With several models in our best TVs list bearing the TCL brand – not to mention the best TVs under $500 and the best TVs under $1000 – there’s little doubt that savvy shoppers should keep the best TCL TVs on their radar. The latest screens from the Chinese TV manufacturer use technologies like THX Game Mode and mini-LED backlighting put TCL TVs at the forefront, delivering high-end touches at extremely reasonable prices. With a great combination of Roku smart TV software and high-quality manufacturing, TCL manages to deliver superb value. Not sure which one to pick from the lineup? Here are our favorite TCL TVs.
What are the best TCL TVs?
Our favorite TCL TV — and one of the best TVs overall — is the TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635), which combines TCL’s excellent value with top-of-the-line features that are being aped by other manufacturers in the latest new TVs, like QLED and mini-LED backlighting. With Roku TV software and reasonable prices, it’s the best value in TVs today. A close second is the TCL 5-Series Google TV (S456), which levels up the already excellent TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) with Google TV software, matching the TV’s great QLED performance with the smartest functions you can get. It may not have Mini-LED, but it still delivers QLED color and brightness enhancement, along with great HDR support. Both the Google and Roku versions are solid choices, but the newer Google TV model wins out by delivering a truly premium smart TV experience. Finally, there’s the TCL 4-Series, which comes in two flavors: The TCL 4-Series Roku TV (50S435) and the Google-powered TCL 4-Series Android TV (50S434), which gives you more choices in software and apps than more expensive TCL sets. Even for a basic budget-priced 4K TV, it still offers great color and basic HDR support, not to mention short lag times for gaming.
The best TCL TVs you can buy
The TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) offers serious value for the price, offering premium picture quality and a great smart TV experience for much less than competing premium sets. As TCL’s best mainstream smart TV, the R635 ups the ante with mini-LED backlighting and QLED enhancement. The result is impressive color and brightness, with some of the best HDR performance we’ve seen on anything this side of an OLED display. But TCL keeps delivering more, like THX Certified Game Mode, which makes the 6-Series one of the best gaming TVs available, even for the latest consoles like the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. From the design’s smart touches, like cable management in the stand, to the always-solid Roku TV platform, the TCL 6-Series (R635) is the best TCL TV, and one of the best TVs at this price. Read our full TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) review. The TCL 5-Series Google TV (S546) wowed us with its combination of smart TV features, solid performance and great value for your dollar. Building on the foundation of the already-good 5-Series, the move to Google TV gives the affordable 4K smart TV a more premium smart TV platform, one that offers personalized and customizable suggestions, a huge assortment of smart features, and deep Google Assistant integration that makes it a viable center for the entire home of connected gadgets. But it also offers a step up in other aspects of the TV. From color quality to lag times, the 5-Series Google TV is a more polished version of the 5-Series TV, delivering an excellent QLED 4K display, a slick remote control, and a surprisingly wide array of gaming features for a 60Hz TV. For a smart TV that sells for under $1,000 for most size options, it’s easily one of the best TVs on the market. Read our full TCL 5-Series Google TV (S546) review. The TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) demonstrates what TCL does best, delivering a great mix of features and performance at a surprisingly affordable price. With even the largest model selling for less than $1,000, you get the superb brightness and color quality of QLED, as well as Roku’s user-friendly smart TV interface, which puts thousands of apps right at your fingertips. In addition to the excellent color accuracy and full color gamut offered by the QLED display, it offers superb HDR support, with Dolby Vision in addition to basic HDR10 and HLG formats. With input lag clocking in at 13.1 milliseconds, it’s also one of the best affordable gaming TVs you can buy. And it’s roughly half the price of Samsung’s equivalent QLED model, making the TCL 5-Series one of the best values in 4K smart TVs. Read our full TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) review. The TCL 4-Series Roku TV (S435) demonstrates that 4K is mainstream now, with respectable picture quality and the very convenient Roku TV smart interface. Delivering a great smart TV experience, HDR support and an ultra-affordable price, it’s an easy pick for shoppers on a