TCL C655 Pro vs Philips OLED820

In the HDR effect quality category, the television TCL 655 PRO demonstrates decent capabilities, achieving a peak brightness of 550 nits. This allows for enjoyment of the HDR effects, which is particularly evident in scenes such as the first from the film Life of Pi or the last frame from The Meg. Nevertheless, the limited number of dimming zones causes some issues. While in bright scenes the television performs better than its lower model, in more demanding scenes, such as the second and fourth scenes from Sicario 2, it struggles. The dimming algorithm aims to achieve deep blacks, but at the cost of brightness – resulting in a drop in brightness of even half during those moments. In these more challenging scenes with small elements, it is hard to find any praise, and the HDR effect resembles more of an SDR. Regardless, the colour gamut coverage deserves commendation, which, like in the version without the PRO suffix, is at a very good level.

When it comes to HDR quality, the Philips OLED820 uses the same class of WOLED panel found in its biggest rivals – the LG C5 and Samsung S90F. This means we can expect really solid results. This year, mid-range OLED panels can exceed the threshold of a thousand nits, and the tested model reaches around 1300 nits in some films. This is an outstanding result, allowing the director's vision to be conveyed with immense precision, as this is the brightness range in which contemporary productions are mastered. Of course, there are situations where even the OLED820 has to compromise. Full-screen scenes filled with white, like those in the film The Meg, can drop brightness to 400–500 nits, which clearly weakens the effect. This is a characteristic of OLED technology that has yet to be fully eliminated. Despite this limitation, it is hard not to appreciate the HDR in this model – high luminance and a wide DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage of 99% make the image simply look fantastic.

Each of our television tests is conducted in film mode, which usually offers the best colour reproduction. Nonetheless, even this mode is not free from issues, as we noted in the model TCL 655 PRO.

In the case of HD content, the white balance distinctly shifts towards red, and this effect becomes particularly noticeable in a scene from Star Wars, where the white elements of the scenery take on a pink hue. For 4K HDR material, the situation is better, but there is a noticeable tendency to excessively emphasise the colour blue. As a result, the picture may appear artificially sharp, which proves to be uncomfortable for the eye over a longer period. The brightness characteristics also leave much to be desired. The Gamma graph indicates serious difficulties with excessive brightening, causing the overall presentation to appear washed out. Additionally, the EOTF curve reveals significant problems with reproducing very small elements – they are overly dimmed, as we detailed in the paragraph concerning HDR effects.

The colour reproduction in the factory settings really surprised us, and positively so. The Philips OLED820, switched to Filmmaker mode, immediately showed that it was quite well tuned in terms of colour. The white balance was relatively accurate, though there was a slight deficiency in the blue hue, which occasionally gave the image a slightly yellowish tint. However, this is not a flaw that particularly detracts from everyday viewing. A bigger issue arose with the brightness characteristics. The gamma curve clearly deviated from the ideal, with the line below the expected values, causing the image to be excessively brightened, and the colours looked as if they were covered with a light milky filter. This effect was also noticeable in tests using the Colour Checker pattern, where more pronounced errors appeared.

After calibrating the television TCL 655 PRO, a noticeable improvement in white balance is evident, where the tendency for the screen to have an excessive pink hue has been completely eliminated, which was previously visible in the factory mode. The image has taken on more natural tones, especially in white and light elements, positively affecting the overall perception of the picture. Regarding brightness characteristics, the Gamma chart has also improved – the screen is no longer overly bright, which previously made the image appear washed out. However, there are still some issues with the EOTF curve, which are difficult to eliminate due to the design of the television and its limited number of backlight zones. These limitations prevent achieving perfect results in this regard. Nevertheless, despite this minor flaw, the overall effect after calibration is truly outstanding, providing high picture quality and very good colour reproduction.

After calibration, both the Filmmaker mode and the gaming mode gained a lot. A slight adjustment of the white balance and an improvement in brightness characteristics produced excellent results in SDR content – the image looked almost perfect, natural, and very close to reference. In the case of HDR materials, the situation was similar, the colours were presented wonderfully, and it was hard to find anything to criticise. However, we noticed a certain feature, which we already pointed out when comparing scenes from the film Billy Lynn. The analysis of the EOTF curve showed that the television has a slight tendency to dim details in the blacks, so the darkest parts are not always displayed exactly as intended by the director. Nevertheless, the effect after calibration is stunning, and the OLED820 is emerging as one of the more interesting screens in its class. It just needs a little pampering, and there really is nothing to worry about.

