A TV that produces a great picture was once expensive. Midrange and affordable models required compromises in contrast or color. TCL and Hisense have shown that this is no longer the case, offering affordable TVs with great performance at a reasonable price. Although the TCL 6-Series is the most expensive of all the TVs from the company, its price points are much lower than similar models by brands such as LG and Samsung. We tested the 55 inch TCL 55R635 for $649.99. It has excellent picture quality. The Hisense H9G series is a close second, with TCL being beaten in some categories. It remains Editors Choice.
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Design
There are no sides or top bezels for the 55R635. The screen has a thin strip of brushed steel below its bottom. This holds a rectangular metal with TCL's logo at the center and an indicator LED beneath it. This strip is brushed in the same color as the sides of the TV and gives the whole package an elegant appearance.
The right-side of the TV houses all connections, except for the power cable Jack. These include 4 HDMI ports, 1 USB port, 2 Ethernet ports, an antenna/cable connector and an optical output. There is also a 3.5mm headset jack and an adapter that allows you to connect to a composite video input. The combination power/input buttons are located below these ports in the lower right corner of TV's back. The power jack is located on the right side of the TV, at the back.
The included remote is a standard Roku TV model, a short, rounded black wand with Roku's signature big purple plus-shaped navigation pad near the top. Home, Back, and Power buttons sit above the pad, along with a pinhole microphone for using Roku's voice search. Playback controls sit below the pad, along with microphone, replay, and options buttons, and four dedicated service buttons for Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, and Sling TV. A volume rocker and mute button sit on the right edge. Since this is a Roku Voice remote, it connects wirelessly to the TV and doesn't require direct line of sight to work.
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These are the features
Roku interface is used by the TV and it offers all of the streaming media features that a Roku media streamer provides. Roku gives you access to thousands upon thousands of streaming services and apps, which Roku refers to as 'channels'. The majority of major streaming services are available, such as Apple TV and Disney+, Google Play Movies & TVs, Hulu, Netflix Prime Video, Sling TVs, Hulu, Hulu, Hulu, Hulu, Hulu, Hulu, Hulu, Hulu, Netflix Prime Video, Hulu and YouTube. However, Twitch is not available.
As a smart TV platform, Roku TV lags a step behind Amazon's Fire TV and Google's Android TV, particularly with voice assistants. You can speak into the remote to search for content and control your TV, but it isn't nearly as useful as a full voice assistant like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. You can't ask the Roku TV for a weather report, or to control your smart home devices. This is a stark contrast from the Hisense H9G, which features Android TV with Google Assistant, and has far-field microphones that let you use Google Assistant without touching the remote.
Performance
TCL 55R635 4K TV supports HDR10, HDR10Lg, HDR20, HDR30, HDR40, HDR515, and Dolby Vision.
Tests of TVs are done with the Klein K-80 colorimeter (Opens In A New Window), Murideo SIX-G signal generation(Opens In A New Window), and Portrait Displays CalMan software (Opens IN a NEW WINDOW). We use a methodology that is based on Imaging Science Foundation's (Opens In a New Window) calibration methods.
The peak brightness for the 55R635 with an SDR signal is 586.305cd/m2 for a full white field and 896.138cd/m2 for an 18-percent one. An HDR10 signal increases the peak brightness to 686.305cd/m2 when displaying a full-field display and 1 114.897cd/m2 for an 18.percent field. When displaying white boxes on the TV for HDR and SDR signals, the average black level is 0.015cd/m2. The 55R635 has a high contrast ratio of 74.326:1.
Hisense's H9G is able to shine brighter with an 18 percent field (1,492.606cd/m2) and similar black levels (0.12cd/m2). This makes it a better contrast than the 55R635. The contrast is still outstanding on TCL's side, as well as an impressive performance for both TVs that surpasses the flagships of a few decades ago.
Color performance is similarly impressive. The chart above shows color levels with an SDR signal compared with Rec.709 broadcast standards, and with an HDR signal compared with DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. The 55R635 hits Rec.709 levels more or less spot-on out of the box (with the color temperature set to the warmest preset). It also covers the DCI-P3 color space almost entirely, though green is slightly undersaturated (though well balanced), and yellows lean a bit warm. It's still excellent performance across the board, for both SDR and HDR content.
Spider-Man - Into the Spider-Verse is a great movie for the 55R635. The colors are vibrant and well-balanced, with the vivid red original costumes. Beautifully saturated colors are evident in the wild, artistic use of magenta throughout the film. The varied skin tones also appear natural. Dolby Vision's film release on Netflix has letterboxing that looks nice black with very little light from its LED backlight array.
It can also handle dark scenes. The TV showed The Haunting of Hill House and the shadows were clearly visible without it looking washed-out. The shadows filled shots of the house were clear and I was able to see details in dark hair and fabrics. There was some slight bloom in the names of the characters, but I didn't notice any haze or halos.
Input Lag
The time it takes for a TV to receive a signal before the screen refreshes. This is important because video games need to feel responsive. The input lag for the 55R635 is 37.4 milliseconds when Game Mode is disabled. The input lag is reduced to 21.4 milliseconds by activating Game Mode. This is just slightly less than the threshold of 20ms that we use when a TV has been declared one of the top for gaming.
Hisense H9G is a better choice than the 55R635 for this particular category. It has an input lag that's 16.4ms when Game Mode is active, but an incredible 104.5ms when Game Mode is disabled.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 is great on the 55R635. It has a high contrast between bright and shadow lights and lots of color in its menus. It felt very smooth and easy to score massive combos as well as complete every objective of the THPS2 portion.
An image and value that is strong
TCL 55R635 TV is an amazing television that delivers excellent image quality at a reasonable price. The TCL 55R635's excellent color and contrast performance are rare in $700 packages. The Editors' Choice would not be complete without the Hisense Hisense H9G, which is a clear winner in terms of contrast, input lag and other features. The TCL 55R635 TV and the Hisense H9G televisions are both excellent models that deserve high marks. However, the flagship Hisense model has a better price than the TCL 55R635, making it Editors' choice.
- Great contrast
- The box comes with accurate and wide-ranging colors
- It's affordable
- The input lag is slightly lower than what would be ideal
- A voice assistant is better than voice search.
TCL 6 Series TVs 2020 offer the most stunning picture yet. They are affordable and have great color contrast.