TCL MQLED85 / C765 vs TCL P7L / P79L

The TCL MQLED85/C765 television performs well with HDR handling. In the tested movie scenes, where the screen is covered at 100% brightness, the model achieves impressive results around 1000 nits, providing intense and realistic representation of HDR content. However, similar to contrast, the dimming algorithm may show some limitations. Despite the large number of Mini LED zones, the television does not always manage to "stun" the user with brightness in very challenging test scenes. For example, in a scene from "Life of Pi," where a bright moon appears against a dark background, and in another scene from "Sicario 2," where a very bright light effect is visible against a dark background, the television did not reach maximum intensity. For users expecting perfect HDR performance in such extreme cases, the TCL MQLED may be slightly disappointing. However, regarding colors, the television stands out with a very high color gamut coverage of DCI P3 at 95%, which is an impressive result comparable to much more expensive models. The TCL MQLED85 / C765 offers support for various HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+, which is essential for cinema image enthusiasts. Although this model achieves brightness over 1000 nits, the TCL MQLED85 may struggle to reflect details in very high contrast scenes. For better HDR quality control, the C765 is equipped with dynamic tone mapping, making the image more realistic and natural depending on the content.

The biggest limitation of the TCL P7L in HDR is simply brightness. The TV doesn't have a large luminance headroom, so strong highlights, sunlight, or small light sources can't clearly "pop" out of the image. As a result, even well-produced HDR material looks fairly restrained and in terms of dynamic range is closer to good SDR than to what brighter models show. That doesn't mean the P7L can't handle HDR at all — the issue is mainly a lack of sufficient backlight power.

Looking at color, the situation is a bit better. The TV covers about 91% of the DCI-P3 gamut and about 68% of the wider BT.2020 color space, so for its price class the color range is quite decent. TCL markets this model as QLED, though the nature of the solution used is closer to a PFS phosphor-based backlight than a classic quantum-dot layer. What matters most to viewers, however, is the result: more saturated colors are available.

TheTCL MQLED85/C765 television was tested in movie mode, which, although it seems to be the best setting from the manufacturer, is not without flaws. The color reproduction in HD/SDR mode MQLED85 shows certain shortcomings. In the analysis of white balance, there is a significant lack of blue color, which can affect the overall picture quality, especially in bright scenes where blue hues are crucial for natural representation. The overall image may then seem too warm. As for gamma contrast, the graph shows a significant jump above the reference line of level 2.4 at the beginning, which may suggest significant dimming of brightness in darker areas, leading to a loss of detail in blacks. Then, for most of the time, the values are below this line, which can lead to a loss of detail in the brighter parts of the image. Such a distribution can negatively affect the perceived image quality, especially when watching regular HD television.

In the case of 4K HDR image quality of the TCL MQLED85/C765, there is a noticeable excess of red color in the analysis of white balance. Such an excess can significantly affect the viewer's experience, leading to several significant effects. First of all, too much red can make other colors, such as green or blue, appear muted or unnatural. This distortion of color balance can result in an overall impression of "oversaturation," which detracts from the image's naturalness and authenticity. Regarding contrast, the EOTF (Electro-Optical Transfer Function) graph indicates that most values are above the reference line, suggesting an intense boost in brightness in the bright areas of the image. However, the exception is the beginning of the graph, where the EOTF line is below the reference one, which may lead to excessive dimming of small light elements.

Users should be aware that despite using the best mode, which is movie mode, the television is not free from flaws in the context of picture settings, so it is worth considering adjusting the settings to achieve better results.

In Film mode the TCL P7L performs fairly well without major adjustments, especially with typical SDR material. The white balance is relatively even, although as brightness increases there is a slight rise in red and blue and a bit of a shortage of green. This does not produce a strongly noticeable tint and most colors remain close to their reference points. The ColorChecker confirms this, with a large portion of errors falling below a level that would notably bother viewers during normal watching. We have more concerns about the gamma response. In the darkest parts of the image the TV runs it noticeably above the reference, so some shadow detail can be a little too dimmed. The curve then settles and for much of the range it is close to the intended target. As a result SDR generally looks natural, but in dark scenes the P7L can lose some subtlety. In HDR the factory setting is less precise. As brightness increases an excess of blue becomes more pronounced, making the image look cooler than it should. The number of larger color deviations also grows, particularly in brighter hues. The EOTF curve itself is handled fairly conservatively, with the TV showing the image darker than the reference over a large portion of the range. For a budget model, however, the factory Film mode settings are not bad.

After professional calibration of the TCL MQLED85/C765 television, its color properties in movie mode have significantly improved, resulting in much more satisfying visual experiences. Both in SDR and HDR modes, the white balance shows no serious errors, and the graph appears much better harmonized. Users can now enjoy natural color reproduction, which is essential for achieving an authentic experience while watching movies. It is worth noting that in HDR content, there may be minor color reproduction errors at the end of the graph, but they are significantly smaller than before calibration. This makes characters and landscapes more realistic, enhancing the depth of immersion in the story.

Regarding contrast, the gamma curve, responsible for HD quality, has been completely free of drops below the reference line, which means better detail visibility in dark scenes. However, there is still a slight boost at the beginning of the graph, which may affect the perception of bright elements. For HDR content, the EOTF curve also shows smaller errors, although certain issues in reproducing midtones may still be noticeable. The EOTF curve measured on real film scenes still shows a significant brightness boost, making the image appear more intense but artificially brightened. This is a typical issue for TCL brand televisions, which may appeal to untrained viewers but can be annoying for those more familiar with the ideal picture.

