Here's the short version:
If you grew up poor and can't mentally justify spending a month of rent in urban California on a single television, if you're poor as heck right now but could conceivably afford this television, if you've never owned a 4k TV, if you've never owned an especially large TV, you will not be disappointed by this gigantic freaking monstrosity of a display. It nicely upscales 1080p content, it has a nice frame rate, it has passable speakers you can hear the bass on, and as someone who is picky about delay to the point of 25ms being effectively unusable for music-based games I am very happy with the "game mode" option that removes the delay typically associated with HDMI displays. It is a good TV and everyone in my family, which includes two audio people and a visual artist, is extremely happy with it.
The detailed version:
Given the extremely low cost compared to similarly sized TVs it is surprisingly high quality.
The remote is minimal, comfortable, and easy to use.
Has a phone app in case you're one of the many people who habitually misplace the remote. App does exactly the same things the remote does.
The speakers kinda suck at low volumes, but it's whatever. If you care about audio quality go buy some fancy external hookups. It's good enough that I can bump the Thumper soundtrack and it's still a decent listening quality. Actually plays tones below 200Hz and does so cleanly, so it's better than most TVs I've had.
It has a "game mode" that it claims will affect the picture quality, but does not noticeably do, and the lack of delay is such that it is not noticeable to me, a musician to whom 25ms of delay is unacceptably bad and unusable. I'm actually able to play Thumper on the Nintendo Switch with no problems whereas with my previous TV it was so bad that I opted instead to play on console with headphones. This is the feature that I love the most about this TV.
The upscaling is such that on my gaming PC I saw no difference between 4k and 1080p when playing GTA5 (except for the frame rate when large distances or a large number of objects are visible, which is entirely due to the fact that I'm playing it on a GTX1060).
It has a lot of service integrations, such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play Movies, and a few others.
IT'S HUGE OH MY GOD I AM BAD AT CONCEPTUALISING PHYSICAL SPACE I DID NOT REALISE HOW BIG FIFTY-FIVE INCHES IS EVEN WHEN ESTIMATING ITS SIZE BASED ON MY EXISTING 40" TELEVISION I LITERALLY HAD TO REARRANGE MY ENTIRE ROOM AND BUILD NEW FURNITURE TO ACCOMMODATE THIS THING???????
It's surprisingly thin.
Does CEC and has settings to automatically switch channels based on what just turned on.
Lots of options for controlling and customising various aspects of the television including picture and audio correction, accessibility options including captions and spoken audio transcription (I have not tested the latter feature), and UI skins. You should absolutely poke around the options as much as possible once you get this as there are several options for things like the refresh rate of the display, which I imagine is relevant to a lot of people. (I am not intimately familiar with specifics of refresh rates, but I have seen no tearing or distortion from fast-motion visuals and things appear to animate smoothly.)
Does some advertising for purchasing media through Roku, presumably to offset the cost of the device. It isn't especially intrusive and only consists of movie posters in a small portion of the screen at very select times in one part of one menu.
Does require a significant amount of opting out of certain things.
Overall a fantastically huge, featureful, and good-looking TV for the cost.
Regarding complaints I've seen in other reviews: My product did not show up broken, it has not stopped working despite extensive use since I got it, I have no complaints about the refresh rate, it displays 4k content over HDMI with no issues, they say it's a glossy screen but it's really just unusually and disconcertingly smooth and otherwise significantly less glareful and reflective than my previous television, it has effectively no inconsistencies with backlighting or colour (just a small spot that's slightly brighter, which is only visible at extreme viewing angles or if the screen is effectively displaying nothing but black, and I don't mean like really dark or a scene at night I mean like literally it is displaying the colour black over 50% of the screen, and only then is it noticeable from a front angle, and just barely at that).
So if you're one of those folks that buys artisan gold plated audio cables aged seven years in oaken casks, if you buy two of the Ti version of the latest nVidia graphics card because you absolutely need to run everything on "Ultra" at 120FPS in 4k, if you're the kind of person who thinks Grey Goose tastes better, you probably won't like this TV.
If 10% not as good as the best thing for 1/4 of the cost is your jam, this is an amazing purchase. I freaking love my new giant TV.
