My wife and I bought this TV over the Thanksgiving holiday, so we've had it set up for a couple of weeks now. Price at purchase was ~$450. This is my main living room TV and my goal was to find a product under $500 in the 42-46" range. Never realized I could get such a nice display at 48" for this price. Based on other reviews and research, I figured that the TV would be 'good'. I had no idea that it would be GREAT. We took a shot in the dark on TCL, not having been able to see it in person before the purchase.. The free 2 year warranty sealed the deal.
Aesthetics:
Excellent! The bezel on this tv is ultra thin much thinner than comparable models of the same size. When the TV is on, I hardly notice that there is even a frame around the screen. It's a really nice touch, especially when you compare it to a Vizio with their gigantic angular bezel. It comes with a heavy glass base (which was unexpected) and makes the TV very sturdy standing. Even LG and other more popular brands in this price range have flimsy plastic stands. Nice touch, TCL. The remote that comes with it is average..nothing special, but not lacking.
Settings/Options:
This TV is not internet/app capable which is exactly what I wanted. I have it hooked up to a HTPC which does all of the streaming/recording that I need it to. Personally, I feel like internet capable TVs are overrated. Most of them are more pricey than they're worth, especially if you can set up a nice HTPC to do those types of things for you. With that said, the picture options are basic (color, tint, brightness, contrast, backlight, sharpness, etc) but I found them to be more than adequate to get the look I wanted. I'm also impressed at how bright this TV can get it can get much brighter than some of the other models that I compared it with, so bright I actually had to dim it considerably.
Inputs:
There aren't a whole lot of inputs on this TV, but as an average TV user, I don't really need them. If you're going to hook up more than a couple of HDMI devices, I'd suggest getting an HDMI switch. For me, 2 is enough since everything is routed via the HTPC.
Sound:
Some of the other reviewers here have stated that the sound quality is less than expected, and I agree. I do not have my TV hooked up to any kind of sound system, surround or otherwise, and I found the sound to be slightly lacking. It has plenty of volume and I usually have it at around level 20 out of 100 in normal situations, but it does sound a little hollow and without much bass. There are various sound presets, and after some tweaking, I managed to find a sweet spot that is acceptable to me. After listening to it for 15 minutes or so, I got completely used to it. If you're an audiophile, you might want to consider a sound bar or some alternative speaker set up.
Video/Picture:
I am extraordinarily impressed with the picture quality that is coming out of this $450 TV. I dare say that it rivals TVs in the ~$800 $1k price range. My dad has a 46" Samsung 1080p 120hz LCD, and my wife's grandmother just bought a brand new LG 47" 1080p 120hz. This display beats the LG hands down in terms of clarity, sharpness, motion blur, contrast, etc. I would say that this display is on par, and even slightly better than the Samsung in those same categories. Granted, my dad's Samsung is a couple of years old, but I personally haven't seen a better display under $1k until now (even in store).
Black levels are excellent, whites are bright. Sports are crisp and without blur. My cable box allows me to switch between 720p and 1080i broadcasts, and I've experimented with both. Even though 1080i is a better resolution than 720p, the broadcast is interlaced (instead of progressive) and some TV's have a problem deinterlacing a 1080i stream not this display. Occasionally, there are some artifacts @ 1080i (not p) but unless you're 'really trying' to scrutinize, it's not worth mentioning. Of course, blu-ray is 1080p, not i. If you don't know the difference between 1080i, 1080p, and 720p, I'd suggest reading up on those. Television broadcasts are NOT 1080p. I'm extremely impressed with the deinterlacing processor on this display, and have left my cable box setting @ 1080i simply for the higher resolution. It might be noteworthy to mention that if you have HD cable service, not all boxes default to 1080i. Mine, by default, transmitted 720p. Some of you might not even notice the difference.
Other thoughts:
I did a lot of research before I bought this display. I read all the reviews here on Amazon, and other places. I also did some corporate research on TCL and found that they have a contract with Samsung, so I believe that the newer TCL models use Samsung screens. I am not 100% on this, but it makes a lot of sense now that I have the TV Samsung makes great displays, and I honestly believe that this particular display is on par in terms of quality with Samsung.
Some reviewers mention that the TV packaging was messed up during shipping. Mine was not. Nothing wrong with the packaging inside or out. No scratches or blemishes whatsoever.
If you know what you want going into a purchase like this, I'd highly urge you to give TCL a shot. Again, only two HDMI inputs, no internet capability. I gave this TV 5 stars based on video/display quality alone. All my wife and I really wanted was a tv that LOOKED GOOD to watch. At ~$500, this is a steal.
Lastly, I'll have you all know that this is one of my very first reviews on *any* product. I read reviews on products all the time, but never end up contributing. It took a lot of time for my wife and I to narrow down our selection, especially when you consider that asking for a 42-46" 1080p 120hz for under $500 is VERY hard to come by. I felt compelled to give this display a darn good review, because I'm darn impressed. If you choose to drop the coin on this TCL, I hope that you have as good of an experience as I have had.
Peace.
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