years one feature has consistently propelled TVs to the upper levels of CNET's Best LED LCDs list: local dimming.
It allows the screen to dim and brighten in different areas
independently, and TVs that have it almost always perform better than
TVs that don't. Of course, other aspects of image quality are important
too, but good local dimming forms the basis of high contrast in LCD TVs, and contrast is king. It's the main reason why OLED TVs look so good.
The
TCL P series is no OLED, but it also costs about one third as much. And
its local dimming-powered picture puts it in contention for the best TV value of the year, a major threat to the Vizio M series and P series.
I haven't reviewed the newest versions of those Vizios yet, but the TCL
competed very well in side-by-side comparisons against the 2016 Vizios.
It also earned a higher picture-quality score than the much more
expensive Samsung Q7 QLED TV.
My favorite Smart TV system is Roku TV, with its thousands of apps and dead-simple interface. Roku also offers the most 4K and HDR streaming apps you can get, and makes those high-quality streams easier to find than other systems.
Roku TV runs circles around Vizio's wonky Chromecast built-in system, but of course, you could always hook an $80 Roku Premiere+
up to your Vizio to get the same functionality. That would bring the
price up even higher, however, and Vizio already charges more for its M
and P models than this TCL.
In short, the TCL P series is great. The downside? It's only available in one size: 55-inches.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Two flavors of P, both in 55-inch only
The P series is only available in the 55-inch size I reviewed.
TCL originally announced it would also come in 50-inch and 65-inch later in 2017, but in August it cancelled those plans.
It hasn't provided an explanation beyond "shifting our focus from the
remaining 2017 P-Series models (50" and 65") to the next-generation
P-Series portfolio," according to a spokesperson.
Meanwhile
another 55-inch TCL P series Roku TV, model 55P605, is available
exclusively from Best Buy. It lacks the 607's enhanced remote (see
below), but it's $50 cheaper and has otherwise identical features and
picture quality. In other words, it's an even better bargain than the
55P607 as long as you don't care about that remote.
Shiny feet, Roku's a treat
It
ain't ugly by any means, but neither will the P series be known for
dashing good looks. Sure, the bendy chrome-colored legs provide a
modicum of panache, and the same goes for the matching edges, but
otherwise this is a ho-hum TV design: thick(er) cabinet, minimal glossy
black plastic borders, TCL and Roku logos.
I'm a fan of Roku TV's
well-traveled menus, especially their grouping of inputs (cable TV,
PlayStation, etc.) on the main home screen, right alongside Netflix and
Hulu. You can choose from a bunch of preset names and icons for
connected devices, or name them whatever you want. You can also shuffle
them around the screen or remove them entirely, and the same goes for
the apps: everything is on the same footing and easy to customize, sort
of like your phone. If only one-third of the screen wasn't occupied by
an ad.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Roku TVs have access to all the thousands of apps found on Roku's platform, which still offers better coverage than any competitor,
smart TV or otherwise. Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Hulu, Plex, HBO Now,
Showtime, Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, Vudu, Google Play Movies and TV,
Watch ESPN, Fox Sports Now, FX Now, Comedy Central, Starz, PBS Kids...
if there's a video app that isn't iTunes, Roku almost certainly has it.
And if that app streams in 4K, HDR and/or Dolby Vision,
the P series can deliver those streams, too. I especially like the "4K
spotlight" app that surfaces individual 4K and HDR TV shows and movies
across a few providers, although unfortunately Netflix isn't one of
them. I also like the "4K content available" list on the app store,
which shows all of the 4K apps available on Roku.
Sarah Tew/CNET
All
of the Roku TVs I've tested respond quickly and serve up videos with
minimal delays. Search is the best in the business overall, and in
general the interface is as friendly and simple as it gets. For more
info, check out my review of my favorite 4K Roku device, the Roku Premiere+.
Triple-threat 'enhanced' remote
The
clicker has very few buttons, trading direct access to channels and
"wide" modes, for example, for big keys that zip ably around the menus.
"Enhanced" in Roku parlance means the P607 gets three important clicker
extras: a headphone jack, a remote finder and the ability to search with
your voice.
The remote finder lets you easily locate a misplaced
clicker, for example from within the couch cushions or a kid's toy box
(true story). To make the remote emit a noise, you can use the control
buttons on the rear of the TV. When I tried it, the sound was plenty
loud. So far so good.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Roku's voice function is not nearly as robust as Amazon Alexa, found on Fire Edition TVs
for example, but it worked fine for searches. Roku's cross-platform
search trawls more than 300 different apps and channels, and when I used
the remote for voice searches, its recognition was accurate and quick.
As always, I loved Roku's up-front presentation of comparison prices for
pay-per-view TV episodes and movies.
