Tcl 55s517 55-inch 4k Ultra Hd Roku Smart Led Tv Reviews

Budget-friendly TVs cover a surprisingly wide range of toll and performance levels, and TCL tries to span them all. The company'south v-series sits between the remarkably inexpensive 4-serial and the impressively brilliant 6-serial, and takes elements from both. It features a sleek design and wide color range with good accurateness out of the box, but its brightness and dissimilarity lag far behind the Editors' Choice 6-series. At $499.99 for the 55-inch 55S517 we tested, information technology's virtually equidistant betwixt the two other lines in price, and similar both it offers enough of value for your dollar.

Design

The 5-series is much sleeker and more stylish than the less expensive 4-serial, but it lacks the attractive gunmetal finish of the 6-series. The Telly is framed by a thin matte black bezel, simply 0.ii inches wide on the sides and top and 0.vi inches on the lesser. A TCL logo sits in the middle of the bottom bezel, simply above a small round bump that holds the infrared sensor and power light. A Roku Boob tube logo sits in the lower right corner. Everything stands on ii glossy black plastic feet, angled slightly outward and positioned near the sides of the TV (VESA screw holes on the back support wall mounting).

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All electronics and ports are located in a large plastic crash-land on the lower one-half of the TV, leaving the top one-half completely flat and sparse at 0.4 inches. The bottom half swells from 1.6 to iii.0 inches. The connector for the included power cable is located on the left side of the back of the Boob tube, with all other inputs, outputs, and other ports sitting on the right side. The TV has three HDMI ports, including one with sound render channel (ARC) support, a USB port, an Ethernet port, an antenna/cable connector, a 3.5mm composite video input for utilize with the included three.5mm-to-RCA dongle, and optical and 3.5mm sound outputs.

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Enhanced Remote

The included remote is a step up from the iv-serial' infrared-only wand. It'due south a Roku Boob tube Enhanced Remote, which tin utilize both IR and a wireless connection that doesn't require line of sight with the TV. Information technology's a small, matte black plastic wand with Roku'south signature large, purple navigation pad near the pinnacle. Power, Dwelling, and Back buttons sit down above the pad, and Menu, Replay, Microphone, and playback command buttons sit higher up it. Dedicated service buttons for DirecTV At present, Hulu, Netflix, and Sling offering directly access to those apps, below the playback controls. A mute push and a navigation rocker rest on the correct edge of the remote.

A pinhole microphone near the top provides access to Roku'south vocalism search feature. It'southward a very capable search function if you're looking for content, just it lags behind total voice assistants like Alexa on Amazon Burn down Tv or Google Assistant on Android Boob tube devices. Information technology tin notice movies, Telly shows, and music, and tin can fifty-fifty open up and command some apps with phonation commands, but yous can't apply information technology to check the atmospheric condition, fix timers, command smart home devices, or anything more than avant-garde than loading media on the TV itself. And speaking of other voice assistants, a recently released Alexa skill lets yous command Roku devices with whatever Repeat product.

Roku TV

Like TCL'southward other TVs, the five-serial uses the Roku Idiot box platform for its interface and smart features. Roku Idiot box is a powerful and flexible system for streaming media, supporting most major apps and services including Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll, Google Play Movies & Television receiver, Hulu, Netflix, Sling Tv set, and Vudu. Most major networks and TV providers take their own content channels on Roku, then you lot tin can hands access streams from NBC or your Xfinity Telly package. If you don't want to subscribe to any service, the Roku Tv Featured Gratis section aggregates free streaming movies and shows from multiple sources, including Crackle, network apps, and Roku's own Roku Aqueduct.

While Roku doesn't have Google Music, you can access Amazon Prime Music, Pandora, SiriusXM, Spotify, and many other streaming music services as well. You tin can augment the Goggle box'south acceptable only typically underwhelming speakers with the Roku Tv Wireless Speakers, which integrate directly with Roku TVs.

Roku Tv set supports screen mirroring over Miracast/WiDi, so yous tin stream your PC to the Television set. You tin can too directly stream your own content from your phone to the 5-serial using the Roku app for Android and iOS. The Roku app too provides voice search through your phone's microphone and enables individual listening by streaming TV audio through your phone'due south headphone jack.

