Panasonic W85 vs Dreame Q100

Unfortunately, we do not have good news here. The Panasonic W85B is rather dim – its peak brightness does not exceed 300 nits, so it’s hard to talk about any true HDR effect. In practice, this means that scenes which can “shine” and make an impression on other screens simply look like ordinary SDR with a slight boost in colours here. Our measurements and film tests confirmed this – regardless of the content, the W85B will not extract anything more from HDR. Therefore, if someone is looking for a television specifically for HDR, it is better to look towards other models. As consolation, the fact remains that in terms of colours, the W85B performs quite well. It is a QLED television, so its colour gamut coverage is wide, and most films and series look natural, without a distinct “washed-out” effect. The colours are saturated, so in everyday viewing, there is no sense that something is strongly amiss.

Unfortunately the Dreame Q100 is too simple, and above all too dim, a television to talk about a true HDR effect. The peak brightness we measured reaches at most about 300 nits, which is clearly too little for bright elements of the image to actually 'pop' with light. In fact, this is a level we more often associate with SDR material than with HDR. It therefore lacks the brightness headroom offered by more expensive televisions that makes highlights, reflections and the sun look noticeably more striking.

HDR colours

Fortunately the Q100 makes up for this a little elsewhere. The manufacturer markets it as a QLED television, although in practice a PFS filter is responsible for widening the colour palette. The DCI-P3 colour space we measured is covered at roughly 92%, and BT.2020 at about 67%. These are not top-tier figures, but still clearly better than simple LCD televisions without an additional gamut-expanding layer. As a result, HDR material can at least offer more saturated and varied colours, even if the brightness itself does not yet allow us to speak of a fully fledged HDR effect.

When testing the Panasonic W85B, we obviously started with Filmmaker mode, as this is today’s gold standard when it comes to watching content “as the director intended.” The problem is that this television is quite far from those intentions. The biggest issue turned out to be an excess of red – both in SDR and HDR. The image often appeared too warm because of this, and in some scenes, it was almost “blazing.” Additionally, there is the issue of brightness management. When we looked at the gamma or EOTF charts, it was clear as day that in most scenes, the television brightens the image more than it should. The effect was simply predictable. Details can get lost, there is flattening, and highlights are blown out across the entire screen. We know, of course, how to correct this, but it must be said honestly that it requires a lot of work during calibration. Out of the box, the W85B does not provide a picture close to reference – it is rather a television that will always interpret colours and brightness a little “in its own way” without professional adjustments. Unfortunately, this is to the viewer’s detriment.

We chose the "Film" mode for testing and, in our opinion, it is by far the best of the available presets. There are none of the heavily boosted, unnatural colours you can see, for example, in the Vivid/Dynamic mode. The picture looks quite reasonable straight away, although it falls a little short of perfect. In SDR material the most noticeable issue was a slight warming of the image. The white balance had too much red, which made whites lean towards a warmer hue, and a similar tint was visible in shades of grey. In HDR the situation was a little different. Here blue had a slight advantage, making the picture a touch cooler. These are not major faults, though. For such an inexpensive TV, the factory settings on our unit were fairly decent, and the "Film" mode already delivers a relatively natural image without much fiddling with the settings.

Fortunately, calibration made a significant difference for the Panasonic W85B, particularly in SDR content. Here, the improvement was really noticeable – we managed to balance the whites and somewhat tame the tendency of the television to excessively brighten the entire image. The picture became more coherent, and the colours gained a naturalness that was lacking in the factory settings. Admittedly, the results from the Color Checker are not perfect, as the W85B has visible issues with green saturation, but overall, we evaluate the post-calibration effect in SDR very positively. The situation is a bit different with HDR. Here too, we managed to reduce the tendency to warm up the entire scene, so the image performed significantly better than in the factory settings. However, the same issue we mentioned earlier is still evident – the television interprets the image too much "on its own" and brightens the entire screen. The lack of local dimming only exacerbates this effect. In summary, briefly in SDR content, the W85B performs really well after calibration and is more than suitable for daily viewing. However, in HDR, even after adjustments, it remains difficult to unequivocally recommend it for serious viewing sessions.

Contrary to appearances, the Dreame Q100 is quite well prepared for image calibration. The menu contains quite a few advanced picture settings that allow its characteristics to be adjusted fairly precisely. In our case the most work was required on the white balance, both in SDR and HDR. After correction SDR content looked very good. We managed to achieve a practically neutral white balance and natural colours, with the main remaining limitation being the black level itself, stemming from the panel construction and the lack of local dimming.

