TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) review: A killer QLED TV value
Our Verdict
By focusing on delivering a solid, breakthrough-dot 4K moving-picture show at an affordable price, the TCL 5-Series is a bully choice for anyone on a budget.
For
- Faithful colors
- Born Roku smarts
- Excellent toll
Against
- Mediocre sound
- Pocket-size brightness
Tom's Guide Verdict
By focusing on delivering a solid, quantum-dot 4K movie at an affordable toll, the TCL v-Series is a great option for anyone on a upkeep.
Pros
- +
Faithful colors
- +
Born Roku smarts
- +
Excellent price
Cons
- -
Mediocre sound
- -
Minor brightness
TCL 5-Serial Roku TV: Specs
Cost: $479
Model number: 55S535
Screen size: 55 inches
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG
Refresh rate: lx Hz
Ports: four HDMI 2.one; one USB
Audio: 8 watts by 8 watts
Smart TV software: Roku Goggle box
Size: 48.iv 10 iii.0 x 28.1 inches [westward/o stand]
Weight: 32.6 pounds [w/o stand]
The TCL 5-Series Roku Tv 4K set up is another case of the cliché that every year TVs get amend–and less expensive. The 55-inch model nosotros tested for our TCL 5-Series Roku Television set review turned in a solid, quality picture and comes with the pop Roku smart Telly software, making for an attractive package that costs well below $500.
The TCL 5-Series uses a quantum dot layer to bring more than colors to the LCD panel. (TCL and others refer to it as QLED, not to be dislocated with OLED.) It also supports Dolby Vision'due south HDR (high dynamic range) format for 4K content, as well every bit other standard HDR formats. To improve contrast within scenes, the TCL 5-Series too has full-array agile local dimming so that it can subdue the backlight on one area of the screen while boosting another brighter area. In fact, information technology has all of the features we loved on the previous yr's TCL 6-Series Roku TV R625 review, just with a better cost. (It actually earned our Highly Recommended rating in the 2021 Tom's Guide Award for value TVs.)
All of this amounts to a very satisfying moving-picture show–and a hard-to-beat toll. Hisense's most comparable model, the top-of-the-line Hisense H9G Quantum Android TV (55H9G), costs roughly $200 more at retail. And the Samsung Q70T QLED Idiot box, which also boasts breakthrough dot enhancement, is near twice the toll of the TCL 5-Series even though the TCL turns in some superior numbers when it comes to color accuracy.
Editor's Note: While our rating and recommendation for the TCL 5-Series Roku Television set remain unchanged from when it start ran in March of 2021, we accept updated the story to reverberate changes in pricing and availability.
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TCL 5-Serial Roku TV Review: Pricing and availability
The 5-Series is a mid-range model line for TCL. The higher end TCL 8-Series and 6-Series also use breakthrough dot LCD panels just come with a more than advanced back light called mini-LED. And so those sets also command a price premium, $200 or more than over their five-Series counterparts. Furthermore, the 5-Serial comes in a wide variety of sizes, and so it will appeal to a wider range of shoppers.
- 50-inch 50S535: $499.99
- 55-inch 55S535: $549.99
- 65-inch 65S535: $749.99
- 75-inch 75S535: $999.99
These other models offer different screen sizes and prices, but the same QLED panels are used on all of them. Aside from differences in the number of dimming zones, the feature prepare is identical and we expect performance to match what we see in our test results. We can safely recommend every size of the TCL five-Series Roku TV only as strongly equally we practise the 55-inch model in this review.
As of this writing, near quantum dot TVs cost more compared to the TCL 5-Series. Just don't expect that to last for long. Vizio'southward G-Series Quantum 55-inch ready has already matched the TCL v-Serial price, and other companies, specially Hisense, are leap to respond by either lowering prices or including the technology in less expensive models.
TCL 5-Series Roku TV Review: Design
Compared to the previous year's model, TCL has tweaked the blueprint of the 5-Series. The bezel or border effectually the screen is a touch narrower and the set up is slimmer at its thinnest indicate. The new TCL 5-Series is listed at iii-inches at its thickest point, but the top border is about one-half an inch thick (last season'southward model was about 1.5 inches at the edge).
Also slimmed downward are the TCL 5-Serial' legs. Last year's model had the angular v-shaped anxiety at each terminate of the panel. The current model has more rounded and graceful legs that take been brought in a couple of inches from each edge.
Incidentally, if you lot choose the 65- or 75-inch model of the 5-Series, TCL gives you the option of mounting the legs on the ends or toward the center of the screen. The latter is a large assist in situations where your tabletop isn't quite every bit wide as the Tv.
If you're planning on a wall mount, the 55-inch TCL five-Series works with a standard VESA 300mm 10 200mm bracket.
