Panasonic Z95A vs TCL V6C

Panasonic Z95A showcases class when it comes to HDR performance. In luminance tests, it achieves a level of 1800 nits, which has a real impact on movie watching. Scenes from Life of Pi or Gemini Man look fantastic – the television effortlessly renders details and intensity of bright spots, impressing with its power. In more demanding moments, like the final scene from The Meg, one can see how bright light floods the screen. In such moments, brightness drops, which is typical for organic matrices. Nevertheless, a result around 1000 nits can still be considered excellent, still providing very good image quality. Additionally, the television offers excellent coverage of wide colour palettes – as much as 98.6% for DCI-P3 and 74.5% for BT.2020. Thanks to this, colours are not only vivid but also deeply saturated, allowing for a full appreciation of the richness of details, especially in HDR scenes. Such coverage makes the hues look more realistic, and the HDR effect gains in intensity and accuracy. All this impressive HDR effect is thanks to MLA technology, which enables achieving such high luminance and excellent image detail. Because of this, the Panasonic Z95A offers HDR at a level that truly makes a difference.

When it comes to HDR, the TCK V6C clearly shows that this is not its strong suit. A peak brightness of around 200 nits makes it difficult to speak of true HDR effects – the image simply remains too dark to extract details in bright scenes or convey the appropriate dynamics. Although the television formally supports many HDR formats, in practice it is not equipped for such demanding content. The lack of additional coatings that enhance colours, such as QLED or PFS LED, further limits the attractiveness of the image – in more spectacular productions, colours can appear 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 cinematic experiences in high quality.

The best picture mode on the Panasonic Z95A is undoubtedly the Filmmaker mode. It offers quite a good image reproduction, but it is not free from certain issues that require improvement. Firstly, the white balance, for both 4K and HD content, tends to have a dominance of red and blue hues. This causes a slight pinkish tint to the image, particularly noticeable in bright, white scenes. Such deviations can be seen in the comparative photo below, which illustrates this issue well. The Colour Checker test also confirms these discrepancies, showing slight shifts in the dots towards the mentioned shades.

In terms of gamma brightness characteristics, it performs very well, with only minor problems when brightening small details. A greater challenge is posed by the EOTF curve, which is responsible for controlling brightness in 4K HDR content. Here, there is a slight boost in brightness above the reference value, which sometimes makes the image too bright, especially in more demanding scenes. Although the Filmmaker mode is definitely the best choice on the Z95A, these aspects require refinement to fully utilise the television's potential.

We started our 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 significantly alter the image and spoil its natural character. As you can see from the graphs, the factory calibration of the V6C is not ideal, although it's not a complete disaster either. The biggest issue turned out to be a deficiency in red – the television clearly "cools" the image, which is particularly noticeable on human faces, giving a "corpse skin" effect. This issue was the most bothersome in 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 television can be calibrated, so we decided to check how the V6C would perform after such an adjustment.

After calibration, Panasonic Z95A shows its full potential, offering an almost perfect picture. The television provides immense adjustment capabilities, which we have fully utilised. The white balance after calibration is positively perfect, and errors in SDR content at the level of 0.5 place it in an absolutely reference standard. The same is true for 4K HDR content – the screen tint has been completely eliminated, and the white balance is now exemplary.

The colour palette and Colour Checker test confirm the excellence of the calibration. Errors below 2 are a result that will satisfy both professional calibrators and enthusiasts of cinematic picture quality. Significant changes have also occurred in the brightness characteristic – the EOTF curve has been flattened, eliminating previous issues with excessive brightness. And a small gamma error has been reduced.

Before calibration, the picture was decent, but now it's an entirely different league. It's a real feast for the eyes, the quality of which is hard to compare to anything else. Panasonic Z95A, after fine-tuning the settings, becomes a true master of colour reproduction.

