TCL P755 vs Samsung S85H

TCL P755 provides average HDR effect quality. The maximum brightness of the television is slightly below 300 nits. Such brightness limits the intensity of bright areas in HDR content. In practice, this means that bright elements may not be sufficiently pronounced, which affects the overall impression of contrast. However, the television offers a wide coverage of the DCI P3 colour gamut, reaching around 93%. As a result, colours are vibrant and saturated, significantly improving colour reproduction quality in HDR content. Despite the limited brightness, the wide colour range allows for richer and more realistic shades.

Interestingly, the new WOLED SE panel has brought a slight improvement in brightness to the S85 series. In the same movie scenes last year's model stayed closer to around 700 nits, while the S85H can reach roughly 800 nits. This isn't a change that completely transforms HDR perception, but that extra brightness is noticeable, especially with pinpoint highlights, specular reflections and stronger special effects. Around 800 nits is already a very good result for an entry-level OLED and in most films it's enough for HDR to have the proper impact. Bright elements can stand out clearly against perfect black, and it's still that contrast that does most of the work. You do need to bear in mind a typical limitation of organic panel technology. When a very bright scene covers a large part of the screen, brightness can drop by almost half. That's the effect of the panel's protection mechanisms, which limit its power with large bright areas.

Colours

The S85H can deliver very pleasing, saturated colours and in most HDR films it looks really good in that respect. We measured around 95% DCI-P3 coverage, so the palette most commonly used in movies is reproduced to a very high degree. Skin tones, greens and stronger reds still have the right intensity, and in normal viewing it's hard to fault them. Only when you look wider at BT.2020 do the limitations of the new OLED SE panel become apparent. Coverage was about 70%, a little less than previous-generation WOLEDs and noticeably less than QD-OLED panels. In films this is not a big loss, because most productions rarely use such highly saturated colours. You're more likely to notice it in games, where creators often opt for more intense colours.

The colour reproduction in the P755 in "Movie" mode, although it is the best factory setting, leaves much to be desired. The biggest problem is the white balance, where the graph clearly shows a spike in red and a drop in green. This leads to a shift in colours towards red, making the colours on the screen less natural and potentially looking incorrect, especially in scenes with a white or neutral background. This is confirmed by the "Colour Checker" test, which reveals that the colours are indeed skewed towards red, affecting the realism of the image and reducing the perception of colour depth. In terms of contrast, the gamma chart analysis shows considerable fluctuations, particularly in dark areas of the image, where values drop below the optimal level of 2.4. This results in darker areas being displayed brighter than they should be. Additionally, the EOTF curve, responsible for brightness reproduction, is slightly above the reference curve. The graph shows a slight boost in brightness to around 50%, followed by only a minor decrease. This leads to excessive brightness enhancement in the mid-tones of the image and may result in loss of detail and distortion in brighter scenes.

For colour evaluation we naturally chose Filmmaker mode, and in SDR our S85H sample was very well set up from the factory. The largest deviation is in the white balance, where, as brightness rises, there is a slight lack of blue. In practice this means whites and greys have a subtly warmer tint than they should. However, this is not a major fault and during normal viewing it is unlikely to be very noticeable. Gamma also stays close to the reference value, so the image is neither overly bright nor unnecessarily dim. The S85H’s SDR picture quality is therefore very good straight out of the box. A few more imperfections appear in HDR. Here the white balance drifts more with increasing brightness, blue starts to dominate and the red component is clearly lacking. This also translates into larger errors for some colours. They do not yet amount to shifts that completely change the character of the image, but in direct comparison with a reference the difference is easier to spot. Overall, Filmmaker mode is a very good starting point before professional calibration.

After calibration, the colour reproduction on the television improves significantly when it comes to SDR content. The colour curves are now close to the ideal value, and the gamma is more stable. Although the drop at the beginning of the graph to value is still present, the overall accuracy of colour reproduction is much better. The "Colour Checker" test shows that most colour samples have errors below level 2, indicating improved colour fidelity. A few deviations are present, but generally, the colours are now more realistic and consistent with reality.

Calibration also brings improvement in HDR content. The white balance has been improved, resulting in a more natural colour reproduction. The EOTF curve, although now closer to the reference curve, still shows a slight boost in brightness at the beginning of the graph. This leads to minor distortions in very bright scenes, but the overall tonal quality and detail have been enhanced. Dynamic tone mapping works more effectively, improving image quality in bright areas and retaining more detail.

Although the device's picture does not achieve complete perfection, calibration brings significant improvement. After adjusting the settings, the television presents itself much better, offering a more realistic and accurate colour reproduction in SDR and HDR content. While some shortcomings can still be noticed, calibration effectively eliminates many previous issues, ensuring better image quality and more natural colours.

