Every time I see a brand new TCL TV, such because the $649, 55-inch, 4K UHD 55R617 reviewed right here, the corporate has made important strides in a single space or one other. A few years in the past it was adopting the superb Roku working system; this yr, it’s delivering colour and HDR (Dolby Imaginative and prescient, particularly) that’s aggressive with TV’s costing twice as a lot.
Design and options
I’ll get again to the image TCL’s 6-series TVs generate in a bit; first, the most effective issues I’ve seen shortly: An honest-to-goodness, placed-where-you-can-see-it energy button. Someplace alongside the road, these fell out of favor with TV producers, banished to the again of the chassis or another inconspicuous location. Probably due to Samsung’s one-time ridiculous behavior of creating them vivid blue and leaving them burning on a regular basis.
This one is massive, apparent, and positioned on the decrease proper entrance of the TV as you possibly can see under, however it doesn’t shine continuously. Candy. And sure, I simply devoted greater than a paragraph to a single button.
The 6-series sports activities a big and apparent energy button. I prefer it. It’s engaging sufficient and huge sufficient you may simply end up urgent it for the pure tactile sensation.
Past that which I simply mentioned, you’re speaking good, however not extraordinary design: a pewter-colored bezel and an oblong form. TCL talks up their thinner (from display screen to edge) bezel, which after all permits a bigger TV in a smaller area ought to that occur to be a requirement of yours. It measures Three inches entrance to again, and it weighs in at roughly 38 kilos, so it’s simply wall-mountable (by way of the VESA mount level), however it’s not what you’d name a “disappearing” design.
The enter/output ports are recessed into the again proper (as you have a look at it) of the TV’s housing: Three 60Hz HDMI 2.zero (with HDCP 2.2), one in every of which helps the Audio Return Channel (ARC); an optical S/PDIF audio out; a single USB 2.zero port; a Three.5mm headphone jack; a Three.5mm A/V enter that accepts an included breakout cable with stereo RCA and composite video enter jacks; and 10/100 ethernet (with an 802.11ac adapter onboard). The distant works by way of Bluetooth, however there’s no assist for different Bluetooth units, so you possibly can’t join wi-fi headphones to it or stream music from a cell system..
Distant and interface
The Roku OS TCL makes use of delivers unmatched content material presentation and succinct navigation. Stay preview of the content material taking part in on the inputs has been added, assuaging nearly the one criticism I ever had about Roku. Okay, that and having to create an on-line profile to make use of the service. Notice that you simply do not want to provide credit-card data, though that truth just isn’t made apparent. Merely stop the sign-up course of with out filling out these fields.
TCLTCL 6-series TV with its Roku interface
The TCL distant is basically a Roku distant (it’s principally the identical distant you’d get when you purchased one in every of Roku’s higher-end set-top bins). It has a minimal variety of buttons and is kind of environment friendly. The distant helps voice instructions and has a headphone output for personal listening by way of headphones or earbuds. I actually like how the consumer interface handles navigation throughout file playback—you want only one click on for any motion utilizing the four-way rocker swap. That’s a lot better than the tedious Samsung strategy, the place you have to choose the suitable on-screen management earlier than you possibly can take motion.
Alternatively, I’m not an enormous fan of the distant’s streaming-service shortcut buttons (Netflix, YouTube, et al). I by no means use them, and even when I did, I’d nonetheless take into account them intrusive promoting. Opinions will range. You’ll be able to see them under, though the labels aren’t current in on this shot the PR of us despatched.
TCLThe TCL Roku distant is small, environment friendly, and presents a Three.5 mm jack for headphones. This picture alternatively is a bit disingenuous. These 4 coloured buttons on the backside aren’t clean as proven.
One other characteristic I do like, is the three.5mm headphone jack on the facet of the distant. This considerably compensates for the TV not supporting Bluetooth headphones.
