There’s little question in our minds – the TCL P6-Series was arms down the perfect price range TV of final yr within the sub-$1,000 worth vary. It made our Best TVs of 2017 listing, in addition to our Best 4K TVs of 2017 listing, alongside OLEDs from Sony and LG, and QLED TVs from Samsung – all of which value two, three, 4 and even 5 instances as a lot as TCL’s budget-friendly collection.

If there was a draw back to final yr’s fashions, one that would’ve and may’ve been fastened by yr’s finish, it was the truth that the TVs had been restricted to at least one measurement and manufacturing couldn’t sustain with the heavy demand as soon as phrase acquired out how spectacular these TVs had been. 

Fortunately, the largest problem with final yr’s TCL P6-Sequence has been fastened within the new 6-Sequence TVs that supply each a 65- and 55-inch variation. 

As for the panel itself, there have been a number of modifications for this yr – TCL has elevated the variety of distinction management zones from 72 to 96 on the 55-inch fashions, and upwards of 120 on the 65-inch model of the TVs – however largely you’re getting the identical core specs from final yr: Specifically, a 4K TV with three kinds of HDR help together with Dolby Imaginative and prescient, the built-in Roku working system and a full-array panel – all of which TCL is promoting for an unbelievably low $649 for the 55-inch 55R617 and $999 on the 65-inch 65R617. 

Mentioned merely, if there’s a greater worth TV in the marketplace, we’ve but to see it. 

Design

Earlier than we dive too deep into it, It must be acknowledged that there are two totally different fashions of the TV, every of which can be found in 55- and 65-inch variations. There’s the R615 mannequin, which comes with a regular distant and might be discovered for $50 lower than the same old MSRP of its older sibling, the R617, which affords a sensible distant with a microphone for voice search constructed straight into it. (Professional tip: Spring for the sensible voice distant – it makes looking for content material 100 instances simpler than typing it in by hand.)

For our assessment, we had been shipped a 55-inch R617 however you may apply the overwhelming majority of what’s stated right here to each the R615 and R617 in each the 55- and 65-inch variations. 

Let’s transfer on to what TCL’s newest TVs truly seem like … which, for lack of a greater phrase, we’d describe as industrial. That’s not a foul factor, although. A big issue contributing to that industrial feeling is the brushed steel exterior, jewel-like energy button and sturdy body that’s in all probability an inch and a half thick. 

That stated, although TCL’s TVs don’t have the extraordinarily skinny body that we’ve seen earlier than on OLED and a few edge-lit LED/LCD TVs and it could actually look typically a bit daunting sitting on a TV stand, it’s comparatively unobtrusive – particularly contemplating what’s beneath the hood of this TV.

What’s below there, in case you want a reminder, is a full-array LED panel with an unbelievable quantity of distinction management zones. TCL is considered one of simply two corporations to announce what number of zones it makes use of in its full-array TVs and by comparability it’s utterly crushing the competitors: The VIZIO 2018 M-Sequence solely affords 32 native dimming zones in its equally priced 55-inch TV in comparison with the 96 zones discovered on the TCL 55R617.

The 6-Sequence stand on two steel v-shaped legs which have rubber padding on the underside to stop slippage. They are often fitted comparatively rapidly, and the TV must be up and working in a matter of minutes when you’ve got your entire cables sorted and able to be plugged in.

When it comes to connections, what you’ll discover on the again of the R615 and R617 are three HDMI 2.zero ports with HDCP 2.2, one with HDMI ARC, one USB 2.zero port, a three.5mm Headphone Jack and Digital Optical-In, plus an AV In port that takes your customary composite (Crimson-White-Yellow RCA) enter, nice for traditional gaming or older AV units. It’d be good to see one other HDMI port right here, however three HDMI ports must be sufficient for all however essentially the most ardent of AV lovers on the market.

