TCL C9K vs Hisense E7Q PRO / E79Q PRO

As we mentioned with black and contrast – the C9K can make a huge impression in synthetic tests. Our measurements showed that on a screen 10% filled with white, the television is capable of squeezing out… 4000 nits of brightness! It sounds astronomical, but – and here, unfortunately, the pattern repeats – the numbers say one thing, and practice says another. In real movie scenes, the situation looks different. At best, when the light effects occupy a large part of the image and the local dimming algorithm does not have to think too hard about what to do with thousands of zones – the effect is really good. At that point, the C9K can reach around 1500 nits, which provides a pleasant, intense flash and can indeed make a positive impression.

The problem starts with smaller elements – such as stars in the sky, the moon, or single reflections. That’s when the proverbial cat comes out of the bag: the algorithms are not yet refined, and brightness drops to even 400–500 nits. That’s a huge difference compared to the potential 4000 nits we saw in laboratory tests. Why does this happen? Most likely, the television is trying to protect the blacks in this way and minimize the halo effect around bright objects. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of details – some details simply vanish, and the scene loses its nature.

If it comes to the quality of the HDR effect, the E7Q PRO is unfortunately not a television that can impress with brightness alone. In real film materials, we measured about 250–300 nits, which is simply too little for HDR to look spectacular. It lacks that "spark" in bright details, flashes, and light effects, and in many HDR scenes, it can resemble better SDR than true cinematic HDR. A consolation in all of this is the colors. We managed to confirm that the E7Q PRO is a PFS type television, meaning it has an additional filter that enhances color gamut coverage. As a result, even if the brightness doesn't deliver, the colors in HDR content can be adequately saturated and pleasant to the eye, without the feeling of a "faded" image.

For color tests, as always, we reached for the Filmmaker mode – a new feature in TCL TVs for 2025. And while the direction itself is a step in the right direction, the execution leaves much to be desired. The white balance in SDR content turned out to be too warm – there was an excess of red. On the other hand, in HDR, it went in the opposite direction: the image became excessively blue. The Colour Checker test revealed quite a few color errors that were noticeable to the naked eye. An even bigger problem turned out to be what we mentioned above – brightness management. Regardless of whether we were watching SDR or HDR content, the image tended to blow out the entire scene, giving it an unnatural, even grotesque character. It's hard to call this a "director-created" mode – because the director has certainly never seen such an image.

In terms of color reproduction, we tested the Hisense E7Q Pro in Movie mode, which proved to be the best built-in preset without a doubt. This mode, unlike the Eco, Standard, or Dynamic settings, offers the most natural colors right out of the box. Although no factory mode is completely free of flaws, the E7Q Pro deserves high praise for its color representation in standard SDR content. The color palette is very well tuned here, and errors in Color Checker tests often did not exceed a value of 3, which is an exceptional result rarely seen in such inexpensive TVs. The only drawback we noted in SDR is a tendency to darken some image elements, as indicated by a slightly raised gamma chart. The TV performs somewhat worse with colors in HDR mode. Here, color errors become noticeable to the naked eye, mainly due to a deficiency of blue in the white balance. This causes the colors on the screen to appear too warm, and for some viewers, they may seem “too cinematic.” Of course, to improve these parameters, we proceeded with professional calibration.

After calibration, we finally managed to tame the white balance – and it immediately translated into a more natural image. Colors finally started to look the way they should, and the overall presentation was incomparably better than in the factory settings. In other words – it’s worth taking a moment to improve this, as the gain is truly significant. The gamma responsible for managing brightness was also brought into order in SDR content, and the effect was more than satisfying. Unfortunately, when we turned on HDR materials, the situation quickly became complicated. No matter how we set the local dimming, the television had a tendency to do what it liked with the image – either it overexposed everything or dimmed the darkest parts too much. Exactly as we saw in the scene from the movie Billy Lynn. So, the color improvement after calibration makes a great impression, but brightness management in HDR remains the Achilles' heel of C9K and presents a certain technological limitation.