Image high quality
Like all TV distributors, TCL makes use of sexy-sounding however primarily meaningless techno-babble, corresponding to “nano-band photon expertise,” within the advertising of its TVs. Photons are the particles that comprise gentle—amongst different issues—and nano might imply something actually small, although it usually hints at quantum dots, which so far as I’m conscious of, don’t occupy a spot within the TCL’s show expertise. Large Shade can be talked about, which suggests a broader vary of colours. I’m assuming TCL is attempting to say that they use a narrow-spectrum LCD gentle supply, and that the set produces a broader vary of colours in comparison with different TVs.
Regardless of the firm is speaking about, the show expertise at hand works fairly effectively with each SDR (commonplace dynamic vary) and Dolby Imaginative and prescient/HDR10 excessive dynamic vary materials. Certainly, the brightness, distinction, and colour remind me extra of latest mid- to high-end Sony and Samsung TVs than any entry-level set. The colours are wealthy, and there appears to be plenty of them: It’s a 10-bit panel delivering 94 % of the DCI-Three colour area, and 74 % of BT.2020, when you care. And colours appear to be fairly darn correct. I detected no unintended yellow/inexperienced or orange/purple. The HDR pops rather well, which the 1,068-peak-nit studying from our gentle meter backs up.
One factor I actually respect concerning the 55R617 is that, not like another TVs (Hisense’s H9E Plus for example), all of the changes stay obtainable when HDR is engaged. Off-axis viewing can be usually fairly good, given comparatively gentle lighting within the surrounding space.
Alas, the 6-series is not a mid- to high-end TV, and this reveals up in a number of methods. One of the vital salient is the big quantity of moiré and shimmer in detailed areas throughout gradual pans. There was additionally some gentle stuttering throughout quick motion photographs, although cranking the movement compensation decreased that to a tolerable stage. Notice that it is a 60Hz panel, so overlook TCL’s 120Hz Clear Movement malarky. Usually talking, 60Hz TVs endure extra extreme movement points as a result of, sure, they don’t have as many useless frames per second to play with, and compensation for this usually requires extra processing energy than is supplied.
The opposite points have been associated to regulate of the 96-zone full-array backlight, with the brightness of the complete display screen sometimes leaping up and down by a noticeable quantity, in addition to discernible 2- to Three-inch vertical darkish areas in fast panning photographs. Uniformity was additionally barely off, with each higher corners barely grey, in addition to refined clouding in a number of areas across the show.
Notice that the majority of those points happen solely sometimes, as most reveals and movies don’t stress a TV in methods that may produce them. The 2160P/HDR10 materials I exploit for testing will at all times deliver out the worst in a TV.
TCLTCL’s 5- and 6 sequence 4K UHD HDR good TVs: The 6-series is within the again, distinguished by the big energy button.
I do plenty of testing with information, which have been as soon as the one supply of HDR materials. The 55R617 acknowledges USB mass media, however not bigger drives such because the 1TB mannequin I usually use. TCL hadn’t gotten again to me on the restrict, however switching to a 64GB drive labored high quality. The 55R617 understands each h.264 and h.265 video, in addition to all the opposite widespread video and audio file sorts.
In relation to sound, not being a particularly skinny design helps: The 55r617’s sound is hardly thumpy, however you possibly can inform the bass and kick drum are there, and the general timbre good for discuss and dialog, if not for music. It’s definitely enough for these instances you simply don’t like really feel like turning on the encompass system or listening via headphones to look at the information.
Conclusion
When it comes to colour and HDR, the TCL 6-series punches impressively far above its weight class. A firmware improve that solves a few of the backlighting points could be welcome, though these seem not often sufficient that they shouldn’t damage the general expertise. However give the tires a extremely exhausting kick when you’re particularly delicate—it suffers lots of the picture foibles of an entry-level TV.
Additionally, simply earlier than I put this assessment to mattress, the equally priced 55-inch Hisense H9E Plus confirmed up. It might’t match the colour, black, or brightness of the 55R617, however it handles movement higher, and it doesn’t endure the identical backlighting points. Form of a toss-up there.
Notice: This text was edited 07/13/2018 to alter the dialogue on the standard of the sound.