TCL X11L vs Samsung OLED S95H (S99H) (QD-OLED)

Such a large number of zones did not only result in deep, inky blacks, but also in screen brightness. The X11L is an extremely bright television. Peak brightness can easily exceed 4,000 nits, and with the special "Boost" mode active it can, in specific conditions, even reach marketing figures around 9,000 to 10,000 nits. It is undoubtedly one of the brightest, if not the brightest, screens on the market. So how do these numbers relate to real film measurements? The results are very good, though of course far from the marketing claims. The brightness we measured in real film scenes was around 2,000 to 3,000 nits. That is an excellent result, given that the vast majority of content available is recorded and produced for those brightness levels, even the rare material mastered to 4,000 nits. But it also clearly shows that the figures the manufacturer touts do not always translate directly to the video material you have at home. The only "quirk" (if you can call it that) is that when very small, bright elements appear on screen, their brightness falls below 2,000 nits. The dimming algorithm does this deliberately to preserve deep blacks and minimise halo. This is entirely understandable, and the effect is still very impressive, but it also shows that even with such powerful hardware, Mini-LED technology has its limits and does not always work without compromise. In HDR itself, brightness is not the only thing that matters; colour saturation and the colours themselves do too. On the X11L these are very good thanks to the new Super QLED (SQD) quantum dots. The application of a new coating filter has delivered excellent results in covering the P3 colour gamut and the ultra-wide BT.2020. Although it does not reach the promised 100% of BT.2020, figures around 89 to 90% can be considered excellent. Colours are not far off those of RGB Mini-LED screens. We can even say they are more stable, due to a less demanding algorithm that RGB screens often struggle with.

When it comes to brightness alone, the S99H is an astronomically bright TV. Its peak brightness in film scenes can exceed 2800 nits. Whatever the scene, you can count on powerful HDR effects that are almost blinding, exactly what you expect from a top-tier screen. It is the nature of OLED panels that they cannot sustain the same extreme brightness in very bright, full‑screen frames as they can with small highlights, but the results are still excellent. In a bright scene from the film The Meg, the sun still exceeded 2200 nits. That means the S99H managed to sustain higher brightness than most Mini LED displays on the market. In terms of brightness, the S99H is currently the best OLED TV we have tested.

Colour gamut coverage

The S99H also handles colour extremely well, which is a direct result of the QD-OLED panel used here. Whether the test scenarios were synthetic test patterns or measurements taken with film material playing in the background, the results remained at a very high level. The S99H easily covers almost 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut, and for the more demanding BT.2020 colour space it reaches nearly 90%. That is absolute top-tier performance. These results match what we have seen in the new SQD-Mini-LED screens, and in real film scenes even outperform RGB Mini LED displays.

Turning on what should theoretically be the best Filmmaker Mode, you expect a one-to-one image of what the director saw. On the X11L it's fairly good, but this mode has obvious faults, which our measurements immediately exposed. Let's start with SDR. Both the white balance and the gamma are simply misaligned. The whites contain too much blue and red, giving the screen a slight pink tint. That also affected the gamma, which instead of holding the cinematic 2.4 drifts closer to 2.2. What did that result in? The whole image is therefore more pushed and looks artificially brighter. The worst comes at the end, namely the HDR measurements. Apart from this slight white-balance shift, the X11L fails on the brightness-management curve, the so-called EOTF. What we saw in the measurements immediately explains what we noticed earlier in films. The image is unnaturally brightened because the curve is massively overshot above the reference. The TV simply blatantly lifts the dark parts of the picture to create a "wow" effect, completely ignoring the director's intent.

Samsung offers a whole host of picture modes and features, but as usual we recommend choosing Filmmaker Mode, especially if you want the most faithful rendering of the filmmakers' intent. Out of the box the TV is tuned very well, although it has minor shortcomings. These are mainly a slight drift in the white balance in SDR content and a slightly low gamma. As a result, in darker viewing conditions the picture can be a little too bright compared with the reference gamma of 2.4, which is the standard for watching films with the lights off. These are, of course, minor points, because overall colour reproduction remains at a very good level and the errors in the ColorChecker measurements are not large. However, we know that with a screen of the S99H's class you can, and arguably should, expect even more, which is why we carried out a professional calibration.

After professional calibration we primarily managed to fully tame the SDR signal. Here the X11L responded perfectly to our adjustments. We were able to completely correct the white balance, remove that pink tint and set gamma to a stable 2.4. After that the picture finally became consistent with the director's vision, natural and free of artificial boosts. We also made minimal tweaks to HDR, but the TV's biggest flaw remained unchanged. It's of course about how the X11L manages its brightness and how much it overshoots the EOTF curve. Unfortunately, TCL provides virtually no tools to adjust this parameter. Even during professional calibration the software offers no way to rein in this curve, so the TV will always tend to brighten the image in HDR on its own.

