SHARP JP7765E vs TCL C8L / QM8L

So how does the brightness of the Sharp JP7 fare in the most demanding titles? Honestly, at first, we were quite surprised. The television is capable of achieving over 1000 nits of brightness, which is an outstanding and rare result for a device costing just under 2000 PLN (for 55 inches). Watching bright, full-screen scenes, one might feel they are dealing with really good equipment. Unfortunately, though, we have to return to the problem we mentioned earlier regarding local dimming management. When small bright areas appear on a dark background (as in the test scenes from the films Life of Pi or Sicario 2), it is evident how poorly the JP7 handles zones. The television dims them almost to the maximum, crushing the entire HDR effect, which in such moments resembles a flat SDR image (less than 200 nits). This instability means that in demanding, contrast-heavy films, the image on the JP7 unfortunately loses its appeal.

As a consolation, it is worth noting that the panel has the potential for good colour display. It features a PFS (phosphor) filter, which allows for a solid 94% coverage of the DCI-P3 palette. The manufacturer calls its product a “QLED,” even though it is primarily based on the aforementioned PFS filter. Given the recent market battles of manufacturers over what may or may not be called QLED, we leave the question of the correctness of this naming to your assessment. However, it remains a fact that the potential for reproducing saturated colours in this panel is simply good.

In terms of HDR, the TCL C8L turns out to be a hellishly bright television – quite literally. On a synthetic test pattern sized at 5%, our measurement equipment indicated a result exceeding 4500 nits. This is a truly astronomical result, considering that reference monitors used by directors, which we often refer to in our materials, typically operate around 4000 nits. Does this mean that the C8L breaks barriers and climbs to the technological peak of Mini-LED? Not quite. Dry synthetic tests are one thing, while real cinematic images are another. In real, varied scenes, the C8L peaks at around 1600 nits. This is still a very good result, ensuring a very high level of HDR dynamics, but it is also clearly lower than what the manufacturer boasts in the specifications. The problems begin with very small bursts of light – at that point, brightness can drastically drop to around 600 nits. The algorithm tries at all costs to maintain deep blacks and minimise the halo effect, but this comes at the expense of HDR impact. This is perfect evidence that laboratory test patterns rarely align with what we ultimately see on the screen.

However, huge praise is due for colour reproduction, thanks to the new generation of SQD (Super Quantum Dot) quantum dots. The DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage reaches 97%, but the truly jaw-dropping measurements come from the extremely demanding BT.2020 space. The C8L achieves an impressive 90% in this space, placing it alongside today's top screens equipped with RGB backlighting. Importantly, unlike some screens with Micro/Mini RGB backlighting, this effect is stable regardless of the scene displayed. Of course, it’s worth remembering that content mastered for such a wide gamut in films or series is still rare. However, the very fact that the panel has such a "colour reserve" deserves tremendous admiration.

When it comes to out-of-the-box colours, the Sharp JP7 was tested in Film mode, which traditionally offers the most consistent image compared to the yellowed “Eco” mode or the glaring blue of the “Dynamic” mode. Although this is the best choice among the available settings, the results are still far from ideal. The white balance clearly lacked red and blue components, causing many scenes to take on an unnatural greenish tint. Another issue was the gamma – during full-screen scenes, the television provides excessive brightness, which completely diminishes its cinematic character. All of this resulted in colour reproduction errors, especially in shades of grey, which exceeded a value of Delta E 10. For reference: errors above 2-3 are already visible to the human eye, so we are dealing with a significant distortion of reality here.

In HDR mode, the situation is reversed, but not any better. Here, the blue colour dominates the white balance, which gives the image an unnatural, almost “retail” sharpness, reminiscent of aggressive demonstration modes. Furthermore, measurements of the EOTF curve emphasise the retail character of the image. The graph clearly shows that the television generates an image significantly brighter than the standards predict, resulting in an artificially boosted and unrealistic final effect. The Sharp JP7 is evidently trying to appear stronger than it actually is, but it does so at the cost of fidelity to the content.

