Samsung Q7F vs TCL C7K / QM7K 55"-85"

Unfortunately, the Samsung Q7F is not one of the bright televisions, and this directly affects the quality of HDR movies. The peak brightness of the panel is only about 250 nits, which is definitely too low to speak of true cinematic experiences. In practice, the image in HDR content does not differ significantly from classic SDR, making it hard to talk about any "wow effect" that usually accompanies us while watching such films. During testing movie scenes, the image simply looked dim, and brightness almost invariably hovered around the mentioned 250 nits. The worst performance was observed in shots with small, intensely glowing elements – the applied global dimming technique reacted very aggressively, dimming the entire screen to maintain the black effect. On the plus side, it is worth noting the presence of a QLED coating that expands the color palette. As a budget QLED model, the Q7F performs quite decently here: its DCI-P3 color coverage is about 93%, and BT.2020 reaches 70%. This means that colors, despite the low brightness, can look quite vivid and attractive.

In terms of brightness, the models from 55 to 85 inches in the C7K series are truly impressive. In the best testing conditions, the 65-inch screen achieved over 1200 nits, which practically means that the brightest scenes can dazzle with almost cinematic brilliance. These are not just dry numbers from measurements – during screenings, white skies, explosions, or light reflections on water looked incredibly striking, often giving the impression that the television exceeds its price class. This is particularly effective in scenes with a large area of illumination, where the screen is filled with intense brightness – such as in sun-drenched shots or during dynamic action sequences. Viewers looking for strong HDR will definitely be satisfied.

However, scenes requiring precise control of backlighting – with small points of light on a dark background – are more challenging. Here the C7K, despite having over a thousand zones, can still dim brightness to maintain deep blacks. The effect is that in films like Sicario 2 or Life of Pi, some details, such as a distant lantern or single reflections, can be less defined or blend in with the surroundings. This is a compromise inherent to MiniLED technology – it provides excellent image depth and blacks at a level that ordinary LCDs do not offer, but this comes at the cost of limited visibility of the smallest lights.

The factory color reproduction in the Samsung Q7F definitely isn't one of its strong points. In Filmmaker mode, which theoretically should be closest to neutral, the white balance issue is immediately noticeable. There's too much red on the screen, while blue is noticeably lacking. The effects of this are very easy to see – white, instead of being neutral, takes on warm, almost slightly orange tones. Over time, this makes the entire image look somewhat unnatural, and bright areas of the scene can seem unrealistic. The problems become even more apparent in HDR content. The graphs show that the TV has significant errors in the Color Checker palette, which translates to visible inaccuracies in the real image. In practice, this means that colors are not presented as they should be. The Q7F also heavily manipulates brightness; darker elements are overly boosted, causing them to lose their cinematic feel, while bright parts can appear dimmed. As a result, the image seems flattened, and instead of helping to bring out details, contrast only highlights its own limitations. This is particularly frustrating in HDR materials, as every detail matters there. In scenes where a subtle play of light and shadow should be felt, the Q7F either overdoes the brightening or, conversely, suppresses elements that were meant to draw the eye. This causes the image to lose its depth, and instead of cinematic realism, we get more of a simplification effect.

The novelty in TCL televisions for 2025 is the long-awaited Filmmaker mode, which until now could be found in most competitive brands. This is great news because this mode is considered the most faithful to the original vision of the creators and is often recommended by enthusiasts of good picture quality. Unfortunately – as is often the case – the mere presence of this mode does not guarantee perfection. The Filmmaker mode in the TCL C7K is not free from flaws. One could point out the incorrect white balance, particularly the slight dominance of blue, which led to cool, somewhat grayish skin tones. But that was not the biggest problem. The main complaint was excessive brightness exposure, which is clearly visible in the gamma and EOTF charts. The image was simply too bright, at times almost blown out, which affected not only the depth of scenes but also the overall viewing experience. Some details were simply lost, and the whole image looked as if someone had slightly overdone the brightness slider. As always – we decided to see what could be squeezed out of this after calibration. And that’s when things started to get really interesting…

After professional calibration, we managed to bring the Q7F in order – at least in terms of SDR content. The picture in this mode looks really good: the white balance has been set correctly, the colors appear natural, and errors in the color palette have dropped to values that are practically invisible to the eye. The gamma behaves excellently, and the only minor drawback is a slight brightening of smaller elements, which results from the lack of local dimming. For everyday TV watching or standard quality films, the Q7F performs surprisingly well.

It was much more difficult to tame HDR content. Despite adjusting the white balance, the television continues to manipulate brightness significantly, causing scenes to sometimes look unnatural – what was meant to be subtly darker can end up being overly brightened, and bright parts of the image sometimes appear dull. The final effect is better than in the factory settings, but it is evident that the design limitations of the Q7F do not allow for fully utilizing the potential of HDR materials.

After calibration, the TCL C7K showed itself in a really good light, especially when it comes to SDR content. We managed to tune the white balance, color gamut, and brightness characteristics so precisely that color errors on the ColorChecker palette dropped below a value of 2. For the uninitiated – this is almost a perfect result, which means that the image is very close to what the creators intended. Unfortunately, it looked worse with 4K HDR content. Although we were able to slightly calm the white balance and correct its previous errors, it is still evident that the television has some "MiniLED traits," especially in brightness management. When we checked how the C7K handles the EOTF curve on actual film scenes, and not just on synthetic test patterns, it turned out that the screen still tends to slightly brighten the entire image. This affects the overall experience – black loses some depth, and the image becomes less contrastive than it should be. Despite these minor shortcomings in HDR content, the overall reception of materials – especially in SDR – is really very good. After calibration, the C7K can display an image that can successfully compete with much more expensive models. Good color tuning, natural skin tones, and pleasant brightness make movie sessions and everyday content viewing more than satisfactory.

