TCL A300W NXTVision vs LG NANO81A / NANO80A

When it comes to brightness, the TCL A300W is definitely the darkest television among all frame-style models, such as Samsung The Frame or Hisense CanvasTV – and unfortunately, this is immediately noticeable. In our measurements, the peak luminance reached a mere 400 nits, and on test film patterns, this value dropped to 350 nits. This is definitely too little to experience the true “magic” of bright HDR effects. As a consolation – the television is equipped with a PFS LED coating (which is something like QLED), providing very good coverage of a wide colour gamut, both DCI-P3 and BT.2020. In addition, it has full support for all popular HDR formats – HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision – which somewhat compensates for the lack of brightness and helps improve the overall perception of content in this quality.

If you are counting on HDR in the NANO81A to bring tears to your eyes, I must disappoint you. This television is simply too dark to truly show what this format is all about. With a brightness of only 250 nits, HDR exists here mainly on paper. In practice, during viewing, it is very difficult to distinguish whether we are watching high dynamic range content or regular SDR – it simply lacks that ‘punch’ of light in the bright parts of the image. However, to give credit where it’s due, we do have a glimmer of hope here – and quite a clear one at that. It concerns the colour gamut coverage. Here, the NanoCell filter shows that it is not just marketing nonsense. Our measurements indicated that the coverage of the DCI-P3 space is around 88%. This is a really solid result that places this model significantly higher than typical budget options based on standard white LEDs without any filters. Of course, it still falls short of the level of quantum dot (QLED) TVs or advanced panels with PFS filters, but for this price point, the colours are surprisingly saturated and vibrant. It's just a shame that this low brightness prevents them from fully ‘spreading their wings’ with the Nano filter.

TCL A300 offers several picture modes, but without a doubt, the best is the movie mode. Unfortunately, although it is the best option available, it is not free from errors. In both HD and HDR content, the image has a noticeably too warm hue - it leans slightly towards pink, which is particularly noticeable in scenes with snow. Instead of pure white, we get a pinkish tint that spoils the natural perception of colours.

The management of brightness is also not very good. In the case of older HD material, the image often seems too dark - which is confirmed by the inflated gamma value. Conversely, with HDR content, the effect is the opposite - the image is overly bright, which we observed in scenes from the film Pan. Such a lack of consistency also affects the accuracy of colour reproduction - a test with the ColorChecker showed that many samples clearly deviate from the reference values.

Fortunately, TCL allows for manual adjustment of settings, so we decided to check how the television would perform after our professional calibration. The effects of this adjustment are described below.

For every film fan, the natural choice in LG televisions is the Filmmaker Mode. Its aim is to display images as the director intended – without unnecessary "enhancements". Unfortunately, in the case of our test unit NANO81A, the factory settings left something to be desired. The main issue turned out to be the white balance. Measurements showed a distinct deficiency of blue colour, which in practice meant that many scenes had a slightly yellowish, even "yellowed" tint. The white was not perfectly pure, which detracted from the freshness of the image. Additionally, brightness management was also not ideal – the factory-set gamma was too low. The picture often appeared oversaturated, as if overly lifted from the shadows, which caused it to lose naturalness and depth. Fortunately, LG, even in this relatively low price category, does not block access to advanced settings. The calibration possibilities of this model are enormous, which is a big plus for those who enjoy "digging" in the menu. We decided to approach the topic in our own way and see how much we could squeeze out of this panel with professional calibration.

After our professional calibration, the TCL A300 has literally received a new lease of life. The image has stopped being too warm, and the colours finally look as they should – which was confirmed by the ColorChecker test, where the colour samples finally started to hit their marks, at least to some reasonable extent. It was also possible to partially correct the brightness management – the image is now more balanced and less "wobbly" between different types of content. Of course, certain limitations cannot be overcome – a slightly noticeable blooming effect is still present, but that is a characteristic of the technology and not something that can be eliminated even after professional settings.

Generally speaking: after calibration, the A300 performs significantly better and gains a completely new quality.

