It must be admitted, the 2023 Experts meet Experts event offered by TCL in Poland was a first for the members of the AVCesar editorial staff. Never, in more than 30 years of press conferences, product presentations or meetings with a brand's engineers, have we witnessed such a deployment of force: more than 40 televisions installed, including around fifteen "Jumbo TV", 85'' and 98'' specimens from the C805, C955 and X955 series, several other broadcasters displaying different LED and Mini LED backlighting systems to perfectly visualize the various processes implemented, numerous tools to the availability of media wishing to carry out screen measurements, direct and permanent access to TCL technical teams…
In short, a unique environment whose key words were “transparency” and “exchange”. This changes significantly, even radically, compared to other brands which are increasingly secrecy by not even wishing, for example, to communicate on the number of zones of their backlighting or on the light peak…
TCL 85X9555, measurements
Informed of the organization desired by TCL, AVCesar was also present in force with our long-time partner, Cédric Louis (HC Calibrage) professional calibrator pictured below accompanied by his state-of-the-art and perfectly profiled equipment. With the aim of firstly measuring the performance of these screens very precisely, and then finely calibrating them to truly take advantage of what they have in their belly.
TCL 85X955, brightness record straight out of the box
Before moving on to a complete test, we offer you in this news (and in that already published on the C805 series, cf. TCL 85C805, Mini LED TV on the grill: verified promises, validated measurements, and on the C955 to come) to learn about the main measurements of the TCL 85X955, the second television to be put on the grill during our benchmarking sessions. After having failed the entire first day to measure the TVs (see below), we measured an insane value of the SDR light peak out of the box. Nearly 895 nits in Cinema mode for the 85X955, significantly even more in Standard mode, i.e. figures offered by certain other televisions in… HDR.
TCL 85X9555, singular tonal spectrum
Like our remark on the 85C805, measured on the 85X955 such a light peak in SDR is a first, it was therefore necessary at the end of our first day in Warsaw, during part of the night, to completely rethink the initial profile of the Jeti Spectraval 1511 HiRes spectroradiometer (2 nm) whose purpose is to precisely identify the tonal spectrum of the diffuser, an essential preliminary step for accurate measurements and precise calibration. Without the latter, the procedure is indeed necessarily erroneous.
Once the procedure was adapted to the new situation of these TCL TVs, at the start of the second day of the event, we were able to carry out our usual methodology successfully. With such poor start-up, 895 nits in SDR and 2,131.5 nits in HDR (and even almost 5,000 nits during the first 15 seconds in Standard mode for an APL 5%, so not really usable on a daily basis), For Monsieur Toutlemonde, this is about calming the ardor of the television, as eye fatigue can quickly occur. And for lovers of beautiful images, calibration is therefore highly recommended. As a reminder, TCL announced 5,000 nits when this model was announced, after that of the C805 TVs, the promise of the X955 TVs is therefore kept.
TCL 85X95, measurements after calibration
Once this is completed, the SDR signal is set at nearly 144 nits with a Delta E of the average gray scale at 0.65, 056 for the gamut, more than perfect figures for watching DTT , DVDs or Blu-Rays.
For its part, the HDR signal displays a peak at 1,956.3 nits for a Delta E at 0.53 for the gray scale and 0.73 for the gamut, excellent values for making speculars shine and display accurate colors. And the result on the screen was truly stunning with textures present in the highlights, impossible to discern on the almost majority of other LCD broadcasters and, of course, all Oled broadcasters.
Finally, the Color Volume is very good (see first capture below), at 154.7% of Rec.709, 103.7% of DCI-P3 and 70% of Rec.2020. And the light peak in Cinema mode, once the television has been calibrated, displays 3,700 nits in 10% APL and 647.6 nits in 100% APL (see second capture below), a truly exceptional value.
Last remark, the video processing of the TCL 85X955 TV is progress compared to last year's televisions, and very close to that offered by the C845 references. More details later.
In the end, our experience with the TCL 85X955 TV turns out to be more than excellent. The promises are kept, both in terms of light and colorimetric performance as well as video processing and ergonomics (fast interface). It now remains to create a complete test bench to know everything about this diffuser.
