TCL C855 vs Hisense U7S Pro

The TCL C855 delivers a highly varied HDR effect. At times, the television truly excels, while at other moments, it appears reminiscent of a low-end model equipped with FALD backlighting. Inconsistency is frequently found with this brand, so it didn’t come as a surprise. The first and last scenes, which feature large light elements, are nothing short of spectacular, boasting brightness levels of 1470 and 1820 nits, respectively. Such brightness can make viewers squint their eyes, allowing them to feel the extraordinary dynamism of the scene. It genuinely immerses the audience, creating a sensation of being inside the movie itself. However, the situation shifts dramatically when small or subtle elements with high luminance appear against a dark background. In these instances, the TCL C855 significantly reduces brightness to levels as low as 240 nits to mitigate halo effects. This reduction is disappointing, as it can make the movie appear as if it was not filmed in HDR. Despite these shortcomings, the HDR effect on the TCL C855 enhances the viewing experience during dynamic scenes, making it feel more engaging and allowing the viewer to feel part of the action. Even with smaller high-luminance elements, the television retains details without excessive dimming. Additionally, the TCL C855 adjusts image brightness according to scenes with rich detail, further enhancing viewing comfort.

Let’s start with the fact that the U7S Pro is an impressively bright TV — in calibrated mode our measurement equipment showed a staggering 2200 nits of peak brightness!

As we know, peak brightness on test patterns is one thing, and actual film scenes are another. Unfortunately, in real video material the backlight output drops noticeably. The TV can still exceed the 1000-nit mark in the most demanding moments — which is still a great result and fits the mastering standards of most HDR films — but the real challenge lies in the aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms. Because of them, small, bright details like stars or the moon in a night sky are noticeably dimmed. The TV tries at all costs to maintain deep black, which is understandable, but unfortunately this comes at the expense of HDR’s dynamic range and brilliance.

The color reproduction is worth praising. The new U7S Pro is a QLED design that provides very wide color gamut coverage. Unlike last year’s model (U7Q Pro), this year’s variant is a true QLED, not a solution based on a PFS filter. As a result, color saturation has increased noticeably, and coverage of the most demanding BT.2020 color space has topped 81%.

The best factory mode for the TCL C855 is the "Film" setting, and all our tests were conducted using this mode. However, like many predefined modes, it has flaws that should be addressed to achieve an image closer to the producer's original vision. In our examination of the colour characteristics for both SDR and HDR materials, issues were found.

Focusing first on SDR content, there is a noticeable dominance of green in the white balance, which leads to an unpleasant greenish tint across the entire image. The gamma chart, crucial for image contrast, shows a significant deviation from the reference line marked at 2.4. Initially, there is a pronounced spike in the measured value, resulting in an over-contrasted image where details can merge into a dark blob. This condition persists for nearly 20% of the chart before it dips below the reference line, causing the image to brighten and resulting in a substantial drop in contrast.

In HDR materials, the factory mode performs somewhat better; the white balance appears more balanced overall, although the green tint resurfaces in the latter half of the spectrum. When we look at the Electro-Optical Transfer Function (EOTF) curve—unlike gamma, which reflects contrast—we identify two main errors: the darkest scenes are too dark, while the brightest ones become overexposed. This discrepancy was evident in our review of the scene from the movie "Pan," further illustrating the TCL C855's HDR performance issues.

We tested the U7S Pro, as we always do, in the best factory-tuned picture mode, Filmmaker Mode. The colors can be judged in two ways. The most disappointing was the profile intended for watching SDR content, i.e. traditional broadcast TV, YouTube, and other less demanding material. The image there was clearly yellowish, which turned out to be a direct consequence of a poorly set white balance. As our charts show, there's a large deficiency in the blue component, which drastically affected the overall color temperature. You can see this clearly on the ColorChecker charts and on the color gamut graphs themselves, where most samples shifted toward yellow. Fortunately, the factory HDR mode performed much better. There, color errors hovered around a Delta E of 3, which is a solid result.

TCL, like most manufacturers, offers advanced calibration tools within its televisions. These include both 2-point and 20-point adjustments for grayscale, as well as a comprehensive colour management system. As a result, we achieved impressive results in SDR materials, bringing the image significantly closer to the reference standard. We successfully eliminated both the green tint and the gamma issue, although a slight "kink" at the very beginning of the gamma curve still persists.

In contrast, the situation with HDR materials was less favourable, as the TCL C855 did not allow for precise modelling. We were only able to make minor adjustments to the EOTF curve while significantly enhancing the overall colour accuracy. This limitation suggests that while calibration tools are effective, they may require further refinement for optimal HDR performance.

