TCL 55S517 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2018 Model)

TCL has established themselves as one of the best values in TV's at any given price point. Their 5 series TV's offer noticeable improvements over the 4 series for only a little more money. Voice remote, Dolby Vision HDR , HDR Pro Gamma, Wide Color Gamut and Dolby Atmos support. . On the 55" size, this 5 series TV is only $50 more than the same size 4 series. Well under $500. The 6 series adds local dimming (TCL calls it Contrast Control Zones) This will improve the picture - But the price jumps up $180. The $50 seems well spent.Amazon constantly has these 5 series sets at 50" and 55" going out of stock - a good indication that the positive reviews online - like Tom's Hardware rating the five series their "best under $500" has Amazon struggling to meet demand. I'm not a TV expert, but many experts are saying you get performance and premium features similar to sets that cost a lot more.Now for my observations.No reason not to get a 4K set. Not that much more expensive than the 2K sets now.The feet on this 55" TCL are 39" apart at the widest. Geez but everyone - including me - wants to know how far apart the feet are on these big TV's so they will know if it will fit on their existing TV stands. Manufacturers rarely list this. My TV stand is 41" wide, so this fit. Another note - YOU CAN BUY feet that attach to the VESA mounts on the back of most flat panel TV's. This moves the feet much closer together. They run $20-$30. Cheaper than a new TV stand. The feet on this set do the job but don't inspire confidence. I would much prefer a stand in the middle like my old TV had. I wouldn't want teenage boys wrestling in front of this TV. Just sayin...The TV is good looking. A thin, metal bezel around the panel, combined with a very, very shallow depth except at the base gives the TV a premium look.Best Buy appears to have these sets for $20 less. But their sets do not have a voice remote. The only difference. Otherwise the same TV.This is my first Roku TV. We have multiple (smaller) TV's in the house and we cut the cable a couple of years ago. Amazon Fire TV sticks (current generation) have been the only streaming devices used until now. I wanted a Fire TV set but the Toshiba's don't get very good reviews on their actual picture and the Insignia's - which get better reviews (but not as good as the TCL's - 4 or 5) feet were too far apart for my TV stand. The Roku as a streaming platform is a little different but comparable to Fire. Like the Fire, Roku slips a few ads in on the home screen. Like Fire, you have to set up a Roku account (which is free) Apps download and install quickly, and it's easy to remove any apps you don't want or use. Perhaps the most noticeable omission for Roku is there is no native web browser. Amazon Fire has Silk. The only web browser is an app called Web X that is - unbelievably - a $5 a month subscription. It's not a big deal to me since I virtually never used Silk to browse the web. I have smartphones, tablets and laptops for that. But it's a surprising omission. On the plus side, I had never looked at the Roku channel before (I had Fire TV sticks, right?) and there is a surprisingly large amount of worthwhile content to watch. All free, just occasional and short commercials. There are Roku apps for Prime videoThe TV's remote is small, has large buttons (and not many of them) and overall easy to use. DirecTV Now is not intuitive at all with this remote. But then DirecTV Now wasn't intuitive with my Fire TV remote either. And just like Fire, you can download a Roku app to your smartphone and use it as a remote. Saves you if you lose the remote and this also lets you plug in headphones and listen to the sound without disturbing others.The TV has an adequate for most number of inputs/outputs. The lack of component level inputs is a noticeable omission. And there is only one hook up for composite. So those with multiple older devices they want hooked up may need to get an component to HDMI adapter ($20'ish bucks here) The TV has adequate sound but the Dolby Atmos support is there for those that want to spring for a compatible Atmos sound set upThe picture out of the box needed some adjustment. To bright and too redish. I can't decide which looks the best. Either MOVIE mode or NORMAL with color reduced from 50 to 40-42. Everyone should keep in mind that there really is no single "best" setting for every channel and every lighting condition. If you always want the "best" you'd be constantly adjusting based on what you are watching, the source and room lighting. But I think most will find MOVIE or NORMAL, both with or without a bit of tweaking of settings (brightness, contrast, color, tint etc) , works well in most situations and sources. Speaking of sources, you have to adjust these picture settings for each input type. Your antenna or cable, your DVD, each HDMI input, your streaming apps (collective) . When in that source, you press the * button on the remote which brings up settings.There is an interesting feature that allows you to "pause" live TV. You insert a 16GB thumb (flash) drive in the USB port. Then run the set up. If you pause live TV, then up to 90 minutes is recorded to the flash drive. This works with your antenna (broadcast) TV. I don't know if I will ever use it, but it seems like it could be useful to some.In short, this set offers a lot of value. You can certainly buy better TV's - this will not compete with a $1500 OLED set. But it looks a lot better and offers features you don't expect at a sub $500 price.