Calibration yields very good results on the S85H. First and foremost, it was possible to set the white balance almost perfectly, which removes the slightly too warm character of the image that was previously visible in SDR. Colour reproduction itself also improves markedly, with most errors falling to a very low level and in everyday viewing it is hard to speak of any noticeable inaccuracies. You can also make significant improvements in HDR, although some issues remain due to the TV's inherent characteristics. The S85H does not always hold the brightness curve perfectly; the darkest parts are slightly lifted, and as you approach the panel's limits small deviations are visible in the brightest areas. Added to this is the limited coverage of the wider BT.2020 gamut, which of course cannot be overcome by any calibration. Despite this, the end result is very good and, after calibration, the S85H can produce a really well-tuned, natural image.

The "Gradual Smoothing" function works quite well, effectively eliminating visible boundaries between different shades of the same colour. Thanks to it, tonal transitions are smoother. Unfortunately, this function is not available in HDR mode, which may affect the quality of tonal gradations in higher dynamic range materials.

When it comes to image scaling, the television does not perform at its best. There are noticeable edge cuts, particularly evident on the figure of the model and the branches of trees. The blurring of details in these areas affects the overall sharpness of the image. This may be noticeable when watching content in a lower resolution. Moreover, SD quality images are displayed with slight cropping at the top as well as the bottom.

Samsung has fitted the S85H with the same proprietary AI NQ4 Gen2 processor used in last year’s S85F and, in terms of digital image processing, it performs quite well. Upscaling is one of the model’s stronger points. Lower-resolution material is well sharpened, edges look natural, and the picture does not feel overly artificial. One caveat is a typical Samsung trait: at very low resolutions you cannot completely disable overscan, so the TV may slightly crop the left edge of the image. The "noise reduction" function also works very well, smoothing weaker tonal transitions. The processor can effectively remove posterisation and other imperfections visible in lower-quality material. However, you need to be careful with the strength of this function, because Samsung can be quite aggressive here. When it is activated, small image details, such as the texture of skin or clothing, can start to disappear along with the unwanted artefacts.

The television offers decent, although not perfect, results in terms of motion fluidity. For films, the television features a “Flicker Reduction” function that allows for motion fluidity adjustment on a scale from 1 to 10. With this option, we can customise the appearance of the image to a cinematic or more theatrical preference (with a slower or faster pace).

The S85H uses an OLED panel, so it performs excellently for motion blur. Pixels respond virtually instantly, so moving objects do not leave the characteristic trailing seen on some LCD TVs. This is especially noticeable in sport and fast-paced games, where the picture remains very clean even during rapid motion. The panel itself runs at 120 Hz. That is more than sufficient for films, TV series, sport and console gaming. It is a pity Samsung did not include a higher refresh rate aimed at PC gamers, as more and more TVs now offer 144 or even 165 Hz at 4K. However, that does not affect motion handling in films or sport.

You also have a classic motion-smoothing feature with two settings, blur reduction and judder reduction. So you can decide whether films should retain their cinematic 24 frames per second or whether you prefer to smooth them a little. The S85H gives plenty of freedom here, and the interpolation works well and, with sensible settings, does not generate too many artefacts.

The device offers a range of features useful for gamers, such as ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), Dolby Vision for gamers, and Game Bar. ALLM automatically switches the television to low latency mode, significantly improving response to commands from the controller and minimising input lag. VRR synchronises the screen refresh rate with the number of frames generated by the console, eliminating screen tearing and providing smoother gameplay. Dolby Vision for gamers enhances picture quality, offering better colour and contrast reproduction in games that support this format. The Game Bar feature allows quick access to game settings and monitoring of key parameters such as reaction time.

However, the television has certain limitations. The 60 Hz panel prevents the display of higher refresh rate signals at various resolutions, which may affect the smoothness of the image in dynamic games. Additionally, the lack of support for G-Sync technology for PC may impact gameplay quality on a computer. It is also worth noting that the HGiG mode, which aims to improve picture quality in HDR games, does not function correctly in this model, negatively affecting the visual experience in HDR-supported games.

The Samsung S85H is very well prepared for gaming, essentially regardless of whether you connect a console or a PC. The manufacturer hasn't skimped on ports and all four HDMI ports support full HDMI 2.1. That means you can use 4K at 120 Hz, VRR and ALLM without worrying which input your console is plugged into. With multiple devices that matters a lot, because you don't have to choose between a console, a PC or a soundbar connected via eARC. The feature set itself is very comprehensive. The S85H supports VRR, FreeSync and automatic game mode switching, and Samsung also offers its extensive Game Bar where you can quickly check key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. The only notable omission is Dolby Vision, which will matter mainly to Xbox owners. This, incidentally, is typical of Samsung TVs. Game Motion Plus performs very well, and it's one of the features that have set Samsung TVs apart for years. It smooths motion in games running at 30 or 60 fps, but does so without as much increase in input lag as a conventional motion interpolator. In practice, with slower-paced games, racing titles or action games this can really improve the perceived motion, especially if you're sensitive to low frame rates.