After calibration, the NANO81A is a completely different television. What LG offers in terms of image enhancement tools even in such an affordable model deserves a big plus. We managed to completely eliminate that annoying yellowing of whites and make the colours natural, vibrant, and simply "true". In SDR content (that is, regular television, YouTube, or older films), the picture now looks worlds better – it is clear, well-balanced, and no longer strains the eyes with strange hues. It is clear that this panel has significant potential, which is simply wasted by poor presets out of the box. However, we do have one serious reservation that calibration cannot fully overcome – it concerns brightness management in HDR mode. LG's algorithm in this model is constructed very conservatively. The television intentionally dims the HDR picture to avoid overexposing the already weak blacks of the IPS panel. The programmers faced a choice: either to provide more light and accept that the blacks would become light grey or to reduce the brightness to maintain any contrast. They chose the latter. Nevertheless, after our adjustments, watching anything on the NANO81 is significantly better.

TCL A300 handles tonal transitions in high-quality films very well, but the question arises – how does it perform with weaker material? The television is equipped with a tonal transition smoothing function, but its effectiveness can be described in one word: "random." In one scene it could work and improve the gradation, but when turned off… the effect remains the same. There is a lack of consistency and predictability.

Image scaling is also not one of A300's strong points. On the test chart, the main character actually looked better than on the raw signal, but with thin lines – such as fonts or background details – there was noticeable jaggedness and aliasing. On the positive side, the television does not crop the image and has no problems with overscan, but the overall quality of scaling is rather average.

It often happens that cheap 4K panels mercilessly bring to light all the "dirt" and imperfections of lower-resolution content. However, with the LG NANO81A, the situation is quite different. This is truly a solid performer when it comes to handling content that is far from ideal. The built-in processor does a great job with upscaling. Even older recordings look quite decent on this screen – the image is coherent, cleaned of digital noise, and simply pleasant to the eye. A significant advantage is the gradation reduction feature that you will find in the settings. It is extraordinarily effective in combating colour banding, which is a lifesaver when watching materials with a low bitrate, for instance, from some streaming services or older files from the web. However, it is worth maintaining a certain level of caution. Since we are dealing with a less powerful chip than in LG's top models, setting this option too aggressively may sometimes result in minor artefacts or slight blurring of details. Despite this risk, I definitely encourage experimenting with this feature - in many cases, it can save the viewing experience and make low-quality material fully watchable.

The TCL A300 is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, which should immediately satisfy practically everyone – both gamers and sports fans. The motion is smooth and the image is clear even during fast-paced scenes. Additionally, the television offers motion enhancement functionality called "Motion," where we find two sliders on a 10-point scale. These allow you to adjust the effect to your own preferences – from a classic, cinematic look with visible frames to a very smooth (though somewhat unnatural) image reminiscent of soap opera effects. This way, everyone can find a setting that suits them.

When it comes to motion fluidity, the NANO81A unfortunately has a hard time. The television is based on a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. If you are looking for perfect sharpness in dynamic football matches or fast action games, you may feel a bit disappointed. With such a low native refresh rate, fast objects on the screen will always be a little blurred.

TCL A300 is a television designed not only to transport us to a digital art museum but also to a full-fledged gaming world. Here, we find practically everything one could expect from gaming equipment: two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, 144 Hz refresh rate, VRR support, and ALLM.

The proper implementation of the HGIG mode also deserves praise – something that competitor Hisense sometimes struggles with. The television easily handles lower resolutions (e.g., Full HD) while maintaining high refresh rates, which older console or PC owners will appreciate.

In addition, there is an attractive and clear GameBar that facilitates quick access to settings for gamers. The A300 is really well-prepared for top-level gaming – it's just a shame that issues with smearing slightly tarnish its overall image as a gaming device.

NANO81A is unfortunately not hardware designed for e-sports. The lack of support for a 120 Hz signal is a fact that users planning to purchase this model simply have to come to terms with. Nevertheless, LG's engineers have made an effort to maximise the potential of this 60 Hz panel, offering a set of features that genuinely enhance the gaming experience. Firstly, the television supports VRR technology (within the range of 48-60 Hz) and ALLM. As a result, the image remains stable and does not "tear", and the device automatically switches to low-latency mode as soon as it detects a signal from a console. Managing these settings is extremely simple thanks to a dedicated system overlay, which allows for quick viewing of parameters without leaving the game. A very significant advantage is the support for the HGiG format. This solution is crucial for owners of modern consoles because it enables the television to correctly "understand" the intentions of game developers regarding HDR tone mapping. In practice, this helps avoid the effect of "blown-out" bright spots, such as clouds or light sources, which is unfortunately a common issue in budget LCD televisions.