Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2019
HISTORY: These days TV's are in every home, they've become who we are. Sometimes the things we watch on TV, have a great impact in shaping our personalities. Some people are addicted to their smartphones, so much so they can't even walk down the sidewalk, without their phones in their hand. I could care less about those dinky 5" screens, I care about real entertainment, a whopping 55-inches of pure 4K with HDR entertainment! I am old enough to remember the old CRT days. The first ones, you didn't even have cable, you had an antenna. And if the signal started fading, you had to move the twin antenna's that we coined rabbit ears, into position to get a signal. And sometimes that wasn't good enough, you had to hit the TV to get the image back.
These kids today don't know how good they have it, with their fancy flat panel displays, and their smartphones. Why, back in my day a cell phone was a brick, and if you dropped it on your foot, you'd be into a doctor visit to get your swollen foot looked at. Then in the 2000's, flat panel's became a thing, but I didn't get my first flat panel until 2012, and I bought a 60" plasma made by LG with Zenith branding. Its a great size TV for a living room space, but that sucker is heavy, 100 pounds, and I didn't feel safe mounting it to my wall, so I used the stand it came with. Then in 2015, I bought my second flat panel, but this time, a 46" TV from the LG brand, for my media room. That ended up being a mistake.
I owned that LG 46" 1080P TV for only 4 years, and it began having problems. The first thing to happen was dark spots were showing in places on screen. Then backlight LED's begin flickering on/off, making things get brighter and dimmer on sections of the screen. The latest development, were two circles with smaller circles inside of them, on the left side of the screen, in perfect vertical alignment from each other. Basically, they looked like target reticles. It was at this point I knew my TV was dead, and it was time to replace it. Thats when I bought the TCL 55" 4K with HDR and Roku TV.
PACKAGING: As typical with all large items, they refuse to ship them in proper shipping packages, so when they arrive to your door in the manufacturing package, its a big visual radar to burglars, come steal my TV! I do not understand why Amazon is so lazy to put these TV's in a shipping box. But putting those issues aside, I will tell you that TCL does package their TV's within their box quite well. They use strong thick carboard boxes that can support the weight of the TV, which is around 30-pounds. And they use long pieces of foam on both the top and bottom of the TV, where the TV fits inside a groove within those piece of foam, which prevents the TV from moving around. The manual, remote, stand, and power cord, are all kept safe within foam compartments as well.
INSTALLATION: A lot of people set their TV's up on their included stands, they include the bolts needed to mount the stands to the TV. Please be aware however, your going to need a surface that is the same width of the TV, in order to comfortably set this up on stands. The rooms inside my house are pretty small, and I simply don't have room to install this using the stand method. I have one of the universal VideSecu wall mounts on my wall. The mounting arms can accommodate most all TV's between 42" to 55". Installation is simple, use the M6 fine thread bolts that came with the wall mount, to secure the mounting arms to the TV, then simply hang the TV on the wall mount, and secure the safety bolts. Then all I had to do was insert my cables, the power cord, and turn the TV on.
INPUTS: This TV has many inputs, maybe not as many as I would like, but more then then smaller TV's do. It has one ethernet port for those who are still using, or prefer using, a wired based internet connection. It also has the standard SD component jacks. I would have prefered if the TV had the full array of component hookups, so I could use HD functionality with my original Xbox 360 gaming console. Because it does not however, its going to force me to buy an adapter that adapts the RGB cables to HDMI. The TV has a analog 3.5mm audio output for older speakers systems and headphones. The TV has a Coaxial port for your cable and or antenna. It has a USB port for flash drives to share pictures directly on screen. It has 3HDMI ports for modern devices, and it has a digital Toslink optical audio output port.
NOTE: Keep in mind, since this is a modern smart TV, it has WIFI functionialty. If you would prefer to use WIFI for convenience, there is no need to hookup a wired ethernet connection. As long as your using a modern WIFI router capable of 150MB/s or better, your WIFI will be fast enough to stream 4K content on screen. If your running older WIFI gear from the year 2000's, I would stick to using a wired based connection.
