TCL 43S425 43 Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart ROKU LED TV (2018)

Great TV for gaming PS4. Love the features. Let's begin, I paid full price blah blah blah not an ad. Anyway, this is a great TV for the price. By price I mean the picture quality only in that it's not as dark as way more expensive tvs. The resolution is great, no issues playing the PS4 in HDR. (you have to go into the settings and enable HDMI 2.0). Every review I read about this TV said it's a great second TV. That's exactly what this is. The best second TV. My GF and I got this for her room. At first she thought it was big but she really likes it even when I'm not here (or so she says lol). Features: it has a ton, stream all the YouTube and Netflix and such. But... My GF watches a lot of TV (off direct TV). This TV let's you choose what input to go to when you turn it on. This makes it easy for us to use the direct TV remote (I'm sure it would work for anything) to just press the power button and the tv goes to that input. It's different from making it turn on to the last channel or input. We could have been watching Netflix and turn it off and on and it'll go to the direct TV input. If I had this TV I would set it so everytime I turn it on its ready to play my ps4. Another feature I like about the remote is that if you press the Netflix, Hulu, Roku (don't use it), or Disney+ (don't have it) the tv turns on and goes directly to Netflix. Picture: I don't know... I'm not an expert. It just looks like the darks are less dark. That's all. Very bright TV. It's a 4k TV so it's 4k resolution. Seriously... It's the perfect second TV. Buying a TV for a bedroom? Get this one. Buying a TV for... the garage? Idk this is a great TV. Would I get it for my living room? No. Do I have it in my room? No. Not flexing, just being informative... My main console is the PS4 pro. The TV we bought is the 50 inch version. In my room I have a... Let's say 900 dollar TV. That TV is living room quality because I wanted to spend that much. If you're looking for anything under 500 because that's what you can afford. This is a the best TV for that in my opinion. This TV is easier to use than my other TV. I really like the dedicated buttons for Netflix and that it turns on straight to what I press. You cannot reprogram the buttons. The best reason I could find is something about marketing partnerships. Either way, great TV. Also!!! My GF likes to sleep when it's really dark. This TV has a square on the bottom that lights up when you press a button or when you turn it off. DON'T WORRY. There is a setting where you can turn it off. It's really bright if that's all that's on. Almost nightlight level. Just turn it off. Anything else... (rambling clearly shows I'm not a pro reviewer. Or does it...). Just a great TV. Don't notice any lag. My issue about dark parts is just that if I was playing a game and it's a dark tunnel, you can still see everything in the picture. It's just the darks are... very bright. Anyway. Great gaming TV. Great TV for the price category. Last thing, the "Cons" part: (dramatic music) When I took it out of the box it totally had that cheap plastic smell. It does go away. Remember the price but that the tv will still be great. Just had that smell. Still a 5 star product for me. Not really a con but plug in the power cord before you wall mount. Reaching the ports on one side is easier than plugging in the power cord on the other. The line on top of Netflix or streaming services... Yes, my TV does that sometimes. What am I talking about? Sometimes when I am watching Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube (the only streaming services I have tried. The TV has many more available just go to the home menu to select them) there's a small line across the top of the screen about an inch down from the edge of the screen. As best as I can describe since it's not doing it now and can't take a Pic, it freezes a previous scene in a very narrow line. My gf didn't notice at first. And it didn't really bother us. To be honest, I had already mounted it and was trying to stay calm. One solution I found online was to unplug it for 30 seconds. Of course I tried it and it still came back. It does happen way more seldom. I trust a future patch will solve it but in no way does it hurt my 5 star score. When we watch TV it's never there and when I play ps4 it's never there. So, I assume (OK I agree with the smarter people online) that it's probably a software issue that will get patched. Again... It doesn't affect the inputs. It won't be there when you play PS4 or watch TV. Just sometimes when you watch Netflix. Just try turning it off and pressing the Netflix button. It's still a great TV. The 4 stars in picture quality in my review is just about the dark colors. Still a 5 star tv. (owned it for 2 weeks so far) Edit: I added a picture of the "line" issue I talked about. Also, I thought of another question. If this tv was just within my budget, would I get something that may have a better picture but smaller screen?... No. I would choose this TV hands down.

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.)

