TCL R635 (2021) Series

Very good brightness ; Excellent black levels ; Sharp mini-LED backlight control ; Excellent HDR color ; THX Certified Game Mode

Complicated picture settings ; Capped at 1440p for 120Hz games ; SDR color a bit off

Uses Mini LED backlighting ; Quantum dot color ; AiPQ Engine for upscaling

Middling peak brightness ; Poor motion handling ; Can’t do 4K/120Hz gaming

Mini LED backlight Quantum dot colors 8K resolution Built-in Roku TV

8K upscaling isn’t perfect Motion artifacting Only two ports are HDMI 2.1 Sound balance issues

The 8K version of the TCL 6-Series has nearly everything we’d want specs-wise: 8K resolution, Mini LED backlights and a quantum dot filter for better color at the lowest price for any 8K TV. Its audio performance is far from perfect and only two ports...

Excellent contrast ; Wide, accurate colors out of the box ; Inexpensive

Input lag is slightly higher than ideal ; Voice search isn't as good as a voice assistant

The TCL 6-Series of TVs for 2020 offers the best picture for the line yet, with fantastic color and contrast for a reasonable price.

VRR support. Automatically removes judder from any source. Excellent SDR peak brightness. Gets bright enough to make highlights pop in HDR. 120Hz panel. Displays chroma 4:4:4 with a 4k resolution. No risk of permanent burn-in. Upscales lower-resolution...

Narrow viewing angles. Uniformity issues. No HDMI 2.1 inputs. Mini LED local dimming is mediocre.

The TCL R635 is a very good overall TV. It's great for watching movies in dark rooms thanks to its fantastic contrast ratio, but sadly its local dimming feature causes blooming around bright objects. HDR content looks great as the TV displays a wide...

Roku smart TV is simple, capable

Some issues with low-light dimming

Fantastic color and brightness ; Excellent HDR rendering ; Very affordable for the image quality

Doesn't support Bluetooth audio directly from the TV ; Heavy for a 55-inch TV at nearly 60 pounds.

If you’re thinking of buying a 4K UHD 55-inch in the $400 to $500 range, save a little more and move up to the TCL 6-series. If you’re thinking of buying something in the $1,000 to $1,500 range take a look at the 6-series first—you might not feel the...

Excellent picture with QLED-boosted color and mini-LED backlight ; Great gaming performance ; Roku TV offers a huge app selection and easy interface ; Improved Roku remote

Sound is a little weak ; Roku is missing some of the latest apps

In late 2019, TCL flew me to the company's U.S. offices in California to spend an afternoon with its new flagship, the 75Q825 8-Series UHD Roku TV, a 75-inch 4K LCD model. Not all of the set's firmware was complete, but we took advantage of the...