TCL C75B vs TCL P7L / P79L

During our test, the TCL C75B "spat out" around 380 nits of brightness. We recorded similar results while watching most of the films we tested. They can be considered average – the television does not perform poorly in this segment, but around 400 nits is definitely too low to fully experience the magic of HDR effects. Of course, these results are better than those of budget models, which can achieve almost half the brightness values. However, for HDR enthusiasts seeking stronger lighting effects and greater realism, the C75B may prove insufficient. On the positive side, it's worth mentioning the DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage of 95%. This is a very good result that easily suffices to enjoy a wide range of colours in content available on popular streaming platforms. Vivid and rich colours are definitely a strong point of this model.

The biggest limitation of the TCL P7L in HDR is simply brightness. The TV does not have much luminance headroom, so strong highlights, the sun or small light sources can't clearly 'pop' out of the picture. As a result, even well-produced HDR material looks fairly restrained and, in terms of dynamics, is closer to good SDR than to what brighter models show. That does not mean the P7L completely fails at HDR. The issue is primarily a lack of backlight power.

Looking at colours, the situation is a little better. The TV covers around 91% of the DCI-P3 gamut and about 68% of the wide BT.2020 colour space, so for this price class the colour range is quite respectable. TCL markets this model as QLED, although the nature of the solution used is closer to backlighting that uses a PFS phosphor than to a classic quantum-dot layer. What matters most to the viewer, however, is the effect: more saturated colours are on offer.

TCL C75B offers several picture modes, but in our opinion, the best choice is the “Film” mode. Although its settings are quite decent, the television struggles with some colour reproduction issues. In our tests, we noticed that the image had a noticeably pinkish tint compared to what could be considered accurate. This effect was particularly evident in skin tones, which appeared unnaturally flushed. The main culprit for this phenomenon turned out to be the white balance, characterised by an excessive amount of blue and red in both HD and 4K HDR materials.

An additional problem was the way brightness was rendered. The gamma, which is responsible for the visibility of details in darker materials, was definitely boosted, causing details in the darkest parts of the screen to be invisible, disappearing into complete blackness (e.g., the lower part of the screen in the comparison photo - around the actress's ear). Similarly, the situation was reflected in the EOTF curve, which was below the correct value, suggesting that we might encounter a similar problem in 4K HDR content.

Thanks to our experience and the right tools, we decided to take matters into our own hands and see how much we could extract from this model after professional calibration. We describe the details in the next section.

In Film mode the TCL P7L performs quite respectably without major changes to the settings, particularly with ordinary SDR material. White balance is relatively even, though as brightness increases there is a slight rise in red and blue and a touch too little green. This does not, however, produce a strongly visible tint and most colours remain close to their reference points. The Colour Checker confirms this, with a large portion of errors falling below the level that should be particularly noticeable during normal viewing. We have more reservations about the gamma response. In the darkest parts of the image the TV runs it noticeably above the reference value, so some shadow detail can be a little too subdued. The characteristic then calms down and across much of the range it is close to the intended behaviour. As a result SDR generally looks natural, but in dark scenes the P7L can lose some subtlety.

In HDR the factory calibration is less precise. As brightness increases the excess of blue becomes more pronounced, which can make the image look cooler than it should. The number of larger colour deviations also grows, particularly in brighter hues. As for the EOTF curve itself, it is handled fairly conservatively, with the TV showing the image darker than the reference across much of the range. For such an inexpensive model, the factory Film mode settings are not bad.

After calibrating the TCL C75B, it has clearly improved in terms of colour reproduction. Although the television does not offer many options for adjusting the white balance, we managed to enhance its settings quite significantly. As a result, the image is no longer excessively pink, and the colours now look much more natural and harmonious.

The gamma jump, which was previously an issue, has not completely disappeared, but we have managed to reduce it considerably. This has made details in dark scenes more visible – both in HD and 4K HDR materials.

Unfortunately, the lack of local dimming is still noticeable. The "blooming black" effect remains, but that is a limitation of the display itself. Nevertheless, the colours after calibration look far better, and the image is much more enjoyable to watch.

