Haier K85F vs Haier M95E

Let’s now turn to one of the hottest topics in the world of televisions, namely the quality of HDR effect. In the case of the Haier K85F model, we must unfortunately make it clear: if you are looking for equipment to watch content in a wide dynamic range, you should avoid this model at all costs. The main problem is its very low peak brightness, which during our tests barely reached 250 nits. To give you a better idea of what that means – such a value is fine for watching standard SDR content, but it is absolutely insufficient to showcase any real benefits of HDR. The image simply lacks the "power" to generate bright, striking highlights. All our measurements and tests on specialist patterns only confirmed this. As if that weren't enough, the television also struggles with colour reproduction. In this budget build, we won't find any technologies to expand the colour palette, such as quantum dot layers (marketed as "QLED"). As a result, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space, which is crucial for HDR materials, is only around 80%. In practice, this means that the image will not only be dark but also devoid of the vibrant, saturated colours that the director wanted to show us.

If there is one category in which the Haier M95E absolutely shines, it is the HDR effect, driven by the raw power of the backlighting. This television cannot be denied the fact that it is a truly bright device. In both most film scenes and during our synthetic measurements, the panel easily achieved, and often even exceeded, the threshold of 1200-1500 nits. This has a direct impact on the viewing experience – the image has a punch and genuinely allows one to feel the magic of materials recorded in this format. However, one must be aware of a certain compromise. When exceptionally demanding scenes appear on the screen, full of small but intense points of light, the M95E does not lose its resonance or dim, but pays a different price for it. A very strong and noticeably distracting halo effect is generated around these bright elements. It is clear here that the algorithms controlling the dimming have been programmed to prioritise brightness and the visibility of the smallest details, even if this comes at the expense of pristine blacks. We are not entirely convinced that this is the healthiest approach; nonetheless, it must be acknowledged that the overall capabilities of the M95E in this regard are indeed significant. A huge advantage is the fact that we are dealing with a Mini LED QLED type construction. The use of a layer of quantum dots brings measurable benefits in the form of wide coverage of the colour palette, which in our tests reached nearly 96% of the DCI-P3 space. This guarantees that the television has full predispositions for displaying vibrant and properly saturated colours.

Well, how does the television perform with colours straight out of the box, without any interference from our side? The Haier K85F offers a full range of picture modes, such as Dynamic and Eco, but for anyone who wants to watch films according to the creators' intentions, only one really matters: Film mode. That is where we focused our tests, and unfortunately, its name has little to do with reality. The picture in the factory settings is very far from what we could call cinematic fidelity and requires numerous adjustments. Let's start with the white balance, which has a noticeable deficiency of red. In practice, this means that the entire image has a cool, bluish tint. The situation is even worse regarding brightness management, namely the gamma curve (for SDR) and EOTF (for HDR). Their graph resembles a real rollercoaster, which has a disastrous impact on the viewing experience. This results in unnatural dimming of SDR content, causing details in shadows to be lost, and in the case of HDR – excessive brightness, which further exacerbates the issue of clipping. Such a combination, namely too cool white combined with chaotic brightness and excessive blue saturation, results in significant errors in colour reproduction. Our measurements on the specialist ColorChecker chart revealed errors (Delta E) regularly reaching and exceeding values of 8-9. Put simply, errors above the threshold of 3 are already easily noticeable to the naked eye, so such a result means that the colours on the screen are simply heavily distorted.

Each television is primarily evaluated based on its default cinema mode – in this case, "Movie" – which theoretically should be the "best" and most faithful upon being taken out of the box. Unfortunately, in the case of the Haier M95E, the word "best" is certainly not synonymous with the word "good." Already during SDR viewing, the picture revealed evident problems: white balance skewed too much to red, and excessive, unnatural colour saturation led to visible colour deviations. What’s worse, the M95E also struggles with brightness management (gamma curve), excessively darkening the entire scene. Such behaviour is hard to commend, as it directly leads to details merging into shadows that are irrevocably lost in a black blob.