SCREEN SIZE: If you are coming from a smaller TV like a 46", or even something smaller like a 42" or 37", this TV is going to feel massive to you! This TV is 55-inches across from corner to corner. So that means, you will need at least 50-inches of space in width, by 29-inches in height, to fit this TV comfortably on a wall. If you are using the stands method, you better up that to 60-inches in surface width, by at least 10-inches in surface depth.
INITIAL SETUP: After you have plugged your TV in, plugged in all your inputs, and put batteries in the remote, and turn the TV on, now is when you begin the initial setup. The first question it will ask you is to set your language. Then it will ask you to choose your method of internet connection, and if its WIFI, to enter your security credentials. Once that is setup, it will then ask you to setup your ROKU account if you don't already have one. I didn't, so I had to set that up, which really wasn't difficult, just took some time. Once I did that, I was ready to go! Because I am a tech, I am never satisfied with default settings, so I had to make adjustments to the TV to achieve satisfaction.
I re-named the INPUT ports to correspond with what was plugged into them. For example, I have the blueray player connection to HDMI-1, so I labeled HDMI-1 to Blueray. I also customized the graphic user interface to get rid of that default RED background, and I installed the Galaxy background, which is so much better. I also adjusted my TV brightness settings for each input.
ADJUSTMENTS: Making adjustments to your TV helps to achieve the best picture. The TV is too bright by default in a dark room. I set the picture display type to NORMAL. In order to extend the life of the backlight LED's, I chose to set the backlight from default "100" to "70". I set the brightness to "50", and I set the contrast to "100". I set the colors to "50", and the sharpness to "30". Keep in mind, that you have to set these settings for each input source, as the TV allows you to set them individually.
NOTE: HDR has its own independent settings. In order to set the HDR settings, you must first load up a 4K with HDR video. The easiest way is to navigate to the 4K HDR channel and load up video. You know when you are in HDR, when upon loading the video, you see "HDR" in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Once loaded up, pause the video, and go back into your settings, and you will see HDR options now available. I suggest setting the picture type display to BRIGHT HDR, but keep all the other settings the same as before.
4K-HDR EXPERIENCE: Keep in mind, this is my first 4K TV, so I can only speak as to what I know from a first time experience. I do understand however, that this TV uses a VA panel, and its not necessarily the highest quality of panel. There are also IPS displays and TN displays that are supposed to be better. But I can only speak on this one. I loaded up a couple of 4K with HDR video's from the 4K HDR channel, and I was absolutely stunned at how good it looked, huge upgrade from 1080P IMHO! I also upgraded my Netflix account to ULTRA HD, and I loaded up Star Wars The Last Jedi, and I was having so much fun, that I watched the entire movie from beginning to end. I would be considered a late adopter into 4K, but I can say without a doubt, that 4K with HDR is where its at!
SOUND: As with all TV's, the built in speakers are never good. You can't cram a 3" driver into a tiny case, and expect it to sound good. Those who say these speakers sound good, clearly don't know anything about sound. In these modern times, most people are obsessed with sound bars for their TV's. People claim that they like them due to keeping things neat, tidy, and clean, while delivering sound that is better then the TV speakers. This might be the case, but I grew up in the days, when large speakers were king, I also grew up in the days of sub woofers as well, so I have better ground work, on what quality sound actually sounds like. And while sound bars might be neat and tidy, their nothing compared to a 10" to 15" sub woofer, with 5-8" driver surrounds. If you watch the movie The Matrix, you will appreciate this kind of sound system!