In the case of materials with a standard color range (SDR), our efforts in Filmmaker mode turned out to be largely cosmetic 😉. We mainly focused on gentle white balance correction and gamma curve adjustment, which allowed us to recover details in the darker parts of the image that previously tended to get lost. It is worth noting, however, that the E7Q Pro unit we tested happened to be exceptionally well-made from the factory. We remind you that these parameters depend on the specific unit – with mass production, factory calibration can be random, so your unit may require slightly different adjustments. The biggest beneficiary of professional calibration was undoubtedly the HDR mode. This is where we did the most work, which yielded spectacular results. We managed to effectively tame the excessive warmth of the image, caused by a factory deficiency of blue color. After calibration, color errors were reduced to a significantly lower level, which will certainly please those who watch a lot of streaming content in HDR format, expecting faithful reproduction.

Digital image processing in TCL C9K is quite mediocre. The tonal smoothing feature seems to be present, but turning it on practically changes nothing – color bands are still visible, and it can unintentionally highlight elements we would prefer to hide, such as textures of objects. Fortunately, it doesn’t remove film grain, but that’s small comfort since the effects are still poor. Therefore, it's hard to recommend using this option.

On the other hand, image scaling performs much better. Lower quality materials look quite decent – characters and backgrounds are presented clearly, although, of course, with sources at 576p, physics cannot be fooled. Sometimes, characteristic aliasing on objects appears, but that’s the fault of the source itself, not the algorithm. A plus for not having issues with overscan – the image is not artificially cropped or enlarged.

When it comes to upscaling and digital image processing, the E7Q PRO deserves praise. The scaling performs really well here and does not fall drastically behind much more expensive, advanced televisions. Lower-quality materials can look clean and sensible, without the impression that the image is artificially "overdrawn." However, the smoothing function presents a bit worse. It can indeed be effective and improve tonal transitions in low-quality materials, but at the same time, it can introduce unwanted effects. Sometimes it removes film grain or adds unwanted artifacts, giving the image a more "digital" character. Therefore, we mainly recommend it to those who prefer a smoother, less cinematic style of image.

Like the C8K, the C9K is also a really fast television – both figuratively and literally. It features a 4K panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, and at lower resolutions, the display can even ramp up to 288 Hz. This speed translates into practice – when watching sports or playing games, the image looks very smooth and clear. Additionally, in films, we get an extra motion smoother called Motion Clarity, which allows us to adjust the fluidity to our own preferences – from the cinematic "judder" frame to almost theatrical smoothness.

In the category of motion blur and fluidity of movement, the E7Q PRO has one very strong argument. At this price, Hisense has added a 120 Hz panel, and in PC mode, it can even operate at 144 Hz. This immediately provides greater possibilities in motion settings, as the menu displays more options for smoothing the image. Among other things, we have frame interpolation options, which allows us to adjust the fluidity for sports or for movies, depending on whether we prefer a more cinematic character or a "theatrical" smoothness.

For gaming, the TCL C9K is a complete tool. Here we have two (out of four) HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps, so all key technologies work: VRR (variable refresh rate) and ALLM (automatic low latency mode). Additionally, the manufacturer added a really intuitive Game Bar, which allows you to quickly preview the most important parameters and adjust settings without digging through the menu. Also, TCL's policy is a plus – the TV is not afraid of any HDR formats, even in game mode. Whether it's HGiG or Dolby Vision for the Xbox Series S/X console – everything works as it should, giving the player wide freedom.

The E7Q PRO is a phenomenal screen for gamers. Aside from the typical "thorn" of Hisense, which is the lack of support for the HGiG format due to the constantly active tone mapping, we practically get everything one might expect from a television that is supposed to have a gaming label. There are two HDMI 2.1 ports, along with a full set of key features. We have variable refresh rates, automatic switching to game mode, and support for 4K at 120 Hz. On top of that, all the most important settings are at hand in a clear Game Bar. This tool not only looks modern but also has a distinctly "gaming" edge and actually makes life easier while playing.