TCL C9K vs Samsung R85H / R86H

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’s about brightness, the R85H performs really well. In most of our test scenes the TV reaches around 800 to 900 nits, and with larger bright elements it can break 1000 nits. These aren't, of course, levels on par with the most expensive Mini-LEDs, but they're more than enough for watching movies and TV series in HDR, and the effect can be quite noticeable. The problem shows up again in more demanding scenes where there's a small bright element on a very dark background. Here the TV can significantly reduce its brightness so it doesn't illuminate too much of the screen. In our measurements such small highlights dropped to around 200 to 250 nits, so you can see that a limited number of local dimming zones combined with the specific behavior of the algorithm has its consequences. Fortunately, it's not something that bothers you all the time. In typical mixed HDR scenes the R85H looks good and can deliver appropriate image dynamics. You just can't expect the same punch from very small points of light as you get with TVs that have many more zones or with OLEDs.

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 Filmmaker mode our R85H sample performed adequately in SDR, but a few things immediately showed up in the measurements. In the white balance, as brightness increased more red crept in while blue decreased. As a result, the brighter parts of the image had a slightly too warm tint. On top of that, gamma only held to the target value at the start. It then gradually fell, making most of the image a bit too bright. The combination of the two also affected colors — errors grew especially in the brighter, more saturated samples. It didn’t look bad, but for Filmmaker mode we expected a bit more accuracy. Interestingly, in HDR our unit handled things noticeably better. White balance was much more even and, for most of the range, the individual RGB components stayed close together. Only in the brightest areas did red begin to fall short, causing the white point to shift slightly. The EOTF curve looked very good, tracking the target luminance values across almost the entire range. That doesn’t mean HDR colors were perfect. The ColorChecker still shows some deviations, particularly in some of the more saturated hues, but the errors are clearly smaller than in SDR.

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.

After calibration the R85H shows it has impressive color reproduction capabilities. It performed best in SDR, where the white balance was brought almost perfectly into line and the gamma stays very close to the target across most of the range. That also translated into very low errors in the ColorChecker, so there's really little to fault here. HDR also shows a clear improvement, although some issues can't be corrected as well. At peak brightness the character of the backlight itself starts to show and the individual components of the white balance begin to diverge. The same goes for the most saturated colors, which don't always land exactly where they should. Despite these limitations, overall the image is significantly more accurate than on the factory settings, and the biggest difference is clearly in SDR. However, there's one thing calibration can't fix. With highly saturated elements, color can subtly bleed onto adjacent bright parts of the image. It's easiest to notice this on white, which can pick up a slight tint from a neighboring hue. It doesn't occur in every scene, but when the content is demanding the effect can be visible. This is more a characteristic of the way the RGB backlight works than an issue with picture settings.

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.

In the R85H, image processing is handled by the Micro RGB AI Processor. The name is new, but in terms of upscaling lower-quality content, the TV’s behavior remains very similar to what Samsung has shown before. And that’s not a bad thing, since the company has handled this aspect quite well for years. Low-resolution material is displayed cleanly, edges don’t become overly soft, and the TV doesn’t try to artificially extract details at any cost. The result is simply balanced, and with regular TV or older recordings the R85H performs as you would expect from a Samsung at this level. The only minor drawback is overscan, which can’t be completely turned off at the lowest resolutions. A separate issue is the additional processing of weaker sources. The R85H can smooth posterization and tidy up heavily compressed footage a bit, but it’s worth stressing that it does so relatively aggressively. At stronger "noise reduction" settings it starts removing not only compression artifacts but also fine details and natural film grain. It’s best to use it only when the material actually needs it.

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.

R85H has a 144 Hz panel, so motion is really smooth here. Just remember that the extra hertz above 120 will mainly be used when connected to a PC, so in this category we don't treat them as a particular advantage. For movies and TV, what's more important is that the panel is fast enough to provide access to an advanced motion-smoothing feature, "Motion Clarity", which lets us set motion from more film-like to very smooth. The panel's response time is a bit weaker. Because this is a VA panel, fast-moving objects can leave a slight trail. On bright backgrounds that's not very noticeable, but the darker the scene, the more visible the smearing becomes. That's a typical characteristic of this type of panel, and it's easiest to spot in dark scenes.

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.

Samsung has been steadily expanding its gamer-focused features for several years, and the R85H really lacks nothing important in that area. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz, VRR and ALLM, so you can easily take advantage of the capabilities of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. HGiG also works correctly, so with the right HDR settings on the console games retain proper brightness and you don't unnecessarily lose detail in the brightest parts of the image. The only major omission is Dolby Vision Gaming, which Samsung doesn't support on any of its TVs.

Game Bar is also very useful, a handy menu you can bring up without leaving the game. You can quickly check the frame rate, VRR operation, or change the most important picture-related settings. Samsung also adds a few less obvious features, such as the ability to change the aspect ratio or Game Motion Plus, which can further smooth games running at 30 or 60 fps. Of course, this comes at the cost of higher input lag (around 55 ms), but for slower-paced titles it may be an interesting option for some players.