TCL 55" Class 5-Series 4K UHD Dolby Vision HDR Roku Smart TV - 55S525

Over a great TV, So far I've had zero issues with it so far. PROs: Set-up was fast and easy. Wide range of content found on TV itself. Wide range of settings (gamemode, display settings, etc). Great customization options too. Wireless connectivity is great (avg. 80mpbs). Picture quality is amazing for a budget TV (there are better lol), responsive remote (sometimes) CONS: for the price range there aren't too many. BUT! I've had play around with the settings straight out the box. Game-mode is good on SOME games (just play with the settings and you'll find what's right for the game). DO NOT play fortnite with gamemode on or else The frames will jump and drop repeatedly making fortnite almost unplayable. For the other games I've played I've had zero issues with game mode, it's only made my gaming experience better. For some reason the only app the remote can never keep up with is Netflix but thats only if your a fast tapper looking for a fast response. You should really take your time with Netflix (it might honestly be Netflix tho, I haven't experienced it anywhere else) Overall I would definitely recommend this TV. It's a great bang for your buck. Marvel movies look AMAZING 👌 on it. And I had no issues with shipping it came in ok (I was really scared it might be broken on delivery) -P.S unpaid review (wish I got paid for this lol)

I have an older Insignia Fire TV that I loved, but when my wife and I decided to get Spectrum TV streaming we found out the DVR was only compatible with Roku. It left us feeling immensely frustrated, but we went out and purchased a Roku stick. That's what eventually lead us to buying this TV. The TV worked out great and is easily the best 4k TV we've owned so far. The picture is perfect and all the movies I've watched so far look amazing. We even upgraded to 4k Netflix because of it. For me there are only 2 things wrong with it. First is the remote control which seriously feels cheap. Things this small are going to fall at some point which of course mine did and eventually the rubber buttons got misaligned. This meant I had to take the remote apart and realign the buttons which was a pain to do. To avoid this I'd recommend you purchase a replacement remote as soon as you can. The only other problem is with Roku itself. The interface is clean and easy to use, but coming from a Fire TV I realized how limited it really is. HBO Max for example isn't compatible with Roku. I know I already mentioned how Spectrum TV wasn't compatible with Fire Stick, however, I haven't tried it for awhile now and I wouldn't be at all surprised if DVR is compatible with it now. Highly Recomment this TV

I'm writing this review from the perspective of someone whose last TV was 11 years old (40" LCD flat screen) That means absolutely everything is better than my last one. I'm not a pixel peeper, so instead I'm going to talk about the value and address some concerns from the point of view of someone who isn't comparing this TV side-by-side with like-priced models. Let's get one thing straight: I gave this TV 5 stars because it is a terrific value. I honestly don't know how this level of experience is delivered for this low of a price and I can only hope its durability is such that it will last many years. Display: If you're looking for your friends to be absolutely wowed by the picture on your TV I hope you don't think you can get away with spending $350. More likely is they'll be shocked when you tell them it was only $350! I was concerned because I saw a bunch of reviews say the viewing angles were terrible. I honestly don't know what they're looking at or what their expectations are, but I wouldn't want to watch a whole movie at more than a 45 degree angle from the screen, anyway. (A note: I have a 500sqft apartment so the 55" TV is dominating in size and there's limited seating) Sound: It's not offensive, but it's not great. However, I suspect that anyone buying a 55" TV for a living room already expects to provide supplementary speakers. I will say I have an old set of computer speakers w/ sub-woofer and they provide great sound even just plugged into the headphone jack on the TV, so this needn't be an expensive or high tech endeavor. Remote: This is the worst part of the whole experience. Prior to buying this TV I had a Roku Streaming Stick+ and the TV remote is made of cheaper plastic, it's a flimsier build, the play/pause button is smaller, and it doesn't have the rubberized coating of the SS+ remote. It may also be IR(?) whereas the SS+ remote is all RF, so you have to point the TCL Roku TV remote at the TV for it to register input. I strongly advise spending the $20 or so to replace the default remote but it's not as high of a priority as the speakers, probably. (Personally I was able to pair my Roku SS+ remote with my new TV so that is what I use) Roku: As a smart TV platform this is the best I can imagine. It's the most widely supported TV/OS platform on the market and therefore nearly every app will be developed for and available on your TV. This means you'll likely not need to buy or install any additional streaming devices in your HDMI ports (I have a Chromecast installed but I already owned one). Antenna use and Live TV Pause: The antenna reception is excellent. There may be a sizable internal antenna helping out here because I get way better reception on this TV even when using my old antenna Live TV Pause of antenna use is available. I haven't tried it, but it says if you put a 16GB or larger thumb drive in the USB port the TV will provide up to 90 minutes of buffer for pausing live TV over antenna. That's neat and something I didn't see advertised. In summary: Whatever shortcomings there are here are appropriate and acceptable for a $350 55" TV in 2020. Those shortcomings are overcome-able and for minimal additional cost. All of the structural things that you can't change or upgrade are solid (mainly the display and TV platform).

