TCL 55S517 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2018 Model) & AmazonBasics HL-007306 High-Speed HDMI Cable, 6 Feet, 1-Pack

If you trust the word of a random software developer, here is what I have to say:* The text is quite sharp and it makes a full work day from the couch 100% doable.* All streaming services work very well. 100% recommended for cable cutters* Connecting to my laptop over HDMI works phenomenally* The sound from the TV is actually better than a lot of low end sound bars* Connecting it to my laptop as a wireless display was choppy, but functional. Just plug it in... lol

This is a great television, but you could easily miss one fundamental feature: it is cheap because it is subsidized by ads. Unremovable Fandango promotions. Rotating adverts for subscription channels, TV events, political shows...all sit next to your apps/input selection menu.I use it for PS4 Pro and Netflix/Hulu/HBO Go.Great TV...really nice tech.But I hate the ads.

Initial review 7-4-18: Just got it today, so this is an initial impression. Replaced a ~6 year old 50" LG Plasma. Great picture on the plasma but it faces a sliding glass door, and finally got sick of the really bad reflection during the daytime. The reflections on this is much less. Delivered in good condition. Easy setup. First thing I did was to get wireless connected and run some YouTube screen test videos. Zero edge light bleed, no banding, don't notice any dirty screen, haven't noticed any dead pixels.. Connected to the Comcast cable box, and to an OTA antenna. Scanned for the OTA channels. OTA looks great. Tweaked the picture settings as follows:Revised settings 7-28-18: Had picture mode originally set to Movie but found Normal to be better. Normal can produce really flushed faces unless the color setting is turned down - but also produces the sharpest most accurate picture in my opinion. Note: I believe these setting are pretty much the default settings except I turned down the color a bit.- TV Brightness: Bright during mid day, darker at night (2 easy clicks to change) - or just keep it on Normal. * This TV is more than bright enough for bright daylight viewing. Saw some complaints that it's not very bright. It's more than plenty bright!- Picture mode: Normal- Audio effect: Theater (sound's not that bad - but by no means as good as a sound bar). I also have it toslink connected to an older 5.1 Denon receiver - sounds great).- Backlight: 100- Brightness: 50- Contrast: 100- Sharpness: 0- Color: 42- Tint: 0- Temp: Normal- Micro Contrast: Low- All other setting turned to Off (noise reduction, etc.)Love the picture coming over cable, antenna, and streaming. HDR on YouTube is stunning. I mostly use the TV to watch Cable TV. Don't have any streaming subscriptions. The picture is very clean, sharp, accurate color, deep blacks, etc. No complaints. Getting around Roku is a snap, and changing settings and all is very intuitive. So far so good, and it is the best TV I've owned. Price is great for what you get.I programmed my One for All universal learning remote for this TV and duplicated the Roku remote perfectly except for the 4 subscription buttons (Netflix and all) which I could care less about. 5 digit code is 11756 (the same code needed when setting up the Xfinity/Comcast remote).* I really wanted the 55R617 but I was scared off from the high % with vertical banding issues and didn't feel like playing the screen lottery. I'm glad I went with the 55S517, and saved $175.00 in the process. 7-28-18: Still love the TV. Can't compare to a high-end OLED, but I really don't need to. The picture quality, the price, and everything about the TV is all I need.

This is an amazing TV. Not just for the price, but overall, amazing. I just bought an LG that doesn't come close to the clarity and color levels this thing can pump out. Setup was a breeze and the 4K video in amazon is great. The only thing this series doesn't have that the 6 series has is the individual backlight zones. What you get in exchange for that is an incredibly thin display and $150 to spend elsewhere. You will not regret this purchase!

I had 2 of the 2017 versions of this tv and loved them especially for the price, my larger one I had from last year had to have the motherboard replaced after a month due to a defect which made me only give them a 4 Star review. It seems like TCL stepped up their game this year on the budget TVs because these new models have much better picture quality than last year and the all black body design looks great. I mostly upgraded to get the 65” for my living room replacing a 55” but the Dolby vision, improved picture quality and edge lighting really makes this years model a much better competitor to name brands. These newer models are a little more expensive than last years models but to me the better quality and features are totally worth it especially now that the picture is more premium feeling. I had almost bought the 6 series until I heard there was problems with some of the screens, I’m glad I saved the extra money and bought the 5 series instead, we used the money to get a new 2018 Samsung 3.1 channel soundbar combo and couldn’t be happier!

I received this TV yesterday. I was super-excited to unbox and test out. Being a budget TV I had my expectations in check. I loaded up a few Dolby Vision titles on VUDU (Black Panther, All the Money in the World, Harry Potter, etc) and all looked great! The motion smoothing that was present in the 2017 TV is nearly gone (big plus) and the audio sync drift that was also present in the 2017 model doesn't appear to be an issue. HOWEVER...When I began to play HDR10 content this TV chokes - big time! Checking out "The Post" on FandangoNow, "King Kong" on VUDU, and "Starship Troopers" on Amaazon, each displays a hyper-elevated black level, massively blown-out whites, and overall impossibly bad imagery. I double and triple check my settings - including the ROKU app. Nothing fixes. HD content via antenna or streaming looks just fine and Dolby Vision HDR looks fantastic. HDR10 is unacceptably terrible!Given that HDR10 is the baseline standard for 4K HDR I'm hoping this will be fixed ASAP via a software update.