"The 6 series from TCL offers the masses an amazingly good picture quality."
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Very good brightness
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Excellent black levels
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Sharp mini LED backlight
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Excellent HDR color
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THX certified game mode
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Complicated picture settings
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Limited to 1440p for 120 Hz gaming
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SDR color off somewhat
The 2020 6-series (R635) from TCL offers astonishingly good image quality and undercuts the price competition considerably. But you will have to work for it.
The 2020 TCL 6 series is the latest in three years, offering the best value for 4K HDR TVs. It features mini-LED backlight technology, player-friendly features, and Roku TVs that together deliver performance seen in an unprecedented 65-inch TV for $ 900 or a 55-inch model for $ 650 -Dollar. In fact, I'd say the new 6 Series is the best case yet because of its performance alone, that you don't have to spend a dime over $ 1,000 to get a great TV.
The only problem is that the 6 Series, just like the 2019 5 Series TV, requires skipping through enough picture adjustment frames so I'm afraid that many people may not experience the best it has to offer. Year after year, TV manufacturers point out research that suggests that most people don't change the picture settings of their TVs after they buy them. In the case of the 6 Series, many users could get a fraction of the power that TV is capable of.
However, if you're willing to invest some time and play around in the sandpit, so to speak, the TCL 6 series can be a remarkably rewarding TV.
TCL 6 Series 4K HDR TV Details (R635)
While we tested the 65-inch model 65R635, our test also applies to the 55-inch and 75-inch models.
| Screen size | Model number | RRP |
| 55 inches | 55R635 | $ 650 |
| 65 inches | 65R635 | $ 900 |
| 75 in | 75R635 | $ 1400 |
Out of the box
Nowadays I'm more of a surprise when a television isn't ready to use right away. It seems that virtually invisible frames and attractive building materials are now the default for everyone but the cheapest TVs. To be completely honest, I wasn't surprised that the 6 Series, despite the old wisdom that affordable TVs look a little cheap compared to their more expensive cousins.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
Indeed, the 2020 6 Series is a smart-looking smart TV with near-invisible bezels on the top and sides and a modest edge of brushed metal on the bottom. Perhaps the smallest but most significant design change was that the typical circular power switch next to the Roku logo was banned and replaced by a less easily accessible power switch on the back. I'll make the trade off for the cleaner look.
The TV came with a few paper items, two AAA batteries, a Roku voice remote, two legs, four screws, and a composite video breakout cable.
configuration
If you want to stand on a bracket, installing the 6 Series legs is a breeze. Align the three small knobs on each leg with the ones on the bottom of the TV, screw in the included Phillips head screws, and you're done.
Before the final stand placement or wall mounting is complete, some clear protective plastic must be removed. Once that's done, you can start the long road to television readiness.
My memory may be failing me, but it seems to me that Roku TVs used to take less time to set up than they do today. I also feel like the Roku setup is generally ready for some improvement. Here you can find out what you're looking for and how I would like it to be improved.
When connected to Ethernet, it took a total of about 12 minutes for Roku to run the Roku Setup Wizard. You need a computer or mobile device with internet access and either an ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the internet to continue.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
After accessing a Roku setup link on your computer or mobile device, enter a code that will appear on the TV screen. The TV will then download and install the latest Roku operating system update. It is shut down and then backed up.
You will be taken through a series of setup questions, presumably aimed at getting the necessary apps installed on the TV. From there, you have the option to let Roku know what kind of content genres you like and presumably re-adjust which apps are installed on the TV. After entering all of this information, the TV will download and install. Don't be shocked if the screen says it is downloading and installing 92 apps like I experienced.
Here's the thing: I don't need to pre-install all of the apps, and I don't want to wait for them to be installed either. After you've answered all of these setup questions, it's like the TV just installs what it wants. It is confusing.
What's even more frustrating is that the apps aren't arranged in an order that makes sense to me. You should take some time to put the apps in the order you want. I would love if Roku could reference my existing account and app arrangement and implement it on every new Roku device I set up – or at least make an option out of it.
