TCL 43S305 43-Inch 1080p Roku Smart LED TV 2017 Model

I bought this tv for my bedroom to place on top of my dresser at the foot of my bed. I was hesitant in buying this tv after reading some previous reviews, however I decided to take a chance and I’m SO happy I did. The price can not be beat for this quality. I have another larger size TCL tv in my living room and it’s great quality as well. This 49 inch TV arrived safely in double packaging without damage. The tv stands for the bottom of the tv were very easy to set up. I was able to set the entire tv up within just a few minutes. It was light enough for me to pick up and place on top of the dresser on my own. There were no Roku requests to add my credit card information as previous reviews stated. I signed into my established accounts normally and without complication. The remote came with batteries, however one of the batteries was corroded which was fine since I had extra AAA batteries on hand. The remote is easy to use and works as expected. The picture on the tv is clear and vibrant. The sound is clear. I recommend this tv 100%. I will update if anything changes. Read more

This was the first new TV I ever bought. Up until now, it has been hand-me-downs and used TVs for cheap. I was extremely dismayed when the first unit I received was broken. However the return and replacement process was easy, free and only took 2 days before the replacement arrived. It was shipped in the original box which is very well packaged, so I think the first TV was just a fluke. It is a brightly colored TV box though, so the delivery person will probably not leave it at your door. I had to be present for UPS to drop off. But they didn't make me sign anything, so it might be hit or miss in your area. Keep that in mind when ordering. Actual product review. Wow. I. Am. Impressed. I've only had Netflix up until now, so this was a major upgrade for me. I am now jacked in to Roku and have added many channels to my TV to start my transition away from cable TV. I have not tested the OTA tuner yet, but will get to it eventually. If it has problems I will update this review. If it works I probably won't bother. There are 3 HDMI inputs (one is ARC enabled). It has a SPDIF output which I connected to my stereo. It also has an old school composite RCA input which I connected to my SNES. I'm really happy that they kept 1 old input like that. Now for the only downside. I am very tech savvy, just not very interested in most new tech. I design and program computers for a living. I understand the guts of hardware and software. I had no trouble at all with the setup of this TV and I was impressed by the level of integration with various web services. However, I think of my parents with a TV like this. If they could not get me to come set it up and train them how to use it multiple times, it would be returned. For an "average" person who is minimally savvy with their IPhone, this TV would be a challenge to set up. Maybe this is just the state of modern consumer tech, because it seems like TCL and Roku put a lot of effort into making the options well presented and organized. But there is a LOT in there. Don't buy this TV for your aging parents unless you want to be fiddling with it on every visit. But otherwise, its a solid purchase and you will not be disappointed. Oh and since it is a "TV" the picture quality is excellent. Not the best I have seen, but very very good. Especially at this price point. Update: I'm old enough to clearly remember the days when advertisers suddenly discovered that they could record their ads at higher volume so that the networks would play them at a higher volume and ANNOY THE HELL OUT OF ALL THEIR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS! I'm new to smart TVs. Maybe it's this one free station. Maybe it's just a mistake with this one show. Heck it could even be a software bug. But it could also be that the laws written in response to the loud TV ads somehow don't apply to streaming content. Doesn't really matter though. I'm still happy with it and just like the good old days of analog TV the MUTE button works great when the ads come on. Read more

Great TV to have. Read more

We bought this unit during the cyber Monday sales in 2017 because we wanted specifically to have a 40 inch, 1080p smart television to replace an older TV in our living room. We did not want 4K because we are cord cutters and very little cord cutting/streaming content is 4K, our Apple TV 4 is not 4K, and because we sit far enough back from our living room TV that 4K really is not a benefit to us. We did not want a larger screen because it would be oversized for our living room. We wanted a smart TV, and specifically a Roku TV, as a back up to our Apple TV 4 and digital over-the-air antennas, both of which we intended to connect to the unit. We wanted a budget television with a low price that was surprising for its capabilities, similar to the way Vizio televisions used to be a decade ago when they first entered the American market. And we wanted an LED backlight system since they age much better than the older CFL systems. The unit met all of those needs perfectly and was exactly what we wanted. It is also surprisingly thin and light, has robust picture settings, will let you pause live antenna TV for up to 90 minutes if you attach a cheap USB thumb drive to the unit, and thanks to Roku OS 8 which recently came out, offers a live TV program grid. Three caveats to be aware of which were minor or easily surmountable for us (your mileage may vary.) First, there is very little memory contained in the TV for running the Roku interface, so the Roku interface is slow, especially compared not only to our Apple TV but also to the Roku Streaming Stick that we use with our bedroom TV. If we were using this TV primarily via the built-in Roku interface instead of via our Apple TV that would be annoying and I could see how that might be a dealbreaker for some people. On the other hand, that doesn't mean the interface doesn't work perfectly--it does. Second, TCL's non-4K TVs have uneven white values because of back-light bleed-in around the corners of the screen. It is really only noticeable in commercials, and we don't care about it at those times. Others who find that annoying should choose PCL's 4K televisions, instead. Third, the TV sits barely more than 2 inches above whatever surface on which you place it. So if you are not wall-mounting the television, you'll need to be careful about buying a sound bar system. Some sound bar systems, and unfortunately especially Vizio's (which we used to prefer), badly missed the current market of very low-sitting televisions and will block a solid inch of this unit's screen because their center channel speakers are 3-inches tall (or taller!) So if you intend to set the TV on a surface with a sound bar in front of it, make sure you choose a low-profile sound-bar system. We originally bought one of Vizio's current sound-bar systems to use with the TV, but we immediately had to return it because of its massive height. We eventually paired the TV with an LG system which has worked very well, and Samsung's current sound bars seem to be similarly low-profile as well. So all in all we are very happy with the television and would purchase it again, and would consider TCL should we ever upgrade to a larger or a 4K display. This is essentially the sense of goodwill and satisfaction I had 10 years ago when I bought my first Vizio HDTV, which may make sense to you if you are a legacy Vizio TV owner. It's clear to me that TCL now owns the quality budget end of the market. Read more