For the price you pay this TV is great! I just wanted to post to help anyone with an Xbox One X on how to get HDR working with this TV because by default it does not work. On the Roku TV Home, go to settings (not picture settings from the remote) but the settings option on the home page, then go to TV inputs, select the hdmi port your Xbox is on, and in Hdmi mode, change it from auto to hdmi 2.
Then go to your Xbox one x and in the display settings, and advanced video, select allow HDR. And that should get it working. Hope this helps anyone else from spending time to find this. Otherwise this TV has been great!
Quite frankly, I was very, very unsure as to whether I should purchase this TV. It is a ridiculously good price, says it has HDR (HDR10), it has some local dimming type qualities and is under $400…It’s also from a manufacturer that, quite frankly, I am not very sure of as I am not familiar. What pushed me over the proverbial “edge” to buy this was two-fold…First, it is quasi suggested by Amazon, the price is great and I know it has a Roku built in. This is the third (I think) generation from TCL and Roku and the first to boast 4K and HDR. There are some outstanding features on this television and a couple cons that I can live with. I’ll outline them below.
I wanted to buy a new TV for my bedroom and the 49” was cheaper than the 43”. Also, in my humble opinion, if you want to get a 4K TV with HDR, it is best experienced with a larger TV screen. I wanted to get the 55” version that has Dolby Vision HDR (because it can use Dolby Vision or HDR10 standards for HDR) but it was cost and size prohibitive.
I saw a LG tv for a similar price but they are still using a RGBW pixel setup for their budget TV’s and it really does not do blacks well nor does it perform well with some contrasting. The reviews, research and data specs I found for this TV all outweighed going with a more familiar brand. Plus, Amazon is awesome and Prime has great benefits to protect us. I mention that as buying a TV online is a bit scary to me as I worry it might arrive broken but this was packed so well it would be malfeasance to arrive broken (or intentional).
After it arrived, I checked to make sure it was in one piece. After I found it was, I set it up. The first thing I noticed is that it weighs less than half a 46” Sony TV from 2010 that it replaced. This thing is LIGHT!! I can pick it up and turn it in my hands by myself without worrying about dropping it. Be careful though.
Concerning Picture:
This has HDR and the colors really “pop” and look outstanding. The version is HDR 10 and the TV has a 10 bit panel. Be weary of TV’s that tout HDR but only have 8 bit panels as they cannot show the full color gamut (aka not really show much of the benefit of HDR). The ones you really have to check are budget Samsung (I love Samsung but the budget ones have some critical reviews; which I urge you to check yourself) and LG. Now, the premier models (aka, flagship) for Samsung and LG are absolutely AMAZING but they also cost a lot more. Nonetheless, the screen is very, very good for the cost and I am thrilled at the price and performance. Setting up HDR is easy but make sure you press the “*” key on the remote for each input to access the settings to change the HDMI setting. It took me a bit to figure that out.
This TV has a refresh rate of 60hz but some internal hardware bumps it up to 120hz but does give it a bit of a “soap opera” effect. Some love it, some loathe it. I am the latter. Either way, in Sports mode it was able to keep up with fast NFL action in 4K and some other programming on Directv (NFL not in 4K but the upscaling was great!). From what I read, I wouldn’t calibrate this TV as it didn’t really help. This is different as calibration usually makes the tv show it’s best picture but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Oh well, easier for me to setup.
Sound:
The volume gets QUITE loud! What I love about this is an option to use to have “Speech” mode so language in movies, shows, etc, is clearer without having to turn the TV up in general to loud levels. My former TV lacked this. Nice addition. The stock speakers don’t sound “tinney” or bad at all to me. Keep your expectations in check though; this is a budget TV.
Other Features, etc:
SD content and content from streaming is upscaled very well.. That is extremely important, in my opinion, as there is not a ton of 4K material and HDR but it is growing rapidly. Most of the HDR and 4K content out there to stream, you need about 30Mbps download speeds (which rules me out as I can only get DSL). HDR adds another 3Mbps required with 4K.
