TCL A400 PRO vs Hisense UR8S

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.

UR8S is a slightly higher-end Mini-LED, so you could expect a lot in terms of brightness. And indeed, on a synthetic test pattern peak brightness reached around 2200 nits. That’s a very good result, but as always what’s much more important is what the TV does in normal film scenes. Here the results are a bit more uneven. In bright scenes, where there’s a lot of light on screen, the UR8S can deliver really strong HDR. Brightness then reaches about 1500 nits, so the image is very intense and has plenty of punch. It’s worse with small bright elements on a dark background. The TV clearly dims them to keep good blacks and to prevent excessive bloom. As a result things like single stars or tiny reflections can be only around 200 nits. And here HDR is no longer as impressive. So you can see that the local dimming algorithm works effectively, but it also has its cost: sometimes it simply sacrifices the brightness of small details in favour of contrast.

Colours

With RGB Mini-LED TVs colours should be judged a little differently than usual. If we look solely at the panel’s native capabilities, the UR8S performs excellently. We measured around 94% coverage of BT.2020 and practically full DCI-P3. These are among the highest values currently found in LCD TVs and this is where the potential of the RGB backlight is most obvious. The problem is that this potential is not always realised in real scenes. When we ran the same measurements on test patterns with a film background applied, saturation of some colours began to fall noticeably. Individual zones are not always able to control the three RGB components so precisely when the scene becomes more complex. This is most visible with blue and magenta. On simple test patterns they can look very strong, but in more demanding scenes samples of those colours visibly shrink. So the UR8S’s capabilities are enormous, it’s just that the TV cannot fully make use of them in every scene.

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.

For assessing the out-of-the-box colours we used Filmmaker mode, which is intended to show an image that is as close as possible to how the material was prepared. Looking at the white balance alone, the UR8S performs quite well. There is no strong tint that immediately jumps out, although as brightness increases a little too much blue and red start to appear, with a simultaneous shortfall of green. Colour errors therefore show up in measurements, but the image itself does not look bad. We have far greater reservations about how the UR8S manages picture brightness. In SDR the gamma sits around 1.9–2.0 for most of the range instead of the target 2.4. In practice this simply means the picture is too bright, especially in the midtones. Shadows are lifted too much, causing the image to lose some depth. A similar tendency is visible in HDR. The EOTF curve is above the reference value for a large part of its range, so the UR8S again brightens the image more than it should. This is not due to a lack of brightness — the TV has plenty — but to the way it manages that brightness. As a result, HDR content can look very striking, but not always precisely as it should.

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.

Hisense provides plenty of calibration options and, in SDR, these can yield a very good result. After calibration, the white balance is practically even across the entire range, and colour errors fall to very low values. The UR8S can be adjusted very precisely here. HDR is somewhat different. The white balance itself can also be noticeably improved, although at the highest brightness levels larger deviations begin to appear. The most interesting aspect, however, is the behaviour of the EOTF curve. Even after it has been correctly set on test patterns, the UR8S still tends to interpret brightness in its own way when watching films. Depending on the scene, parts of the image are slightly brightened while others are dimmed relative to how they should appear. This shows that the algorithms controlling the local dimming have a significant influence on the final image. Calibration therefore allows colours to be improved very effectively, but we are not able to completely 'turn off' the way the UR8S manages brightness in HDR.

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.

A big plus of the UR8S is the use of the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor, and digital image processing is one of this model's stronger points. The TV handles smoothing tonal transitions very well, especially with lower-quality content. The feature responsible for this effect works effectively without overprocessing the picture. Even on the medium setting it can noticeably reduce visible banding and unevenness without heavily blurring details. Upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is displayed cleanly, edges look natural, and the image is not overly sharpened. The UR8S simply copes very well with a weaker signal, and in this respect it is one of its most notable strengths.

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 UR8S is equipped with a panel with a native 180 Hz refresh rate, so right from the start it offers excellent motion handling. The panel itself performs really well here, although some limitations typical of VA panels are still visible. Motion blur is relatively minor for this type of screen, but with faster motion (especially on darker backgrounds) it can still be noticed, particularly when compared with the same image on OLED TVs.

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.

In terms of gamer features the UR8S performs really well. The TV supports practically everything you can expect from a modern console or PC display. It offers ALLM, VRR and 4K at 120 Hz. There is also Dolby Vision in Game Mode, so when using, for example, the Xbox Series X you do not have to give up that HDR format. PC gamers get even more options. The panel can run at 4K at 180 Hz, and dropping to Full HD can raise the refresh rate to as much as 330 Hz. There is also a Game Bar that lets you quickly check key information and change gaming-related settings. The only clear omission is a correct implementation of HGiG. With it enabled the TV still alters HDR brightness mapping, so we do not get the effect intended by that standard. Aside from that, the UR8S is very well prepared for both consoles and a powerful PC.