TCL v-Series Roku Boob tube Review: Ports
The five-Series comes with a healthy assortment of connections. On the dorsum panel you'll discover 4 HDMI 2.1 ports, i of which has the audio return aqueduct (ARC), making information technology handy for a connected soundbar or AV receiver. The HDMI ports only support lx Hz 4K, but only ardent gamers will be disappointed by that. Also on the back, there's a cable/antenna input, a USB 2.0 port, an analog sound out jack, an optical audio output, and a mini-jack AV input (for onetime video gear). The terminal connection requires an adapter, which isn't included (competitors similar LG do include the needed dongle).
The v-Serial set also has an Ethernet port. However, most people will make the needed Net connectedness wirelessly. The 5-Series supports the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. Bluetooth is available but not for headphones but rather for the Roku remote and the brand'south own wireless speakers.
TCL 5-Series Roku TV Review: Operation
Motion-picture show settings on the TCL 5-Series using the Roku Idiot box software is pretty rudimentary. You can select brightness levels (Normal, Bright, Brighter, Dark, and Darker). We cull the Normal brightness setting and and then under advanced picture settings we selected Movie mode. (Additional choices are Normal, Sports, Low Power, and Vivid.)
You can also make more detailed settings for individual inputs, which we did. In the settings menus, you'll notice brightness and color temperature adjustments, for instance, for each manner. And while there is no FilmMaker Mode, which turns off most video processing so that the wait of the original movie can come through, at that place is the power to turn off motion smoothing, for instance, which is already shut off in Movie fashion.
In treatment 4K programs, the TCL 5-Serial did a laudable task. Grogu is all the same our go-to guy and the fix did well handling The Mandalorian. Bright laser fights and dimly lit scenes fared equally well. The shadowy encounter with Werner Herzog, for example, looked good with night objects similar a black jacket against the night background maintaining their detail. And HDR helped make the bluish flames of the armor maker's fire truly brilliant.
The TCL 5-Serial also ran the gauntlet of some of our favorite 4K movies, including Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Again, ruby highlights looked crisp against dark backgrounds without creating halo artifacts, and the sun-drenched scenes of California looked consistent from edge to edge without the banding you often see on subtle colour transitions.
Better still we tested the set up watching some standard HD 1080p and 720p content to see how well it would do upscaling it to 4K. Suffice information technology to say, the TCL five-Series did remarkably well; upscaled images looked expert, aided and abetted by some brilliant colors. A Technicolor Hitchcock film, the 1956 version of The Human being Who Knew Too Much, for example, looked appropriately stunning. Doris Day'south silk adjust shimmered and the reds and golds of the Albert Hall were appropriately sumptuous without becoming garish.
We also tested the TCL five-Series for cordcutters past using a Mohu antenna to pull in over-the-air stations. There were a couple of dozen available channels in our area, and we wanted to see how the gear up did upscaling such 720 p and 1080 p content. It did well enough bringing such HD programs upwards to 4K so yous won't detect its upscaling distracting.
One downside of the TCL 5-Series is that its horizontal viewing angles are mediocre. Then if you're the unlucky one who has to sit on the end of the burrow, you may notice a slight loss of color intensity and brightness. Information technology'south certainly not as astringent as y'all'll witness on some older, non-quantum-dot TVs, simply it's not equally skillful equally what OLED sets offer.
TCL five-Series Roku Tv Review: Test Results
Submitted to our standard suite of tests using an Ten-Rite i1 Pro spectrophotometer and SpectraCal CalMAN Ultimate calibration software, we institute the TCL 5-Serial delivered some of the most accurate colors that nosotros've seen. Information technology yielded a Delta E result of 1.76, besting final year'due south top-of-the-line TCL 6-Serial R635 (ii.84) and the Samsung Q70T QLED Television (ii.44). Nonetheless, the breakthrough dot-equipped Hisense H9G Quantum Android TV did amend in this test (0.91)–but costs more.
In terms of reproducing the overall color spectrum, the TCL five-Series fell in line with what we've seen from other quantum dot sets. It reproduced nearly the total Rec 709 color palette at 99.85 pct. Pricier OLEDs often evangelize far more than 100 percentage of the Rec 709 spectrum, but those models price 150 pct more than than the TCL five-Series.
If the TCL v-Serial has a notable weakness, it is in the expanse of brightness. It is common for u.s. to run into numbers of around 600 nits with a ten per centum test design. The TCL 5-Series gave us 391.9 nits. While that sounds like a significant difference, nosotros yet found it acceptable watching programs using the set's less-brilliant Motion-picture show fashion. Even in a ordinarily lit room, we didn't feel the demand to heave the brightness or switch to Bright mode.
