Samsung Q8F vs TCL A400 PRO

In terms of brightness, the Samsung Q8F performs surprisingly well for a television without local dimming. In measurements, it reaches up to 500 nits, which in practice means that most movie and series scenes look pleasing, and it cannot be accused of lacking the 'HDR effect'. In films such as Life of Pi or The Meg, the screen was able to burst with brightness and deliver a light effect at a satisfying level. It struggles more in difficult moments — during dark scenes with individual bright points. The global dimming used causes the television to dim the image to maintain deep blacks, but at the expense of detail brightness. This is clearly visible in the scene from Sicario 2, where the helicopter lights dropped to around 200 nits. This is a conscious design decision that gives the impression of deeper blacks, but somewhat takes away the brightness from individual elements, and one must simply keep this in mind. In terms of colour reproduction, the Q8F uses quantum dot technology, which widens the colour gamut. A coverage of the DCI-P3 palette at 91% can be considered a decent result, although it is not a record-breaking figure compared to other QLEDs.

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.

We decided to check out the Filmmaker mode, as it provided us with the best image straight out of the box. However, this does not mean it was perfect. The white balance had too much blue and red, resulting in the white taking on a slight mauve-pink hue. Such an imbalance affected the visibility of practically all colours, as can be seen in the comparison photo below. The brightness characteristics in SDR content were quite well adjusted, though in HDR material we noticed that the television did not always manage its global dimming effectively — at times the screen was too dim, while at other moments it could suddenly brighten. Fortunately, issues related to colours can be effectively corrected with calibration tools, so we decided to get to work.

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.

After calibration, we managed to correct the white balance to near perfection. Older SDR content looks fantastic — most errors fall within a value range of 2, which is well below the threshold of perceivability for the human eye. In HDR, we also brought the white balance to an acceptable level, but another issue arises here. So why are there still relatively large errors in colour reproduction? This mainly stems from the limited colour palette and the way the television manages brightness. The global dimming technique used does not give the user control in the settings, so when analysing the EOTF curve in HDR films, it is apparent that the Q8F can modify luminance independently. This can be regarded as a certain limitation, but despite this, the picture after calibration is still much more pleasant to view than in the factory version.

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 check how the Q8F performs with older content, which often has poor quality. Let's start with the positives: the upscaling, or raising the image to a higher resolution, works really well. The television handles both traditional television and YouTube material quite competently, without giving the impression that we are dealing with something completely unattractive. It performs less well with very low resolutions, such as 576p — the image can be cropped, and unfortunately, the overscan issue cannot be turned off. Moreover, the digital processing itself appears less effective. The noise reduction feature, instead of eliminating unwanted disturbances, smooths out almost everything: film grain (which is desirable for many viewers) disappears along with the texture of the image, and the faces of the actors start to resemble characters from cheap Turkish soap operas. Therefore, it’s hard to consider this option useful — it’s best to leave it completely turned off. Perhaps Samsung will refine the operation of this function in future updates, but for now, it’s difficult to view it as anything other than an unnecessary addition.

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.

Due to the applied 60 Hz matrix, it is difficult to call the Q8F a television designed for gaming or watching sports. The panel is not particularly fast, which makes motion blur noticeably visible. If you were hoping for spectacular, even 'stadium-like' experiences during broadcasts, you may feel slightly disappointed. Fortunately, in the case of films and series, Samsung has not abandoned the motion blur reduction feature. This is nothing but a motion smoother that allows you to improve the fluidity of productions recorded at 24 or 30 frames per second. This way, you can decide for yourself whether you prefer a smoother, 'television' image or to maintain a cinematic character. It all depends on the viewer's preferences, and the ability to adjust this parameter is undoubtedly a plus.

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.

[UPDATE] We have updated our 2025 Samsung TV reviews following the release of firmware version 1131, which officially restores the essential HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) support.

It is not entirely clear what Samsung has meddled with this year regarding its televisions, but the Q8F is not free from all the confusion surrounding updates and shortcomings. While its older cousin, the Q67D, could still be recommended to casual gamers with a clear conscience, it is difficult to find a reason to do so here. Apart from the automatic game mode and the attractively designed Game Bar, we receive practically nothing that could attract gaming enthusiasts. The lack of proper HGiG implementation is a significant issue, especially since after the 1126 update, the feature simply disappeared. The situation regarding VRR is even worse. Although it is listed in the manufacturer's brochures and appears in the Game Bar, we were unable to activate it. The Xbox Series X console did not allow activation at all, and the option remained greyed out and inactive. It is hard to praise such a television even to casual gamers, which is a pity, as Samsung had a strong bargaining chip in the gaming segment for years.

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.