TCL C855 vs Hisense U7S Pro

TCL C855 delivers a highly varied HDR effect. On one hand, the television truly shines, while on the other, it resembles a lower model with FALD backlighting. This situation is, however, regularly observed in this brand, so it was not a surprise to us. The first and last scenes, featuring large elements of light, look almost phenomenal, "shining" with brightness levels of 1470 and 1820 nits respectively. Such effects will certainly cause more than one person to squint, while simultaneously feeling the extraordinary dynamism of the scene itself. You can truly feel as if you are inside the film. The situation changes dramatically when small or minor elements with high luminance surrounded by black appear on the screen. The TCL C855, in order to avoid the halo effect, significantly reduces brightness to a level of even 240 nits, which is a disappointing result, causing the film to not appear as if it was recorded in HDR. The HDR effect in the TCL C855 makes watching dynamic scenes more engaging, allowing the viewer to feel as though they are part of the action. Even with smaller elements of high luminance, the television manages to maintain details without excessive dimming. Moreover, the TCL C855 test shows that the brightness of the image is adjusted for scenes with a large amount of detail, which enhances viewing comfort.

Let's start with the fact that the U7S Pro is an impressively bright television. In calibrated mode our measurement equipment indicated a staggering 2,200 nits of peak brightness. This is an outstanding result, especially given that this model is positioned more as a mid-range set. However, as we know, peak brightness on test patterns is one thing and real film scenes another. Unfortunately, in actual video material the backlight output drops noticeably. Admittedly, in the most demanding moments the TV can still exceed 1,000 nits, which is still a great result and fits the mastering standards of most HDR films, but aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms turn out to be the real challenge. Because of them, small bright details, such as stars or the moon in a night sky, are noticeably dimmed. The TV tries to maintain deep blacks at all costs, which is understandable, but unfortunately this comes at the expense of the dynamic impact and the brightness of the HDR effect. The colour reproduction is worth praising. The new U7S Pro is a QLED design that provides very wide colour gamut coverage. Unlike last year’s model (U7Q Pro), this year’s variant is a 'true' QLED rather than a solution based on a PFS filter. As a result, colour saturation has increased noticeably and coverage of the most demanding BT.2020 colour space has exceeded 81%.

The best factory mode for the TCL C855 is "Film," and it is on this mode that we conducted all our tests. Like any mode predefined by the manufacturer, it had its drawbacks that are worth correcting to achieve an image as close as possible to what the film producer intended. We will examine the colour characteristics in both SDR and HDR materials. Looking at the first, we see a noticeable dominance of green in the white balance, which, as you might imagine, resulted in an unpleasant greenish tint across the entire image. Observing the very important gamma chart, which is responsible for the image's contrast, we see a significant deviation from the reference line marked at 2.4. From the left, we can observe a strong spike in the measured value, which at this point caused the image to be overly contrasted, merging details into a dark blob. This situation persisted for quite some time, up to 20% of the chart's value, before then dipping below the reference. This, in turn, meant a brightening of the image and a significant drop in contrast. The factory mode performed slightly better in HDR materials, as the white balance looked quite good, except for the second half, where green once again took precedence. Looking at the EOTF curve, which, unlike gamma, shows the rate of brightness increase, we see primarily two errors: the darkest scenes were too dark, and the brightest ones were overexposed. This was something we could also observe in the scene from the film "Pan" in the paragraph checking the TV's HDR.

We tested the U7S Pro, as we always do, in the best factory-calibrated picture mode, namely Filmmaker Mode. The colours on display can be judged in two ways. The most disappointing was the preset intended for viewing SDR content, that is conventional television, YouTube and other less demanding material. The image there was noticeably yellowish, which turned out to be a direct consequence of an incorrectly set white balance. As our graphs show, this was due to a large deficiency of the blue component, which drastically affected the overall colour temperature. You can see this clearly on the ColorChecker charts and on the colour gamut plots themselves, where most samples shifted towards yellow. Fortunately the factory HDR mode performed much better; there the colour errors hovered around a Delta E of 3, which is already a very solid result.

TCL, like the vast majority of manufacturers, provides advanced calibration tools in its televisions. Here we find 2- and 20-point adjustments for greyscale as well as an advanced colour management system. The results, as you can see, are very good, and in SDR materials we have significantly approached the reference image. We eliminated both the green tint and the gamma issue, although there is still a slight "kink" at the very beginning. The performance with HDR materials was somewhat poorer, as the TCL C855 did not allow us to model them adequately. We were only able to slightly adjust the EOTF curve and significantly improve the colours themselves.

We know, however, that the company Hisense is capable of much more – as previous generations have demonstrated – which is why we couldn't simply overlook the factory shortcomings of the U7S Pro model in everyday content. As is often the case, the television underwent professional calibration. The conclusions? This process brought about a colossal change. After manually adjusting the white balance and supplementing the deficiencies in the blue component, the annoying yellow tint disappeared as if by magic. White became naturally pure, and skin tones gained the appropriate, healthy hue. Importantly, calibration not only tamed the capricious SDR mode but also allowed us to extract the maximum potential from the panel, reducing average colour reproduction errors to levels nearly imperceptible to the human eye. The only thing we must criticise after the whole process is the very nature of the Mini-LED backlight and its specific interaction with the HDR signal. The aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms significantly interfere with the EOTF brightness curve. As a result, the backlight does not always work perfectly with the creator's intention – depending on the scene being viewed, the curve can noticeably deviate either above or below the reference, which at times disrupts the ideal dynamics of HDR imagery.

