TCL 5-Series (S555) Roku TV review: unsurprisingly good

TCL 5-Series (S555)

Retail price $700.00

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“The TCL S555 offers solid picture quality at a very good price.”

Advantage

• Solid HDR performance within the price range

• Bright colors are good in certain modes

• Low input lag

• High value

The TCL S555 5-Series Roku TV is a TV I’ve been looking forward to trying out. I reviewed the 2021 Roku 5-Series TV (S535), which was a solid TV, but then the Google TV 5-Series (S546) came out and has some improvements over it. This is a bit of a departure from the TCL – normally I would have expected it to be essentially the same TV, just under a different Smart TV platform.

Well, by the way, the S546 – which you can still buy – performs a little better. And while it was a bit buggy at the time, as was the case with its higher-end sibling, the 6-Series S646, those bugs have now been largely ironed out.

I was eager to try the S555 as it is said to have the same picture quality improvements as the Google TV version but is built on the Roku platform. That being the case, I felt like I knew exactly what to expect from this TV – no surprises at all. But since I haven’t yet had a chance to review it myself, I’m reluctant to include it in some of my best TV lists for 2022. Different sizes of the S555 could potentially make the list. best under $500 and best under $1,000 list.

Well, it’s not too late. This TV will remain relevant for many months to come. So let’s see how this TV performs, what you can expect from it, and whether you want to buy this TV or a competing model like the Hisense U7H.

Outside the box

I said above that I didn’t expect any surprises from this TV. What does it mean? Well, starting with taking the TV out of the box, it means the S555 looks and functions a lot like I thought it would.

It’s not flashy but it’s not trashy either.

The 65-inch TCL 5-Series is relatively inexpensive at $600, but it’s not the cheapest you can buy. And that pretty much describes the TV’s look and build quality. It’s not flashy but it’s not trashy either.

The only thing that felt odd about assembling this TV was that the screws didn’t seem to want to go into their holes when I screwed them in. All’s well that ends well – the pins are now firmly fixed on the TV – but it’s an interesting touch. However, there is still nothing surprising.

Now, the feet only go in one place on this TV. Unlike some models where you can tuck them in so they can sit on a shelf or smaller media shelf, you’ll need a large amount of space to accommodate this TV. In the case of the 65-inch model, approximately 50.25 inches.

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There’s no real cable management, so I’d recommend buying some Velcro ties to minimize cable clutter – I’ve also found those can work when you’re wall-mounting too.

If you mount it on the wall, I think you will love the look of it. Like most TVs these days, it has minimal bezels on the top and sides, and has a matte black strip along the bottom. There’s a light under the TCL logo in the center, which you can turn off in the Roku menu if you want.

gaming

In terms of connectivity, this TV has four HDMI inputs, and none of them offer full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth. But that doesn’t Are not which means this is a poor TV for gaming – in fact, it’s quite sturdy.

However, what really makes this a good gaming TV is its very low input lag.

It has a native 60Hz panel, so it will max out at 4K 60Hz, but it offers VRR, including basic Freesync. Now, how useful that will be to you, I’m not sure. It basically goes down to 48Hz and up to 60Hz, which isn’t a huge range, but that seems to minimize screen tearing a bit in games that aren’t locked to low refresh rates.

What really makes this a good gaming TV, though, is its very low input lag, around 11 milliseconds in game mode at most resolutions, which is great. HDR performance in game mode, as I’ll discuss later, is also quite good.

Image and brightness

Now, before I get into some image quality measurement data, I want to talk about a small annoyance that has persisted with previous 5-Series models I’ve tested, which is a bit of lag. in interface operation. Occasionally, clicking around at a fast pace will cause you to crash. It eventually melted away, but I was easily annoyed by that. Additionally, if you connect your TV to a soundbar, powered speakers, or A/V receiver via ARC or EARC — yes, the TV does support that — you’ll find that changing the volume is a pain. slow. Again, I was annoyed when I experienced this on other TCL Roku TVs.

Zeke Jones/Digital Trends

For my nitpickers, these are the basics. This TV reaches about 550 nits in SDR and only about 800 nits in HDR when calibrated to a D65 white point. The SDR brightness I got was a bit lower than what some other reviewers ranked, while the HDR peak brightness was a bit higher than what some others got. That’s at the Dark HDR setting, with the color temperature set to warm and the TV’s local dimming feature maximized.