The one space we’d wish to see the 6-Sequence enhance subsequent yr – and it’s a small critique – is that its open-back design with the HDMI ports protruding of the facet results in an unpleasant mess of cables hanging off the facet of your brand-new TV. 

One potential resolution could be to design one thing much like Samsung’s T-shaped stand that routes all cables by means of the bottom of the stand, after which alongside the grooves at the back of the TV. It’s a a lot neater resolution and one which helps its TVs really feel extra premium even when the image high quality leaves one thing to be desired.

Design TL;DR: TCL’s 6-Sequence is a bit on the thick facet, however that is as a result of it homes the all-important full-array panel. 

Good TV (Roku TV) 

When you get the TV up and working, you’ll be met with the acquainted veneer of Roku TV – an egalitarian working system that handily retains its prime spot as the perfect working system yr after yr. It’s intuitive to make use of (if a bit boring) and its lack of ties to a specific streaming platform permit it to level you to all of the locations content material might be discovered with out bias. 

That final bit is necessary, particularly when you’ve ever used an Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV, each of which might a lot somewhat have you ever stream from their ancillary streaming companies over any of the third-party ones. As a result of Roku doesn’t have ties to a significant streaming service – aside from a obscure deal to incorporate FandangoNow on the house display of the OS – it doesn’t push you any course you don’t wish to go and fortunately helps every thing from Netflix, Hulu, Sling TV and Amazon, to lesser-known channels like Pluto.tv, tubi, Crackle and others.

That’s to say nothing of Roku’s personal streaming service that it launched on the finish of final yr, which gives its personal assortment of totally free motion pictures that change out and in each few months. Most aren’t something to jot down house about, however this month’s featured movie is Whiplash – which, when you’ve by no means seen it, is totally price capitalizing on the free admission.

In the event you’ve acquired your cell phone helpful whereas browsing the channels, you may obtain the Roku TV app which is able to assist you to handle your My Feed content material (a user-curated watch listing that may let you realize when a film or TV present involves a streaming service) and can permit as much as 4 individuals hearken to the TV in non-public listening mode – a brand new characteristic for 2018. 

One good shock TCL and Roku tucked into the TV is that it has Chromecast built-in – a helpful characteristic that means that you can solid content material out of your cell system to your TV. That is good when you’ve got a gaggle of buddies over they usually all desire a flip exhibiting their favourite YouTube clip, or if you wish to use your TV as a digital image body when household comes to go to. 

Whereas it’d be good to see the inclusion of synthetic intelligence and private assistants on Roku TV – much like what LG is doing with WebOS and Samsung has carried out with Tizen and SmartThings – all issues thought-about, that is nonetheless the most effective TV working methods. 

Good TV TL;DR: When you gained’t discover sensible assistants right here or any type of AI, Roku TV has laser-precision give attention to delivering almost each recognized streaming service and cataloging reveals and flicks in its sturdy, searchable database. 

HD/SDR Efficiency 

One main critique we levied towards the P6-Sequence was its lack of ability to correctly upscale content material from HD/SDR to 4K/HDR. The excellent news is that largely isn’t the case any extra – HD/SDR content material seems to be usually fairly nice on the 55R617. 

Take Guardians of the Galaxy 2, for instance. Identified for its vibrant, colourful scenes, the 6-Sequence handily upscaled the movie’s 1080p SDR image right into a lush, near-4K picture. Is it potential to make this film even brighter and extra colourful? Certain. Is it potential to do it with out truly watching a local 4K HDR Blu-ray? In all probability not.

The apparent benefit TCL has right here is its full array panel and a number of other dozen distinction management zones – they assist every scene get hold of greater distinction and even assist SDR content material look its greatest. What it means in observe is that you just’ll discover a particular lack of grey hues on the TCL 6-Sequence that may’ve handed for black on earlier TVs you owned. Based on TCL, the 6-Sequence’ distinction efficiency exceeds the main competitor by 300% and put the put the distinction ratio someplace within the ballpark of 12,000:1 with SDR content material. 

