Panasonic Z95B vs TCL A400 PRO

The quality of HDR on the Panasonic Z95B is among the absolute best. Thanks to the latest generation panel, referred to by the manufacturer as Primary RGB Tandem OLED, the television can achieve over 2000 nits of brightness in cinematic scenes. The effect is impressive and can amaze with the intensity of the light, providing a sense of connection with the screen that goes beyond previous experiences. Similar feelings accompanied us only during tests of the LG G5, Samsung S95F, or Philips OLED910. Of course, there are moments when the device's algorithms decide to limit luminance – this especially concerns full-screen bright sequences, such as the closing credits in the film The Meg. Even then, the Z95B maintains a level of around 1500 nits, which is still an incredibly impressive result. One can thus say that HDR in this model has reached masterful form. A significant step forward is also evident in colour reproduction. The new tandem OLED panel does not yet match the best QD-OLED screens in terms of full gamut coverage, but the gap between these solutions has significantly decreased. When watching films, the differences are subtle enough that under normal conditions they are hard to notice, and the colours remain vivid and saturated.

The TCL A400 Pro is a moderately bright TV. Its peak brightness reaches around 600 nits. That level already allows for a real HDR effect, and in many films it does produce a noticeably more attractive picture than in SDR. However, it is not a level that overwhelms with sheer brightness. The A400 Pro therefore isn’t one of those TVs that ‘attack’ the viewer with a powerful flash in every eye-catching scene. The biggest limitation is seen with small bright elements on a dark background. Because of fairly aggressive local dimming control, the TV can significantly reduce their brightness, in extreme cases even to around 100 nits. This means that small lights, sparks, stars or individual highlights can be much less visible than they should be. It’s worth adding, however, that this isn’t without reason. The A400 Pro does this to maintain as deep a black level as possible and to limit the halo effect around bright objects. So it’s an intentional compromise: the TV more often opts for deeper blacks rather than maximally bright, point-like highlights. On one hand this can be understood, especially given the limited number of dimming zones, but on the other you should be aware that the HDR effect won’t always be as strong as the peak brightness alone might suggest.

On the plus side, the colours are a strength. The PFS LED filter used here, marketed by the manufacturer as QLED, allows for suitably saturated colours. Coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut measured around 94%, and BT.2020 around 74%, which is a solid result for this class.

The factory colour reproduction of the Filmmaker mode, my dear friends, is truly remarkable in the case of the Panasonic Z95B. I'm referring to our test sample, but the result was so good that it’s hard to believe. The only detail one might nitpick about is a slight lack of blue in the white balance, but apart from that, the television straight out of the box presented an image unlike anything we have ever seen in factory mode. Tests of the colour palette, Color Checker – everything indicated values below Delta 2. That’s a much lower result than the threshold of human eye perception, which means, quite simply, that the viewer has no chance of noticing any serious deviations. It looks as though Panasonic has actually calibrated this model at the factory stage. Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that we received an exceptionally well-set sample, but the result is still impressive. We are very strict when it comes to evaluating factory calibration, and here our jaws simply dropped.

As standard, we performed colour measurements in the best‑tuned Filmmaker Mode, the mode that is designed to be closest to the creators' intentions. The A400 Pro of course also offers other picture modes, but in practice these come with considerably larger colour errors and interfere more with the character of the image. Therefore we will not deal with them in detail in this part of the test. So how does the out‑of‑the‑box colour reproduction fare? In short: really very good. Actually, looking at our measurement results, downright excellent. Both the white balance and the luminance response were set surprisingly precisely. The errors were so small that during measurements we genuinely rubbed our eyes in amazement. Such good factory settings do not happen often, even in TVs operating in Filmmaker Mode. All the more credit is due to TCL, because the A400 Pro right out of the box can deliver an image very close to how the source material should look. The results were so good that one could easily think someone had already given this unit extra attention and tried to calibrate it.

Our nitpicking really comes down to just one thing. In SDR content the image was slightly brighter than the dark‑room reference intends, because the factory gamma was set closer to 2.3 than to 2.4. This is not a large error and most viewers will probably not even notice it.

It should, however, be noted that we are talking about our specific test sample. With factory colours there can always be some variation between units, production batches or screen sizes. We do not assume, therefore, that every A400 Pro will look identical straight out of the box.

The colour representation after calibration in the Z95B is a topic that is difficult to elaborate on, as there was simply not much to be done here. A slight adjustment of the white balance was sufficient to eliminate the lack of blue, and at this point, the picture reached an almost reference level. It must be admitted that we haven't had such a small range of work in a while. If any of you are particularly observant, you may notice minimal deviations in the EOTF curve, but this is rather related to the operation of the dynamic tone mapping function we mentioned earlier. In fact, it is not a flaw, but a characteristic of this solution, which deliberately alters the brightness characteristics depending on the scene. In summary, we are extremely impressed. The Panasonic Z95B is a television that looks great straight out of the box, and after calibration, it reaches a level where it is truly difficult for us to find anything to improve.