Pro's This is the perfect inexpensive 4K Tv to start with. It works great as a 4K panel for a PC also. The Roku interface is very clean, organized and easy to use. The picture is best when viewing 4K HDR Dolby Vision on Netflix or Amazon Prime. That is the best it will look. It has HDR10 capability, but not HDR10+. It looks good for cable and OTA Tv also. It works well with Xbox One S, PS3, PS4 game consoles as well (must use a high speed HDMI 2.0 cable for 4K). Cons I bought this 2019 version for my nephew as a gift and he is loving it. No issues after 2 months. I have a 2018 version of this same model that now has some sound issues. I have switch audio output from a soundbar to Tv speakers and then back again to clear garbled sound. I use it daily so maybe it is wearing out. It also reboots on it's own on occasion maybe to update channels or possibly it runs out of memory. Bottom Line This is a great entry level 4K Smart Tv. The picture can't compete with QLED or OLED that cost $1000 more, but it only costs $238 and looks great on Netflix watching 4K Dolby Vision content.

We've had a 32" 720p Vizio Smart TV for several years now. At the time it was the biggest TV we ever owned. It's been flawless, aside from the slow menu response and you can't really add apps for newer streaming services. When we moved to a house with a larger living room, it felt quite small, and when I wanted to play games I always felt like I had to sit closer to the TV in my office chair...at which point I might as well play on my PC. Anyway, Black Friday rolls around, as it does. While casually browsing, I was astounded by the prices of TVs. A 50" 4k Smart TV for $300? That's crazy. I remember when HD TVs cost thousands. This isn't even the cheapest model, as the 50S425 was priced at $249. I did some research though, and found that this model, the 505525 had a significantly brighter screen and better viewing angles. One of the complaints I noticed about the 50S425 was it's low maximum brightness. There were some other factors such as the four vs three HDMI ports and t hat the panel on the 505525 is also supposed to have more vibrant colors and higher dynamic range. Plus, I liked the design of this one, with the front mounted power button the just out below the frame. Reminded me of the very first TCL I looked at when I was shopping for a 32" 720p TV (although ended up buying the Vizio). With that in mind, I opted to spend the extra $50 on this one. So far, I don't regret it. The image quality is beautiful. I'm sure higher end Samsung's are better, but compared to the 720p TV we have, it's a night and day difference. I really like the Roku OS. It's fast and intuitive, and you can add an array of apps to it (even VRV, which thoroughly impressed me). Has no trouble streaming. The Grand Tour looked fantastic playing on it. Sound quality is pretty good. Not mind blowing, but not bad. I plan to get a sound bar to enhance the experience though. On thing worth noting, is if you have a smaller TV cabinet like me, the legs on this TV are very far apart. The were close to a foot wider than the TV cabinet was . Because there's a window directly behind the TV cabinet, an aquarium on one side, and a brick wall on the other, wall mounting wasn't an option. I opted for an aftermarket stand (USX MOUNT TV Base) that solved the problem. The funny thing is: I don't watch TV or play games much, but on the occasions when I do, this is a real treat. Bumblebee looked terrific playing on it. I'll update if anything goes awry, but for now I'm very happy with my purchase.