My opinion of this TV includes that 800 nit result because I factory reset this TV and rechecked that number multiple times. I’d like to think it’s representative of what’s on the market, but my review sample came directly from TCL, so keep that in mind.

Image quality is good for the price.

Initial white color and white point errors on this TV in Movie mode for SDR and Dark HDR mode for HDR10 weren’t bad at just 4 on white balance and the same for color. That’s technically visible, but not by much – anything below a DeltaE of 3 means it’s unnoticeable to the average person. And while it didn’t take me long to adjust the white balance, for some reason my adjustments via the Roku app were ineffective at white stimulation levels of 10%, 20%, and 20%. 30%. I was planning on contacting TCL about this but I recently learned that this is something I may need to resolve with Roku.

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In reality, though, I haven’t really seen anyone calibrate this TV, so it’s important to me that it looks good out of the box and in those picture modes. it has. In Standard, it’s unsurprisingly too blue and, of course, Vivid looks like hot garbage, but that’s true on almost any TV.

Here’s my take on the picture quality: it’s very good for the price. For those who remember how impressed reviewers were with the TCL 6-Series from three or four years ago, it is what it is. Today’s TCL 5-Series looks like yesterday’s TCL 6-Series but at a lower price. And I mean, who can complain about that?

SDR brightness and HDR brightness are decent for the price, although not the best out there – I’ll get to that in a minute. Contrast is excellent for the price, thanks to solid backlight control, even if it doesn’t have many local dimming zones. Colors are vibrant and well saturated – at least from viewing angles – and motion is perfectly acceptable, although you won’t get as smooth a picture from this TV as a 120Hz one. However, you will stutter a little less because the reaction time isn’t as fast, which I think some people will really like.

I have only two real complaints about this TV. One is that the viewing angle is not good. If you sit in the middle, you’ll get a really nice photo. If you sit aside, you really aren’t. Thanks to the VA panel, we get deep blacks and great contrast, but also due to the rather basic VA panel, we also get disappointing external viewing angles. That’s what it is.

Also, I really didn’t win the panel lottery on this TV regarding the dirty screen effect. It’s not terrible, but I see it. If you can’t really see the dirty screen effect, now is not the time to take the veil off your eyes – not if you’re considering this TV or another at this price point. That’s just part of the deal.

Sound quality

Surprisingly, the TV’s sound is not of good quality. And that means I personally wouldn’t be without at least a basic soundbar. I almost hate to mention this because it’s so common at this price point, but the Hisense U7H sounds better than it should and… it’s a nice departure from what I thought was a good comparison. Comparison is inevitable.

Competition is fierce

So who should buy this TV and who should buy the Hisense U7H? Well, first of all, I know there are some people who might not feel like it’s a fair comparison and that’s because, according to this article, the Hisense U7H costs a bit more than the TCL S555. In fact, the S555 sits between Hisense’s U6H and U7H in terms of price, which makes a direct comparison difficult. But since the image quality between the two is so similar, I went ahead and compared because I think many shoppers will do the same.

Zeke Jones/Digital Trends

If you like the built-in Roku operating system, the S555 is the choice. But if we consider the smart TV platform, you will get better specifications from the Hisense U7H. It’s a brighter TV in both SDR and HDR, and has a 120Hz panel with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth support from the two HDMI inputs (though it seemed to struggle a bit with gaming 4K 120Hz suitable). Additionally, the Hisense U7H manages to deliver judder-free 24 frames per second (fps) movie content when you get it from a 60Hz source like a cable box, while the TCL S555 seems to falter a bit with that. . Not much, but a little.

On the other hand, the TCL S555 has lower input lag at supported resolutions, and for me it’s a less flickery TV. And I’m not sure the difference in brightness between the two will be extremely meaningful to most viewers. So I guess I’d say if you’re a nerd and want the most brightness for your money and want a 120Hz panel and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, then the U7H might be a good choice better, at least on paper.

But if you want to save a little money, the TCL S555 strikes a great balance between cost and performance – the kind of performance impressive enough to wow you without burning a hole in your wallet. I enjoyed watching it very much. Now, personally, if increased cost isn’t a concern, I’d recommend upgrading to the TCL 6-Series if possible. The return on investment is well worth it if you are a video enthusiast. But if you’re just looking for a solid TV there’s plenty of value. The TCL S555 is a great choice – no surprise there.

Editor’s recommendation

Category: GAMINGSource: newstars.edu.vn

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Category: Optical Illusion