Despite its superb factory calibration, we couldn't resist checking how the TCL A400 Pro would respond to professional calibration. Since the starting point was so good, we were all the more curious whether there was anything more to be had from the TV. And here we must boast: we managed to reduce our unit's colour errors to absurdly low levels. Measurements below a value of 1 are not something you see every day, even in very good TVs. Such results are more commonly associated with professional reference monitors than with a lifestyle TV for the living room. In terms of white balance and colour reproduction the A400 Pro therefore simply performed exceptionally well after calibration. The only gripe we have after closer analysis relates to the luminance behaviour. The TV adjusts luminance depending on the content being displayed and quite often the picture is slightly darker than the reference calls for. This is most likely due to the way the Mini-LED backlight and local dimming algorithms operate in this model. However, this does not spoil the overall impression, because in terms of colour accuracy alone the calibrated A400 Pro showed a level that was really hard to expect.

Let’s start with what works well. The upscaling on the Z95B is at a very high level – the picture in lower resolutions is clear and sharp, and the only minor drawbacks are subtle aliasing in certain areas of the image. It’s also important that the television does not crop the material in any way and maintains its proportions, which is not always an obvious fact even in 2025.

The situation with digital processing is less impressive. Features such as “gradation smoothing” or “block noise reduction” practically do not work – the material tested looked identical regardless of the settings. We might as well state that this feature simply does not exist. This is somewhat disappointing, especially since Panasonic heavily promotes its HCX Pro AI II processor, boasting the presence of artificial intelligence to enhance picture quality. Meanwhile, in such a basic area, the television does not provide a real effect and it appears weaker than one might expect from high-end equipment.

Digital image processing is, unfortunately, one of the weaker points of the TCL A400 Pro. That does not mean the TV performs badly, but it is hard to call it anything clearly above average. The upscaling itself is adequate: edges are smoothed fairly well, the picture does not look overly sharp or "pixelated", and lower-quality content can be watched without much discomfort. At the same time, the overall image is slightly soft and lacks the precision offered by the best image processors in more expensive TVs.

Much worse, however, is how it handles tonal transitions caused by strong signal compression. TCL has equipped the A400 Pro with a "Gradual Smoothing" feature that, in theory, should limit visible colour banding and artifacts in lower-quality material. In practice, though, its effectiveness is very limited. It does not improve tonal transitions in any noticeable way, and at higher settings it can also smooth out image details, giving the picture an artificial, slightly blurred character. For that reason, we think it is best to leave this feature off. The A400 Pro copes decently with basic image scaling, but if you often watch heavily compressed content with noticeable posterisation, this model will not be among the best choices.

The OLED matrix with a very high refresh rate already provides an extremely sharp image even in dynamic sports scenes, such as football or basketball matches, and the Z95B is no exception. It is also very important that the television is equipped with an proprietary motion smoothing system called “Intelligent Frame Creation”. Among the available sliders, the most important one is the one named “film smoothness”, as it allows you to adjust motion to your own preferences when watching 24-frame materials, i.e. films – from a more “frame-like” appearance to a smooth, almost theatrical effect. It is somewhat disappointing that Panasonic did not choose to overclock the latest OLED matrix to 165 Hz, as Samsung did with the S95F or LG with the G5, because we know that the panel is technically capable of it. On the other hand, this is mainly an advantage for PC gamers, so in everyday viewing, it is not a significant drawback since we are limited to 120Hz.

The TCL A400 Pro is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, but in practice we are most interested in its behaviour at 120 Hz. That is the frequency most consoles are limited to today, as well as many sports broadcasts and high-frame-rate content. At that rate the TV performs quite well. The sharpness of moving objects is really good, especially after properly configuring the motion smoothing. The "Motion Clarity" function is responsible for improving smoothness. Its settings include two sliders that let you tailor how the motion smoothing operates to your preferences, separately for lower and higher frame-rate material. This makes it possible to achieve both a more cinematic look and a noticeably smoother picture. Those who do not want to fiddle with manual configuration can use presets such as low, medium, high, cinema or nature.

The Panasonic Z95B is fully equipped for gaming. Two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s guarantee support for everything you would expect from a modern screen. There is VRR frame synchronization, an automatic ALLM game mode, and full compatibility with HDR formats used in games. The television supports both Dolby Vision for Xbox and the popular HGiG, which has been implemented correctly in this case, so it actually works as it should.

Although the brand is mainly associated with home cinema and equipment for filmmakers, there is also room here for features for gamers. On board, there is a Game Bar (or rather Game Circles) – visually, it looks a bit unusual, but it serves its purpose and allows you to quickly check the most important picture parameters. The only thing that is actually missing for complete happiness is having four HDMI 2.1 ports instead of two. It's a minor detail, but in a television of this class, one could expect a full set.

In terms of features for gamers the TCL A400 Pro performs brilliantly. The TV has practically everything you can expect from a gaming TV today: support for 4K at high refresh rates, VRR, ALLM, correct implementation of HDR formats in games including Dolby Vision, and HGiG. That means it works well with both next-generation consoles and a PC. Another plus is the presence of the Game Bar, a special panel with the most important settings for gamers. From it you can quickly check basic information about the signal, refresh rate or active features, and also adjust the appearance and behaviour of some settings to suit your preferences. This solution may not change picture quality by itself, but it greatly improves the convenience of using the TV while gaming.

The only thing to complain about is the number of full HDMI 2.1 ports. The A400 Pro has only two such connectors out of the four available, and one of them also serves as eARC. In practice this means that if someone wants to connect two next-generation consoles and a soundbar, they may run into some limitations. In that scenario you will have to either swap devices or use additional equipment, such as an AV receiver or a soundbar with HDMI inputs. Even so, it is hard not to rate the A400 Pro very highly as a TV for gamers. The gaming feature set here is truly powerful.