However, the real disaster occurred after switching to HDR material, while still remaining in "Movie" mode. It’s hard for us to guess who came up with such a fantastic idea – or perhaps it was simply a complete oversight of this stage by Haier's engineers – but instead of cinematic fidelity, the picture began to resemble a garish "Dynamic" mode. The white balance exposed immense problems with the blue colour, which in turn resulted in unnatural sharpening and artificial over-saturation of the entire scene. As if that weren’t enough, the EOTF curve characteristics mercilessly revealed that the television also has fundamental issues with local dimming management in this setting. We have not calibrated many Haier models in our career, but we already know for sure that the M95E definitely needs such calibration.

Well, is there anything that can be done about this picture? Can professional calibration save the situation? The answer is both yes and no. It must be clearly stated that there are certain limitations we cannot overcome. The constraints of the design itself, meaning simply a poor panel and its narrow colour coverage, make it impossible to expect a reasonable HDR effect – we won't mislead you on that. The biggest beneficiary of our adjustments is undoubtedly the SDR mode, and it is indeed for watching such content, after calibration, that this television starts to make sense. We managed to somewhat tame the white balance. Although the television only offers basic 2-point adjustment (rather than precise 20-point), so it's not perfect, we successfully eliminated that unpleasant, cold "chill" in the picture. Above all, however, we noted a significant improvement in brightness management. The gamma curve, which previously resembled a rollercoaster, looks like an almost perfectly straight line after calibration. This is a sign that the television can finally display images without artificially dimming or brightening them. The conclusion is simple: even with such a cheap television, professional adjustment of the settings can achieve a lot and extract the maximum potential from it.

The calibration process left us with extremely mixed feelings. On the one hand, we noted considerable success in the area of colour accuracy. By using the available options in the menu, we managed to tame the white balance and bring it down to an acceptable level. As a result, SDR content finally freed itself from the irritating red dominance, and the HDR image no longer resembled a vibrant, shop display mode. We also succeeded in clearly adjusting the entire colour palette and its saturation – perhaps not perfectly, but as much as the software allowed, and the difference was visible to the naked eye.

And unfortunately, this is where our list of improvements essentially ends, as the M95E simply did not allow for more. As we indicated earlier, most settings related to image brightness do not respond to our commands at all. This means that we were unable to grasp its fundamental characteristics in any way – neither the gamma curve nor the EOTF. In practice, the television in SDR content still tends to darken details, as confirmed by the elevated gamma, merging details in the shadows. Meanwhile, the EOTF curve in HDR mode still ruthlessly exposes all the aforementioned problems with chaotic local dimming management. And although the calibration process itself yielded a lot, removing most of the colour issues, in the end, we had to capitulate.

Let's move on to digital processing and image scaling, specifically how the Haier K85F handles lower resolution signals, such as those from standard television. Right from the start, we encounter an extremely annoying and completely incomprehensible issue – overscan that is enabled by default. This means that the television artificially enlarges the image, cropping its edges, and this happens on every source, even 1080p. To see the full frame, you have to dig through the screen settings each time and manually switch the format to "expand to 16:9". It's a detail, but it's devilishly frustrating. The very act of scaling content to 4K resolution can be summed up in one word: acceptable. And that's about it. The image processor does not strip details from the picture, nor does it generate jagged edges or other artifacts. It simply does its job, without any fireworks. It's alright, but nothing more. However, the biggest and most noticeable shortcoming in the digital processing section is the absence of a smooth tonal transition feature. This is an algorithm that could significantly reduce the annoying banding effect we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not provide such a solution, condemning us to watch the imperfections of the panel and low-quality materials in full view.

Well, what happens to those colour connections when a lower quality material full of compression artifacts comes on screen? Unfortunately, we have some bad news for you. Although the menu contains an option responsible for smoothing tonal transitions in older content, we definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND using it. Its activation causes an avalanche of additional, hideous artifacts and noticeably blurs the entire image, and what's funniest – it often doesn't even remove those unwanted "jaggies" it was supposed to fight against. This function might as well not exist at all.

