TCL 55R617 Review - Review 2022

Best of the year 2022 logo small TCL actually impressed us last year with its P-Series. The 55P607 offered fantastic picture show quality and plenty of streaming apps and services at a very reasonable toll, but there was merely one problem: TCL only offered a 55-inch model. The company is expanding its range this year with its new six-Series of 4K TVs. The Roku TV-powered 6-Series features a similarly excellent picture show, and is available in 55- and 65-inch versions. We tested the 55-inch 55R617, which is available at a retail toll of $649.99. Its combination of operation and affordability earn it our Editors' Selection.

Design

While TCL is known every bit a upkeep brand, the 55R617 looks expensive. It foregoes the standard black bezel for a brushed gunmetal-colored frame that measures just 0.25-inch on the sides and top and 0.75-inch on the bottom. The gunmetal expect extends to the back, which helps make the relatively thick 1.25-inch sides (extending to 3 inches for the bottom edge) of the TV appear very modern when compared with more expensive edge-lit TVs measuring fractions of an inch. A argent-colored TCL logo sits in the centre of the bottom bezel, and a circular, backlit power button rests on the lower right corner.

Too the left-facing ability connector, all inputs and outputs on the 55R617 face right on the back side of the Television receiver, a few inches in from the right edge in a rectangular recess. The connections include 3 HDMI ports, a USB port, an Ethernet port, an antenna/cablevision connector, an optical audio output, a 3.5mm composite video input for use with the included cablevision, and a iii.5mm headphone jack. Three HDMI ports is adequately scarce for a modern TV, and appears to be one of the few areas where TCL skimped to ensure the vi-Series' relatively low price.

TCL 55R617

The remote is another minor compromise. It's a standard Roku Television receiver remote, with the signature purple direction pad flanked past card navigation and playback buttons. A book rocker and a mute button sit on the right side, and dedicated service buttons for Netflix, Hulu, Sling Boob tube, and DirecTV Now sit under the playback controls. A pinhole microphone near the top enables voice search with Roku's fairly limited vocalization assistant, and the remote connects to the Idiot box wirelessly so it doesn't take to exist pointed directly at it.

Still, it lacks the headphone jack we've become very fond of on Roku'due south Enhanced remotes, which enables private listening. The headphone jack is nowadays on the Roku Ultra, and was on last year'south TCL 55P607, merely you won't find information technology on this remote. Information technology'southward a minor shame, only not a bargain breaker; yous tin still employ private listening with the Roku app on your phone if you desire, and the wired headphone jack on the back of the TV offers other alternatives for listening without disrupting others. The Roku app too lets you control the TV itself, and stream media from your mobile device to the TV.

Roku Television

The 55R617 uses the Roku Tv platform for its connected features and interface, just like the 55P607 and other TCL TVs of the last few years. This means the Television features a simple, accessible interface that tin can access a wide variety of streaming media services, providing an experience virtually identical to using a Roku Streaming Stick+. Nearly all major streaming video services are nowadays, including Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Movies & TV, Hulu, Netflix, Sling Television, and YouTube. In that location are also plenty of defended apps for private Television networks, subjects, and regions, including ABC, CNN, Crunchyroll, ESPN, HBO Get, SyFy, Univision At present, and hundreds more.

For music, y'all can access a variety of streaming internet radio services similar iHeartRadio, Pandora, SiriusXM, Slacker, and TuneIn, plus on-need music from Amazon Music, Deezer, and (in music video grade) Vevo. Google Play Music is missing from Roku's selection, a slightly odd omission when Google Play Movies & Boob tube is available. Spotify also doesn't piece of work at this point, but a splash screen when you attempt to load the app says the Spotify squad is currently working on updating the Roku version, and information technology should be available in the future.

While Roku TV is a powerful platform for content, it lags a bit backside Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung's first-political party smart Goggle box platform in terms of other continued features. The pinhole microphone on the remote and the phonation search office on the Roku app let you lot search for a moving picture or Telly show with your phonation based on championship, actor, genre, and diverse other categories. Still, that's the limit to Roku's voice features. Information technology falls short of the vocalization assistant functions of Alexa on Burn TV devices, Google Banana on Android TV devices, and even Bixby on Samsung smart TVs; you can't ask a Roku TV for a weather forecast, or to control smart devices in your abode.

Performance

The ultra HD (UHD, or 4K) TCL 6-Series supports loftier dynamic range (HDR) content encoded in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision. This ways most HDR video available on streaming services and on Ultra HD Blu-rays will brandish in HDR on the Television.