My dear friends – we haven’t had such a difficult "calibration battle" in years. The V6C turned out to be one of the most stubborn televisions we have encountered in the editorial office. The calibration attempts alone took us several man-hours and required considerable patience. We finally managed to slightly warm the skin tones, which made faces stop looking like they were pulled straight from a horror film, a complaint regarding the factory settings. Unfortunately, that's not the end of it – the television reacted to our white balance corrections in a completely unpredictable manner. Where we expected stabilisation of the image in a certain area, new errors appeared, and the Color Checker measurements showed deviations that could not be rationally explained. It is hard to determine whether the issue 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 pleasant and natural. However, it must be clearly stated that the design limitations remain. The television still flattens the image in HDR materials and has noticeable deficiencies in colour reproduction. This device is rather intended for everyday television watching or SDR materials than for cinematic viewing in the highest quality.

In the case of lower quality materials, the function "Gradation Smoothing" is responsible for smoothing tonal transitions. The best results are achieved with an intermediate setting – although they are not spectacular, the function works correctly and does not introduce unwanted effects into the image. It can be rated as average, but sufficient to improve the quality of tonal transitions.

As for digital processing, or upscaling, the image looks surprisingly good. It is vivid and pleasant to the eye, which makes lower quality content, such as standard television or YouTube, look quite decent. However, minor issues can be noted, such as "jagged" edges, for example, branches in the background. Nevertheless, this does not significantly affect the overall viewing experience, and the television handles these materials in an acceptable manner.

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

Panasonic Z95A, thanks to its 144 Hz panel, offers excellent image fluidity. For films, there is an "Intelligent Frame Creation" feature that enhances fluidity and reduces motion blur. The user has two sliders at their disposal: "Motion Blur Reduction" – responsible for clearer and sharper details in rapidly moving scenes. "Film Smoothness" – adds fluidity by creating additional frames between the originals, making motion appear smoother and more natural with a "soap opera" effect.

Thanks to this, viewers can adjust the settings to their own preferences. Films and less dynamic material look smooth and natural, which should satisfy most users.

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

Panasonic Z95A this year shows that the manufacturer has made a huge leap forward in terms of support for gamers. The television offers virtually everything one could expect from a device in this bracket. Support for ALLM (automatic low latency mode) and VRR (variable refresh rate) ensures smoothness and eliminates tearing in dynamic games. The 144 Hz panel allows for incredible fluidity, and additional support for resolutions other than 4K provides greater flexibility, which is a significant advantage for gamers using various configurations.

A unique and quite specific feature is the "Game Bar." Its ball-shaped interface stands out from the competition and allows for quick adjustments of key settings such as VRR, brightness level, or picture mode, without having to interrupt gameplay.

However, in this class of device, there is a minor disappointment – the Panasonic Z95A offers only two HDMI 2.1 ports, instead of four. This is definitely too few for a premium television, especially at a time when many people own more than one device requiring full HDMI 2.1 support, such as a next-gen console or an advanced computer. In this category, it's hard to accept this limitation, especially given the high aspirations of this model. Nevertheless, the television is an excellent choice for gamers, offering versatility and functionality at the highest level.

Although the V6C is not a television designed with avid gamers in mind, TCL has added a few features that might appeal to more casual users. It does not have a 120 Hz panel or HDMI 2.1 ports, but there is an ALLM mode that automatically switches the television to low-latency mode. Additionally, there is quite a practical Game Bar – a simple panel for previewing basic parameters, changing picture modes, or even activating a virtual crosshair on the screen. An interesting feature is the support for Dolby Vision Gaming, intended for Xbox Series S/X consoles – a nice addition, although in practice it does not offer as much as in more expensive models. However, the biggest issue remains the configuration of HDR. The HGiG function, responsible for adjusting the brightness and contrast of games to the capabilities of the panel, does not respond as we would expect – the image can be excessively dark or too flat. As a result, the better solution turns out to be simply playing in SDR mode, where the V6C performs stably and does not try to pretend to be a HDR television.