TCL A300W NXTVision vs Samsung Neo QLED QN70F / QN74F / QN77F

When it comes to brightness, the TCL A300W is definitely the darkest TV among all frame-style models, such as Samsung The Frame or Hisense CanvasTV – and unfortunately, this is immediately noticeable. In our measurements, the peak luminance reached only about 400 nits, and on test film screens, this value dropped to 350 nits. This is definitely too little to feel the true "magic" of bright HDR effects. As a consolation – the TV is equipped with a PFS LED coating (which is something like QLED), which provides very good coverage of a wide color palette, both DCI-P3 and BT.2020. Additionally, there is full support for all popular HDR formats – HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision – which somewhat compensates for the shortcomings in brightness and helps improve the overall perception of materials in this quality.

QN70F is a TV that can positively surprise when it comes to brightness. In ideal test conditions, it reaches even 800 nits, which – for this price range – is really solid. Of course, that's a result from measurement test patterns, so we decided to check how it performs in practice, with real movies. Here, the TV somewhat tones down its capabilities. In most of the tested scenes – for example, in "The Meg" – the actual HDR brightness was around 500 nits. That's still a good result that allows you to enjoy HDR effects, although it is far from perfect. On the other hand, we have a QLED screen with a quantum dot layer, which means very good color reproduction capabilities. The colors are vivid and saturated. QN70F covers about 94% of the DCI-P3 color space, and in the wider BT.2020 gamut, it exceeds 75%, so in this regard, there's nothing to be ashamed of.

TCL A300 offers several picture modes, but without a doubt, the movie mode performs the best. Unfortunately, although it is the best choice among the available options, it is not free from errors. Both in HD and HDR content, the image has a noticeably too warm tint – leaning slightly towards pink, which is particularly noticeable in snowy scenes. Instead of pure white, we get a pinkish hue that spoils the natural perception of colors.

The brightness management doesn't perform well either. For older HD materials, the image often seems too dark – as confirmed by the inflated gamma value. Conversely, with HDR content, the effect is reversed – the image is overly brightened, which we observed in scenes from the movie Pan. This lack of consistency also affects color reproduction accuracy – a test with the ColorChecker showed that many samples deviate significantly from the reference values.

Fortunately, TCL allows manual adjustment of the settings, so we decided to check how the television would perform after our professional calibration. The effects of this correction are described below.

We tested the QN70F in the best default picture mode, which is Filmmaker Mode. It must be said that in this particular test unit, the factory settings performed quite well. The picture was calm, natural, and despite minor deviations, pleasant to perceive. The biggest flaw was a slight dominance of red in the white balance, which caused a slight pinkish tint to the entire scene. However, this was not a glaring flaw – rather subtle and only noticeable when directly compared to a properly calibrated screen. A somewhat larger issue appeared in the brightness characteristic. The television tends to understate the brightness of parts of the image that should be displayed more brightly. As a result, some details can appear slightly dimmed – not so much lost entirely, but not as clearly pronounced as they should be. Nevertheless, as far as a television in this category and in these settings goes, we consider the result to be a good starting point for further calibration.

After our professional calibration, the TCL A300 literally got a new lease on life. The image is no longer too warm, and the colors finally look the way they should – which was confirmed by the ColorChecker test, where the color samples finally started hitting their marks, at least to some reasonable degree. It was also possible to partially correct the brightness management – the image is now more balanced and less "wobbly" between different types of content. Of course, certain limitations cannot be overcome – a slightly noticeable blooming effect still occurs, but that's a characteristic of the technology, not something that can be eliminated even after professional settings.

Generally: after calibration, the A300 looks significantly better and gains a completely new quality.

After calibration, the QN70F shows that it can offer a really high level of color reproduction. It nearly perfectly balanced the white point, and the values in the Color Checker test dropped below 3 – that is, below the threshold at which the average eye can perceive differences. The image looks natural, and the colors are accurately represented, without excessive saturation or the coolness known from factory settings. It must be said that Samsung provides very extensive calibration options – not only for enthusiasts but also for professionals. The QN70F takes advantage of this potential and, after proper adjustment, can come close to much more expensive models in terms of color accuracy. The only thing one could still criticize is the brightness characteristics. There is still a tendency to brighten the smallest parts of the image – particularly those that should remain darker. However, this is a design feature of this model, not a calibration error. Despite this, the final effect definitely deserves recognition.

