Visual Brilliance

IT IS amazing how rapidly TVs have grown in capability while their prices have dropped, defying inflation. I am very familiar with TCL's 6-Series and remember its first U.S. market iteration.

- Mark Henninger

It was an affordable 55-inch 4K TV that turned out to be great for both movies and gaming, thanks to its ease of use and nice, contrasty screen.

Soon enough, the screen sizes of TCL's 6-Series TVs grew and the bezels shrank. Now they come in sizes from 55-up to 85-inches with advanced features like a 144 Hz native refresh rate (except the 85-inch model which maxes out at 120 Hz) and Freesync/GSync for gaming. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are supported, in addition to HDR10 and HLG. Both aesthetically and in terms of picture quality, it is a great looking TV. In this review we focus on the 65-inch model but the observations found within generally apply to the other screen sizes as well.

DESIGN & BUILD QUALITY

This TV has a modern, sleek design with a pedestal base. It's easy to assemble and feels solid. It's a little deeper than some flagship-class TVs, but you don't notice that when you're watching. Due to the depth, it doesn't mount flush to the wall, but it does have a jackpack that's recessed and allows for some cable management and a clean installation.

This is a visually striking TV with a premium look and feel. It has a narrow bezel and a thin border around the image, it's almost all picture.

The TCL 6-Series has two HDMI 2.1 inputs, and two HDMI 2.0a inputs one of which supports eARC. It also has a built-in tuner and accepts composite analog video. You can use the USB port to play digital media from local storage, such as a thumb drive, but note that it does not work with exFAT formatted drives (NTFS, FAT-16 and FAT-32 do work). It ships with Roku's standard remote with voice search via Wi-Fi Direct. However, the remote lacks the built-in headphone jack for private listening found on Roku's Voice Remote Pro ($30).

ROKU SMART TV FEATURES