Overall this TV is pretty great, especially if you can grab it during one of the semi frequent sales.I'll start off by telling you the worst thing about this TV in my opinion. That's the edge lit part of the display. The backlight for the screen only comes from the edges of the screen, not throughout the entire back of the display like you see on more expensive TVs.What does that mean? It means when a scene is entirely black, like in a dark cave, or space, you can see, mainly in the corners that the display is brighter there where the backlights are.How much does that affect the viewing experience? Not much. Again, it's only when a scene is full dark, most shows regular shows, movies and games aren't constantly giving you just a black screen to look at, and when things are going on, you're generally watching the center of the screen, not the corners. But you can definitely see it if you look for it in a dark scene.Other than that? The picture is phenomenal. Like any TV you should probably load up a show or movie you're familiar with, and adjust picture and color options to fine tune things the way you like, but it looks really crisp, and really bright.Some reviews complained about the brightness of the display, but I haven't had that issue at all, and I generally like my TVs set brighter than most people, and this one still seems fine, I don't even have the brightness turned up all the way. So the brightness of the display is perfect to me, with all the lights on and curtains open, or at night in the dark, it looks good.This TV is a 60Hz refresh rate, and has the "Enhanced Motion" that most TVs have now a days, that adds extra frames, and can give the "soap opera look". Some people hate it, some people love it, I like it for most movies and shows, and like that it's there. It's an option, and is easy to turn on or off depending on your taste.This TV also has a "game mode" which turns off any Enhanced Motion to create a lag free gaming experience.This TV is also very awesome at upscaling 1080p content to 4K. I had read that some 4K TVs don't display non 4K content very well, but this TV does a crazy good job. I loaded up my original PS4, which does not display in 4K, and put in a Blu Ray, and it looked almost as good as the 4K content I had been watching. In fact most people would probably not be able to tell the difference, it looked really good.Same goes for games, I also have a Nintendo Switch, which is on the lower end spec wise of the current consoles, and only does 720p & 1080p. But it looks REALLY good on this TV, crisp, bright, and clear.None of the games I've played have had any lag as long as game mode is on, and some games that are slower paced, look really good with the Enhanced Motion option on too. But you'll probably want to switch back to Game Mode for anything competitive or fast paced.The TVs menus are clear and easy to navigate, if you've owned a Roku you'll be right at home, or any other media box or stick for TV. You can install apps for Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and a ton more. I will point out that when using the Netflix app built into the TV, when you watch specially enhanced HDR content, the TV uses "Dolby Vision" which is just another way of doing HDR, and I don't feel like it does as good of a job at that. When I hooked up a PS4 Pro, and used it's Netflix app, it uses standard HDR instead of Dolby Vision, and I think I liked that better.As for sound, it's a new thin bevel TV, so, not much room for speakers, but that's been the norm for years now. But the built in speakers work, they go loud enough to hear easily, even in a house with other people walking around talking, and you could definitely survive just using those. But if you're a big time audio person, you'll probably want to use a sound bar, or surround setup instead of just relying on the TVs regular speakers.Overall, I've had this TV for a few weeks, and I'm happy with it. Can you buy a better TV? Of course, but not without spending a good bit more money. This TV, at this price, is probably the best you're going to get. I don't think you'd start seeing a better TV without spending hundreds more than this one, so if you've got to work in a budget, and want a really good, easy to use, crisp, clear, 4K TV, you'll be really happy here.