TCL 55S517 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2018 Model)

5.0 out of 5 stars

By Brandon Lang - Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018

Awesome

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

5.0 out of 5 stars

By A. Brown - Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2018

Don't hesitate to buy. Really good value!

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.

1.0 out of 5 stars

By L. Brazzorotto - Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2018

You better pray you never need their warranty

I ordered this product and was initially very happy with it, till the TV decided to not connect to the network anymore and display error code 003 on the screen after 2 months. I contacted the tech and customer support and went through everything they told me several times. The answer I received was my router or network is at fault. I since then moved. Got a new network, new router and my 3 other TVs and laptops work just great. TV is still not working. I wrote them, now a month into talking to customer support, and got the reply I need to check my network. This is a joke!!!!!!! I have a 3 month old TV that doesn't work and I just get the run around from this company. Save the money n buy something else.

5.0 out of 5 stars

By Cap - Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2018

Buy It

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!

5.0 out of 5 stars

By Spaghettisaurusrex - Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2018

The best budget tv hands-down

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!