50S425 50 Inch 4K Smart LED Roku TV (2019)

I'm a Sony guy and, given the right opportunity and place, would select an authentic OLED Sony screen to hang onto a wall. But currently I find myself marooned and cash-stressed in a one-room apartment. Necessity can be the mother of serendipitous surprises, such as the discovery of this 55-inch "overachiever" from TCL, going for one-tenth the price of my desired Sony. It comes with two tripod legs (which are all I require in my quiet, sedate setting), though it's light and thin enough (though thicker, of course than an OLED) for hanging on a wall. I'm happy to place my screen in front of the big dresser mirror, where it blocks from my view the strange freak I find staring at me each morning. I've found that 55-inches is enough to cover the entire width of the mirror and falls just 4-5 inches short of reaching the top. More importantly, without an A-B side-by-side comparison, this picture satisfies me as much as the Sony and Samsung sets I've owned since 2015--a year in which all makers' hi-def sets were given a huge boost because of the pervasive use of LED lighting (previously used to illuminate only the edges of the picture). Moreover, the AUDIO is the best I've heard from any TV set (If you're "bass-challenged," buy the subwoofer). Listening to the Lincoln Center Orchestra play the music of Miles Davis (on Youtube), I could hear and notate every note from the acoustic "walking" bass without need of plugging into a high-end stereo-system. You'll notice that this is a "4 Series"--or #55S45, meaning 55-inch 4K Hi-Def Set with HDR. If you're willing to spend $50 to $250 more, you may wish to look into TCL's 5 series (55S55) or 6 series (55S65). The latter will bring you some metal to complement the plastic in the picture frames of the 4 series. And with the 6 you'll have bragging rights to more sophisticated circuitry, giving you control over, say, black levels of one small portion of the screen (great for viewers who have OCD and enjoy endless fiddling). Also, "gamers" may be willing to pay more for a TV promising faster, more efficient processors. I remember the days when we argued vehemently about the best-sounding loudspeaker. Now, all the attention is not on sound (have you heard today's, uh, music?). Confession: last year I installed a 32" TCL with Roku in our kitchen. It was so good, I couldn't wait to use my treadmill (placed directly in front of the TV) on a daily basis. Besides cable I had access to Prime Video and Netflix--all of it accessible on the TCL twice as fast as the Sony and 5 times faster than the Samsung. After duping the American public into believing that 4K was so revolutionary we all needed to trash our existing TV sets, "Consumer Reports" has become more honest and even a bit apologetic. The only difference the naked eye will see, according to the latest claim, is not in the sharpness of 1080p vs. 4K resolution, but in the quality of "depth" in the picture (the part referenced by "HDR"). Conclusion: my research and personal experience tell me that this TCL 4-Series offers a fully competitive picture at an amazing price. Moreover, in addition to two sets of legs, you will receive a full-featured remote control (including batteries!) as well as older pin plug adapters (1 video 2 stereo) and an instruction manual. All you "might" need for optimal versatility is an HDMI cable. Most consumers by now are wise enough to know that a high-priced $40 cable will not provide a picture that's 4X better. Check out the prices of Amazon cables. I purchased a 20-footer for $10, and it performs as well as a $50 cable. (It arrived a day later than the TV.)

Hello everyone, I'm sharing my experience with the TCL 50S425 50 Inch 4K Smart LED Roku TV. These days, it’s not exactly difficult to find a budget TV with a good picture for a reasonable price; the question is which one—there are so many options that it can be overwhelming. First, I’ll talk about what you can notice visually (after all, that's the main thing in a TV): the picture is bright and vibrant, no complaints here. Sure, the folks in the technical review section will look for pixel brightness, true black color, measure brightness, viewing angles, and so on, but in terms of feel, everything is just excellent. Yes, the viewing angles could be wider, but please tell me, do you really move around the room while watching TV? It supposedly has 120Hz support, but visually, that’s not noticeable. The built-in speakers lack bass, but again, that’s perfectly normal for built-in speakers and TVs in this class. Just keep that in mind. The TV could perhaps be a bit thinner, but again, for this price, that’s absolutely fine. I won’t describe the Roku operating system and ports. Navigation is simple and intuitive, and you can easily see the ports in the photos (HDMI). My verdict: The TCL 50S425 is an excellent budget 4K TV.

Great graphics and Remote Reaction great

Like: It took me 2 days to get this dialed-in but it's great. For the price, I ask you to find a better 4k TV for PC Gaming. It'd be a waste of time because you have this TV before you, if you're on a budget this is the one. I can see where at first you would think this TV horrible, I thought so until I got all of the settings in place. I used rtings dot com's settings for this TV. The kicker is that I had to make adjustments to the TV , my PC and adjustments w/in the game I play on PC. For the game I play I went online and checked what some of the top players say about tv/pc/game settings and I used what they used. I never would have gotten this setup correctly w/out the help of youtube and rting dot com. Once I got the TV setup and playing my game, it was working, but it wasn't good running 4k so I moved the resolution down to 1080p and the issues faced lessened. I was experiencing motion blur and flicker In 4k and the color I thought was a little dark, but my wife mentioned it was too dark and I had only put in the rtings settings for the TV. I went online to one of the popular gamers for the game I play (World of Tanks) and I took his suggestions, the settings he mentioned were from the top-gamers of this game, the settings they use in tournaments. I got lucky, he broke down what every setting does in-game and how it affects performance. PC Gaming is about Frame Rates Per Second. The folks at Xbox and PS worry about that for you w/consoles, but gamers have to deal with it and its the most important stat. The human eye can't see flicker @35FPS, so you want a higher FPS. The more detail you want in your game (Performance) the FPS will drop. There is a sweet spot in there, but all of that is based on your Graphics Card and Gaming System. I found mine w/the help of the youtuber. I'm sure you can too, search youtube for your games settings. I didn't think about this one but the youtuber mentioned using the native resolution of the TV and to make sure the PC uses the same. I switched my 4k to 1080p because of the blur. Once I had the in-game settings and PC Display Settings going, as well as the TV Settings. I started playing and noticed it's dialed in. I had my wife confirm and she agreed. WOT in-game settings included a darker resolution (that was on). I never turned that on but once I removed the setting, the colors exploded and there was great detail! So my take on this tv is to make sure get all of the settings and you may have to do some research on finding the right settings. I recommend once you get this TV, you get the settings for in-game play, settings for the console you're playing the game on and the settings for the TV itself. It took me two days to get all of the information but I'm thoroughly impressed with this TV. The depth of the colors, the detail of objects front and center and in the distance are tremendous. I've been a gamer for over 20 yrs, this is my first 4k TV and it was worth the wait. I don't like the small 27" gaming monitors because I also watch a lot of youtube and check my email, so a 43" monitor that can handle a graphically enhanced game like World of Tanks with flying colors and still show a movie halfway decent is exactly what I want. I'm in a room where my wife may want to watch something w/me like a cooking show or a travel spot around the world via youtube w/out us having to huddle down over a little 27" monitor. Dislike: The remote is small and feels cheaply made, not a problem it just doesn't feel like a quality remote.