TCL - 55” Class 5 Series QLED 4K UHD Smart Roku TV

The Class 5 Series TCL exceeded my expectation. A lot of TV for the price. I used to be a color analyzer for a professional photo lab. A skill that left me with very little tolerance for the home televisions lack of color range. When I‘m sitting in front Of this 55” TCL, it’s like being back at the analyzer, which is a $25,000 piece of machinery. I finally have the color quality I’ve been looking for

So just a little back story pertaining to why I believe this is the best budget QLED for XBSX. Back when the Xbox One X was first released, it was apparent that playing it on any TV that wasn't 4K compatible was pointless. The main premiss of the Xbox One X upgrade was to not only allow for games to potentially run at 60 FPS, but ultimately to allow games to potentially run at a "true" native 4K. So shortly after receiving my new Xbox One X, I knew I would have to bite the bullet and step up from my ole' reliable Samsung 1080p Series 5 TV. Here is the moment my love for TCL TV's began, and my preconceived notion that "only Samsung, Sony, Sharp, LG, etc... TV's are worth buying" was thankfully shattered. I began searching online (Best Buy) for a TV that would allow my new Xbox One X to live up to it's potential, and I quickly realized that at the time (2017), 4K TV's were so darn expensive. It didn't take long for me to see that after scrolling 3 pages of TV's, it was obvious that my old line of thinking towards manufacturers was going to cost me 2-3x the cost of the Xbox One X just to purchase a TV that could capitalize on the advantages of owning a Xbox One X. So after nearly getting frustrated and saying screw it, I suddenly stumbled upon a 4K TV, that was HDR compatible, for $600. The brand and model of that particular TV was: TCL [55S405], but again due to my preconceived notions I mentioned above, I was instantly filled with doubt pertaining to this newly discovered $600 TV. I nearly decided to just ignore finding it, but I hopped on Reddit as well as did a general review search of the TCL TV in question. Needless to say I was floored by how well received this budget TV was, especially within the gaming community. After 3-4 hours of research, I discovered that TCL had developed the TV with such a low response time (milliseconds), it was rivaling some of the more decent gaming monitors on the market at the time. I was sold, and when Best Buy opened later that morning, I was there purchasing the TCL TV. I know that was a very long build up to my review of this budget QLED TV, but I will make sense why I mentioned it all in just a minute. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago (roughly 5 years after initially purchasing the TCL TV), I finally decided to upgrade the TCL TV in order to better utilise my XBSX that I upgraded to roughly a year ago. Don't get me wrong, the prior TCL TV this whole review has been about up until now has been fantastic, but was severely lacking in some ways that held back the true advantages of the XBSX. One of the main drawbacks of my current TCL TV was the "HDR" that was technically there, but it's severe lack of brightest nearly negated the benefits of having HDR enabled (when I purchased that TCL in 2017, the next TV that actually had HDR was $1250. Double the cost of the TCL, so it not being stellar was to be expected). So now that I was set on upgrading TV's again, my first choice was looking at TCL TV's at Best Buy. I quickly found this TV (TCL 55S535), and it took very little time reading reviews on Reddit and RTINGS.com for me to discover even more praise for this particular TV, especially pertaining to the TV's performance in the gaming sphere. I instantly purchased it online and selected in-store pickup for the following morning. Needless to say I was excited to get it home and in the place the previous TCL TV sat, and once that was done, set-up was a breeze (literally less than 5 minutes). After making sure I had the HDMI inputs set up optimally for my XBSX and my Vizio 5.1 Soundbar (using HDMI-ARC), as well as making some personal visual setting tweaks, I was up and gaming and the graphical difference was immense! This TCL TV not only has HDR, but also has HDR10 as well as Dolby Vision, and is capable of a 60hz refresh rate. All of the above statistics were not capable on my previous TCL, and even though it technically had "HDR", its peak brightness was so low it honestly negated the benefits of having it enabled. Now compared to some of the much more pricier TV's out now, this TCL TV isn't the brightest when it comes down to maximum HDR Brightness (Nits), but I have yet to yearn for any more brightness than this TV provides. Honestly I have to change the "HDR Picture Mode" from "Bright" to "Normal" at times due to the brightness being to bright (not a bad problem to have). The only truly negative thing mentioned among professional reviews was the HDR Brightness not being bright enough, but I quite frankly have not even remotely come close to having the same experience. I'm no professional TV reviewer, nor am I some kind of TV visual savant, but to my 30+ years of gaming eyes... This TV visually ROCKS! The only feature this TV does not have that the XBSX can utilize, is 120hz capability. Dont get me wrong, I wouldn't mind having the ability to play the very few games actually capable of outputting 120hz (FPS), but that isn't even remotely a deal breaker for me. Very few (less than 10 currently) games have the ability to be played at 120 FPS, but even if there were more, 60 FPS (while also maintaining true 4K Rendering) is superb and is fantastic (honestly 120 FPS is overkill for probably 95% + of the gaming community). So to wrap up the review, I will give an honorable mention to the sound quality, because it's not half bad. I honestly do not use the built in internal speakers on any of my TV's, due to either having a custom 7.1/5.1 home theater setup and or using my headset while gaming, but I did test them once and was surprised by the audio quality considering they are rear firing and internal. All in all, if your looking for a steal on a TV that includes QLED, 4K, HDR Enabled (especially Dolby Vision HDR) for gaming on either a Xbox Series X, Xbox One X, or even a PS5/PS4, this TV WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN. I absolutely love it, and so will you!!! A++++++++