After professional calibration, FILMMAKER mode looks practically perfect. Because Samsung offers a rich set of advanced calibration features, we were able to fine-tune the colours to an almost perfect level. Above all, we managed to even out the white balance and the gamma curve, which resulted in noticeably improved contrast and proper image modelling. In this tuned picture profile there really isn't a single thing to criticise or call a flaw. After calibration, the S99H can deliver an essentially reference-quality image.

Much like the C8L model we tested earlier, TCL has delivered a substantial upgrade in its flagship X series. It's all thanks to the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor used in this model. Thanks to it, features for smoothing tonal transitions and even upscaling content to higher resolutions finally look as they should. The biggest Achilles' heel of previous TCL models has at last been addressed. The processor handles digital processing superbly and, in this respect, the TV no longer lags behind flagship models from Korea or even the most refined ones from Japan.

The proprietary Samsung NQ4 Gen3 processor is responsible for upscaling and digital image processing. It handles upscaling lower-resolution material to 4K very well. The picture is clear without looking artificial or overly sharp. The only rather specific drawback appears with very old material recorded at 480p or below. In such cases the TV can slightly crop the edges of the picture.

The processor also copes quite well with artefacts visible in lower bit-rate material, for example heavily compressed YouTube videos. The noise reduction function effectively smooths the image and reduces posterisation, but it operates quite aggressively. It can remove not only unwanted artefacts but also some fine detail, and even natural film grain. Wanting to preserve the source material as faithfully as possible, we decided not to use it. However, if someone prefers a clean, as-smooth-as-possible picture over retaining every detail, it may prove useful.

From a specification standpoint the X11L can impress, supporting refresh rates up to 144 Hz at 4K, and it can be pushed to as much as 288 Hz in Full HD. However, from a real-world usage perspective we were most interested in how the screen performs at 120 Hz. After all, that is the limit for today’s hardware, with current-generation consoles leading the way. How does that look in practice? Even though it uses a VA panel, the screen does not exhibit significant smearing. With very fast-moving objects you can notice a slight trailing, but it is subtle enough that it hardly stands out while gaming or watching sport. The motion smoothing feature called "Motion Clarity" is also very useful here, allowing you to adjust motion smoothness to your preference. Recommended settings can be found in the picture.

Another major advantage of organic OLED panels is their excellent motion handling. Thanks to the pixels' virtually instantaneous response time, the Samsung S99H exhibits virtually no motion blur. Fast-moving objects do not produce visible halos or trailing outlines, so the television performs very well for both watching sport and gaming. One characteristic of OLED screens compared with LCDs, however, is the way they render low-frame-rate material. With very slow camera movement the image can appear noticeably more 'choppy'. This can, however, be fairly effectively mitigated using a frame-interpolation system. Samsung lets you adjust judder reduction and blur reduction separately, so it's easy to find a compromise between smoother motion and preserving the cinematic character of the content.

For gamers the X11L is simply a superb screen. TCL has already accustomed us to the fact that it packs virtually every available feature into its products, and the flagship from the X series is no different. Thanks to the new processor, the X11L has as many as four HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gbps bandwidth. Naturally, HDMI 2.1 brings a set of very useful features, such as Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and VRR frame synchronisation, covering the full refresh range up to 288 Hz. All these features can be conveniently controlled from the dedicated Game Bar. Interestingly, its appearance can be customised to your taste; there are three preset themes to choose from, directly referencing the Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox consoles. And speaking of Xbox, the X11L also supports Dolby Vision Gaming without any issues.

When gaming in the standard HDR10 format, however, you need to bear in mind the specific tuning of the brightness curve, which can prove troublesome during initial setup. Although the TV supports HGiG, configuring everything via the PlayStation or Xbox system menu can be difficult. The screen’s algorithms tend to artificially brighten the test checkerboard pattern, making it really hard to hit the correct white clipping point by eye. For HDR10 to look correct, we suggest manually setting the console brightness in the console menu to around 2,500–3,000 nits.

The Samsung S99H is also a great TV for gamers. It offers almost every possible and useful feature... well, except for the obvious lack of Dolby Vision for the Xbox console. It's equipped with four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports that offer the full 48 Gbps. This lets you use VRR frame-rate synchronization and the automatic game mode (ALLM) without any problems. This year Samsung also has no issues properly supporting HGiG, so HDR setup on a console is quick and straightforward. Samsung's TVs are also known for interesting extras. In the Game Bar menu you'll find options to add an on-screen crosshair, enlarge the minimap or change the displayed image's aspect ratio (PC).

Particularly noteworthy is Samsung's Game Motion Plus feature. It's Samsung's proprietary motion-smoothing system that uses interpolation to increase smoothness in games. Input lag then rises to around 40 to 50 ms (depending on the strength of the setting), which is an excellent result compared with the competition. The system makes gameplay noticeably smoother. So if someone has their eye on a demanding game (e.g. GTA 6 😉) that runs on a console at only 30 frames per second, the S99H can display it much more smoothly than competing models.