Breakdown
It has HDR (HDR10 and it looks great for the price)
Great up scaling
Screen cast
Roku remote and User Interface
Simple, fast and easy to use User Interface
Good apps/thousands of channels because it is a Roku
3 HDMI (All can do 60hz 4k at 4:4:4 or 4:2:2)
Headphone/speaker out
OTA Tuner
Component input
Great Sound for a budget TV
1 ARC HDMI
1 MHL HDMI
As wide as my 2010 Sony 46” TV (small bezel on this)
Inexpensive
Full LED backlight array, it seems, with local dimming. It doesn’t perform as well as much more expensive TV’s but it performs well at this price point
Wifi – True Dual Band AC and have had ZERO drop outs thus far
Some cons are:
Needs another HDMI input
No 3D (if that is a con)
Could use more than 1 USB port
I would recommend taking advantage of the 2 year warranty available so you get the 1 year manufacturer one and 2 after that.
Overall, I cannot dispute the value this brings to the table; it’s amazing
4.3 out of 5 stars with almost 1,000 reviews (Nov 2017)...how can you go wrong?
Well, you can't from my experience. I know, know...you've been researching TVs like crazy. You love the price of this one but you're not sure because all the pretentious internet videophiles and review sites tell you only Samsungs are "real" TVs. They must be better right? They're 2-3X as much as this TV. That would be great if they delivered 2-3X better video quality. Well guess what? They don't.
Simply put, this TV delivers. I won't repeat what everyone else has said. After 1,000 reviews you're sick of it. I will share some tidbits about this TV that mattered to me...
PROS
1. Price - why pay 2-3X more for (maybe) a 5% image quality improvement?
2. ROKU - essentially saves you one input and has a good interface.
3. Picture - stunning providing the source content is good (if it's not no TV no matter how expensive will look good).
4. Inputs - not enough HDMIs, but lots of other stuff which is good.
CONS
1. Inputs - another HDMI or two would've been great.
2. Settings - had a hard time figuring this out. You have to be watching something to adjust the more advanced picture settings. Seems weird.
3. Dim picture - yeah, a bit brighter would've been better. You can tinker with brightness but that just washes the image out.
WHO CARES
1. "Only" HDR10 - mmmmkay. Well that's the standard Samsung uses and HDR content is a bit thin currently. Relax Dolby Vision fanboys.
2. Crappy viewing angle - that's the way VA panels are (Samsung uses VA too) so such is life.
3. It's not a "real" brand name - big whoop. 1,000 consumers on Amazon are pretty stoked about this TV. Screw what CNET thinks.
TV Settings
I tried to go with what the "experts" said. That left me with an overly warm, muddy, soft picture. If that's what they used to review the TV no wonder why they dinged it on image quality. Their settings sucked, not the TV. Anyway, I don't care what they're fancy calibration doohickey said, here's what worked for me...
TV brightness: Brighter
Picture mode: Normal (Movie is too red, Sports too green, Vivid too saturated and grainy, Low power lacks punch)
Picture size: Auto or Direct
Audio effect: Normal
Sleep timer: Off
Advanced picture settings
Dynamic contrast: Off
Backlight: 100
Brightness: 50 (can try 55-60 but washes out fast)
Contrast: 100
Sharpness: 25 (everyone loves 0, a little sharp is okay, just avoid ghosting and halos)
Color: 45
Tint: 0
Color temperature: Normal (warm = too red, cool = too blue)
YMMV on these settings and, of course, do what works best for you. Overall, amazing TV value!
*** UPDATE ***
So it's only been a few weeks but I had a chance to see some real 4K HDR content on this TV and I literally peed myself. Yeah, it looks pretty good. I'm not sure how much better a picture can possibly get. You can pay more for a TV but I really don't see why you would.
I am shocked at the picture quality. I went into this purchase wanting a larger inexpensive TV for the master bedroom. So far I am floored, the picture blows away my Panasonic plasma I purchased several years ago (for 3x the price). The Roku OS is super easy, The antenna integration and USB storage for recording live programming are great.
One small item I can nitpick is the white LED at the bottom center of the TV that remains on after powering off. I haven't dug through all the settings yet, I will post an update if I can disable it. Update: The LED can be disabled in settings under power settings.
