TCL 50 Class S4 S-Class 4K UHD HDR LED Smart TV with Google TV - 50S45G

I had low expectations for this TV, for $269 for an 55” smart TV, and to be honest, I was prepared to return it if the picture quality was bad. But I was surprised at how great the picture quality and sound are! I wanted it for an outdoor showing of the Eras Tour for a large group of friends and had planned to show it on a projector and screen but it was too bright when we did a dry run the week before the event, so I purchased this on Amazon in a bit of a panic, with a hefty dose of skepticism. It was easy to connect it to external speakers for our outdoor performance. I had the option to enable it with my current Fire TV settings, so when it arrived, set-up was so easy, it was essentially plug and play. All my apps were loaded and ready to use. I’ll be keeping this TV, it’s great! Read more

Bought this to replace a 50" vizio smart tv that picture was failing on. Love the fire tv and the included alexa. Color is great and setup was a breeze. Some said the build felt cheap to them - guess I DON'T know the difference in cheap plastic and good plastic - besides I really don't sit around feeling the build quality. Price was really good and features are good. The remote is user friendly as is the os. I REALLY DO RECOMEND THIS TV. Had a small problem with the sound on one channel which was odd as all other channels were fine. Called their help line and customer service walked me thru a very easy fix. Still a 5 star and will include customer service in the rating. HAVE had this TCL TV for one month and I find it better than our 65" SONY, better picture, color, sharpness just better all the way around. The one thing it lacks is a lot of color adjustments, but out of the box it really didn't need any and if I could adjust the settings I would probably screw it up. Just buy it! UPDATE: 3 months and still very satisfied with the purchase. I did notice that one person had trouble with the optical port in hooking up his sound bar. The best way to hook up the sound bar is to use the HDMI e arc port and it works great. I have never tried the on board speakers as I am extremely satisfied with the sound bar. Will update in six months. UPDATE; Small problem due to internet going down for close to a day. When it came back on I had all smart functions. but all cable channels were gone and it was easy getting them back, but they would not open. I called TCL help line and they worked me thru the problem, but did have to reset the tv by unplugging it-waiting for a bit then plugging it in again. All was well then and I DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT THE PICTURE SEEMS TO BE EVEN BETTER THAN BEFORE. Help line was very good and stayed with this 91 year old until all was fixed' UPDATE: Close to seven months since I got the fire tv and I THINK IT WOULD BE very hard to duplicate the value. I have found that most smart tvs have issues to deal with and with the few that I had they were easy to fix myself or with a call to a very good customer service line. I would buy this in a heart beat! UPDATE: Have had this TCL tv for one year now. I am confined to four walls and a tv in a skilled nursing home and I can tell you that I appreciate and regard this as one of the best purchases I have ever made. I have had some small issues that were not the fault of the tv, but still handled by the TCL help line. They were so good to me and fixed all the little problems. It is a wonderful buy! Read more

I bought this TV for my living room, and I’m pleasantly surprised. I didn’t know much about TCL, and the price was very good, so I figured I’d give it a shot. The picture quality is great, very sharp with nice colors. This is an Amazon fire TV, so if you’ve used a fire stick, the remote control is virtually the same. All in all, we are happy with this TV. Read more

This is a great TV. However, with low cost, comes the inevitable problem. And in this case the issue is with the "Display & Sounds" menu which displays an empty gray screen with a white bar, or, when the menu is selected, the screen goes dark. Restarting the TV fixes the issue, but clearly, the firmware has issues and TCL has known of these problems for a very long time and still the issue persists. I have also found in my research that this same problem is seen on other FireTV vendor sets. So it may be an Amazon thing. I don't feel like going through the hassle of a blame game with either TCL or Amazon and the picture is "good enough" but clearly, I am one of MANY who have a non-working function on a television that should allow us to control our display and sound functions out of the box. The photo above shows the issue I see with the display & sound menu. Other than this, the set is good. I use a amplifier for the sound and thus cannot comment on the native speakers so many have dissed, but for my purposes, it is a good match for my needs. If I had it to do over again, I'd spend the extra $50 to get a higher quality unit, but even then, with these software-based TVs, it seems to be a crap shoot if you are going to get good firmware, no matter how much you spend. All in all, adequate quality. Not stupendous, but not bad for the price. If this set does not stand the test of time, I will go with another brand and definitely not with a FireTV. It is my hope that whoever is responsible for the firmware issues, steps up and issues a fix that truly repairs the problem with the display and sound menus. Two stars removed for whoever is not fixing the firmware issue. If I get help getting a patch pushed out to me to fix this, or another set that actually has a working menu, I'll edit the review and update accordingly. Read more