Upscaling and digital image processing in the Q7F is a bit of a sine wave. On one hand, we have really nice upscaling – weaker sources look better than one might expect. The image becomes clearer, sharper, and even older movies or terrestrial TV hold up well. Samsung has been strong in this area for years, and the Q7F confirms that. On the other hand… things start to get tricky. The TV has a problem with overscan – part of the image is simply cut off, and it looks rather unrefined. Additionally, we were let down by a feature called "noise reduction," which should improve the smoothness of tonal transitions in weaker materials. In other Samsungs, it works relatively well, but here it practically makes no difference – the banding in gradients remains. It's a bit disappointing because we could have expected more from a model that is aimed at users looking for a display for SDR content.

TCL C7K features a function that, according to the manufacturer, is supposed to smooth out unwanted color transitions – something like a rescue for less successful tonal changes. It's called "Gradual Smoothing" and... well, it sounds ambitious, but in practice, it works very poorly. Regardless of whether we set it to low or high, the difference is minimal. Worse still – the function can cut out elements from the image that should remain. Fortunately, film grain remains untouched, so at least it doesn't smooth everything indiscriminately, but still – it's better to just turn this option off.

When it comes to scaling lower-resolution content, it's already better. SD and HD materials look quite decent, although sometimes we felt that the image loses sharpness and becomes too soft – as if something took away its clarity. Fortunately, with very low sources (e.g., 576p), there was no overscan effect, meaning the image was not artificially cropped – everything fit on the screen as it should.

Motion blur and motion fluidity in the Q7F is probably the most budget-conscious element of this TV. The 60 Hz panel is noticeable, with blur being quite evident, especially in dynamic scenes, and it's rather difficult to consider this model as equipment designed for watching sports or playing fast-paced games. In tests with the little green man, there was a long tail, and the ball in a football match would leave trails behind it.

On the plus side, the presence of motion smoothing is commendable. It really makes a difference in movies - especially since most materials are recorded at 24 frames. Here we can decide for ourselves whether we prefer a more "cinematic" image, with the slight jerkiness characteristic of cinema, or a smoother, more "television-like" one. This actually works quite well and helps improve the viewing comfort for series or movies.

The TCL C7K handles motion fluency really well. The panel used in it offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which in itself suggests that this TV is something more than just an ordinary "60 Hz" panel. Moreover, if we connect the C7K to a computer and set the resolution to Full HD. But we'll write more about that in the paragraph about gamers and PC collaboration. Back to everyday use – both sports and movies look very good here. Thanks to the fast panel and well-functioning motion smoother, the C7K is great for watching matches, but also for movie screenings. In the menu, we find two sliders – blur reduction and flicker reduction – which allow you to tailor the smoothness effect to your own preferences. At lower settings, we get a more cinematic effect, with a slight stutter in motion. At higher settings – the image becomes more theatrical, smooth to the point of exaggeration. Everyone can set it up according to their liking.

Features for gamers in the Samsung Q7F is a topic that evokes quite a bit of mixed emotions. On one hand – no sensible person expected miracles here, after all, it's a 60 Hz television, and it was clear from the beginning that it wouldn't be a device to extract the maximum from a console or PC. On the other hand, since the manufacturer promised specific solutions in promotional materials, it's natural that we wanted to see them in practice. At the start, it's quite decent. The automatic game mode (ALLM) works, so there's no need to manually fiddle with the settings; the console switches the TV to low latency mode by itself. Additionally, we have the Game Bar, which looks impressive and allows you to check a few basic parameters without leaving the game. And this is where the good news ends.

The biggest problem with the Q7F is VRR, or rather its absence. Indeed, a relevant icon appears in the menu, and you can even see it in the Game Bar, but throughout the entire test, the function remained dead and could not be activated in any way. The issue with HGiG is even more painful; this option was actually available at the beginning, but after a software update, it disappeared completely, which is simply unprofessional. Therefore, the Q7F is only suitable for absolute basics. Sure, you can turn on the console, play more mellow titles, and enjoy low input lag, but if someone is counting on more advanced features that the manufacturer promised, they will be disappointed. This is not a television intended for gaming, and it's better to be aware of this before purchasing.

TCL C7K is a television that on paper looks like the dream equipment for gamers – and most importantly, it holds up well in practice. First, the good news: we have two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, so we can easily connect both a console and a computer, taking full advantage of their capabilities. The panel itself supports a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which provides a significant advantage in dynamic games. Additionally, it comes with a full suite of gaming features: VRR (variable refresh rate), ALLM (automatic low latency mode), and support for Dolby Vision in games. There's also an HGiG mode that allows for HDR effects consistent with the creators' intentions. GameBar, which is an informative bar for the gamer. It operates quickly, looks clear (like the Nintendo console👌), and shows what’s most important: the current frame count, VRR status, and even HDR parameters.