If this set can continue to perform, I will replace my main Panasonic Plasma with the new TCL C Series
The pic is from a nature show "The Hunt" streamed from Netflix.
I can't imagine a better picture for the price point. That coupled with the Roku OS and I am extremely happy with this purchase
Feature Product
- Dimensions (W x H x D): TV without stand: 49.1" x 28.5" x 3", TV with stand: 49.1" x 30.8" x 8.7"
- Smart functionality offers access to over 4,000 streaming channels featuring more than 450,000 movies and TV episodes via Roku TV
- Pairs 4K Ultra HD picture clarity with the contrast, color, and detail of High Dynamic Range (HDR) for the most lifelike picture
- Direct-lit LED produces great picture quality. Panel Resolution: 3840 x 2160. Dual-band Wi-Fi & Ethernet port
- 120Hz refresh rate allows fast moving action scenes to be seen with virtually no motion blur.Wi-Fi : 802.een with virtually no motion blur.Screw Size:M6 x 16
- Compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant
Description
The S-Series 4K TCL Roku TV delivers stunning picture performance while bringing all your favorite content through a simple, intuitive interface in a sleek modern design. HDMI Ports: 3 HDMI 2.0 w/HDCP 2.2 (1 ARC); Resolution: 3840 x 2160; USB Ports: 1 USB2.0
New update! Posted below
I would like to first start by saying, don't hesitate, this is an amazing buy and I would gladly recommend to anyone. I honestly love this tv.
Now for a quick pro and con list.
Pros:
•Beautiful picture quality
•very light weight but more than sturdy on its included stand (feet)
•insanely low price for the quality
•the roku smart system is remarkably easy to use
•very simple and compact remote that does everything you need it to
Cons, (but VERY minor and not even truly noteworthy)
•Rear facing speakers
•not as many picture settings as my samsung
UPDATE: I downloaded the Roku app on my phone, and found out that there is a tab under settings (in the app) called expert picture settings. Tap that and you will see more settings at a custom level. simply make your changes via the app and they instantly take effect on your tv.
Now for the in depth review:
I bought this to replace my Samsung 40" smart led tv because it was time for a bigger size. Now, with having come from a samsung to this tv, I will say there a few differences, but not any that have to do with quality. It's more about the features. My samsung was essentially a computer, whereas this tv is a tv. It's smart for the ability to use any and all streaming services you can imagine, but unlike samsung, I have not yet found a way to surf the web, or use social media. However that is not even remotely important to me I never even used those features anyway. I was merely looking around so I would have a comparison from a big name like samsung to a new, less heard of brand, like TCL. I noticed a lot of people complained about the lack of brightness in this screen, but I have to disagree. I've never had any issues seeing the screen and my tv is positioned directly across the room from a window that gets direct sun from about 6am until 3pm, and as long as my blinds (no curtains) are closed, I can see the screen absolutely perfectly. Not even my samsung could be seen with the blinds open, so I consider this tv to be equal in that respect to a big name brand tv. I've had this tv for about 3 months now and still have nothing to complain about. However for you fellow amazon users, I will nit pick so you can know everything possible. Speakers are great, however they are on the back of the tv and therefore direct sound backwards. However, don't let that deter you, because the sound is still great and you don't have to crank it up to hear. It's only an issue if you have kids or a roommate who shares the wall your tv is on. In that case, they will probably be able to hear your tv. However Ive always used soundbars when it comes to flat screens, which totally solves the extremely minor issue here. All in all this tv is absolutely amazing and I love it. I could easily see this being a $800-$1,000 tv. As my title to this review states, do not hesitate to buy, it really is an amazing tv for an unbelievable price. I will most definitely buy from tcl in the future, and have already recommended this tv to several people, and will continue to do so.
I replaced a 100" 1080p projector, which simply due to the size of the image, I am going to miss, but this TV is spectacular for the money, although being a cinephile, I'd like some more advanced picture settings, particularly the ability to turn off interpolation. Out of the box, regular 1080p blu rays look AWFUL, but that is fixable as I will get to shortly. I won't get into too much detail about the picture. There are other reviews for that here, and I agree with the positive ones, the picture is phenomenal for the price, but there is a bit of unevenness in the backlighting that only bothers me when the screen is mostly one color/shade.
