Philips OLED910 vs TCL C7L

The OLED910 is simply an absurdly bright television for an OLED. All thanks to the new panel from LG Display, the Tandem RGB OLED, which Philips has dubbed its "META OLED." It is this panel that allows for over 2000 nits of brightness in films, which not long ago was completely unattainable in OLEDs. The television also deserves high praise for how it handles full-screen scenes drenched in bright light. Generally, in OLEDs, brightness drops significantly during such scenes, but here it remains at an excellent level – around 1400 nits. These are almost reference values, and combined with the excellent colour reproduction at 99% DCI P3 and 82% BT.2020, it gives us an HDR effect that can confidently be called one of the best in the world.

The TCL C7L is, without doubt, an extremely bright TV. In synthetic tests using static test patterns it can reach peak brightness of around 2800 nits. That's a truly phenomenal result, given the price bracket it occupies. Unfortunately, measurements with real film scenes are not as spectacular as the white-square tests. Brightness in real HDR footage on the C7L falls to around 1200 nits. That's still very good, because the vast majority of modern films are graded to that level. However, when small, pinpoint elements appear on screen, the brightness of those details drops dramatically, even to around 400 nits, which reduces the HDR impact. The TV does this deliberately to preserve black levels and avoid excessive blooming. This is somewhat understandable, but it also shows that Mini LED technology is not completely without compromises in this respect. As for the HDR effect itself, alongside brightness the key factor is, of course, colour. Thanks to the use of new 'super' quantum dots, the colours are simply superb and among the best on the market. The TV is able to achieve very wide coverage of the BT.2020 and DCI-P3 colour gamuts, matching the best RGB Mini-LED screens with ease. Best of all, the C7L can maintain such high colour saturation regardless of the scene being displayed, which is often problematic in competing RGB Mini-LED TVs.

Update 01/2026

After conducting a series of calibrations of the OLED910 model at our customers' locations, we noticed that the measurement results differ from those obtained during the initial tests. The factory tuning of the movie mode turns out to be significantly better than our first tests suggested. White balance is set very precisely, with only a minimal dominance of red. The factory colour reproduction stays close to reference standards – average Delta E errors hover around 3-4, which is an excellent result for factory settings. However, there is some concern regarding the way the television manages brightness. Analysis of the Gamma (SDR) and EOTF (HDR) graphs shows a tendency to excessively 'pull' details out of the shadows. In practice, this means that the image may appear too bright, resulting in a loss of black depth in favour of visibility of details that should remain hidden. Of course, this effect can be effectively corrected during professional calibration.

Unfortunately, regarding colour reproduction right out of the box, the Filmmaker mode on the OLED910 performs really poorly. The television overemphasises the blue colour, and at times it looks almost like a shop mode. This gives the impression that the manufacturer did not quite tune the device properly. The effect is that colours appear unnatural, and the overall look is somewhat reminiscent of an overly exaggerated display in a store. HDR content performs much better, where aside from a slight loss of detail in the blacks, there's not much to complain about. The problem is that in everyday viewing, it is the SDR materials that matter most – and on the OLED910, they simply look poor and fall far short of what we would expect from a television of this class.

When it comes to out-of-the-box colours, what's new in TCL TVs, including the C7L model, is the addition of a picture mode called Filmmaker Mode. This is significant because such a mode was not previously available from this manufacturer. As the name suggests, this setting is meant to present the picture with the filmmaker's full intent. After our tests we can confirm that it is, without doubt, the best built-in mode on this TV if you want faithful colour reproduction straight out of the box. However, we certainly wouldn't say it's perfect. Like most devices on the market, this C7L also had some factory calibration errors. The white balance in Filmmaker mode drifted towards a slightly greenish-yellow tint, caused mainly by an excess of the green component and a noticeable shortfall in blue. Of course, this won't be a major drawback for the average viewer, but if you care about perfect whites, natural skin tones and getting the full potential out of the structure of those new "super" quantum dots, the TV really needs professional calibration.

Fortunately, it quickly turned out that it was not the panel causing the problems, but rather the way Philips factory-calibrated the OLED910. After calibration, the television displayed its full potential, and only then could we see what the new panels produced by LG Display were truly capable of. We primarily adjusted the white balance and brightness characteristics, successfully taming the excessive blue and giving the image a natural appearance. The final effect can be described as excellent. Errors on the Color Checker palette rarely exceeded a value of 3, which in practice means an image close to perfection and colours presented in accordance with the creators' intent. In SDR content, the effect was outstanding, and in HDR, the improvement was even more noticeable – gradients became cleaner, and colours fuller and more accurate. After calibration, the OLED910 transformed from a disappointing television into equipment that can confidently be referred to as a reference in terms of colour quality.

After professional calibration we managed to greatly improve the situation in the factory Filmmaker Mode. After our corrections, the errors in the ColorChecker test and across the wide colour gamut fell below the threshold of human perception, that is below a value of 3, which is a very good result. The TCL C7L definitely benefits from such a procedure in terms of colour fidelity, and it's hard to deny. Brightness management for HDR content looks a little worse after calibration, though. As I described earlier, even though we set this model up correctly, when you play real film scenes the TV can handle its brightness in a rather peculiar way. It often brightens some elements on screen contrary to the creator's intent, which is clearly visible in the EOTF traces measured from specific films. Despite this defect, or rather a specific characteristic of the television, one thing you can't fault is that after calibration the C7L was able to reproduce colours accurately.