However, I have since graduated from 5.1 systems, to wearing huge headphones with 55mm kelton nano tube drivers that deliver huge amounts of base, with 30mm drivers delivering the mid-range and highs, being powered by a Fiio A5 amp, and equalized by a Realistic 12-band vintage qualizer. I have all this hooked up to the TOSlink connection on the back of the TV, and it goes through a digital to analog DAC. If your first thought in your head is, this person is serious about their sound, you'd be right. You can have all the fancy beautifully looking display in the world, but if your sound sounds like its coming out of a telephone, it will ruin the entire experience.
NOTE: If you choose to use the external audio output ports on the back of the TV, make sure to go into your TV settings and turn off the built in speakers.
ROKU: Since this is a smart TV, it operates off of the ROKU interface. I've read a lot of reviews on other Smart TV's being slow to operate, because they use a proprietary operating system. Unlike them, the Roku user interface is quite fast to be honest. Not as fast as a quad core computer no, but almost! The interface is very user friendly and is quite intuitive. Even somebody who is not a tech, should be able to navigate the menu's easily with the remote. If you need help, there is a help section to help guide you, or go lookup video's online to help. Apps and or channels can be added or removed as needed, which allows you to customize your ROKU experience. The only thing this TV could use to improve the ROKU experience, is a computer style keyboard. Using the remote to navigate the onscreen keypad can be tedious.
REMOTE: The remote is quite simple, you might be used to this if you've owned a ROKU box before. I however have not, and my experience with full functioning remotes, have a full number keypad on them, as well as a bunch of other buttons. Because these remotes are so simple, you have the bare minimum of buttons to navigate the TV. But after using the remote for awhile, I have caved and will admit, you don't really need a ton of buttons, I am able to navigate just fine. The only time the remote becomes a pain, is when using the onscreen keypad, and having to navigate one key press at a time can take forever, this TV really needs an external computer style keyboard!
QUALITY: As I mentioned earlier, this TV may not have the highest quality panel in it, but thats one of the reasons why the price is not 1000 dollar or more! What this TV has is perhaps the best features for the price. Your getting a whopping 55-inches of display at a 4K resolution, with HDR for only 330+. Your getting a 60-HZ refresh rate, with up to 120 interpolated in GAMING mode. This TV also has backwards compatibility for 1080P, 720P, and 480P sources. The TV has some heft to it, 30-pounds, and the outer casing feels durable at this price. So its in my humble opinion, that this TV is very nice for the price, and you would not have found a TV like this 5-years ago or more for 330! Heck, my old LG 46" was 400 when I bought it, and it only had 1080P!
4K INTERFACE NOTE: I feel the need to mention this for those not in the know. This TV will only display 4K, when there are source devices that support it. For example, if you have a 1080P Blueray player, you will only view movies in 1080P. Additionally, hooking up to computers can be tricky. First, you need to be using the newest HDMI cables you can buy for 4K at 30HZ or 60HZ, I recommend the new AmazonBasics cables, they are made at high quality standards, and don't cost an arm and a leg. Secondly, your computer needs to have a video card that supports 4K. Most video cards made between 2012 to 2019, have 4K support. But if your using a notebook from 2012 like me, you might discover that your HDMI port is only a 1.0, and does not support a 4K transfer.
I am going to have to buy a USB 3.0 to HDMI adapter that supports 4K. And then I will have to install a driver, and then I will finally be able to push 4K, to my new TV. Additionally, if your using an HDMI switch box, that too needs to support 4K. If your switch box is 6 years old or more, chances are, it only supports 1080P, and you will need to upgrade it as well.
CONCLUSION: In conclusion, I have got to say, this is the best TV I have ever bought thus far, since my LG 60" plasma screen. This TV may not be the best TV in the world, but I think it is the best at this price range. It does everything I want of it, minus a few irritations of mine. 1080P technology is pretty much phased out at this point, you can really only find 4K TV's now. I won't be upgrading all my devices to 4K, only the ones that matter to me. If your looking for a large display that won't hurt the bank, I would recommend this one. 4.5 out of 5 stars!