We tested the TCL C8L in the best factory mode available in the TV’s menu for image fidelity. That’s of course Filmmaker Mode, which only arrived in this brand’s software relatively recently (a year ago in the "K" series). It allows the average user to achieve quite decent colour reproduction straight out of the box, though it is certainly not perfectly tuned. Looking at the unit’s out-of-the-box white balance — in both SDR and HDR material — the red component was clearly lacking, which made the image noticeably cooler and slightly shift towards blue‑green tints. The issue of brightness management also looks ambiguous, as we mentioned earlier. While the gamma linearity in SDR content is really good and stays steadily at the reference value of 2.4, the situation in HDR is much worse. Tracking the EOTF curve clearly shows the TV has a noticeably boosted brightness across the entire range, so the final image can be excessively bright and inconsistent with the creators’ intent, and this is in a mode that by definition should avoid that. Of course, as with every sample in our lab, we subjected this one to professional calibration, and you can find the results below.

We subjected the JP7 to our standard calibration procedure and really... the television gained a new lease of life thanks to it, particularly with SDR content (YouTube, classic television, series, or older films). As a result of our precise adjustment of the white balance and stabilisation of the gamma, colour errors fell to a value of below 3. This is a level at which the human eye has difficulty detecting distortions. In this scenario, the Sharp JP7 delivers an image with truly excellent colour precision, which is a significant advantage in this price class. However, content with HDR turned out to be much more problematic. Here, despite our efforts and interventions in the settings, the television simply would not cooperate. In the JP7 menu, we don't find any option that would allow for real control over brightness management (EOTF). Although a significant portion of the colour errors was reduced, the image still remained unnaturally oversaturated. It's a bit of a shame, as the potential of the mini-LED backlit panel is great, but the software presents a clear barrier here.

The conclusion is simple: when watching less demanding content (SDR) on the JP7, you can expect an image that is more than satisfactory, but in HDR, you must come to terms with a certain degree of "artificiality" that cannot be circumvented even with professional equipment.

As you can see, the results of a professional calibration of the TCL C8L are truly promising, thanks to the comprehensive calibration controls the manufacturer has provided in the menu. Above all, we managed to fully correct the white balance, eliminating the red deficiency, so the image finally stopped drifting into unwanted cool tones. After that adjustment, the errors in the ColorChecker test fell to near-reference values, consistently sitting below a Delta E threshold of 2, i.e. below the visibility threshold for the human eye.

If test patterns look so perfect, you may ask us why the final score in this category is lower. The answer lies in the brightness management described earlier. Although the menu includes sliders that let you precisely straighten the EOTF curve on synthetic signals, when faced with real film material (I recommend enabling the EOTF filter when watching films), it becomes clear that the TV, in most scenarios, still responds to HDR metadata in its own way. As a result, the picture can be slightly over-bright and not faithful to the filmmakers' intent, and it is precisely for this lack of consistency with real films that we had to take a few points off the C8L's score.

In the case of lower quality materials and how the Sharp JP7 handles them, the situation is ambiguous. Let's start with the upscaling itself – here we have no major objections. The process of scaling the image to a higher resolution is correct; the picture remains readable and sharp, without the overscan effect, meaning no cropped edges. Of course, it is not at the level of top models, and at times one can notice slight jaggedness on the contours, but in this price range, the effect is fully acceptable.

However, the actual digital image processing performs significantly worse, which, apart from the upscaling, effectively does not exist. In the JP7 menu, we will not find any option that would effectively smooth out unwanted tonal transitions or reduce noise in the image. As a result, the signal reaches the panel in a very raw form, which, with heavily compressed materials (e.g. from YouTube), leads to visible posterisation. Either it is a flaw in the software or a very strange design decision, because in earlier Sharp models this function was available and, crucially, worked with noticeable effect. Here, we are left to deal with whatever the source provides us, without any digital support from the image processor.

This year the C8 series and the higher-end models have probably received the biggest and most eagerly awaited upgrade in TCL’s history, and it concerns digital picture processing. The C8L is the entry-level model in the manufacturer's line-up that has been equipped with the latest flagship chip MediaTek Pentonic 800 (listed in the menu as MT9655). It is thanks to its computing power that the feature called "Gradual Smoothing" finally works as it should. The algorithm effectively removes unwanted posterization (ugly tonal transitions / colour banding) from the image, doing so intelligently enough that it does not degrade the sharpness of other details.