Once again, we will take a look at the function of smoothing tonal transitions, but this time also at image scaling. The latter is particularly important when watching lower-quality materials, such as certain television programmes or older films. We will focus on the function responsible for tonal transitions. Interestingly, just like in the scenes of the previous test, it performed excellently and smoothed out practically all the inconsistencies; however, here it had problems. Using the menu responsible for this function, we found that no setting - even the strongest - was of any help.

Image scaling in TCL C855 is described as one of the best we have had the opportunity to test so far. The image is sharp, but in a way that could be described as natural for our eyes. Even the small, fine branches do not have jagged edges, and there is no white halo around figures, which is characteristic of inferior scaling systems.

The digital processing of lower-quality signals is of a very high standard here, all thanks to the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor used in the U7S Pro. Upscaling itself also performs very well, meaning the TV's ability to lift lower-resolution sources to 4K is strong. We didn't notice any unnatural, sharp contours on the screen, and our test image featuring a model simply looked attractive.

The maximum refresh rate we can set on the TCL C855 is 144 Hz. Naturally, this is only possible by connecting the TCL C855 television to a very powerful PC. Otherwise, we will be operating at a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, which is recommended if we primarily want to watch sports or content with a lot of motion dynamics. For those requiring high image fluidity, the manufacturer has implemented a multi-stage motion smoother. This has been divided into two separate sliders regulating the sharpness of moving images (Motion Blur Reduction) and flicker (Flicker Reduction). Both sliders can be set in the range from 0 to 10, with each increment affecting the level of smoothing, so everyone can find their sweet spot. We present a setting that allows for slight smoothing without the soap opera effect.

The panel of the TCL C855 features a very good response time. This is particularly important as VA panels often have issues with so-called ghosting, which is the effect where a black halo can be seen behind a fast-moving object.

Hisense U7S Pro uses a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz at 4K, and in game mode it can even reach 330 Hz at Full HD. However, it's worth remembering that these top figures matter little in everyday use, because most content is limited to a maximum of 120 Hz (for example when playing on a console). Even so, the TV handles motion quite well and performs very respectably for an LCD design.

It's hard to fault the smoothness itself. In the menu you'll find a motion smoothing feature called "Motion Enhancement", which hides two sliders: blur reduction and judder reduction. These allow manual configuration of the smoother, which works well for both films and sport, effectively improving the raw TV signal.

The TCL C855 television is equipped with full HDMI 2.1 connectors with a full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s. During our tests, we confirmed the seamless operation of all functions that are part of this standard. As can be seen, all checkboxes light up green, which will certainly be appreciated by gamers, both console and those using the television as a monitor for their computer. Additionally, the TCL C855 supports both AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA's G-Sync, which can be easily activated in the graphics card settings. Those with a very powerful setup can send a 144 Hz signal to the C855, which this television handles effortlessly. It is also worth mentioning the implementation of the HGIG mode, which, however, due to the flaw of the “Game” mode, is overly brightened, making it difficult to configure properly on screen. Fortunately, the television performs excellently with the Dolby Vision format.

The TCL C855 is one of the first manufacturers to equip its televisions with a special GameBar, which allows for extensive setting changes on the fly, without the need to exit the game. It features functions such as an additional crosshair grid, black level correction, and settings for people with disabilities. In the picture, we can see the next generation of this solution.

In summary, the TCL C855 television will be an ideal solution for those seeking a screen for all sorts of electronic gaming. Thanks to all the features supporting such entertainment, it is incredibly engaging. It is also important to highlight the very low input lag, regardless of the selected settings, including with the HDR Dolby Vision format.

If you plan to connect a console or PC to the U7S Pro, you'll be more than satisfied. This TV is excellent for gamers. Hisense didn't spare any expense and fitted it with four HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gbps bandwidth, so you don't need to juggle cables, as each port supports the full feature set. It offers automatic low-latency mode (ALLM) and VRR, which operates across a wide range from 48 Hz up to a whopping 330 Hz. Of course, that 330 Hz is for now a bit of a gimmick for owners of powerful PCs, since consoles will still be limited to 120 Hz, but it's good to have that headroom for the future. The Game Bar is also very useful while gaming. It's a handy on-screen menu for players where, without leaving the main TV settings, you can quickly change picture mode, enable a crosshair in the centre of the screen, or even switch to an ultra-wide display aspect, which PC simulator fans will appreciate. The only drawback to be aware of is an incorrect implementation of the HGiG standard in games. The TV ignores the console's HDR10 instructions and keeps forcefully altering the image in an attempt to "improve" it, which makes proper HDR setup in the console menu (where you set brightness using the symbols/checkerboard pattern) somewhat more awkward.