TCL P607 55" (55P607) vs Samsung Q7C 65" (QN65Q7C)

At $650, it's hard to find a better deal for a 55-inch 4K TV that can also handle HDR content reasonably well.

Compared to its direct competitors, its picture quality is more or less similar to them. Although the HDR performance is just a tad below them, it's still great, especially for the price.

It's also more versatile because it has better features for gaming - the input lag of ~15ms is among the lowest in 4K TVs on the market, and it has a motion blur of ~12ms that stacks up to more expensive options.

The screen size is large for the price when compared to TVs in this price bracket, such as the Sony X900E which costs ≥$250 more for the 49" model.

The P607 can play both HDR10 and Dolby Vision content.

The P607 runs on the Roku TV smart platform, touted for its simple, straightforward, and lag-free UI.

It’s easy for anyone to grasp how navigation works, thanks to its two-column design with the menu on the left and options on the right.

There’s also no noticeable lag during navigation or menu selection.

In a decently-lit environment, the P607's colors won't look dull thanks to the panel's high peak brightness levels and decent handling of reflections.

It's bright enough to fight off glare with peak brightness levels of ~500 nits for both SDR & HDR, and the intensity of reflections are also reduced by panel's semi-gloss finish.

The P607 has low input lag and barely noticeable motion blur, making for a responsive and fluid gameplay experience.

The input lag is barely noticeable at ~15ms for both SDR & HDR inputs, and the panel only requires ~12ms to fully change the pixels color, resulting in fast-moving objects not leaving any trails on the screen, eliminating virtually all motion blur.

The P607 is excellent at reproducing colors accurately out of the box.

Even without calibration, the colors are spot-on. They're very close to what the source signal demands, and any inaccuracies are generally considered imperceptible to most end users.

The overall average difference between the source signal and the panel's reproduction of the color is measured in Delta-E, where lower means better accuracy. The P607 has a Delta-E of below 2.0, and anything below 3.0 is generally considered accurate for most end users.

On top of its excellent picture quality, the P607 has everything essential to a great HDR experience: local dimming, wide color gamut, and fairly high peak brightness level.

Highlights will really stand out as the deep black levels are further improved with local dimming. It can make parts of the screen darker when the image calls for it, resulting in a fairly huge boost in picture quality as the black levels become deeper.

The wide color gamut enables the panel to reproduce the full range of colors required for true HDR playback. The screen can get sufficiently bright at a peak level of ~500 nits to light those colors up and make HDR details really pop.

The P607 has no ads on its main interface, although there can be ads in third-party applications. Third-party ads can't be blocked, but the tracking and personalisation can be limited through the TV's settings.

The P607 can upscale 480p, 720p, and 1080p content to 4K very well. The upscaled content has almost no artifacts, and the crisp details are preserved.

The P607 looks true-to-life with lots of details.

There’s a great depth to pictures and you’ll be able to see everything stand out. Dark scenes are great and you won't miss out on any details, even in shadows.

The panel has a contrast ratio of about 6500:1, which means it can produce blacks that are 6500 times darker than the brightest white. This can be pushed even further to over 7000 with local dimming.

The colors are lifelike and accurate even without any calibration by the user. They will look really vibrant even in bright scenes because of the panel’s high peak brightness levels of ~500 nits for SDR & ~550 nits for HDR.

Even in a decently-lit environment, the P607’s picture quality can still hold up - the panel is great at handling reflections and it can get bright enough to fight off glare.

The Samsung Q7C is an excellent option for sports fans because the TV can display fast and dynamic content very clearly. This is achieved by the TV’s fast pixel response time which almost eliminates the motion-blur effect. The TV has a full pixel response time of 8.1 ms which means each pixel can fully change its color in less than 1/100th of a second, so even fast-moving objects don't leave trails. Regarding response time, the Samsung Q7C performs much better than the majority of its competitors on the market.

Additionally, the Samsung Q7C is especially good for watching outdoor sports, like football, rugby or golf, because the TV has high color uniformity which makes sports fields look more realistic and consistent.

The Samsung Q7C is a good gaming TV because of its relatively small input lag, and excellent motion blur handling.

The TV’s input lag is only 24.2 ms, which allows you to experience smooth and immersive gameplay without noticeable delay between the press of a button and the corresponding action on the screen. Here, the Q7C outperforms its biggest competitor: the Sony X930E.

The overall picture quality of the Samsung Q7C is decent as the TV can reproduce deep dark scenes because of its panel's high native contrast ratio and proper black uniformity. The Samsung Q7C does a much better job with dark scenes than its competitors, including the VIZIO P-series.

This TV works very well with all the current generation gaming consoles, such as the Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, and Wii U.

The Samsung Q7C comes with an eye-catching remote. It’s made from metal and has shiny metal finish. Apart from being stylish, the remote offers some extended functionality, like a microphone and voice control.

The Samsung Q7C has all the bits and pieces needed to process and display HDR content because of the TV’s wide color gamut, acceptable HDR peak brightness, good native contrast ratio, and uniform blacks.

The main feature of the Samsung Q7C is its curved panel which can give you that immersive feeling as it is curved in such a way that it feels like the screen surrounds you if you sit front and center. However, if you are not a fan of curved TVs, there is an equally-priced flat version of the Samsung Q7C called the Samsung Q7F.