Easy setup and the speaker system I bought with it was a breeze.

Great picture and easy-to-use setup. Wifi connected quickly. Remote is very responsive. We originally wanted the Vzio, But because of the chip shortage the model we wanted is not available to order. We did a comparison and this TCL was a comparable set. We opted to use a stand instead of a wall mount. I will say that when we got the set in the store, there was a crease in the Box and we thought it may have been damaged during shipping. The packaging was protective and the set was not harmed. However our salesman did advise us if anything was wrong with the set itself they would switch it out. I have always been happy to go to Best Buy for our electronics. And so far have not been disappointed!

Where should I start... 50" Hisense bought Aug 16, told it will be delivered to my apratment which I didn't like but was told by the associate that curbside pick-up or ship to store is not an available option. Got delvered at home on Aug 27th, broken. Damaged. Didn't even see it until the unit was mounted and power eas plugged. Frustrated, called Best Buy and scheduled for a return on Aug 29. Returned, looked around, saw a nice looking TCL. "That is the old model from last year and we don't have that anymore. But we have the new model that came out just 2 weeks ago" said the associate. Convinced my wife to try it, paid a bit extra ($76 plus a few cents to be precise), an upgrade to the 50" Hisense that I returned to a 55" TCL with Dolby Vision minus the Dolby Atmos. Got home removed old LG TV, mounted the new one on the wall, plugged it to the power outlet, 10 kinutes later I am hooked up and watching TV. Like, literally 10 minutes including updates. Well, I am happy to say the least with my purchase. Pictures are great and bright, roku tv is somewhat laggy at times but I really don't need it aince I have a Fire TV stick. Oh, I would say pair this with the new 4K Fire TV from Amazon and you will love it even more. No more SDR settings, just three HDR settings and mine is in "Normal" mode at the moment but when watching sports or movies, I put it to "Bright" settings. Really awesome pictures. Try it and you will love it. Jist a bit of a warning, this unit does have the eARC option but beware that it does not have a backwards compatibility. You may be able to make it work like I did by using an HDMI cable with ethernet, but when you watch a movie with Dolby Atmos, it won't work. Was in touch with TCL and they have been really respinsive, but not much of a help either. Stick with the optical, otherwise buy and expensive Dolby Atmos soundbar or eARC compatible soundbar. Your choice. I'm happy with mine :)

I got this TV for gaming and it was great up until they changed the Manuel game mode to automatic and sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s even on and it bothers me because the TV is great picture and everything for movies is awesome But when it comes to gaming it was awesome until they changed it to automatic please TCL bring back the manuel game mode option

I recently purchased a 55" TCL Roku TV and I love it! Fantastic picture - sharp and clear, amazing sound (even without a soundbar for now...), easy to unpack and a breeze to set up. No complaints in any way. Best Buy's sales team did great job explaining the options, along with all the bells and whistles. Thank you TCL, Roku and Best Buy :-)

TV is great and performs well, I know some people don't like it but it’s not a $2k smart TV it's a $500 smart TV and with that you can't go wrong. Picture is clear and vivid and only drawback is sound that comes with TV could be better. I've got 2 one with sound bar one without so I can hear the difference. My living room TV has the sound bar since it needed it a medium to large room but in my bed room no sound bar needed at all and sound does a good job. Now with the Xfinity beta TV app no more cable boxes so you save the $10 to $15 a month on your cable TV bill. Just make sure your download stream speed is fast enough otherwise it will buffer a lot. I started cheap with 200mbps speed and had to upgrade to 400mbps but Xfinity found a plan with same price so no extra charge at all. TV never buffers anymore and watching sports and movies at wonderful.