Unfortunately Roku's
signature remote feature, a headphone jack on the remote for private
listening, didn't work flawlessly. The first time I connected headphones
to the remote, it muted the TV's audio as planned, and lip sync was
fine (not quite perfect, but good enough), but the audio broke up,
rendering it unlistenable. Every other time I tested it, it worked well,
however, so I'm willing to chalk it up as a blip. Switching from a 5GHz
network to 2.4GHz seemed to help, but your mileage may vary.
If
you don't care about those remote extras the 55P605 is a bit cheaper. It
comes with a standard remote -- no headphone jack, remote finder or
voice search. It also used infrared (IR) technology so you have to aim
it at the TV, while the enhanced remote's radio frequency (RF)
technology allows you to point it anywhere.
Streaming suggestions, Antenna pause
Roku TV's latest new feature is called "More Ways to Watch."
It uses automatic content recognition (ACR) to suggest TV shows from
streaming sources based on what's playing via cable box, satellite box,
antenna or connected video device, like a Blu-ray player.
I tested it with a cable box and it seemed to work.
During an episode of "NCIS," a popup briefly appeared and asked if I
wanted to stream the episode, and clicking through allowed just that. I
also saw the popups when watching a couple of Blu-ray discs, namely "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" and the 4K version of "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk."
The
feature might be useful for some people, especially channel surfers who
come across a favorite episode midway through and want to watch the
whole thing, but personally, I'd turn it off.
Roku TVs like the P series also offer the cool ability to pause live TV from
an antenna source (not cable). When I connected a 16GB USB stick and
tuned to an antenna channel, the TV started creating a "buffer" that
allowed me to pause, rewind (to when I first turned to that channel) and
fast-forward through ads before catching up to live time. The buffer
can be up to 90 minutes long.
The competing Amazon Fire TV Edition
sets can also pause live TV, and offer a far superior antenna
experience, with a full program guide, thumbnail images for shows and
results integrated into search. In contrast Roku TV lacks a real guide,
and only recently added the option to create a favorite channels list.
Features and connections
Key features
Display technology
LED LCD
LED backlight
Full array with local dimming
Resolution
4K
HDR compatible
HDR10 and Dolby Vision
Screen shape
Flat
Smart TV:
Roku
Remote:
Enhanced
Full array local dimming
sets the P series apart from many competitors, and puts it in the same
conversation as Vizio's better televisions. TCL calls it "Contrast
Control Zone" technology, but it means the same thing, and claims 72
dimming zones outdoing Vizio's M series (32 zones). More zones generally means better image quality.
Local
dimming is especially important for HDR image quality. Like Vizio, LG
and others (with the notable exception of Samsung), the P series
supports both current types of HDR video: Dolby Vision and HDR10.
TCL claims a "clear motion index" of 120Hz but, like so many other TV makers' claims, it's basically fake. This set has the motion performance of a 60Hz TV.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Around back you'll find a solid selection of inputs.
The HDMI are state-of-the-art and worked fine with everything I threw at them, including Dolby Vision 4K Blu-ray from the Oppo UDP-203. The headphone jack is a nice touch, and unlike cheaper Roku sets, this one has Ethernet, too.
Picture quality
In
side-by-side comparisons the TCL P series performed as well overall as
our favorite TV for the money last year, Vizio's M series. It fell a bit
short of the Vizio's own more-expensive P series, but beat the Samsung
Q7 QLED, the 2017 Vizio E series and the Element Fire TV Edition sets in my comparison lineup. Its
main strength was deep black levels, which improved contrast and pop in
all lighting situations, especially dark rooms and with HDR. Color
accuracy was solid too. Other aspects of its image quality, were hardly
flawless but evinced no major issues.
Click the image at the right to see my suggested picture settings and technical notes on HDR performance.
Dim lighting:
In a dark home theater environment, the P series looked great, beating
the Samsung QLED, the Vizio E series and the Amazon Fire TV Edition set
by Element, although it wasn't quite as impressive as the other Vizios.
Watching
dark scenes from "The Revenant" Blu-ray, like the late night
conversation between Hugh and his son Hawk in Chapter 4, the TCL
consistently got deeper and more realistic than any of the other sets
aside from the Vizio M and P series. In some scenes the E looked a bit
darker, but it showed a bit more blooming (stray illumination) in some
areas than the TCL. Meanwhile, the TCL showed some blooming itself, for
example with lighter areas in the bars above and below Hawk's face,
while the Vizio M and P maintained the dark integrity of those areas
better.