The TCL 655 PRO television performs quite well with tonal transitions in lower quality materials. The "Gradual Smoothing" function at a low setting effectively smooths out tonal transitions, but this comes at the expense of losing some important details, such as the texture of objects. One positive aspect is that it does not negatively affect film grain, which helps maintain the natural appearance of the image.

In the context of digital processing, the television adds artificial sharpness. This may appeal to users who prefer a more vivid image. However, those who like a softer, subtler look may find this a drawback. Additionally, a downside is the cropping of the image due to overscan, which limits the field of view and trims the edges of the frame. This can be problematic in certain scenes - for example, news tickers.

Fortunately, the earlier effects of the mentioned posterisation can be quite effectively mitigated. The "distortion reduction" function set to a medium level deals with unwanted colour banding, improving the smoothness of tonal transitions. It does happen that it works a bit too aggressively and also smooths out some details – such as minor skin imperfections of the actors – but nevertheless, it can be considered worth using without substantial compromises. The upscaling in the OLED820 also performs quite well. The test image with the model is exceptionally soft, sometimes even too much so, although this can be rectified by slightly boosting the sharpness in the picture menu – this is really a matter of individual preference. The absence of overscan issues with very low-resolution content is also commendable, meaning we don't have to worry that the image will be unnecessarily cropped.

The TCL C655 PRO television is equipped with a 4K panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz, making it best suited for watching films. Additionally, the "Flicker Reduction" feature allows users to adjust the smoothness of the image, giving them the choice between a smoother motion and a cinematic, frame-by-frame effect. Moreover, the television performs well with lower resolution materials, such as Full HD and 2K, offering a refresh rate of 120 Hz, which will certainly appeal to gamers who can enjoy a smoother picture at the expense of lower resolution.

The fluidity of motion is an area where OLEDs always shine, and the Philips OLED820 confirms this rule. The panel itself offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which primarily benefits PC gamers, but even with standard television sources or consoles, where it operates at 120 Hz, the motion is fast, sharp and simultaneously smooth, without signs of blurring. This is thanks to the remarkable response time between pixels, which maintains image clarity in every dynamic scene. The manufacturer has also added its own smoother called "Motion Style". In the menu, we find two sliders – the first, responsible for fluidity, allows adjustments to the number of artificially added frames in films. This way, we can choose a raw, cinematic character with a distinctly visible film frame or a more theatrical image with smooth motion. The second slider is for motion blur reduction, particularly useful in sports broadcasts. Here, we definitely recommend setting it to the maximum value, as the effect is truly excellent.

The TCL C655 PRO television offers an almost perfect set of features for gamers, supporting all the key technologies that significantly enhance the gaming experience. The ALLM feature automatically switches the television to low latency mode, resulting in improved responsiveness and minimal signal delay – particularly important in dynamic titles. VRR synchronises the screen refresh rate with the number of frames generated by the console, eliminating screen tearing and thus guaranteeing smoother gameplay.

Support for Dolby Vision in gaming mode allows for more detailed colour and contrast reproduction in games that support this format, while the Game Bar provides quick access to essential settings such as response time and latency level. Unfortunately, the model does not support 4K resolution at 120 Hz, which may disappoint the most demanding gamers. However, for those willing to forgo 4K, support for Full HD and 2K at 120 Hz delivers exceptionally smooth visuals, presenting an attractive alternative for enthusiasts of higher refresh rates.

The Philips OLED820 is one of the most complete televisions for gamers. On board, we find practically everything one could expect: two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps (it's a shame there aren't four), variable refresh rate VRR, automatic game mode ALLM, support for Dolby Vision in games, and a good implementation of the HGiG mode. The television handles lower resolutions at 120 Hz with ease, so one can count on considerable flexibility when choosing different picture modes on the console. Philips also includes a Game Bar – a panel that allows changing picture modes, adding a crosshair, or previewing parameters. Although it looks rather clunky and is less polished than that of the competition, it does its job. In practice, therefore, the OLED820, in addition to a full set of four HDMI 2.1 ports, offers nearly everything a gamer could need.