The place there’s room for enchancment right here is with how the TV handles movement. For essentially the most half, it’s surprisingly good – even when you’re watching fast-paced content material – however the best way Roku TV is applied right here, you don’t have a lot management over how movement is dealt with. There are simply three settings – excessive, medium, low – or it may be turned off totally. 

Three choices are higher than none, clearly, however Samsung affords a extra managed 10-point scale. No matter you may see on the field, it’s only a 60Hz panel – even when it hides that reality somewhat properly. 

The final level that’s price making on the HD/SDR efficiency is that players can anticipate extraordinarily low ranges of enter lag on the 6-Sequence. TCL says they measured it at round 17.7ms, which might put the 6-Sequence proper round the place we measured the LG OLED E8 – a TV that’s considerably dearer.

HD/SDR Efficiency TL;DR: Considerably improved from final yr, the 6-Sequence’ HD/SDR efficiency is excellent. 

4K/HDR Efficiency 

The place the TCL’s success in HD/SDR is just about plain, its efficiency with 4K/HDR content material is almost simply pretty much as good and infrequently wants qualification: Stacked towards the competitors even in its most unfavorable circumstances, the 6-Sequence holds its personal; Put it in a spot the place the 6-Sequence can thrive, although, and it’ll outclass TVs that value two, three and even 4 instances as a lot.

So simply the place ought to the 6-Sequence go?

You’re going to get higher efficiency unilaterally if the TV is positioned in a darkish room. Particulars on the ends of the sunshine spectrum – in notably vibrant scenes and notably darkish scenes – will retain their splendor, and colours gained’t fade. Right here, within the consolation of a darkened room, the 6-Sequence stands toe-to-toe with Samsung’s top-tier QLED TVs, LG’s OLED and Sony’s legendary LED-LCDs. 

The important thing right here, moreover the iPQ Engine that helps broaden distinction and the full-array panel which has extra management than most TVs in the marketplace, is its WCG (Vast Shade Gamut) capabilities that come from its NBP Photon know-how. NBP, or Nano Band Phosphor, makes use of high-output LEDs with precision phosphors that assist the 6-Sequence show 93% of the DCI-P3 colour area, very almost all of it. 

However transfer the 6-Sequence right into a brightly lit room, say in a lounge close to a window, and a few of these benefits start to crumble. Black particulars start to get misplaced, colours start to fade some and the brightness that the TV as soon as had – or, extra precisely, felt prefer it had – dims. 

That is due to a distinction in peak luminance. TVs just like the Samsung Q8FN are outputting twice as a lot because the TCL 6-Sequence and meaning it seems to be higher in vibrant rooms, whereas OLEDs just like the Sony A1E and LG C8 OLED can do higher black copy.

In fact, TCL isn’t taking place with no combat to a brightly lit room – there are methods to extend luminance on the expense of black ranges. A kind of methods is with HDR Professional Gamma that means that you can change from Darkish HDR modes on your stereotypical house theater, to Vibrant HDR on your window-lit lounge and Regular HDR for anyplace in between. This helps combat again towards fading colours and blown out photos but it surely merely places a band-aid on the TV’s gentle points.

However all this may provide the impression that the 6-Sequence is a weak performer within the 4K HDR space. It’s not. It’s simply the one space that it does lose floor in to the TVs that it so simply trumps in each different division. In the event you can look previous some points  – which, belief us – it’s not laborious to do, you might be handled to spectacular-looking photos.

This makes it an awesome accomplice for the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. Taking part in by means of God of Battle on the PS4 Professional was an absolute deal with, and Forza Motorsport 7 on Xbox One X is what we’ve all the time wished a driving recreation to seem like. 