In addition to the time it takes to get set up, it takes a while to go through all of the apps I subscribe to and enter usernames and passwords. It would be okay for Roku to access this information from previous setups and implement it in every new Roku device I set up, saving me a lot of time and frustration.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
With the Roku operating system, you can label your entrances and call them "cable box", "game console", "Blu-Ray" etc. However, unlike many Samsung and LG TVs, it is not smart enough to identify and label them automatically.
Once Roku TV is up and running, it's very easy to use. It's just that it can be a nuisance to get started.
Picture settings
While these earlier complaints are directly the responsibility of Roku TV OS, the problem I have with the TCL 6 series picture settings appears to be a shared responsibility of both TCL and Roku.
I usually don't dig too deeply into picture settings in my TV reviews as the process is traditionally straightforward. On almost every other platform – for example Android TV, LG's WebOS, Samsung & # 39; s Tizen – the picture presetting for film, cinema, ISF or Technicolor is by far the most precise and therefore the most pleasant for me. Choosing one of these presets and then turning off motion smoothing features is usually all that is required.
Surprisingly, it turns out that this is not the case with the last TCL TVs I tested. In contrast, the movie preset for SDR content feels dull and overly warm – this includes cable, satellite, standard Blu-ray discs, and any non-HDR content available through streaming services. There is a lack of powerful contrast and the colors appear muted and excessively warm.
Instead of talking any further about how weird this is, I just want to explain what settings I chose to get the best results.
For SDR, enter the picture settings menu by pressing the asterisk button while viewing SDR content. Again, this is a cable / satellite channel, standard Blu-ray or DVD, or streaming content not marked as HDR or Dolby Vision on the title screen. Scroll down to the picture settings and note that the TV is in low power mode. Turn this off by selecting the Normal Image preset. From there, scroll down and select Warm for the color temperature. Then turn Action Smoothing and Action Clarity. The last two add the "soap opera effect" which I don't like.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
The process is similar for HDR and Dolby Vision. Start an HDR content on YouTube or with an Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc, then select the normal HDR picture mode, the color temperature to be heated and deactivate Action Smoothing and Action Clarity.
For Dolby Vision, go to Netflix and start a track with Dolby Vision that appears on the title screen. Select either Normal Dolby Vision or Bright Dolby Vision, Color Temperature for Warming, and Action Smoothing and Action Clarity. Remember that you'll need to repeat this for each input that is fed an HDR or Dolby Vision signal.
Since the menu navigation is difficult to describe here, I recommend watching the video at the top of this post. There I go through the whole process.
Note that you will need to do this process for every input, including apps, as well as for SDR, HDR and possibly Dolby Vision in every input. It's a complicated process that I don't think most people will have patience for.
That is the riddle. I'm sure that choosing a picture preset that looks good for a particular viewer will be enough for many people, but given that this TV is a favorite among TV enthusiasts and many buyers who research and find It's high on the radar It's high on many best-of lists. I worry that some will bring it home wondering why the image quality won't overwhelm them.
picture quality
With the correct image settings, the TCL 6 series works very well, although with a little more user control I think it could look even better. I've reached out to TCL to clarify what's happening in terms of the under-hood image settings and I'll update this section accordingly.
For now, I can only report on the results of what I believe to be the most achievable consumer's image settings, which I have described above.
First, some brief specs for those who enjoy them. With a SpectraCal C6 measuring device that was created by a Xrite i1 Pro 2 and CalMAN software, I measured the peak brightness of the 6 series of the TCL in SDR mode at 700 nits and in HDR10 at almost 1000 nits (using the Standard window of 10%). .
For me, this is enough brightness for most viewing scenarios. Only in the brightest rooms I might want more. If you want a brighter TV for roughly the same price, I'd point you straight to the Hisense H9G Quantum.
I think the black levels on this TV are excellent, preserving the shadow detail that the Hisense H9G struggled with in my tests. In addition, with the settings I chose, I got very little light around light objects on a dark background. This helps maintain impressive contrast, especially when there are mailbox bars.