In HDR we also managed to improve white balance and colour reproduction, but here the limitations of the TV's electronics become apparent more quickly. Even after very precise adjustment of the EOTF curve, the Q100 does not always follow it correctly during actual scenes. In some content it can also brighten the image further, causing some parts to look brighter than they should, and in bright areas some details can be lost as a result.

With native SDR content, the Panasonic W85B performs very well – tonal transitions are smooth and natural, without artificial bands or prominent contours. However, the situation is worse when it comes to lower resolution materials. It is precisely there that the television has the most difficulty with "enhancing" the image. The lack of any option in the menu that would allow for improving gradation means that with older films or materials from YouTube, one can sometimes notice slight issues with colour blending.

Fortunately, upscaling, or raising the quality of lower resolution content, performs much better. This is definitely a strong point of this model – the image is scaled cleanly and in detail, and the television handles this better than one might expect from such an inexpensive piece of equipment. This is thanks to the HCX processor, which Panasonic has been developing for years, and it is noticeable that even in the lower series it can do a good job.

The weakest point of the Dreame Q100 is its digital image processing capabilities. The processor used copes only moderately well with enhancing weaker sources, and the menu lacks any function that effectively smooths unsightly tonal transitions or reduces visible posterisation. Upscaling itself is also unimpressive. With low-resolution material the image is fairly soft and lacks faithful detail reproduction. Additionally, the Q100 tends to overscan, slightly cropping the edges of the image with very poor sources, such as 480p material. In everyday viewing of HD or 4K content this won't be a major problem, but with older recordings the processor's limitations become clearly visible.

At first glance, everything looks good – the Panasonic W85B has a 120 Hz panel and even a 144 Hz mode, so it seems that it should cope well with smooth motion. The problem arises when we look into the settings. The options for improving fluidity are supposedly present in the menu, but in practice… they don't change anything. No matter what we choose, the image looks the same. On top of that, there is a lack of BFI, or the black frame insertion mode, which on many televisions helps sharpen motion. And suddenly it turns out that despite the strong panel, the W85B offers us no real tools to adjust motion according to our needs. It’s only good when the source itself operates at a higher frequency – for example, games at 120 Hz. But when it comes to films or sports, we simply have to accept what the television shows us, because nothing more can be done about it.

The VA panel used in the Dreame Q100 has a native 60 Hz refresh rate, so from the outset this is not a TV designed for the most demanding sports fans or gamers. The manufacturer does mention the ability to run at 120 Hz, and that option is indeed available, but it mainly applies to a mode intended for gamers. In everyday use the Q100 should therefore be treated as a conventional 60 Hz TV. For fast-paced sports broadcasts or rapid gameplay this means less smooth motion than in models with 120 Hz panels or higher. On the plus side, the panel’s response time is worth noting. The VA panel does not exhibit excessive smearing, so motion remains quite clear and does not leave strong, blurred trails behind moving objects. For films you can also use a simple motion-smoothing system. The manufacturer has prepared several ready-made presets that help reduce the characteristic judder in material shot at 24 frames per second.

On paper, the Panasonic W85B looks really solid. It has two full HDMI 2.1 ports, support for ALLM, variable refresh rates, Dolby Vision in games, and of course, a high refresh rate of the panel itself. Additionally, it features Panasonic's characteristic game tools bar – a "game bar" that allows you to preview key parameters and quickly change them if needed with a single click. This sounds great, but the problem arises when we turn on HDR. Here, the W85B suffers significantly, as there is practically no HGiG implementation – the television poorly manages brightness, and instead of an accurate picture, we get scenes that are too bright, sometimes even blown out. The solution? The simplest one – turn off HDR in the console settings and leave everything in SDR. And this is where it gets really interesting, as in this scenario, the W85B shows its better side. Low input lag, high fluidity thanks to 120 Hz – all of this makes gaming look phenomenal. Indeed, HDR can be forgone, but if the priority is responsiveness and smooth gameplay, the W85B offers a lot of fun.

The Dreame Q100 is not a strictly gaming device, but for console use it offers a reasonable package. It provides VRR to eliminate screen tearing and ALLM, which automatically switches the TV to a low-latency mode when it detects a console signal. An interesting compromise is support for a 120 Hz mode. The panel won’t achieve that refresh rate in 4K, but dropping to 1080p lets you play at 120 frames per second. If a given title prioritises smoothness over high resolution (and the game offers such a mode), it’s worth using this option. There’s also a handy Game Bar on board, allowing you to quickly change display settings, switch the refresh mode or add a virtual crosshair. Admittedly the HGiG implementation is weak here, but it earns points for supporting Dolby Vision Gaming on Xbox Series X and S. This is not a panel for technological purists, but for casual console gaming it performs flawlessly, especially when you opt to trade 4K for a smoother Full HD.