The TCL again held its own in one of my favorite dark
scene torture tests, the attack on Hogwarts from Chapter 12 of "Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2." Its darkest areas, like the letterbox
bars and the shadows around the gathering of wizards on the hilltop,
again didn't get quite as deep as on the Vizio P or M series, but they
were very close, and deeper than the others. The TCL also maintained
shadow detail and controlled blooming well in these scenes. Bright lighting: The
TCL P series can't get quite as bright as the Vizios, let alone the
Samsung, but it's still plenty bright for most lighting situations.
Here's how it stacked up:
Light output in nits
Light output in nits
TV
Mode (SDR)
10% window (SDR)
Full screen (SDR)
Mode (HDR)
10% window (HDR)
Samsung QN65Q7F
Dynamic
923
588
Dynamic
1,781
Vizio P65-C1
Vivid
572
582
Vivid
486
Vizio M65-D0
Calibrated
456
450
Vivid
507
TCL 55P607
Vivid/dimming off
438
431
Brighter/Dark HDR
448
LG OLED55C7P
Vivid
433
145
Vivid
715
To get peak light output from the TCL you have to disable
local dimming by turning the Local Contrast control to Off. As usual,
the set measured brightest in its least-accurate picture mode (Vivid),
so if you care about color accuracy, I recommend using another mode like
Normal for bright rooms. Check my settings (above) for more info.
The
TCL's matte screen didn't reduce reflections quite as well as the
Vizios, but it was still very good. It preserved black levels about as
well as the Vizios, but not as well as the superb Samsung. Color accuracy: Before calibration
the TCL's most accurate color temperature wasn't as precise as I'd like
to see, tending toward red, but it wasn't terrible. Afterward it
measured as accurately as any of the others and looked superb with
program material, delivering excellent saturation and skin tones. The
natural beauty of "The Revenant" was on full display, from the lush
green of the forest leaves to the blue-green water, to the orange and
red of the campfires and sunsets.
Video processing: The TCL P series handled 1080p/24 content
properly, preserving the cadence of film. On the other hand, unlike the
Samsung and the Vizio M and P series, there's no option to reduce
motion blur. Like other 60Hz TVs, the TCL managed only 300 lines of motion resolution.
The TCL has the lowest (best) input lag I've measured this year at about 16ms with Game Mode engaged. Even with it turned off, lag was still very good at 35. Uniformity:
With test patterns, the TCL P series showed more uneven backlighting
than any of the other sets, although the Element was almost as bad. The
TCL's edges and center were darker than the rest of the screen, and
faint vertical bars were visible. A hockey game is a good real-world
uniformity torture test, and on the TCL the uneven lighting was more
visible than on the others. It's not a deal-breaker for most viewers,
however.
From off-angle, the TCL lost black-level fidelity and
became discolored more noticeably than the others aside from the
Element, but it wasn't terrible. HDR and 4K video: My first test of 4K HDR involved slipping "Despicable Me 2" into the Oppo UDP-203
to compare the TCL's rendition of Dolby Vision to that of the two Dolby
Vision-equipped Vizios, the M and the P series. The TCL was much better
than the M. Its image popped with more life and vibrancy, due largely
to the much deeper black levels combined with brighter whites. Colors
also looked deeper and richer, and the TCL's color gamut appeared wider
than the Vizio. Of course, the Vizio is much larger, but that was its
only advantage.
The contest was much closer between Vizio's P
series and TCL's, but the smaller TCL still looked better. Again, its
main advantage was in depth and pop, supplied by slightly deeper black
levels. Colors between the two were closer, however, and Vizio's P still
looked superb.
I consider non-animated titles like "The Revanant"
better test material, however, and with the HDR10 version of that film
on 4K Blu-ray, the TCL still beat the M series, which again looked
relatively washed out and lifeless, even compared to the cheaper E
series. The P series looked better than the TCL, however, with
highlights that popped more and slightly better definition in the clouds
and other near-white objects. In dark scenes, the Vizio P got darker
and controlled blooming better, as I saw with SDR. The two were still
pretty close, however, and easily the best HDR in my lineup.
Side
by side, I noticed the TCL appeared a bit sharper than the others, but
not necessarily in a good way. On both discs it looked like it showed
some edge enhancement, which made edges like faces in the foreground
against blurry backgrounds, for example, look less natural than on the
others. Test patterns didn't reveal any edge enhancement, however,
although I did see some minor ghosting on some patterns that might
explain it. Although the effect was subtle and I doubt most viewers will
object, it might bother some purist videophiles.
I also noticed
shimmer in fine patterns, for example the jackets of Gru from
"Despicable Me 2" (8:28) and Albert from "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime
Walk" (3:50). I'm not sure what caused the issue, but none of the other
TVs showed it.
The P series delivered 4K and HDR streaming from
Netflix, Amazon and Vudu with no issues, was able to pass the full
resolution of 4K from YouTube and played through a suite of 4K test
patterns from Florian Friedrich with no issues.
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