Due to its restricted viewing angles, looking at it from the side quickly reduces image accuracy. It is confined to a 60Hz screen and lacks variable refresh rate (VRR) compatibility, unlike the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED, although it offers a fast response time and a very minimal input lag. It manages reflections reasonably well, but it doesn’t become bright enough to reduce glare. The removal of 24p judder from any source is an advantage, which is unusual for a 60Hz TV. also you will learn our article on TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) review.
TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) review: Design
Although the TCL 5-Series (S535) is priced at the lower end of the mid-range, it doesn’t appear to be. The 5-Series should look contemporary and slick in any living area thanks to its thin bezel and metallic body. The 5-Series is offered in four sizes: 50 inches, 55 inches, 65 inches, and 75 inches to fit a variety of entertainment centers. The specs and features of the 50-inch model, which was provided to us for review, are otherwise unchanged. TCL has added a simple cable management system this year that can be used to run HDMI and power cables in the back of the two hollowed-out legs. Unfortunately, we discovered that the legs couldn’t support all four HDMI cables that we had running to the TV, but people with fewer connections should have little trouble concealing cables. Speaking of cords, the 5-Series has four HDMI ports, four of which are HDMI 2.0b compliant, one of which supports eARC, and one pair of legacy RCA inputs. If your home entertainment system has many components, that last port enables you to connect an AV receiver or sound bar system and use one remote to control the volume and inputs. The IR remote that comes with the TV, however, is most likely the design’s biggest flaw. It is impossible to use it for voice searches without built-in Bluetooth connectivity, and it always needs line of sight to the IR receiver, which is situated on the bottom edge of the TV. The less-premium plastic IR remote is just another minor drawback in comparison to the marginally more expensive TCL 6-Series, but it’s by no means a deal-breaker, and you can still use the Roku app if you want to use voice search on the TV.
Display
A mid-range TV in TCL’s 2020 collection, the TCL 5 Series 2020 is an improvement over the TCL 5 Series/S525 2019. Although the TCL S535 is a QLED TV with outstanding broad color gamut for HDR content, it doesn’t become bright enough in HDR to deliver a real HDR monitor experience. Because of its exceptional contrast ratio and ability to display deep blacks in low light, it has a VA panel. It performs quite well overall and has a full-array local dimming feature that slightly boosts contrast. also you read our article on TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) review. Unfortunately, it has a narrow viewing angle, so when viewed from the side, image accuracy is quickly lost. It is limited to a 60Hz panel and lacks variable refresh rate (VRR) support, unlike the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED, but it has a fast response time and a very low input lag. It effectively manages reflections but lacks the brightness to reduce glare. It does, however, eliminate 24p judder from any source, which is unusual for a 60Hz TV.
TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) review: Ports
The 5-Series has a sizable selection of connections. Four HDMI 2.1 ports, including one with the audio return channel (ARC), are located on the back panel. This makes it easy to connect an AV receiver or sound bar to this connection. The only people who will be disappointed by the HDMI ports’ limited support for 4K at 60 Hz are die-hard gamers. A cable/antenna input, a USB 2.0 port, an analogue audio output jack, an optical audio output, and a mini-jack AV input are also located on the back. An adapter is needed for the final connection, but one is not provided. Additionally, the 5-Series set incorporates an Ethernet interface. The majority of individuals will connect to the Internet wirelessly, though. The 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard is supported by the 5-Series. The Roku remote and its own wireless speakers can both connect via Bluetooth, but not for headphones.
Sound Quality
The TCL 5-Series does not have sound quality as one of its main selling factors. Yes, it supports Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks, but Dolby Atmos, a more capable and immersive format, is currently the norm for high-end sets. (The competing Hisense 55H9G, for instance, and TCL’s step-up model, the 6-Series, both support Dolby Atmos.) Generally speaking, flat panel TVs don’t stand out in the audio department. And the TCL 5-Series, with its tiny 8-watt speakers, is no different in this sense. As a result, there isn’t much focus on the audio features here, and the soundstage is very small. The Centre of the screen appears to be the source of everything. The TCL 5-Series does, however, come with a number of pre-programmed audio settings, including Big bass, High Treble, Music, Normal, Speech, and Theater. For watching most shows, the last setting creates the most evenly distributed range of high and low sounds. Speech attempts to concentrate on discourse by delivering dominant higher-end frequencies, with varying degrees of success. Although the Theater mode is superior in this regard, big bass does deliver a little bit more on the lower end. However, if you want to use a sound bar or connect the set to a full-fledged surround sound system to fill a large living space with cinematic sound, we recommend doing so.