The previously visible colour banding can largely be mitigated thanks to a feature called "distortion reduction." Like in the OLED820, it is best set to a medium level, as it then produces fairly decent results – smoothing out unwanted tonal transitions while not taking away too much detail from the image. Although at times the effect may be slightly too aggressive, this function can be considered useful for everyday viewing.

As for image scaling, the OLED910 performs really well. The test material featuring a model had a soft look characteristic of Philips – at times almost too soft – but this can be easily corrected with the sharpness slider, allowing you to adjust the image to your own preferences. It's also worth noting that the television has no issues with overscan, which still occurs in some competitor models. It's a small detail, but it's pleasing because it means that all content, even the oldest, is displayed as it should be.

This can be seen as, to some extent, the Achilles' heel of the C7L. Unfortunately, this TV uses the older MediaTek Pentonic 700 chip, which has never been famed for outstanding digital image processing. You can clearly see that in the behaviour of the progressive smoothing function, the feature responsible for reducing jagged edges and removing digital noise. It simply performs very poorly. When set to low, its effectiveness is almost non-existent. The only small plus is that the algorithm does not further spoil the picture or blur details unnecessarily. Upscaling, that is scaling lower-resolution content to 4K, performs slightly better. It is simply adequate and does not stand out against the competition. There is no denying that the C7L would benefit greatly in this regard if the manufacturer opted for the newer Pentonic 800 processor, which is now appearing in an increasing number of rival models.

OLED910 is a television with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It’s a bit of a shame that Philips didn’t opt for 165 Hz, as we know that the panel used is capable of that. On the other hand, such a bonus would mainly benefit PC gamers, as in everyday use, the most important refresh rate is 120 Hz, which is fully sufficient. Combined with the advantages of the OLED panel – lightning-fast pixel response time and the absence of motion blur, the image is impeccably sharp and quick, even in dynamic action scenes. The traditional motion smoother from Philips, called “Motion Style,” also deserves praise. We can easily adjust it to our preferences: the “Fluidity” slider is responsible for films and allows you to choose between a more “filmy,” cinematic character and a smooth, theatrical image. Meanwhile, the “Motion Blur Reduction” slider is intended for sports, where it’s worth setting it to the maximum value to ensure that the image is clear and distinct during very fast shots.

The TCL C7L uses a native 4K panel with a 144 Hz refresh rate, which at lower resolutions when connected to a PC can even reach up to 288 Hz. These are, of course, very high figures and impressive on paper, but bear in mind that almost all the dynamic content you’ll watch on this TV will still run at around a maximum of 120 Hz. To rein in that motion, the TV’s menu includes a motion-smoothing system called "Motion Clarity". It offers several preset modes, including a user mode that we strongly recommend you set manually using our tried-and-tested guides on our YouTube channel. There are two key sliders available. The first, "Blur Reduction", is responsible for cutting motion blur and improving sharpness in dynamic 60-fps material, such as sports broadcasts. The second slider, "Flicker Reduction", lets you add artificial frames to films and series shot in cinematic 24 or 30 frames per second. This, of course, can completely eliminate the irritating judder that appears during camera movement.

The OLED910 is fantastic for gaming. It supports 144 Hz, so if someone has a powerful PC, they can comfortably utilise that potential. On consoles, the most important thing is still 120 Hz, and everything works perfectly here. There's VRR, an automatic gaming mode, and even Dolby Vision in games and HGiG mode, so we really get a full package of gaming features. Philips has also added a Game Bar, which is a quick menu that displays basic information and allows you to enable a few useful things. It may not look as modern as the competition, but it works and fulfils its purpose. The only downside is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are only two, which can be quite disappointing for a TV in this class. If someone connects two consoles and something additional through eARC - like a soundbar (which doesn't make much sense in this model but I'll discuss that in the paragraph about sound) - they'll have to do some adjustments. Other than that, the OLED910 has everything we expect from a gaming television.

When it comes to gaming, the TCL C7L is simply an outstanding TV for players. Thanks to two HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gbps bandwidth, you get access to all the key features required by console owners and powerful PC rigs. There’s a well-working ALLM mode with very low input lag and VRR frame synchronisation that operates over an impressive range from 48 to 288 Hz. Importantly, unlike some rivals, TCL has properly implemented the console HDR10 HGIG profile and supports Dolby Vision in games. The package is completed by a very well designed gamer panel, the Game Bar, which even lets you edit its appearance and change the theme so it perfectly matches the style of your console.

The only thing you can, and even should, criticise is that the TV offers only two full-spec HDMI 2.1 ports, while the other two are older HDMI 2.0. That creates quite a logistical problem. Why? Because one of the fast ports also handles the return audio channel eARC. In practice this means that if you connect a soundbar or home cinema system to the TV, you’ll be left with just one free HDMI 2.1 socket. If you have two consoles at home, or a console and a powerful PC, unfortunately you’ll have to give something up or keep juggling cables at the back of the case while trying to maintain convenient control of the audio system.