budget. It may not have the QLED display of the 5-Series or the mini-LED backlight of the 6-Series, but even TCL’s affordable 4-Series TVs offer above average quality for a budget LCD TV. The TCL 4-Series is available in an impressive range of screen sizes. From a relatively compact 43-inch model to a whopping 85-inch version (part of the TCL XL Collection that’s new for 2021), the 4 series manages to be surprisingly affordable at every size. With rich, accurate color and gamer-friendly lag times as short as 13 milliseconds, TCL proves that even its less impressive models are some of the best deals in the TV world. Read our full TCL 4-Series Roku TV (S435) review. When it comes to 8K TVs, there are plenty of ultra-premium sets you can choose from, but TCL has stepped things up by bringing the price down. The TCL 6-Series 8K Roku TV (R648) is the most affordable 8K TV on the market, and it’s even more affordable than some of the 4K sets we recommend. Plus, it’s got everything we love about Roku TVs, along with excellent performance and short lag times for gaming. By offering next-gen resolution at current-gen prices, it’s the 8K TV we recommend – or, that we would recommend, if we thought people should be buying 8K TVs (which we don’t). Our only issues with the TV’s performance were the 8K panel’s limited viewing angles and the mediocrity of the audio, which can be solved with a simple soundbar. But the bigger issue is one facing any 8K TV out there – there’s next to nothing you can watch in 8K, and that may not change anytime soon. TCL is trying to help that, by providing its 8K TV owners with a new 8K streaming service from The Explorers Foundation, an initiative built around protecting and promoting biodiversity. The footage pulls from a community of filmmakers and documentarians devoted to capturing the natural, cultural and human heritage of Earth, and there will be content available in 8K and 4K. While it might not be the latest and greatest TV shows and movies, there is a promise is that there will be new content daily, so you can at least see what your 8K TV is really capable of. Read our full TCL 6-Series 8K Roku TV (R648) review.
How much do TCL TVs cost?
With the 65-inch TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) selling for $949, even the more premium TCL TVs skew lower in price than other sets with similar screen sizes and features from competing brands like LG and Samsung. The most expensive of these is the TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) which ranges between $700 and $1,400 depending on the screen size. The TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) offers QLED displays without mini-LED backlighting, reducing prices significantly. With screen sizes ranging from 50 inches up to 75 inches, the TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) is priced between $429 and $999. The TCL 4-Series represents one of the most affordable 4K Smart TVs on the market, ranging in price from $259 for a 43-inch set, up to $749 for a 75-inch model, and sells with either the Roku operating system or Android TV, both at the same prices. The 85-inch screen size can be bought for $1,599, but it’s only available with Roku. Finally, TCL’s first 8K sets, the TCL 6-Series 8K Roku TV (R648), sell for under $2,999 for the larger 75-inch model and $2,199 for the 65-inch version. That’s the lowest price of any 8K TV we’ve seen, making it the most affordable option for anyone looking to get into 8K early.
TCL TVs: Roku or Android?
In the last year TCL TVs have begun selling that use Android TV software instead of TCL mainstay Roku. While TCL and Roku continue to have a close operating relationship, the addition of Google’s smart TV platform into the mix is a welcome addition for budget TV shoppers, providing another great option at excellent prices. Roku offers many things, including a huge selection of apps and services, called channels, as well as one of the easiest navigation experiences available on a modern smart TV. Offered on both Roku TVs and several Roku-branded streaming devices, it’s one of our favorite smart TV platforms. But some TCL TVs are also available with Android TV, Google’s competing smart TV operating system. With a huge selection of apps and content through the Google Play store and the various free and paid versions of YouTube, it’s actually got a better ecosystem than Roku, and built-inch features like Google Assistant and Chromecast give it an edge over Roku’s more basic feature set, especially on the smart home front. The only caveat here is that TCL doesn’t offer Android on it’s best TVs, the 5 and 6-Series models, only on the 4-Series. Regardless of which system you prefer, both Roku and Android smart TVs offer great ways to enjoy streaming content and sign up for the latest apps. The navigation styles and feature sets are a little different, but both are a great match to TCL’s rock solid quality and price-conscious value.