What benefits does professional calibration bring for movie enthusiasts? Thanks to it, watching becomes even more realistic and immersive, allowing every scene to be experienced fully, maintaining details and natural colors.

After calibration, the TCL P7L can deliver a really pleasant picture, especially with classic SDR material. We managed to very effectively even out the white balance, and the gamma curve now tracks close to the target value of 2.4. You can also see this in the color measurements, as most errors dropped noticeably, and in everyday viewing it's hard to find any strongly visible inaccuracies. Movies, series, YouTube, or regular TV therefore look more natural, without unnecessary warming or a cool cast. For a model in this price range, the result in SDR is really very good.

With HDR the situation gets more complicated. Calibration helped improve the white balance and tidy up some deviations, but here the panel's limitations become increasingly apparent. The P7L has relatively low brightness and can't maintain appropriate luminance for more saturated colors, so some errors remain even after careful tuning. In other words, settings can improve how the TV interprets the signal, but they can't overcome its physical capabilities. That's why calibration makes the most sense for this model primarily with SDR.

We will now take another look at the tone transitions in the TCL MQLED85/C765 television, but in the context of poorer image quality. Despite the presence of the "Gradual Smoothing" option, when set to "low," the effects are practically invisible, disappointing users expecting an improvement in image quality. On the other hand, setting it to "high" brings minimal results, and worse, it can blur significant details, negatively affecting the sharpness and clarity of the displayed image. However, in terms of image scaling, the television successfully displayed the image without overscan, which means we do not lose any part of the view. The image looks quite decent, and details such as tree branches or the outlines of models do not show significant fraying, which positively influences the visual quality.

In this regard the TCL P7L performs surprisingly well, especially for such an inexpensive TV. The tonal transition smoothing feature, which in many budget models does little or almost nothing, actually manages to improve the picture here. It doesn't remove all banding completely, but it can noticeably reduce posterization and make trickier gradients look more natural. At this price point that's a genuinely pleasant surprise.

Upscaling itself also performs well. Lower-resolution material is scaled correctly, without excessive sharpening or adding artificial outlines around objects. Of course the P7L won't turn a very poor source into 4K-quality footage, but for regular TV the result is simply solid. For a model in this class there is little to criticize.

TCL MQLED85/C765 is equipped with a standard refresh rate matrix of 120 Hz, with the possibility of increasing it to 144 Hz when connected to a powerful computer. The television also offers a multi-stage motion smoother, which mainly serves users who want to improve motion smoothness in films. It allows for the adjustment of the effect's intensity on a scale from 0 to 10, enabling precise matching of image smoothness to individual preferences. The matrix's response time is decent but not perfect. We can observe ghosting occurring behind both dark and medium objects.

The TCL P7L uses a panel with a native 60 Hz refresh rate at 4K resolution, and that's how it should be treated in everyday use. For movies the TV mainly offers frame interpolation, so it can smooth motion and reduce the typical judder, but it does not deliver the smoothness of true 120 Hz panels.

TCL MQLED85/C765 has received an impressive rating in the gaming features category, making it an excellent choice for gaming enthusiasts. The television supports all the latest technologies that significantly enhance the gaming experience. Among the key gaming features is ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), which automatically switches the television to low latency mode, minimizing response time and ensuring smooth gameplay. VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) supported in the range from 48 to 144 Hz eliminates stuttering and screen tearing in dynamic gaming scenes. Additionally, the television supports Dolby Vision Game Mode, which provides better image quality in games with exceptional color depth and contrast. TCL MQLED85/C765 also features a decent but not the best implementation of HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group), optimizing HDR game display, but in the case of TCL, it causes bright details in white, resulting in some elements blending into a white spot - we can read more about this in the color reproduction section. It supports various resolutions such as 1080p@120Hz, 1440p@120Hz, and 4K@120Hz, allowing gamers to take advantage of higher image quality and better fluidity. The Game Bar feature allows for easy switching between game settings and quick control of parameters, significantly facilitating the adjustment of the television to individual needs. With support for G-Sync and FreeSync technologies, users of NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards will be pleased with the synchronization of refresh rates, eliminating tearing and stuttering issues, providing a smoother and more immersive gameplay experience.

MQLED85/C765 is a television that combines advanced technologies and excellent support for gamers, making it an ideal choice for those who want to maximize their gaming experiences.

For such an inexpensive TV, the P7L has quite a lot to offer gamers. It has ALLM, VRR, Dolby Vision for gaming, and TCL adds its Game Bar, which lets you quickly view key information or change some settings without leaving the game. Not everything is perfect, though, because HGiG doesn't work here as it should, but at this price point it's hard to complain much about the feature set. The most interesting thing starts when you give up on 4K. At that resolution the TV runs at a maximum of 60 Hz, but at 1440p and 1080p it can already display at 120 Hz. And that's not just a spec-sheet curiosity. In fast-paced games that support that frame rate you can really notice the difference in smoothness, so if you care more about smoother motion than maximum image sharpness, that mode can make a lot of sense. Of course that doesn't make the P7L a true 120 Hz TV. Even so, it's precisely those extra modes that make the P7L perform really well for gaming.