So, I've got two TCL 43" TVs and they've been very good. So, I figured I would try the 65" in our family room given Roku is included and runs really smooth on these TVs. Setup was a breeze and the picture is great. I'm not going to go into technical color details on this TV because if you're expecting a TV with perfect gray/black levels or show stopping HDR visuals this aint it. You are at the wrong price point. However, if you're looking for a TV that can output a clean 4K picture, looks great (not excellent) in a bright or dark room, and you're a Roku household you can expect an above average experience for the money invested. Which is crazy low for the picture this thing can put out, and 4k Roku built in. The only issue I had was the support for soundbars. I have a Samsung sound bar which worked flawlessly with the Samsung TV this unit replaced. No matter what I did, the TV will not work wirelessly with it. So, I plugged in HDMI 4 ARC which the soundbar supports. This allowed me to turn the volume up/down on the sound bar through the TV controller but still no actual sound came out. Turns out the only way ARC (CEC) would work, is by also using an optical cable. Now, I'm not new to setting up AV systems. I've used plenty of high end equipment, but always used receivers and I'm not all that familiar with ARC. It seems ridiculous to me that a whole HDMI cable is used just to send volume up/down commands to the soundbar? Why not use the cable for the audio too? I'm not sure if that's the standard, or if this is a specific requirement for TCL TVs. It's all working good now, so I still give the TV a 5 star for the price point, ease of setup, and great 4K picture. You can't really go wrong here, as long as expectations are realistic.

