TCL Roku Advanced Digital TV Tuner Smart TV, 55-Inch
Last updated: January 13, 2023
This 55-inch TV from TCL has Roku built in to help you connect to all of your favorite streaming apps. You'll also get a clear picture and a headphone jack to plug into.
We looked at the top Smart TVs and dug through the reviews from some of the most popular review sites. Through this analysis, we've determined the best Smart TV you should buy.
Product Details
In our analysis of 98 expert reviews, the TCL Roku Advanced Digital TV Tuner Smart TV, 55-Inch placed 24th when we looked at the top 26 products in the category. For the full ranking, see below.Expert Reviews
What reviewers liked
The S-Series has an unassuming, plain design we've come to expect from most budget TVs. The screen is framed by a slightly curved, glossy black plastic bezel that measures 0.6 inches on the top and sides and 0.8 inches on the bottom.
The HDMI are state-of-the-art and worked fine with everything I threw at them, including 4K Blu-ray. The headphone jack is a nice touch, and unlike cheaper Roku sets, this one has Ethernet, too.
The TCL S Series 4k LED TV has a better than average picture quality. When set in a dark room, blacks look deep and dark scenes from movies are reproduced very well thanks to the great native contrast ratio and the excellent black uniformity.
This TV provides advanced Internet capabilities via its "Roku TV" portal with access to a library of applications. Movie streaming services include Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Go and HBO Now.
The TCL Roku 55-inch 55S405 continues this track record with a solid feature set, basic 4K and HDR support, and Roku's popular smart-TV interface.
What reviewers didn't like
The S-Series doesn't perform nearly as well as the TCL 55P607, showing a peak brightness less than half that as the P-Series (249.73cd/m2 compared with 507.85cd/m2) and a much less inky impressive black level (0.06cd/m2compared with 0.01cd/m2).
My main complaint is that near-black areas were washed with a bluish tinge, a typical issue with LCD sets that have poor black levels.
When set in a bright room with more lighting, the S405 can't really overcome glare since it can't get very bright and can't deal very well with reflections. The viewing angle is also not that good and the best picture quality is only reserved for a narrow zone in front of the TV.
This set is among the first 4K Roku TVs we've tested with HDR capability--its 49-inch sibling is also in our ratings--but we found its effectiveness to be very limited, mainly due to a lack of brightness.
Backlighting was also a little uneven, with noticeable shadows in the corners that can easily be seen during normal viewing. While we tend to be forgiving of this when it's subtle, it was hard to miss on the TCL, with shadows in the corners that are starkly apparent whenever a bright background or solid color, like a blue sky, is shown.
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