The processor also handles upscaling lower-resolution content to 4K very well. Although assessing this element can be largely academic, because the differences between today’s TVs in this class are very subtle. The most important takeaway is that TCL finally has nothing to be ashamed of compared with the competition.

The motion fluidity on the Sharp JP7 is quite mediocre, and the reason is simple: the television uses a 60Hz panel. This instantly makes it difficult to recommend for watching sports or serious gaming, where higher refresh rates are already the standard. The only real plus is the presence of a smoothness feature, which we can control in films using a slider called De-judder. Lower settings provide a more raw, "cinematic" (framey) image, while higher settings add artificial smoothness. We suggest setting it somewhere in the middle of the scale, that is in the range of 3-5 – this is the best compromise to avoid the soap opera effect while also eliminating the tiring stuttering of the image. Interestingly, in the menu, we also find a "motion blur removal" slider, which usually indicates the presence of a 120Hz panel. However, with the JP7, it does not enhance the image at all and serves rather as a dummy – it is meant to look good in the settings, but technically it has no right to operate on this panel.

The TCL C8L is equipped with a fast panel with a native refresh rate of 144 Hz. This specification will be most appreciated by demanding PC gamers, while most users, who rely on consoles or TV broadcasts, will make use of a stable 120 Hz. It is at 120 Hz that the motion-processing algorithms take care of image processing (in films, series and sports). In the TV menu you'll find a "Motion Clarity" tab that allows you to tailor the motion smoothing to your own preferences. The algorithms cope well with both cinematic productions at 24 or 30 frames per second and with fast-paced sports broadcasts at 50 or 60 frames per second, ensuring appropriate smoothness.

As we mentioned earlier, the 60Hz panel is not a feature that will attract gamers to the Sharp JP7. Perhaps for the casual player, whose console still generates most titles at 60 frames per second, there might be something interesting? When it comes to specific additions, we find here:

• ALLM Mode: Automatically switches the television to low latency game mode (input lag).

• Game Menu: Which is hard to call a full-fledged “Game Bar,” as the functionality here is minimal. Aside from enabling ALLM, there’s only a game-specific motion smoother which we recommend avoiding as it introduces very noticeable artifacts and worsens responsiveness.

• Dolby Vision Gaming: For Microsoft consoles.

Unfortunately, the list of shortcomings is significantly longer and more painful than the positives. The biggest disappointment is the lack of support for 120Hz, even when reducing the resolution to Full HD. The presence of 120Hz would allow for performance modes to be activated in many games on PS5 or Xbox Series X. Another shortcoming is VRR, which means that during frame drops, we are exposed to screen tearing. The lack of proper implementation of the HGiG standard is also very problematic. This results in the fact that during HDR calibration in the console menu, it is very easy to "overshoot" the brightness settings. As a result, instead of clear details in the highlights, we end up with an unnaturally over-bright image with cut-off details. Sharp JP7 is a proposition solely for very casual gamers.

For gamers – and especially for owners of powerful PCs and several consoles simultaneously – the TCL C8L is a true monster. It is the first model in this manufacturer's lineup to feature as many as four full HDMI 2.1 ports with a maximum bandwidth of 48 Gbps. This is directly attributable to the use of the new Pentonic 800 processor, which we discussed earlier. Additionally, the television seamlessly supports practically every gaming feature. We have an automatic game mode (ALLM) that reduces latency to minimal levels, and full frame synchronization (VRR) operating in an impressive range of up to 288 Hz. There's also talk of standards such as G-Sync or FreeSync from Nvidia and AMD. When it comes to display standards, there are no compromises either: the C8L offers complete support for HDR formats in games, including gaming Dolby Vision and the HGiG profile. We can conveniently manage all of these features from a very readable player bar (Game Bar), which we can personalise to our own preferences. From a purely gaming perspective, there's really nothing to fault the C8L on – well, maybe aside from the previously mentioned slight blurring. But other than that? It's a no-nonsense machine for gamers.