Dan Baker / Digital Trends
The brightness, black levels and general backlight control are due to TCL's pioneering work in mini-LED technology, which will be used in the 6 series this year but was reserved for the 8K 8 series last year. For the stranger, the mini LED backlight is a much more precise version of the standard LED backlight technology that has been around for years. In short, while a standard LED-backlit TV might only contain hundreds of LEDs, mini-LED uses tens of thousands of much smaller LED lights.
It's not enough to just have a lot more little lights at work. They need to be well controlled to enhance the viewing experience and I've found that they are actually well controlled by the TCL 6 series processing. I didn't see sluggish response times as the scenes got lighter and darker. In some very challenging fade-in tests, the 6 Series even performed exceptionally well.
The ready-to-use color reproduction is a little different in SDR, a bit oversaturated with reds and oranges. A professional TV calibrator can correct this, but hiring someone to do color correction will degrade the value of the TV. Aside from the SDR color, I immediately found HDR10 and Dolby Vision colors to be outstanding. If you want a more accurate, out-of-the-box color experience, you'll have to pay $ 500 more for the Sony X900H and be willing to sacrifice some brightness.
The movement of the 6 series is excellent without any jerking or jerking being noticed in content with 24, 30 or 60 frames per second (fps). The 6 series also avoids moiré, screen door and other common image processing errors. Fortunately, I also got a very uniform panel, with no spots or dark areas that cause the so-called dirty screen effect. Overall, the picture was exceptionally clean.
For upscaling lower resolution 720p and 1080p content to 4K, the 6 series is fine. As I often say, this upscaling can't work miracles, but it neatly captures cable / satellite and DVD content and makes it look great on screen. However, native 4K content is rendered very well.
Overall, the TCL 6 series has remarkable image quality, especially for the price. I just wish it was easier to achieve without all of the hyper-specific image settings required.
Play
When it comes to the game potential of the 6 Series, I have good news and somewhat disappointing news. The good news is that the TV's THX certified game mode looks amazing. Aside from the Sony X900H and X900G, no other TV comes close in terms of color accuracy and color temperature regardless of the smooth movement and generally clean finish.
Another feather in the 6 Series gaming cap is the way the micro-LED backlight delivers deep blacks while preserving shadow detail in low-light areas, which is especially handy for competitive first-person shooter games.
Yooo, the official TV for #callofduty, is also the first TV with THX certified game mode. https://t.co/OZrKi0igYQ
– THX (@THX) August 26, 2020
The TV also supports AMD FreeSync's variable refresh rate, up to 120 Hz. However, the 6-series HDMI ports do not support enough bandwidth to achieve both a 120 Hz refresh rate and 4K resolution. So if you want to play with next generation game consoles at 120Hz, the resolution is limited to 1440p. With many competitors like the Samsung Q80T and all LG OLEDs offering 4K at 120Hz, this seems like a missed opportunity.
Our opinion
Honestly, it breaks my heart not to give this TV 4.5 or even 5 stars out of 5. It comes so close, and if TCL can address what I consider to be an extremely complex process of image adjustment, I'll adjust my score. Otherwise, the TCL 6 series is an exceptional television that seriously undercuts the competition and offers top-notch picture quality to those who otherwise might not be able to afford it.
Is there a better alternative?
The only TV that can touch the TCL 6 series in its price bracket is the Hisense H9G for just $ 50 more (at the time of writing this review). The Hisense is a much bolder TV with higher brightness and a slightly more punchy HDR experience. However, the H9G lacks the solid gaming features of the 6-series, so gamers will want to stick with TCL.
How long it will take?
If the 6 Series has 4K 120Hz gaming, I'd say it would last longer than you need it to be. Without full support for everything the upcoming Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 can do, I can't say it's perfectly future proof, but that's a very specific gripe. For the vast majority of users, the TCL 6 series should bring years of pleasure.
warranty
TCL warrants parts and labor for one year from the date of purchase for non-commercial use. More information can be found here.
You should buy it
Yes. The TCL 6-Series is an excellent television, especially considering its price. It takes a little work to get the best image quality, but with our guidance and a little time, great performance can be achieved.
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