What is QLED?
TCL’s top models use QLED displays, but what does that mean? QLED is shorthand for displays that use quantum-dots and LED backlight to produce brighter and richer color, using nano-scale crystals that react to light by glowing at different wavelengths, literally creating brighter colors in response to a TV’s backlight. Originally popularized by Samsung, QLED displays offer a big improvement over traditional LCD panels, delivering a brighter picture with a wider color gamut. And when paired with a backlight array that has local dimming zones, the same displays offer better contrast and HDR performance, edging closer to the sort of pixel-perfect lighting you’ll get with more premium OLED displays. Not all TCL TVs have QLED enhancement, but it’s a feature that’s worth paying a little more to get, since it delivers a noticeably better picture.
What is Mini-LED?
Mini-LED refers to the type of LEDs used in a TV’s backlight. With mini-LEDs measuring about one-fifth the size of a standard LED – measuring just 0.008-inch (200 microns) across – the dimming zones that modern TVs use to provide a more dynamic picture and better contrast get shrunk down. Along with color and contrast, brightness makes a huge difference in how well a TV can display an image. Instead of a single LED backlighting zone illuminating several square inches of a screen, mini-LEDs are limited to a mere handful of pixels, providing tighter lighting control to eliminate haloing and provide better brightness where it’s needed. Back in 2019 TCL introduced the first mini-LED TV, a move that other manufacturers started emulating in 2021. (Finds out more in our article Year of the mini-LED TV: Samsung, LG and TCL getting this huge upgrade.) It’s one of the best innovations TVs have seen in recent years, and we recommend opting for a Mini-LED set if your budget allows it.
How to choose the best TCL TV for you
When it comes to TCL TVs, shoppers can feel safe buying any of the TCL TVs on the market. Though relatively new in the North American TV market, TCL has earned a reputation for offering high-quality TVs that punch above their weight in terms of picture quality, features and affordability. But the different models in the TCL lineup are also clearly differentiated with specific features and capabilities that make it easy to see not only what makes one better than another, but also how those differences factor into the price-to-value ratio that each set offers. The TCL 4-Series Roku TV and Android TV models offer entry level prices for a basic 4K HDR Smart TV, with 60 Hz LCD panels and a trio of HDMI ports. The TCL 5-Series steps up in quality with the addition of QLED for better brightness and color, local dimming for improved HDR performance and 4 HDMI ports. It also adds Dolby Vision HDR support. The TCL 6-Series is the best of the bunch, with the combination of QLED and mini-LED. The 4K display has a refresh rate of 120 hz, and rich support for features like THX Game Mode, Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos sound. Of the TVs on this list, it is the most expensive, but still offers great affordability compared to sets with similar features and quality. There’s also a new 8K model in the 6-Series lineup, and it offers all of the same technology and capabilities we love in the 4K 6-Series models. However, we still recommend holding off for a couple of years before upgrading to 8K resolution, for the simple reason that there’s very little worthwhile 8K media to watch on it. In the end, a TCL TV delivers a great TV experience at a great price, and the only real question is what features are you willing to pay a little more for. As our testing and reviews have shown, you’ll get great quality for a great price on any model. If you’re still trying to narrow down your TV shopping by brand, price range or screen size, check out our picks for the best TVs in each. Best TVs | Best 4K TVs | Best smart TVs for streaming | Best TVs for gaming Best TV brands | Best Samsung TVs | Best LG TVs | Best Roku TVs | Best OLED TVs | Best QLED TVs | Best 8K TVs The best TVs under $1000 | The best TVs under $500 The smallest smart TVs | Best 43-inch TVs | Best 50-inch TVs | Best 55-inch TVs | Best 65-inch TVs | Best 70-inch TVs | Best 85-inch TVs And don’t forget to watch out for the latest TV reviews.