Nosotros examination TVs using a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo Half dozen-M test design generator, and SpectraCal's CalMAN software on a Razer Blade Pro notebook. The TCL six-Series shows similarly fantabulous contrast operation to final yr'south P-Series, with a peak effulgence of 497.15cd/mⁱⁱ and a blackness level of 0.01cd/1000². That means an effective dissimilarity ratio of 49,715:i, which is fantastic for a relatively inexpensive Idiot box. For ameliorate dissimilarity, you lot'll need to spend much more than on an OLED screen, like LG'southward C7P-Series.

TCL 55R617

The to a higher place nautical chart shows Rec.709 circulate standards as boxes and measured color levels under the Warm colour temperature setting as dots. The 6-Series shows an appreciably wider color range than Rec.709 when displaying HDR content, with a greater corporeality of greens and reds. Whites and grays are most perfect, and yellows and cyans appear balanced and consistent. The merely minor complaint for color accuracy is a tendency for magentas to run a bit more than crimson than ideal.

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HDR content looks excellent on the 6-Series, though you might take to flip through the 3 HDR picture modes to get the best performance depending on what you're watching. The BBC's Planet Earth 2 looks bright and detailed, with authentic colors in the Dark HDR (closest to cinema level) mode and Normal HDR pushing them a bit farther to appear more brilliant without looking too garish. All the same, Bright HDR, while making the pic more eye-catching, pushes the greens and yellows of the foliage to announced almost cartoonish and oversaturated. Fine details in both brightly lit and shady scenes can be clearly seen in all modes, and textures like sloth fur and tree bark appear crisp and natural.

Deadpool also looks very good, especially in the Normal HDR pic mode. The ruby-red of Deadpool'due south costume looks rich and natural, and skin tones appear balanced. Using the Vivid HDR style can push his costume to look even more than vivid, but it becomes an issue in afterwards scenes similar the burning lab fight where the flames can announced garish and overwhelming. In other modes, the vivid yellow and orange fires of the scene assist show off the Boob tube'southward strong contrast and natural colors, keeping details in shadowy parts of the scene even against the called-for light sources.

Films with an over-the-elevation, high-contrast wait like The Corking Gatsby benefit the almost from the Vivid HDR picture way. The bright whites and intentionally garish colors of the party scene pop, and the texture and contours of the black suits appear conspicuously without looking washed out, though switching to Normal HDR mode farther improves the dark parts of the scene at the expense of the highlights. Flesh tones likewise announced largely natural in both modes, if slightly cool and pale in some indoor scenes.

Input Lag and Ability Consumption

Input lag is the amount of time between when a Goggle box receives a signal and the screen updates. The 55R617 shows a very loftier 68.7ms input lag in its Movie picture mode. Nevertheless, enabling Game style, which slightly compromises picture quality in favor of responsiveness, drops lag to a much better 17.9ms. We generally consider TVs with an input lag lower than 20ms to exist suitable for gaming in near weather condition, and can count the 6-Serial amid the best TVs for gaming.

The bright 55R617 can exist a bit of a power hog, consuming 163 watts under normal viewing conditions in the Bright HDR picture manner with the Brighter backlight preset. Setting the backlight to Darker and the moving picture way to Normal HDR cuts that down to 129 watts, which is still rather high for a 55-inch LED Idiot box. The Samsung UN55NU8000FXZA uses one-half every bit much power, consuming 69 watts in its Depression power saving mode, which just slightly dims the screen from preferred picture settings.

Affordable Excellence

The TCL half-dozen-Serial is a worthy follow-up to concluding year's P-Serial. It makes few significant changes likewise a slightly more bonny physical design, keeping the excellent contrast and color range of the previous version intact. At $650 for the 55-inch model and $i,000 for the 65-inch model, this is an ideal choice for anyone who's been waiting to make the jump to 4K HDR. You can get more than feature-filled TVs that offer even better picture quality, like LG's C7P and Sony's A1E OLED TVs, only you lot'll exist spending several times more than for the same size screen. That makes the TCL 6-Series our Editors' Pick for budget-friendly TVs.

TCL 55R617 Specs

Panel Type	LED
Screen Size	55 inches
Resolution	3,840 by 2,160
Video Inputs	Component, Composite, HDMI, RF, USB
HDR	Dolby Vision, HDR-x
HDMI Ports	3
Streaming Services	1
Screen Brightness	497.fifteen nits
Blackness Level	0.01 cd/m^2
Contrast Ratio	49,715:one
Refresh Charge per unit	120 Hz
Input Lag (Game Way)	17.9 ms