After calibration the TCL P7L can deliver a genuinely pleasant picture, especially with conventional SDR material. We managed to even out the white balance very well, and the gamma curve now tracks close to the target value of 2.4. This is also reflected in the colour measurements: most errors have fallen noticeably, and in everyday viewing it is hard to point to any obvious inaccuracies. Films, series, YouTube and ordinary broadcast TV therefore look more natural, without unnecessary warmth or a cool tint. For a model in this price bracket the SDR performance is really very good.

With HDR the situation becomes more complicated. Calibration helped improve the white balance and tidy up some deviations, but here the panel's limitations become increasingly apparent. The P7L has relatively low brightness and cannot maintain adequate luminance for more saturated colours, so some errors remain even after careful tuning. In other words, settings can improve the way the TV interprets the signal, but they cannot overcome its physical limits. That is why calibration makes most sense for this model primarily in SDR.

TCL C75B has a tone transition smoothing function, but unfortunately, we cannot commend it. Regardless of the selected level – low or high – tone transitions in older materials remained visible, as if the function wasn't working at all. It's hard to say anything positive about it, as in practice it seems completely useless.

The image scaling is better. The television performs quite decently, although on thinner elements, like branches in the background, you can notice slight jaggedness. However, this is not something that significantly interferes with daily viewing.

Unfortunately, a bigger problem turned out to be overscan, which is cutting off the edges of the image. In our tests, there were instances where news tickers or other elements near the edge of the screen were cut off. This is definitely something to pay attention to, especially if we use the television for watching news programmes or content with text on the screen.

In this respect the TCL P7L performs surprisingly well, especially for such an inexpensive TV. The banding-reduction feature, which in many budget models does little or nothing, actually manages to improve the picture here. It does not remove all banding entirely, but it can noticeably reduce posterisation and make more challenging gradients look more natural. At this price point that’s a genuinely pleasant surprise. Upscaling itself also performs well. Lower-resolution material is scaled correctly, without over-sharpening or adding artificial outlines around objects. Of course the P7L won’t turn a very poor source into a 4K-quality image, but for regular TV the result is simply solid. For a model in this class there is little to criticise.

The TCL C75B definitely has something to offer gamers. The television is equipped with a panel that can display images with a refresh rate of 144 Hz in 4K, and even 240 Hz in Full HD. These are really impressive results, especially for a model from the entry-level range.

In addition, there are features for improving fluidity and reducing motion blur in films. The "Motion" option allows precise adjustment of the effect on a 10-point scale, which offers great personalisation possibilities - everyone can set the fluidity as they like.

The TCL P7L uses a panel with a native 60 Hz refresh rate at 4K resolution, and that's how it should be regarded in everyday use. When watching films the TV mainly offers frame interpolation, so it can smooth motion and reduce the characteristic judder, but it does not deliver the fluidity typical of true 120 Hz panels.

The TCL C75B is undoubtedly a television designed with gamers in mind. It offers nearly everything that even the most demanding console users could need. With the implementation of fully capable HDMI 2.1, the television supports features like ALLM (Automatic Low Latency Mode) and VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) – operating within the full potential of the television, up to 240 Hz in Full HD resolution.

Additionally, the television supports advanced HDR technologies, including Dolby Vision and HGiG, allowing for even better detail reproduction in HDR-optimised games. The C75B is also equipped with a very convenient interface for gamers in the form of Game Bar, where all key parameters such as refresh rate, input lag, and image settings can be checked – all within a single click.

In a nutshell: the C75B is a great choice for gamers, offering a wide range of features that allow users to fully enjoy the capabilities of modern consoles and games.

For such an inexpensive TV, the P7L has quite a lot to offer gamers. It has ALLM, VRR, Dolby Vision for gaming, and TCL also includes its Game Bar, which lets you quickly check the key information or change some settings without leaving the game. Not everything is perfect, though, because HGiG doesn’t work here as it should, but at this price point it’s hard to complain about the feature set. The most interesting part starts when you give up 4K. At that resolution the TV runs at up to 60 Hz, but at 1440p and 1080p it can display at 120 Hz. And that’s not just a line in the specs. In fast-paced games that support that frame rate you can really notice the improvement in smoothness, so if you value smoother motion more than maximum image detail, that mode can make a lot of sense. Of course, that doesn’t turn the P7L into a proper 120 Hz TV. Even so, those extra modes are exactly what make the P7L perform very well for gaming.