We know, however, that Hisense is capable of much more, as previous generations have shown, so we simply couldn't leave the U7S Pro's factory flaws in everyday content as they were. As always in such cases, we had the TV professionally calibrated. The result? The process brought a massive change. After manually correcting the white balance and filling in the missing blue component, the annoying yellow cast vanished as if it had been wiped away. Whites became naturally clean, and skin tones gained a proper, healthy hue. Importantly, the calibration not only tamed the finicky SDR mode but also squeezed the maximum potential out of the panel, reducing average color reproduction errors to levels almost imperceptible to the human eye. The only thing we still have to fault after the whole process is the nature of Mini-LED backlighting and its specific interaction with the HDR signal. Aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms quite strongly interfere with the EOTF luminance curve. As a result, the backlight doesn't always align with the creator's intent — depending on the scene, the curve can run noticeably above or below the reference, which in places disrupts the ideal dynamics of the HDR picture.

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

Image scaling in TCL C855 is defined 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 to our eye. Even small, fine branches do not have jagged edges, and there is no white halo around figures, a characteristic of weaker scaling systems.

The digital processing of lower-quality signals is top-notch here, thanks to the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor used in the U7S Pro. Upscaling, the TV's ability to pull lower-resolution content up to 4K, also performs well. We didn't notice any unnatural, sharp contours on screen, and our test image with the model simply looked attractive.

The maximum refresh rate you can set on the TCL C855 is 144 Hz. Naturally, this is only possible after connecting the TCL C855 TV to a very powerful PC. Otherwise, we will be operating at a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, which is recommended if we want to watch primarily sports or materials with a lot of motion dynamics. For those who require high image fluidity, the manufacturer has implemented a multi-stage motion smoother. It is divided into two separate sliders which control the sharpness of moving images (Motion Blur Reduction) and flicker (Flicker Reduction). Both sliders can be adjusted from 0 to 10, with each level affecting the degree of fluidity, so everyone can find their sweet spot. We present a setting that allows for slight smoothing without the soap opera effect. The matrix of the TCL C855 features a very good response time. This is particularly important since VA panels often struggle with the so-called ghosting effect, where a black halo can be observed behind a fast-moving object. where a black halo can be observed behind a fast-moving object.

The Hisense U7S Pro uses a panel with a maximum 165 Hz refresh rate at 4K, and in game mode it can even reach 330 Hz at Full HD. However, it's worth remembering that those highest numbers don't matter much in everyday use, because most content still supports at most 120 Hz (for example when playing on a console). Even so, the TV handles motion quite well and performs well for an LCD design.

There's little to fault about 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. They allow manual adjustment of the smoother, which works well for both movies and sports, effectively improving the raw TV signal.

The TCL C855 TV has fully-featured HDMI 2.1 ports, boasting a full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s. During our testing, we confirmed the seamless operation of all functions included in this connection standard. As highlighted, all checkboxes are illuminated in green, a feature that will undoubtedly be appreciated by gamers, whether on consoles or those using the TV as a computer monitor. 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 powerful configurations can feed a 144 Hz signal to the C855, which handles this effortlessly. It is also worth noting the implementation of the HGIG mode, which can be excessively bright due to the shortcomings of the "Game" mode, making proper configuration on the screen challenging. Fortunately, the TV excels with the Dolby Vision format.

TCL, as one of the pioneering manufacturers, has equipped its televisions with a special GameBar, allowing for extensive adjustment of settings "on the fly" without the need to exit the game. This feature includes options like an additional crosshair grid, black level correction, and settings designed for individuals with disabilities. The image showcases the next generation of this solution.

In summary, the TCL C855 TV is an ideal choice for those seeking a screen for all forms of electronic gaming. With comprehensive features supporting such entertainment, it provides an extremely engaging experience. It is also important to emphasise that it maintains very low input lag, regardless of the selected settings, including when using the Dolby Vision HDR format.

If you plan to connect a console or PC to the U7S Pro, you'll be more than happy – this TV is great for gamers. Hisense spared no expense and put in four HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gbps bandwidth. So you won't have to juggle cables, since every port supports the full feature set. There's automatic low-latency mode (ALLM) and VRR, which works across a wide range from 48 Hz up to a cosmic 330 Hz. Of course that 330 Hz is for now a gimmick for owners of powerful PCs, because consoles are capped at 120 Hz anyway, but it's good to have that headroom for the future. The Game Bar is also really useful while gaming. It's a handy in-game menu where, without leaving the TV's main settings, you can quickly change the picture mode, enable a crosshair in the center of the screen, or even switch to an ultra-wide aspect ratio, which PC sim fans will appreciate. The only downside worth knowing about is the incorrect implementation of HGiG in games. The TV ignores the console's instructions for HDR10 output and keeps forcefully altering the image, trying to "improve" it its own way. Because of that, properly configuring HDR in the console menu (where you set brightness using the logo/checkerboard pattern) is a bit more difficult.