TCL C655 Pro vs Philips OLED910

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.

The OLED910 is simply an absurdly bright television for an OLED. All thanks to the new panel from LG Display, the Tandem RGB OLED, which Philips has dubbed its "META OLED." It is this panel that allows for over 2000 nits of brightness in films, which not long ago was completely unattainable in OLEDs. The television also deserves high praise for how it handles full-screen scenes drenched in bright light. Generally, in OLEDs, brightness drops significantly during such scenes, but here it remains at an excellent level – around 1400 nits. These are almost reference values, and combined with the excellent colour reproduction at 99% DCI P3 and 82% BT.2020, it gives us an HDR effect that can confidently be called one of the best in the world.

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.

Unfortunately, when it comes to colour reproduction straight out of the box, the Filmmaker mode on the OLED910 performs really poorly. The television overemphasises the blue colour, and at times it looks almost like a shop display mode. This gives the impression that the manufacturer hasn’t quite tuned the device properly. The effect is that the colours look unnatural, and the whole thing resembles a somewhat exaggerated display from a market exhibition. HDR content is presented much better, where, apart from a slight loss of detail in the blacks, there’s not much to complain about. The problem is that in everyday viewing, it’s the SDR materials that matter the most – and on the OLED910, they simply look poor and fall well short of what we would expect from a television of this class.

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.

Fortunately, it quickly turned out that it was not the panel causing the problems, but rather the way Philips factory-calibrated the OLED910. After calibration, the television displayed its full potential, and only then could we see what the new panels produced by LG Display were truly capable of. We primarily adjusted the white balance and brightness characteristics, successfully taming the excessive blue and giving the image a natural appearance. The final effect can be described as excellent. Errors on the Color Checker palette rarely exceeded a value of 3, which in practice means an image close to perfection and colours presented in accordance with the creators' intent. In SDR content, the effect was outstanding, and in HDR, the improvement was even more noticeable – gradients became cleaner, and colours fuller and more accurate. After calibration, the OLED910 transformed from a disappointing television into equipment that can confidently be referred to as a reference in terms of colour quality.

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.

The previously visible colour banding can largely be mitigated thanks to a feature called "distortion reduction." Like in the OLED820, it is best set to a medium level, as it then produces fairly decent results – smoothing out unwanted tonal transitions while not taking away too much detail from the image. Although at times the effect may be slightly too aggressive, this function can be considered useful for everyday viewing.

As for image scaling, the OLED910 performs really well. The test material featuring a model had a soft look characteristic of Philips – at times almost too soft – but this can be easily corrected with the sharpness slider, allowing you to adjust the image to your own preferences. It's also worth noting that the television has no issues with overscan, which still occurs in some competitor models. It's a small detail, but it's pleasing because it means that all content, even the oldest, is displayed as it should be.

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.

OLED910 is a television with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It’s a bit of a shame that Philips didn’t opt for 165 Hz, as we know that the panel used is capable of that. On the other hand, such a bonus would mainly benefit PC gamers, as in everyday use, the most important refresh rate is 120 Hz, which is fully sufficient. Combined with the advantages of the OLED panel – lightning-fast pixel response time and the absence of motion blur, the image is impeccably sharp and quick, even in dynamic action scenes. The traditional motion smoother from Philips, called “Motion Style,” also deserves praise. We can easily adjust it to our preferences: the “Fluidity” slider is responsible for films and allows you to choose between a more “filmy,” cinematic character and a smooth, theatrical image. Meanwhile, the “Motion Blur Reduction” slider is intended for sports, where it’s worth setting it to the maximum value to ensure that the image is clear and distinct during very fast shots.

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 OLED910 is fantastic for gaming. It supports 144 Hz, so if someone has a powerful PC, they can comfortably utilise that potential. On consoles, the most important thing is still 120 Hz, and everything works perfectly here. There's VRR, an automatic gaming mode, and even Dolby Vision in games and HGiG mode, so we really get a full package of gaming features. Philips has also added a Game Bar, which is a quick menu that displays basic information and allows you to enable a few useful things. It may not look as modern as the competition, but it works and fulfils its purpose. The only downside is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are only two, which can be quite disappointing for a TV in this class. If someone connects two consoles and something additional through eARC - like a soundbar (which doesn't make much sense in this model but I'll discuss that in the paragraph about sound) - they'll have to do some adjustments. Other than that, the OLED910 has everything we expect from a gaming television.