You are looking at the best priced TV on the market when it comes down to dollar for quality picture. Between the picture quality and the price I would call this the best overall deal on the market TCL made a winner here. After viewing a lot of TV's for a family members gift I decided to go with this TV. The remote is simple, intuitive and easy to use and smart features make this TV a step above the rest. The Roku interface is fast, slick and simple to use and pushes which pushes this TV above the rest of competitors. I installed Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+ and Netflix all of these apps worked flawlessly. Out the box the TV is extremely light and great for hanging, viewing angles are decent for a LED and on par with even more higher end LED TV's and the truth is when you are dealing with LED technology their all about the same when it comes to viewing angles. There is no magic wand that fixes the issue of viewing at angle and picture not degrading with LED technology. There is one important and noticeable issue here that could be a deal breaker for some. 1. Brightness. You'll notice this TV doesn't have Dolby Vision which isn't surprising at $299 but the reason it doesn't have Dolby Vision is it just isn't bright enough. Out of the box I was surprised at how fantastic everything looked but still went into the settings to see what I could tweak for a medium bright room the TV was placed in. I was surprised to see the brightness was already maxed out. I could play with the contrast but again shocked to see the brightness was already turned all the way up. That being said above - I would not put this TV in a room beyond medium bright. Examples it would go great in an office or a shaded living room but if you live in an area where you going to have full on beaming daylight this is not the TV for you and to be honest you won't find anything in this price range with 4K HDR that will suit your needs. You'll need to spend more money on brighter TV and there is no way around it. With the overall picture quality, smart features and price I can't even knock one star off for such a good budget TV and if you have the right spot this is the TV for you. I've had the TV now about two months and could not be more impressed. Though my family members eyesight is poor and unfortunately borderline blind in one eye which is why I opted for the ease of use this TV provides I have an eye for detail. I could not find a single dead pixel on this display and I have attention for detail. These TVs are well manufactured and the look and feel is more inline with a more expensive TV. On another note I also did review the TCL 55S525 which is slightly more expensive TV with Dolby Vision but it suffers from the same issue with the picture brightness and the fact is the 55S525 doesn't get bright enough to even output a Dolby Vision quality picture. If you are thinking about this TV or the 55S525 save your money and buy this TV!

I bought this TV at the end of 2019, and now almost 6 years later its on its last legs. The audio has become like a vibrating tin-can, and the backlight has failed at the top of the screen causing a very dark picture. It was a great tv while it lasted, but after seeing other reviews about it dying after a few years, beware that if you are looking for a long term tv, this likely isn't the one for you. Meanwhile my 15 year old flatscreen is still going strong... If you don't mind replacing the tv after a few years, it's still a great device. Easy to set up and use with multiple streaming services ages game consoles. It's fast to start up and has kept up with all app updates like netflix or youtube just fine, and works without lag. The 55 inch screen perfect, and makes all content display beautifully (when its working unlike mine lol).

I received this TV last week and so far I love it. I've finally got the 4K settings right and it's amazing (for $220 price tag). I purchased the 43" model. There are some good reviews with advice on how to the 4K working right but I had an extra step or two that I wanted to share. As an aside, this monitor starts up very fast (faster than any TV I've owned) which makes it ideal for use with the computer. Anyway: 1.) You need a good quality cable that supports HDMI 2.0 (I got one that supports HDMI 2.1). 2.) Your video card needs to be powerful enough for 4K. I'm using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super which I'll share some settings with. 3.) You need to set the Sharpness down on your TV to 0. If the Sharpness is grayed out (mine was originally) then there's probably a setting on your computer that tells the TV what it is. I changed mine from "Desktop Programs" to "Full Screen Video" and after that I was able to change the settings. Subsequently, there is a Roku app for Android/iOS.. GET THIS APP and link it to your phone. It has advanced color settings available that allow you to far exceed what the built in TV menu allows. 4.) In the settings for the TV turn "Game Mode" on. This will take the latency to almost nothing. 5.) Everything was bright, colors good, text was almost all crisp except red. Red was blurry. This is a tell tale sign that chroma 4:4:4 isn't happening. Luckly, I've figured out how to fix this (or rather I did two things and then it worked, so I'll share those). First on my video card (NVidia) in "Change Resolution" I told it to use custom color settings (changed from RGB to YCbCr444). Apply those. Then reboot. 6.) Next, it still appeared the red was blurry. I downloaded the Roku app to get to the advanced color settings. In doing so, I had to hook the TV up to the internet which I hadn't done yet (because I'm using it as a monitor). When I did this, it downloaded Roku updates for the TV and then rebooted the TV... this is important.. the TV boots fast because it's in a sleep mode, not fully off.. after the update it full powered down and reboot which took a minute or two to restart). Once it restarted I was shocked to find out the red text was no longer blurry, at all, at any scaling or resolution. The picture for me, is amazing. I like this TV so much for the price I bought a second one for my bedroom. Take this with a grain of salt that I've only had it a week but I will report back if I do have any issues. So far, this has been great. Update October 2020: Monitor is still running great. I've been working from home since the pandemic started and I've used this monitor -a lot- and I have no complaints. It was well worth the purchase, very happy with it.

