after calibration – this is how it should look!
Looking at the SDR materials after calibration, we can honestly say one thing – Krystian has managed to squeeze practically everything out of this television. Look at these graphs! All the squares, lines, curves – they almost perfectly match the reference values.
The values for the grey scale do not exceed 0.4 ΔE, which means the differences are absolutely unnoticeable to the human eye. In the ColorChecker test, almost all the squares land perfectly within their fields, and the gamma is nearly perfectly flat, ensuring perfect brightness reproduction across the entire tonal range.
Finally, the SDR image looks exactly as it should – without distortion, without clipping, with full control over light and colour. This is exactly how we imagined a premium class to be.
TCL 115X955 – HDR after calibration – almost perfect, but Mini LED has its nature
With similarly high, though no longer unconditional optimism, we can discuss how the TCL X955 performs with HDR content after calibration. The picture is excellent – with immense brightness (5000 nits!) and deep blacks. However, certain characteristic features of Mini LED technology are still noticeable.
Despite the impressive 20,000 dimming zones, the X955 can slightly dim details too much in some scenes – especially with fine, bright elements. A classic example is the star test, where the smallest bright points may appear too weak. This is also evident on the EOTF curve, which falls below the reference line at the beginning of the graph – indicating that the television dims the darkest parts of the image more than it should.
Of course, the end result is immeasurably higher quality than in factory settings, but one must keep in mind that even such an expensive and advanced Mini LED television retains certain characteristics of its technology. And although these are not defects, they are elements one simply has to learn to live with.
TCL 115X955 – A visual masterpiece that requires adjustment
TCL X955 is a truly phenomenal television. Its size, brightness, contrast, and image potential – especially after calibration – make a stunning impression. It's one of those screens that can deliver a cinematic experience in a home lounge, surpassing projectors in brightness and black levels.
Unfortunately, it is not a device without flaws. Like many of you, we also do not understand how the manufacturer can release a television of this class with such poorly tuned image settings straight from the factory. Fortunately, there is a solution for that. If you want to squeeze the maximum potential from your television – regardless of the model – feel free to head to skalibujtv.pl. Proper calibration can make a difference greater than the leap between equipment classes. In the case of the X955 – it transformed it from an impressive giant into an image masterpiece.