We can write many more positive remarks about the general upscaling process, which raises lower resolutions to the native 4K matrix. The image after upscaling looks really decent – it is neither overly jagged nor artificially smoothed. In this particular matter, the M95E simply performs well.

The matrix in the K85F model operates at a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, which right from the start sets certain expectations regarding image fluidity. However, we must admit that we were very positively surprised when we found two separate sliders for motion control in the settings menu: one labelled as "Motion Blur Reduction" and the other "De-Judder". Such generosity in this price segment is an absolute rarity, as typically manufacturers offer at most one shared option. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm waned as quickly as it appeared. It soon became clear why Haier was so "generous" – the slider responsible for motion blur reduction is simply a dummy. Its adjustment brings absolutely no visible effect on the screen, so only one of the two options works.

In terms of motion fluidity and blur, our feelings are quite mixed, as the M95E is a paradox of a television. Let's start with absolute admiration: at the heart of the device is a 144Hz panel, but what truly impresses is its performance with 120Hz content, which is crucial for sports and console gaming. We must state with full responsibility that Haier has equipped this television with one of the best VA panels currently available on the market regarding the minimisation of blur. It is rare to encounter an LCD panel that offers such clean, sharp, and ghosting-free motion. In this respect, the M95E is simply phenomenal.

And that is precisely why the unpleasant surprise that awaits us on the software side is so painful. It turns out that this fantastic hardware potential is completely underutilised, as the television practically offers no effective options for improving fluidity. The motion smoothing systems that should assist with lower frame-rate content can indeed be found in the Menu, but they essentially do not respond to our settings. The conclusion is brutally simple: if you intend to watch high-fluidity material, you must be sure that the source is broadcasting it at native 120. In every other case, you must accept a rather raw, stuttering image, as the M95E will do nothing to smooth it out.

Let's move on to features for gamers, although we must emphasise at the outset that this is more of a proposal for the "casual" ones. The manufacturer boasts in the specifications about the presence of HDMI 2.1 ports, which looks impressive on paper, but in reality, it is largely a marketing ploy. What good is a modern port if the heart of the television is a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz? It physically cannot display a signal at 120 frames per second, even at lower resolutions, which deprives the HDMI 2.1 port of its most significant advantage. It's a shame. (That’s why we mark it as HDMI 2.0 in our tests). Another curious peculiarity is the television's reaction to attempts to calibrate HDR from the console level. Changes to brightness settings cause very unnatural image behaviour, which might suggest an incorrect implementation of the HGiG standard. To be honest, however, one shouldn't worry too much about this, because as we've mentioned numerous times, we simply do not recommend using any HDR content on this screen. However, to avoid being too negative, the Haier K85F also has two significant and unexpected advantages. The first is the presence of ALLM, or Auto Low Latency Mode, which switches the television to low latency mode as soon as it detects a connected console. The second, even bigger surprise, is support for VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate. While it works within a very modest range of 48-60 Hz, its mere presence is commendable. As a result, the image in games can experience less "tearing," which significantly improves the gaming experience.

When it comes to features for gamers, the Haier M95E presents some very strong arguments. First of all, it is fully ready for the new generation of consoles and powerful PCs. It is equipped with two full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, which seamlessly handle 4K signals at 120Hz, and even allow for gameplay at 144Hz. This is the foundation that guarantees us the full use of the potential of our gear. Moreover, the key technologies work flawlessly here. The television flawlessly detects the console and automatically switches to low latency mode (ALLM), so we don’t have to fiddle with the settings. The frame synchronization (VRR) works just as efficiently, eliminating annoying screen tearing when game fluidity slightly drops. Considering the incredibly low motion blur of the panel, which we have already mentioned, the M95E creates a really comfortable and responsive gaming environment. Of course, this is not a perfect package. A dedicated "Game Bar," which is a handy menu for gamers, would be useful, but this is essentially just a nice addition. A more serious failing is the lack of support for the HGiG standard, which complicates the perfect HDR configuration on the console and may lead to overexposures. Despite these shortcomings, the basic "gaming" set that the M95E offers is really solid and fully functional.