TCL A300 handles tonal transitions in high-quality films very well, but the question arises – how does it perform with weaker materials? The television is equipped with a tonal transition smoothing feature, but its effectiveness can be described in one word: "random." In one scene it may work and improve the gradation, and when turned off… the effect remains the same. There is a lack of consistency and predictability.

Image scaling is also not one of the A300's strong suits. In the test pattern, the main character actually looked better than on the raw signal, but with thin lines – like fonts or background details – there was noticeable jaggedness and aliasing. On the plus side, the television does not cut off the image and has no issues with overscan, but the overall quality of scaling is rather average.

Samsung QN70F offers a distortion reduction feature that improves the smoothness of tonal transitions. In "Standard" mode, it works quite well - smoothing problematic transitions without significantly interfering with the image structure. Film grain is partially removed, but details such as texture or skin structure still remain visible. The "High" mode operates much more aggressively. The smoothing is stronger, but it comes at the cost of a noticeable loss of detail. Therefore, in practice, we recommend sticking with the "Standard" setting or completely turning off this feature. The improvement in gradation may be less spectacular, but the image retains more naturalness.

When it comes to scaling low-quality content, the QN70F performs very well. Tests with lower resolution images were really impressive. Despite slight aliasing of contours, everything looks clean and clear, even if the original content was very poor. It's just a shame that the TV has an overscan issue that cannot be completely turned off. As a result, the image from very low resolution may be slightly cropped, which is mainly visible on subtitles or the interface.

The TCL A300 is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, which should immediately satisfy practically everyone – both gamers and sports fans. The motion is smooth, and the picture is clear even in fast scenes. Additionally, the television offers a motion enhancement feature called "Motion," where we can find two sliders on a 10-point scale. These allow for adjusting the effect to personal preferences – from a classic, cinematic look with visible frames to a very smooth (though already unnatural) image reminiscent of a soap opera effect. Thanks to this, everyone can find a setting that suits them.

The QN70F is a television with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which puts it at the forefront in terms of image smoothness. Whether we are watching dynamic sports broadcasts or playing on a console, the picture looks very good. There is no feeling of stuttering, chopping, or the typical "tearing" in fast motion that is common in lower-end models. Samsung also allows you to adjust the smoothness to your own preferences. In the picture clarity settings, we find options such as blur reduction and motion smoothing – each of which can be adjusted independently. This is especially useful when watching content with a lower frame rate and we want to give it a smoother, more cinematic character – or on the contrary, maintain the natural film "feeling" of 24 frames.

TCL A300 is a television designed not only to transport us to a digital art museum but also to a full-fledged gaming world. It offers practically everything you would expect from gear for gamers: two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth, 144 Hz refresh rate, VRR support, and ALLM.

The correct implementation of the HGIG mode is also a plus – something that competing Hisense sometimes struggles with. The television easily handles lower resolutions (e.g., Full HD) while maintaining high refresh rates, which will be appreciated by owners of older consoles or PCs.

In addition, there’s an attractive and clear GameBar that facilitates quick access to settings for gamers. The A300 is truly well-prepared for gaming at the highest level – it's just a shame that issues with motion blur slightly tarnish its overall image as a gaming device.

Samsung QN70F is truly a solid choice for gamers. Here we have as many as four HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps, which means full support for gaming in 4K at 144 Hz refresh rate. In addition, we have all the basic features we expect today: auto low latency mode (ALLM), variable refresh rate (VRR), and a very well-designed, intuitive Game Bar with information about the mode, resolution, and frame count.

It's also worth highlighting the Game Motion Plus feature, which allows you to add artificial frames to games running at 60 fps or less. It works surprisingly well and in many titles – especially those where consoles struggle to maintain a stable framerate – it improves gameplay smoothness without significant lag.

Unfortunately, there are also some drawbacks. The lack of support for Dolby Vision mode is not surprising – it's a standard for Samsung. But the much bigger disappointment is the absence of the HGiG feature. What's worse, it was removed in a software update, leaving users who previously used it quite shocked. Without HGiG, you can't manually set the maximum HDR brightness from the console, which results in some games looking slightly washed out – especially if the TV misinterprets the tonal range. Why did Samsung, a brand that has set standards in gaming features for years, decide to take such a step? It's hard to say. At the time of writing this review, the tested TV was running on software version 1110 – and frankly, if you care about full support for gamers, it's better to temporarily hold off on updates.