Furthermore, gamers will appreciate this Telly's snappy response. In image lag tests the TCL 5-Series returned a time of 13.1 ms, which was half the time of the Samsung QN55Q70TAF (27.half-dozen ms), quicker than final year's TCL 6-Series Roku Tv set (21.5) and even faster than the Hisense 55H9G quantum competitor (16.1 ms). Pair that with the HDMI 2.1 support needed to get most of the advanced features offered the Xbox Series X or PS5, and the TCL 5-Series shapes up to be one of the all-time TVs for 4K gaming, provided yous don't care about ultra-loftier frame rates.
TCL 5-Series Roku Goggle box Review: Audio
Sound quality is not i of the focal points of the TCL 5-Series. Yes, information technology supports Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks, but the standard today for leading sets is the more robust and iii-dimensional Dolby Atmos format. (The competing Hisense 55H9G, for example, supports Dolby Atmos, as does TCL'south footstep-upwards model, the half-dozen-Series.)
Flat console sets in general do not distinguish themselves in the sound department. And the TCL v-Serial is no dissimilar in this regard with its diminutive 8-watt speakers. Consequently, at that place'southward not a lot of attending directed to sound features here, and it has a very narrow soundstage. Everything seems to emanate from the heart of the screen.
Even so, the TCL 5-Series does take several preset audio modes: Big bass, Loftier Treble, Music, Normal, Speech, and Theater. The last setting produces the most well-rounded residuum of high and low notes for watching most programs. Speech delivers ascendant higher-end frequencies in an endeavour to focus on dialogue, with mixed results. Large bass does deliver a little bit more on the lower end, only the Theater manner is superior in this regard. All the same, if you are looking to fill a large living area with cinematic sound, we suggest calculation ane of the best soundbars or connecting the set to a full-blown surround audio arrangement.
TCL 5-Series Roku TV Review: Smart Boob tube
The TCL 5-Series comes with the familiar large cherry splash screen of Roku TV. Not merely does it make finding and streaming unlike online sources of entertainment a snap, it also helps with setting up the Tv set.
The Roku interface will walk you through the basics on-screen, including connecting the Goggle box to your domicile Wi-Fi network. It will automatically look for any software updates (there was an update available for our tests), and you tin enter your email to activate an existing Roku account. Downloading aqueduct apps for the Roku TV volition consume virtually of your setup time, depending on how many you typically apply. A brief narrated video will run through the features of the Roku remote at the end of the process.
Fifty-fifty for the uninitiated, the Roku smart Telly software could not be easier. Information technology will see an attached cable box or antenna, and then you just download your preferred streaming sources. Roku supports all the major content providers from Netflix to Disney+. Roku has been at it longer than anyone else, and so there are literally thousands of "channels" available, which is not to say that there aren't any gaps.
Equally of this writing, Roku and the Spectrum cable visitor take been squabbling about rights and fees for the Spectrum app for several months–and so it is not available. And at that place is no expected engagement for when it volition return. (Existing Spectrum customers who downloaded the aqueduct to older external Roku boxes tin can all the same watch it, however.)
Apple iPhone owners will be pleased to learn that they can share videos, photos, and music on TCL 5-Series using AirPlay. And yous tin can mirror whatsoever Android smartphone on the set up'due south screen.
TCL 5-Series Roku TV Review: Remote
The remote control for the TCL 5-Series is a run-of-the-mill Roku remote for TVs. The remote is smaller than a protein bar with minimal buttons. A 4-way directional pad with an "OK" push button in the center gets y'all around menus and settings, and there are defended buttons for launching Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and Sling TV.
The major distinction betwixt this remote and those for higher-end sets is that the TCL 5-Series controller doesn't have a microphone congenital into the remote, and so yous can't do voice searches at the button of a push button. If you want to do that, y'all'll need to utilise the Roku app on your smartphone. The same goes for late night listening; you're all-time off using earbuds continued to your smartphone to keep things down to a tiresome roar.
TCL 5-Series Roku TV Review: Verdict
If y'all're looking for a solid, quality picture from a quantum dot gear up, the TCL five-Series is ane of the leading contenders in this category. It isn't perfect, but its pic is equally good as (if not better than) much of the competition, including what we've seen in our Hisense H9G Breakthrough Android TV (55H9G) review and the Samsung Q70T QLED Television receiver review, delivering very authentic colors for less money than either of those models. The Roku smart TV features are also straightforward for those who just desire to set it and forget information technology. Yes, in that location are more feature-rich OLED sets available, but those models are more than twice the price of this rather pleasing 4K Television receiver.
Run across where else the TCL v-Series Roku Tv (S535) is mentioned:
Best 4K TVs | All-time TVs under $grand | All-time TVs under $500 | All-time TCL TVs | Best Roku TVs
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/tcl-5-series-roku-tv-s535
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