TCL 6-Series Roku TV review: Simply the best TV for the money this year

Hey guys, it's 2019 and I tested a lot of TVs this year. The TCL 6 series is the best for the money. Here's why. [MUSIC] Let's take a second here to pull back big picture so to speak. In Cnet's TV testing lab, I sit here with TVs side by side. The TCL was right in the middle. Five other televisions right next to it. It was the least expensive in the lineup and it still performed extremely well in fact, better than some of those more expensive televisions. This set is 65 inches $800. There's also a 55 inch version for $600. And those prices might be even less by the time you see this For that price, its picture quality is absolutely great. [MUSIC] So let's dive a little bit deeper into that picture quality. When I'm sitting, watching these TVs side by side, the thing that strikes me the most is contrast. That's basically the black level and the brightness. Black level is how deep of a dark image a black that a TV can produce. And brightness is how bright it can get. This T.C.L. excelled in both areas, it's not the brightest T.V. out there it doesn't have the best black level. Again to get that, you're going to have to pay a lot more for a different television. This T.C.L. can get plenty bright for most viewing environments, plenty to take advantage of 4K H.D.R. material, which is the best on the market today and it really does excel at black level. That's because it has full array local dimming. That's a technology that can take different individual zones around the screen and dim them or brighten them according to the content. It has an ability to control the blooming around objects on the screen. Really, really well for the price. You don't get that halo effect and stuff looks stark, highly contrasty and again, great for 4k HDR. Another important aspect of picture quality is color. TCL put quantum dots into this TV they're actually calling it a que LED TV this year. That means the TV has a wider color gamut and it can more faithfully reproduce the 4k HDR color found on the best video. In my test, it was a kind of subtle improvement, didn't really tip the scales in the TCL's favour, but on the flip side, it was right there with all the other TVs in the lineup. And again, [UNKNOWN] was very, very good, no complains there. Another aspect of pitch quality is video processing. This TCL is a 60 Hertz TV. Some of its competitors are a 120 Hertz model. Now the difference in my opinion is not major. When I looked at these TVs side by side, it was really hard to see any increase in blurring on the TCL at 60 hertz, these hundred 20 hertz TVs are also a little bit more expensive. I don't think it's worth paying extra just to get that feature. This TV also has smoothing you can turn that on or off that's also called the soap opera effect. A lot of people object to it, including myself. I like to leave that turned off. With this TCL six series you can turn it off, and that's the default setting for movie mode. [MUSIC] This TV, also has excellent video game lag measurements. I take a device and measure how quickly the TV responds to your controller, video game motion. This thing is like 11 milliseconds on video lag which is as good as any TV I've ever measured that are actually than some of the very high end TVs out there if you engage game mode. So if you're a gamer with twitch gaming, it's actually really cool to have that low input lag number. So beyond all that picture quality stuff, another thing I really like about this TCL is it's smart TV system. It uses Roku. So it's basically one of these Roku streamers built into the television itself. Roku is my favorite all-around smart TV system. It's simple, it has umpteen million apps, and it works really quickly. Apps also get updated really quickly on Roku, so sometimes with other smart TV systems you're waiting around for the update. Roku gets it almost immediately. Action movies. The TCL also features rope whose voice remotes you can speak into the remote, do things like voice search, it's not as comprehensive as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant which are built into some competing TVs. But it gets the job done gets you to the content you want quicker and doesn't have you typing on an on screen keyboard all day. Another cool thing about the Roku TV interface is it puts your inputs right next to your apps. So you have your HDMI, and your Xbox and your antenna right there next to your Netflix and your Hulu. That's a really cool thing and you just wanna get to the device instead of messing around with input buttons and things like that. It's all on the screen for you right in front of you. And like many TVs this TCL has Dolby Vision built in for HDR. So, if you go to Netflix or Amazon Prime you can get that highest quality HDR stream immediately without having to connect an external box or anything like that. So, the 6 series may be relatively inexpensive, but it's styling is pretty sweet. It's got a metallic finish around the edge and a really thin bezel, so it's mostly all screen when you see it from the front. Couple of downsides though with the styling. This TV has these legs that are spread far off to either side. That could be an issue if you have a smaller piece of furniture, fitting it right on top, especially with the 65 inch size. The set is also pretty thick when seen from the side. Now again, I don't really consider that an issue because I don't watch TV from the side. But some people might prefer a thinner TV for whatever reason. [MUSIC] So that's it for the TCL 6-Series Roku TV, my favorite television for the money in 2019. Excellent picture quality thanks to full array local dimming, superb smart TV thanks to Roku, and the best part is the price. The 65 inch is 800 Bucks The 55 inch is 600, and those prices might even be lower by the time you watch this.