The real reason I'm leaving this review is to tell you how to fix what, to me, was almost a deal-breaking picture issue when playing native 24p content. I was playing a brand new blu-ray on my PS4 (not a UHD blu ray), and like any cinephile should, I have my PS4 set to output 24p signal when available (most movie blu rays). This resulted in horrible artifacting during fast motion and panning, especially in dark scenes. (Legitimately awful, I was about to send it back, but decided to sleep on it.) After some research and fiddling with settings, I found that turning the 24p setting off on the PS4 mostly fixed this, but I wouldn't recommend that.
The best solution that I found was to enter the Expert Picture Settings menu (using the Roku app on your phone), and to turn Noise Reduction to Off. My guess is that since this TV has a native refresh rate of 60hz, it is doing a 3:2 pulldown on 24p signals and attempting to guess and add 36 frames every second between the original 24 (which is standard for 60hz TVs), but then the Noise Reduction is seeing a lot of those artificial frames as "noise" and trying to smooth them. This is probably what is causing the artifacting and ghosting during motion. You'd think the software would ignore the artificial frames that the TV itself generated when it comes to noise reduction, but that doesn't seem to be the case and the two functions collide into an absolutely unwatchable mess on screen.
Don't take my word for what looks best though. Try it yourself. Try it with just turning 24p off on your blu ray player. Try it with just turning Noise Reduction off. Try it with both. I liked it best with just Noise Reduction off, but everyone is different. I'll be honest, if I hadn't been able to resolve this, I would absolutely have sent the TV back and bought something with more advanced picture settings, albeit at a much higher expense. It was that bad.
Hopefully this helps you.
I spent close 20 hours of research on TV's (sadly not kidding). Through my research I learned about all the new specs and what specs make a good TV like: LED, 4K, HDR, WCG, 120 hrtz etc. besides WCG, this TV has them all for at affordable price, NOTHING comes close. People are so caught up on 4K.. HDR (High Dynamic Range) make a better difference to the eye than 4K (Google it). Now there are two types of HDR, some have both but this one has HDR10 which is the endustry standard (Dolby Vision HDR is better but not as popular and barely can tell a difference). Let me say I was so worried that this TV would ship and I would be upset. This was not the case... the TV comes with Roku (a value in itself) and a very user friendly remote. Some people complain about the viewing angles and sound but to be honest - I really don't think it's bad, like at all (obviously not the best). Not enough to really complain. When I tested an HDR video on the YouTube app (search hdr) I was amazed. The blacks are so rich.
Bottom line I was worried at first but came to be impressed. But that said if you want "THE PERFECT TV" - this is not for you. If you have the money look elsewhere. But for all us normal people that don't want to spend 3 months rent on a TV - THIS IS FOR YOU. Finally I do recommended the 5 year warrenty, it's only 50$ and it covers a lot. Since this isn't a Panasonic, or Samsung, or Philips tv - the parts used to make the tv might not be the best. I've had many flat screens break over the years (BRAND TV'S!!!) so pay the extra 50$.
Picture: 9.1
Sound: 7
Remote: 9
Design: 7
Interface: 10 (just because it has roku)
I hope this helps!
Enjoy!
After hours of gaming, movies and tv, this is simply the best TV I've ever purchased! I tweaked some settings (which was incredibly easy) and couldn't stop dropping my jaw. Draw distances in games seemed enhanced somehow. The colors... The HDR is so worth it. I can't stress enough how worth it the HDR is. Blows my dang mind, even the TV's speakers are better than expected, bass is noticable. The apps and Roku function very smoothly. I would highly suggest anyone that loves movies or games (or BOTH) to get this TV! Great price for supreme value!!
I bought this TV for my parents, they were still on an old 55" CRT projection. This sounded like a good deal. Wow, what an understatement. I didn't realize that it was HDR & 4K! The picture is outstanding and the menu system is really snappy. This eliminated so many wires and remotes for my parents, I now have a pile of electronics I'm not sure what I'm going to do with. My parents are 88 & 80... and they have no problem operating and using the television which is about the biggest endorsement I can give anything!
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