Picture Quality
Let’s examine the image, which has some commendable qualities. The VA panel of the 5-Series, which unfortunately makes off-angle viewing less than ideal, and its local dimming backlight system, which does an excellent job of not crushing the blacks while still offering deep blacks and minimizing any kind of halo effect around bright objects on dark backgrounds that you might get from lesser backlighting systems, are both contributing factors to the 5-Series’ excellent black levels for its price point. Unfortunately, the backlighting mechanism for the 5-Series doesn’t provide a lot of peak brightness. Whether we were watching HDR 10 or Dolby Vision, we hardly saw any difference between SDR brightness and HDR peak brightness. In fact, it’s debatable whether this qualifies as an HDR TV at all given that it lacks the brightness necessary to produce high-performance HDR’s sparkling highlights. The HDR images don’t stand out as much as we see with other HDR TVs because the contrast is there but the peak brightness isn’t. You will receive a larger color spectrum because using quantum dots improves the color. However, because the brightness potential is less, you simply aren’t receiving a noticeably improved color volume. Overall, we believe the picture quality will be better than what someone might receive from a mid-range TV from, say, four or more years ago. It’s a perfectly respectable TV, and we’d even say that it performs better than it costs.
TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) review: Performance
The TCL 5-Series’ performance is a bit of a mixed bag. Although there are some amazing aspects of the performance, such as how the full array local dimming system maintains low black levels, the TV suffers from a serious brightness issue that prevents it from being a truly wonderful experience. The TV’s lack of brightness, especially when viewing HDR content, is its most detrimental flaw. The maximum brightness level is 450 nits, which is roughly half of what other mid-range 4K HDR TVs can produce. Color saturation suffers as a result of the TCL 5-Series’ obvious weakness in brightness. While quantum dots do offer a wider color spectrum, you won’t get the best color saturation and you’ll lose a lot of vibrancy without a brighter backlight. Similar to downscaling, upscaling isn’t great either, which isn’t surprising given that the TCL 5-Series uses the AIPQ processor, which we found to be largely ineffective at up conversion on the TCL 6-Series. Its lower native refresh rate of 60Hz makes matters worse because motion processing isn’t nearly as good as the TCL 6-Series, which is just one level above it. What can you do in this regard? However, even after adjusting the settings (we turned on LED Motion Clarity and raised Action Smoothing to High), we still noticed motion artifacting during rapid camera pans. You just have to learn to live with it. There aren’t many off-axis viewing angles that would be desirable for this TV other than straight on. The Vizio V-Series from the previous year does a slightly better job than some of the 5-Series’ competitors at maintaining color saturation off-axis, but anything more than a few degrees seriously reduces the image’s fidelity. In a similar vein, sound is unremarkable. It’s adequate for clear dialogue with a concentration on the mid-range, but it lacks any form of glitter in the highs or true bass rumble. It works nicely, however a sound bar is absolutely advised. If the 5-Series’ performance has a bright spot, it’s that its lag time is only 11ms and that it has a game mode that activates when you turn on a video game. After playing hours of intense UFC 3 matches on the 5-Series, we can attest that these two features together make games feel more responsive, but without HDMI 2.1 and/or 120Hz support, it’s really not a great fit for the Xbox Series X or PS5.
Price and availability
While we have some complaints about the TCL 5-Series’ picture quality, it’s difficult to be upset with the pricing. The smallest size, the 50-inch (TCL 50S535), starts at just over $400, while the largest size, the 75-inch (TCL 75S535), costs just under $1,000. The TCL 5-Series sits fairly precariously in the 2020 TCL TV portfolio, despite the fact that we have no qualms with the TV’s price. You could possibly make the case to spend an additional $250 to get the TCL 6-Series R635, which significantly improves the screen brightness, or to save $100 by switching to the TCL 4-Series, which is incompatible with Dolby Vision. also you will learn our article on TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) review.
Conclusion
In general, the TCL S535 is an excellent TV. It is an excellent option for watching movies because it boasts a VA panel with an amazing contrast ratio that reveals deep blacks. It’s a great gaming TV despite the lack of additional features like VRR support because of its extremely low input lag and rapid response time. Its limited viewing angles make it unsuitable for large-group viewing of television programmes or sporting events. A wide color gamut is displayed for HDR content, but it doesn’t get bright enough to highlight highlights in HDR.