I ordered the TCL 65S525 on September 27, 2019, seemingly a very affordable 65" 4K TV with HDR10 and Dolby vision. Audio malfunctioned from the beginning. In "Auto-Detect" mode, it always went to PCM (i.e., 2 channel) even with Dolby Digital source material. If I wanted surround, I had to use my Preamp/Processor to simulate it (matrix) or I had to put the TV explicitly in one of the 5.1 surround modes, e.g., Dolby Digital/DTS. In the latter, audio frequently lagged video by a very noticeable amount and the lag increased during a single movie reaching over a second. I was able to get around this by selecting Dolby Digital alone. On February 9, HDR10 movies on YouTube were malfunctioning with colors extremely shifted toward red. This was not subtle, the movies (purchased) were unwatchable. Non-HDR10, including Dolby Vision, worked as expected. I’ve recently confirmed that YouTube HDR10 on another Roku TV works fine. Further, Netflix HDR10 on the TCL TV works fine; this is exclusively a TCL/YouTube issue, i.e., something about the way TCL processes YouTube HDR. I contacted TCL Support about the HDR problem. First-level support was responsive but had me jumping through multiple, time-consuming hoops including taking pictures of the screen during malfunction and performing various resets including a factory-reset that lost all my settings (I knew I’d lose settings, but they didn't bother to warn me). Reestablishing settings (wireless, Hulu, Netflix X 2, YouTube X 2, devices, etc.), all from the remote w/o benefit of a keyboard, is a pain and takes about a half-hour, and I've now had to do this 5 times in this process. After all this, on Feb 11, first-level support threw in the towel and escalated my case. I heard nothing for two full weeks while my TV remained broken. I then contacted first-level support for an update on Feb 25. They didn’t reply until March 5. It’s now been almost a month that my TV has been down, and three weeks since anyone at TCL support has bothered to contact me, and they responded only now after I had to nag them. I have little doubt that TCL’s approach was to make it so difficult that I’d just give up. Regardless, they decided to dispatch a technician to replace the mainboard in the TV. A third-party contractor technician arrived on March 9 to replace the mainboard. It’s now been a full month with a broken TV. Mainboard replacement was unsuccessful as the TV was unable to boot-up with the new board. The technician told me to expect replacement of the TV. I was subsequently told by TCL support to expect a technician with a replacement TV. See my comments on TCL demands for my duties below for before and after technician visits. On March 27, a third-party technician arrived. It’s now been about 2 1/2 weeks since the last, failed, attempt by TCL to fix the problem and my TV has now been down for a total of about 7-weeks with lengthy delays by TCL and no sense of urgency or other indication of customer concern. The technician came with a 75S425, which is larger but a lesser model (I bought the 65" 5 series, this is a 4 series). Further, the new TV isn't compatible with the expensive wall-mount I bought for the original (way too late to return), so I've now had to buy another expensive mount. Further yet, the replacement turns out to be a REFURB with only a 90-day warranty, which reduces my original 12-month warranty by about 3 months. At no point did TCL or its representatives notify me or ask my permission to substitute this lesser refurb for my original new TV. Further, THE REPLACEMENT TV HAS THE SAME AUDIO AND HDR10 PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS AS THE ORIGINAL TV. To restate the previous: I’ve recently confirmed that YouTube HDR10 on a different Roku TV works fine. Further, Netflix HDR10 on the TCL TV works fine; this is exclusively a TCL/YouTube HDR issue, i.e., something about the way TCL processes YouTube HDR. This means these problems are design or implementation issues that TCL has not bothered to fix in these, relatively vintage, 2019 TVs. As further indication of TCL’s lack of concern for customers: prior to both technician visits, TCL gave me a list of demands (not requests!) including the TV had to be removed from any mounts or stands, work space of a specified area had to be provided, and I was responsible for remounting the TV. More hours of my time wasted because of TCL's failing. Further, I live alone and am 72-years old; how am I to mount the very large replacement TV, weighing 75 lbs.? This is one of the worst customer service experiences I've had. Not a single TCL employee apologized for my many hours of inconvenience and weeks without a fully functioning TV. TCL is indifferent to customer satisfaction; the company clearly is in business to sell cheap, unreliable TVs, rushed to market without adequate testing and with a very small budget for continuing engineering and customer support. If I had it to do again, I'd spend a few hundred dollars more for a reliable brand. Overall, this would have been far less expensive in every respect. BTW, both third-party technicians were excellent.

Best T.V. you can get at this price point hands down by FAR! It is smart, fast, and easy to use with a sharply crisp picture that is just gorgeous. It has various picture settings to adjust to content such as gaming, movies, t.v., live action/sports ajd even low light programming (VERY helpful for shows like GoT and other sci-fi / fantasy entertainment that tends to have a lot of very dark scenes. The remote is small and simple without a ton of crazy buttons to confuse elderly or anyone unfamiliar with app navigation in fact, it includes dedicated buttons for themost popular streaming apps for even simpler ease of use for the little ones too! The ONLY feature I wish it offered was voice command, but you can download the roku app to your phone and use your phone as a remote and use voice command through there if it is a huge deal. It hasn't been a big enough deal for me that I bave opted to use my phone instead of the remote....BUT the app HAS been handy gor the times the remote has gone missing! While we continued our search for the remote, we used my phone app. When using the app, your phone screen mirrors what the remote looks like EXACTLY...ALSO providing ease of use. No worries about that first time during a remote "emergency' that you have to figure anything out. We are so pleased with this t.v.. Also, we were happily surprised to walk into our yearly vacation rental at the beach to find that the owners had upgraded the home with new 65" roku tvs through out the home. They were all THIS version! Sweet! We knew how to use them right off the bat, were able to easily sign in to our various apps for steaming, AND use my phone ad a remote when needed. Not that that has anything to do with the quality of the TV but I am glad to see this brand is growing in recognition. I will continue to purchase from this brand of television. Great price. Great quality. VERY easy to use and set up