List Price: $649.00
Sale Price: $486.99
Today's Bonus: 25% Off
My 6 1/2-year old Toshiba 63" HD DLP which had been sick on and off for the better part of a year and finally "gave up the ghost" this past Tuesday evening so Wednesday morning I began searching for the best value for a new TV.
Since I knew the Toshiba, which was a great TV for the better part of 5 ½ years, was going South, I had been looking for the best value in a new TV for the better part of 7 or 8 months. I was willing to scale down the size of the new TV to as small as a 46" if the price was right and finally make a decision to buy an LCD TV no smaller than 50" and at least 46" LED if the price was right.
About 2 months ago I found the TCL LE46FHDE5300 listed at Best Buy for $549.00 which I thought was a great buy for a 46" LED TV however, there were no customer reviews and, at the time, they showed a six week delivery time. I had never heard of TCL so, after a quick search, I found that Amazon also carried the brand with the same price as Best Buy but Amazon showed that they would ship it in 1 business day. I then did a search on the company and learned TCL was a muli-billion dollar firm that had a large presence in Europe and Asia and made private label TVs for several brand names in the U.S. so I felt comfortable with the company and the product.
I kept track on the 46" TCL product on both Amazon and Best Buy for the last two months as well as several other 50" and 55" LCD TVs on several other sites hoping that my old TV would hold out crashing until Black Friday. About a month ago I noticed that both Best Buy and Amazon had reduced the price of the 46" TCL LED to $499...an even better buy than earlier. Additionally, while the Best Buy site still had no customer reviews for the product, customer reviews on the Amazon website had increased from 4 or 5 to over 20 with an average rating of over 4 out of 5, including 14 five star ratings.
Well my Black Wednesday came 4 days ago so I was forced to make an immediate decision. Best Buy showed a delivery window of 2 to 7 days while Amazon showed same day shipping and 2-day delivery at no charge. The cost for the TV was exactly the same at both locations but I would not have to pay the $35 sales tax if I bought it from Amazon and I would receive it quicker...it did not take a rocket scientist to make the decision to buy it from Amazon.
I ordered the TV at 3:30 on Thursday afternoon and Amazon stated that I would receive it on Saturday however, I was more than surprised and pleased when it showed up Friday afternoon at 1:30pm...fantastic 23hr service for no additional charge!
I did not set the TCL unit up until Saturday morning since I needed a friend to help me move the old 63" (heavy) TV out of the living room. The only problem I encountered during the setup process was a little different cabling between the new TCL TV and my AV receiver but after 45 minutes we were able to figure it out. Lastly, the setup for my Harmony 650 universal remote which I thought may end up being a problem took less than 5 minutes.
When we finally got everything set up correctly I was more than pleased with the picture and must say it is as good a picture as I have seen on other LED TVs at twice the price. The TV is very light and extremely thin and, being an LED TV, it will use at least 75% less power over the annual cost of my old DLP TV. So, so far so good, and, if all goes well the next couple of months, I may even buy another 46" TCL TV to replace my 1-year old 42" Sharp LCD I bought on Black Friday last year.
Update 10/11/12
I have now had this TV for just over a month and now can say it's the best TV I have ever purchased which have been more than just a few including 6 HD TVs. I have now decided to go ahead and buy another TCL within the next couple of months but this time I will spring for the 55" model. The only complaint I have is I wish it had more than 2 HDMI inputs. I needed a 3rd HDMI for my Roku device for streaming Netflix but I just switched the DVD player over to the composite video input and then plugged the Roku device into the 2nd HDMI. The TV's sound is a little weak but I use an AV receiver so that does not affect the my audio quality. Any person looking to purchase or upgrade to a LED TV would be nuts not to seriously consider buying this TV!
In closing I would like to relate another story related to my 46" TCL HD LED TV. As I stated previously, I have decided to buy another 55" TCL TV in the next couple of months and replace a year old 42" Sharp LCD TV in the bedroom with this TV and put the planned 55" TCL in the living room. That will leave me with a spare 42" Sharp LCD TV which I plan to sell at the local flea market. At the time I bought the 42" Sharp I did purchase a 4-year warranty from Best Buy and called their customer service department to see if I could transfer the warranty to the new owner (fyi, the answer was yes). During the conversation she asked me why I was planning to sell the Sharp and if anything was wrong. I told her no and then told her about the 46" TCL TV I had purchased and how happy I was with it. The bottom line is she needed a new TV and actually ended up buying a 46" TCL for herself and called me back yesterday to thank me and let me know how much she is enjoying her new TV.
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