Taking the TCL’s HDR efficiency one step additional is Dolby Imaginative and prescient help – a format utilized by film studios and TV producers to nice impact. Watching Daredevil in Netflix, Dolby Imaginative and prescient gives extra of these low-light and ultra-bright particulars than customary HDR10 ever may by itself. Having it obtainable right here on a TV at this worth level speaks volumes of concerning the worth TCL and Dolby have created right here. 

No Dolby Imaginative and prescient demo content material? Don’t fear about it. New this yr is the Dolby app that gives free clips of Dolby Imaginative and prescient and Dolby Atmos content material that you should use to showcase your new TV. Instructional, entertaining and better of all free, it’s a welcome addition to TCL’s spectacular set.

4K/HDR Efficiency TL;DR: An ideal companion for video games and flicks (particularly these in Dolby Imaginative and prescient) the 6-Sequence punches properly above its weight.

Sound

When it comes to audio, there’s not a lot new to report with the TCL 6-Sequence. 

Like final yr’s P607, the R617 makes use of two downward-firing Eight-watt audio system that produce a sizeable quantity of noise – it’s sufficient to utterly fill a small room like a bed room or minimize by means of bigger to midsize rooms with out compromising too lots of the particulars.

When it comes to tonal stability, TCL has properly positioned an emphasis on the mids and highs somewhat than wall-shaking bass. Meaning the TV performs properly in reveals and flicks the place dialogue is a very powerful or outstanding kind of audio, however falls a bit quick on music or video games the place explosions reign supreme. It’s not a whole slouch right here, however when you’re searching for wall-shaking bass, you’ll must spend money on a soundbar.

What we’ll add this yr, although, is that the 6-Sequence helps Dolby Atmos. Hook it as much as one thing just like the Creative X-Fi Sonic Carrier or a set of Focal Sib Evo Dolby Atmos audio system and also you’ll get encompass sound such as you’ve by no means heard it earlier than. 

It’s a small perk, however having Dolby Atmos in-built may imply the distinction between investing in an Atmos-compatible AVR and saving that cash for an additional part in your AV arsenal.

Different panels to ponder 

The apparent competitor is the Samsung NU8000 – it affords the same efficiency in lots of features however is a tad bit dearer than the 6-Sequence. 

The excellent news when you decide the Samsung over the TCL is that you just get the equally nice Tizen sensible TV system, which now affords Samsung SmartThings integration alongside Samsung’s barely higher HDR upscaling algorithm, HDR+. 

What you’d be lacking out on, although, is the full-array panel on the TCL because the NU8000 makes use of an edge-lit show. The NU8000 is a bit brighter and extra colourful with 4K HDR content material, however total HD/SDR content material seems to be nicer on the TCL 6-Sequence. You may’t go improper both means, however for the worth the 6-Sequence is our decide.

In the event you’re excited about an LG, you need to take a look at the LG SK8000, a part of the Tremendous UHD line-up. Tremendous UHD TVs are based mostly on quantum dot know-how that handily outshines TCL’s iPQ Engine within the colour division. 

Within the LG SK9000, the SK8000’s older sibling, we preferred the improved blacks and spectacular AI options that got here constructed into this yr’s webOS however had been put-off by the TV’s sound efficiency. When you’ll get barely higher efficiency from the SK8000, you’ll should pay extra for it because the 55-inch LG 55SK8000 is at the moment sitting at $899 after an already steep $300 low cost.

Verdict 

In the event you had deep pockets and checkbook crammed with clean checks, we’d inform you to succeed in deep and shell out for under the perfect TVs in the marketplace – LG’s crazy-thin OLED W8 or Samsung’s ultra-bright Q9FN QLED. However that’s not life like. For the huge, overwhelming majority of us, our price range to spend on a TV is restricted to someplace below $1,000 – and sometimes lower than that. 

To that finish, it’s completely truthful to say that the TCL 6-Sequence is the perfect TV you may probably get on this worth vary. Its efficiency per greenback is unmatched and its image high quality – regardless of a number of minor flaws – will really impress you.