Performance

The 5-series supports ultra loftier definition (UHD, or 4K) video, and can brandish loftier dynamic range (HDR) content in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision.

We test TVs using a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo Half-dozen-Grand examination design generator, and SpectraCal's CalMAN software using methodology based on Imaging Science Foundation'south calibration techniques. With an HDR10 test signal, the 55S517 shows a peak brightness of 269.97cd/m² and a black level of 0.04cd/mⁱⁱ for a six,699:i contrast ratio. This is very close to the 4-series' 6,101:ane contrast ratio, with a slightly dimmer superlative brightness (244.02cd/m²) and identical black level. It'south solid functioning for a budget TV, just neither model comes shut to the vi-serial' 497.15cd/m² peak brightness, 0.01cd/m² black level, or fantastic 49,715:1 contrast ratio. If you want to go better contrast than the 6-series, you'll have to spend much more than on an OLED TV similar LG's OLEDE8P series.

While the 5-series' contrast is modest, its color accuracy out of the box is excellent. The to a higher place nautical chart shows DCI-P3 color levels equally boxes and measured color levels under the warmest color temperature setting as dots. The 5-series covers the full DCI-P3 color infinite with remarkable accuracy, hitting blues, greens, whites, cyans, and magentas spot-on. Ruby-red reaches a fleck further than DCI-P3, and yellowish runs slightly warm, but otherwise this is a remarkable color range for a upkeep TV.

The vibrant colors aid compensate for a relatively dim panel and give the 5-serial an edge over the four-series in picture quality. In BBC'south Planet Earth II, the "Islands" episode looks vivid and natural. The greens of leaves and dejection and bluish-greens of water are rich without looking oversaturated. Well-lit fine details like fur and bawl expect articulate but become slightly muddy in shadows. The Idiot box has a Micro Dissimilarity setting that adjusts the movie contrast in different parts of the frame based on what'southward being shown, only without the adaptable zone-based array backlighting of the 6-serial it does little to help bring out shadow detail.

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The Slap-up Gatsby shows similarly impressive color performance and underwhelming contrast. Skin tones look well saturated and natural fifty-fifty nether the absurd white lighting of the party scenes. Contours of black suits tin occasionally be made out, but textures occasionally get swallowed past shadow, and the white lights of the scene aren't specially bright on this Tv. It's however very skillful performance considering the price, but the 6-series again stands far above thank you to its much brighter panel and zone-dimming backlight.

The reds of Deadpool's costume in Deadpool wait more vivid and natural on this TV than they do on the four-series, with wider and more accurate colors. Reds look red rather than slightly royal nether the cool overcast lighting of the opening scenes, which many budget TVs tin can't achieve. The orange-yellows of the flames in the called-for lab fight are varied and total of detail, but once again shadows tend to consume some of the finer details of peel and rubble when they aren't brightly lit by the burn down. Despite the slight muddiness in dark parts of the frame, however, this is nevertheless an excellent picture for a budget Television receiver.

Input lag is the corporeality of time between when a TV receives a signal and the screen updates. Under normal viewing weather condition, the 5-series shows a disappointing input lag of 65.vi milliseconds, twice as much equally the 4-series. Enabling Game Fashion, which improves input lag at the slight cost of film quality, that drops to a much more enticing 17.7ms. That puts the 5-series below the gauge 20ms threshold nosotros apply to selection the all-time TVs for gaming.

Another TCL Value

The TCL five-series is a fantastic value cheers to its low price and first-class color performance, simply it sits in an awkward position betwixt the even less expensive 4-series and the pricier but superior 6-series. The main do good from this TV over the lower-stop model is wider and more authentic colors, but you'll still have to contend with a relatively dim screen compared with our Editors' Choice, the six-serial. You'll spend a flake more for the 6-serial ($650 for the 55-inch 55R617 compared with $500 for the 55S517), but you'll get a vast improvement in dissimilarity, rivaling models from far more expensive brands.

TCL 55S517

The Bottom Line

The TCL 5-series is a budget-friendly 4K Television lines that offers surprisingly impressive color operation for the price.

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