This TV is absolutely mind blowing for how inexpensive it is. The quality of the display and the feature set puts it on par with much more expensive models. First things first, this is a true LED TV, not one of those LED back-lit types with odd light bleed on the edges. The contrast ratio is fantastic and the deep blacks puts every LCD TV I've ever owned to shame. Movies and games are far more vibrant than ever. This display seems to also lack any noticeable ghosting that you'd find on cheaper panels, which is honestly very surprising considering the price. It comes with the usual SmartTV features included with Roku. Netflix and Amazon stream to this display over Wifi in 4k! I've never actually been able to view 4K content before but now I can take advantage of it. HDR is a nice bonus however I haven't viewed any content with HDR yet so I can't really say much on it, but the fact that it's there is a nice touch. This display is also surprisingly light. Coming from a 42" 1080p Westinghouse I honestly thought I got sold an empty shell because this panel weighs next to nothing compared to the much older LCD panel I've come accustomed to. While this is advertised as a 120hz screen, it must be said that 4k will run at a maximum of 60hz, however lower resolutions might take advantage of the higher refresh rate. As far as I can tell there is no artificial motion smoothing effects (something you'd typically find on high refresh rate displays to give the illusion of 60hz during 30hz playback) but I find that to be a plus since those features add input latency which could be a major issue when gaming. I primarily will be using this display for light gaming and streaming, but I can say that it does both very well. The lack of ghosting, the response times, and the picture quality make this a must have if you have a console or you want to hook your PC up for couch gaming sessions.

My son bought this TV about a year ago, the 55 inch size, and has really liked it. I recently needed a new TV for my bedroom so bought the 43 inch version. I have been using it for a couple months now and really like it. I use it strictly for streaming (don't have cable), and it was easy to set up. Wifi connection has been great, though every once in a while it will take about a minute to connect upon turning the TV on rather than its usual connection within seconds. It can use 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wifi signals. I did have some issues at first with some backbleeding and spotty/pixelated dark or black scenes in shows and movies. My son had the same issue when he first got his TV, and after he messed with the picture settings on and off over several days, he corrected the issue. I wrote down his settings and changed mine to match and now the issue is resolved on my TV also. As a tip, these settings are not part of the initial setup of the TV which just has rather simplistic/basic settings. The user manual lays out how to access the "advanced" picture settings - you must be actively watching something, example a show on Netflix, hit the star button on remote and it will bring up several different TV settings, scroll down to picture settings, click on it, and then you will see the more indepth picture settings - backlight, brightness, contrast, color tint, etc., which you can adjust to your liking. In addition, there are a few different settings for sound you may want to check out. For example one option is to make the speaking dialog "pop" out over background noise or music. Speaking of the sound quality, it is okay. It's not bad but nothing outstanding either. My son bought a soundbar to use with his TV, but the built in speakers work just fine for my use. All in all, I'm very happy with this TV, and I feel it is very good quality for the price.

I seriously cannot believe this thing for the money. I ordered two of these for my desk (don't laugh, I have a big desk), expecting that I would probably return them. I was thinking there's no way they would be good enough to run 4k clearly 3ft from my face, and low latency at 60Hz 4:4:4, and have deep enough blacks in a dark room, and produce great color. I've never been so happy to be wrong. It met all my requirements and then some. The only problem I'm currently having is finding a display port to HDMI adapter or cable that can handle 4k@60Hz, 4:4:4, HDR and HDMI 2.0a but that's not the fault of the TV. Is it something you would use for photo editing or perfect color and contrast for movie watching? Of course not, but you will be hard pressed to find anything in this price range that will even come close. I attached some pics for your viewing pleasure taken with my Gs9 at 4032x2268, although Amazon my compress them... Edit: Almost 2 months in and still very pleased with these. The panels were not identical in color in both sets, but that's not uncommon. I had to calibrate them and now they look almost identical. Unless you're getting two to sit side by side like I did, it should not be an issue. My office is dimly lit most of the time and these settings work well for me. Picture mode Normal, Backlight 75, Brightness 50, Contrast 100, Color 50, Tint 0. Edit 09/21/19: Figured I would update this post. Both displays are still going strong. No issues whatsoever. Still very happy with my purchase. These are true 4K displays and work great for gaming. As one of the comments mentioned, they are not going to compete with gaming displays and I have had overpriced small gaming monitors. I much rather play on this, and they have 100s of hours of gaming on them with no issues. Extremely sharp, and they work great as monitors. If you have a different experience, it needs to be calibrated. I spent a good few hours getting these dialed in, and it was worth it! Edit 03/16/21: One of my panels just went dim a couple days ago. Still keeping the rating as is because I've put thousands of hours on these panels and this one partially slipped off my desk a couple of months ago and fell into a cabinet behind it. Going to by a 2021 model to replace it. Will write a review there once it comes in and I have it next to my other 2018 model.