Most TVs today use LED-backlit LCD panels, that are the most typical and affordably priced of all of the several types of TV screens, however the limitations of the expertise can maintain them again with regards to efficiency. For patrons taking a look at a extra premium viewing expertise, OLED is our common advice. However, OLED TVs are very costly, and often out of most patrons’ budgets. Fortunately, there may be now a center floor – QLED, or Quantum Dot LED TVs. These televisions attempt to bridge the hole between LED and OLED by providing a boosted LED expertise of kinds.
Although QLED TVs have to this point been costly, latest launches from Samsung and OnePlus have made this display tech way more moderately priced than earlier than. Following on this pattern now’s TCL, with the C715 collection. The firm has a powerful presence within the reasonably priced house in India, and is now seeking to make inroads into extra premium segments with its newest tv vary. This comes quickly after the launch of its P715 collection in India.
Today, we’re reviewing the 55-inch TCL 55C715 tv, which is priced at Rs. 55,990. This 4K QLED TV comes with help for Dolby Vision, and guarantees a greater viewing expertise for a worth that is only a trace larger than what many in style 55-inch LED TVs go for. Is it price bumping your price range up a bit for the TCL 55C715? Find out in our assessment.
The TCL 55C715 is a QLED TV priced solely a bit larger than what many LED TVs go for
TCL 55C715 design and specs
We acquired the 55-inch variant of the TCL C715 collection for assessment; it is a in style measurement for premium televisions, and one which we personally really feel is right for many houses. The TCL 55C715 is massive, however not too massive; in the event you would favor a unique measurement, the corporate additionally has 50-inch and 65-inch fashions out there on this vary.
The tv seems good due to a metallic body across the display. Although the bezels are nearly the identical as we would see on most 55-inch televisions, the best way this TV is designed makes the borders seem narrower. There’s a TCL emblem on the metallic chin on the backside, and a fabric-wrapped module just under that holds the IR receiver and indicator lights. The again of the TCL 55C715 is apparent black plastic; whereas it is slim close to the perimeters, it does get significantly thicker on the centre and backside.
All the ports on the TCL 55C715 face to the appropriate of the display, whereas the facility socket is on the left. The TV is nicely outfitted, with three HDMI ports, two USB ports, a LAN port, an Antenna In socket, digital audio out (Optical), a single AV-In socket which can be utilized with an adapter, and a 3.5mm audio out socket for headphones or audio system. You can, after all, join the TV to the Internet utilizing Wi-Fi 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and HDMI ARC is supported on the HDMI 1 port. The ports and sockets had been straightforward to entry for us.
The tv comes with stands within the field to table-mount it, however it’s potential to wall-mount the TV as nicely. Although there wasn’t a wall-mount package included with our assessment unit, we had been ready to make use of a normal VESA wall-mount package that we had. A relatively considerate contact from TCL on this regard was together with the screws to connect the required bracket behind the TV itself, which made it straightforward for us to wall-mount the tv ourselves.
The TCL 55C715 has a 55-inch Ultra-HD (3840×2160 pixels) QLED display, and helps excessive dynamic vary content material as much as the Dolby Vision customary. There can also be native dimming, with 1,296 zones to permit for efficient dimming of darker zones on the display. For sound, there’s a backside firing dual-speaker system with 30W of output, and sound codecs as much as the Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD codecs are supported. The TV has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of in-built storage for apps and video games, and is powered by a 64-bit quad-core processor.
TCL 55C715 distant and options
While we have usually solely seen hands-free voice controls on premium televisions such because the Sony A9G, TCL has been providing this function even on its reasonably priced ranges. It’s out there on the TCL 55C715, and the TV is all the time listening for a ‘wake phrase’ voice command – “OK Google” or “Hey Google”. This permits you to entry Google Assistant with solely your voice, much like how good audio system such because the Google Home work. You can disable this with a small bodily change on the backside proper nook of the TV.
Voice management labored nicely for us, and we had been in a position to give directions to Google Assistant for features past what’s on the TV, similar to setting reminders and timers. Of course, we might additionally request info or ask Google Assistant to open particular apps or content material on the tv itself.
You get hands-free entry to Google Assistant on the TV, due to far-field voice recognition
If you select to maintain the in-built microphone off, you possibly can nonetheless use Google Assistant by means of the distant, which has its personal button and microphone. The Bluetooth distant, which runs on AAA batteries, additionally has a hotkey for Netflix and a button to begin the TCL launcher. Apart from this, there are the usual buttons to regulate the quantity, entry settings and alter the supply, Android TV keys, and a D-pad to navigate the interface.
The solely notable omission here’s a mute button; you will have to carry the quantity down key to scale back the quantity to zero if wanted. It’s a handy and compact distant, however we did expertise some pairing points with it, for instance it misplaced its Bluetooth pairing with the TV on a few events, and labored solely utilizing the IR emitter. However, the pairing course of is simple and fast sufficient, so this was solely a small inconvenience.
TCL 55C715 software program and interface
For our assessment, we acquired a pre-release unit of the TCL 55C715 which had a couple of essential software program points, together with a non-functional Amazon Prime Video app and quantity that was too low even on the most stage. However, a lot of the points we had had been fastened by means of a software program replace, and the corporate has assured us that retail items will ship with the up to date software program.
Till just lately, most good TV makers developed their very own software program interfaces primarily based on Android or Linux frameworks, however we have seen many producers now go along with official Android TV. The TCL 55C715 formally runs Android TV 9 Pie, however this is not fairly the inventory model we have seen on televisions from manufacturers similar to Sony and Vu. There are some tweaks, together with the TCL launcher, and a few workarounds with regards to particular apps. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are preinstalled on the tv.
The Google Play retailer is current and we had been in a position to set up a few of our common apps, however we observed that Amazon Prime Video wasn’t listed despite the fact that it is preinstalled, for causes unknown.
The TCL 55C715 runs Android TV 9 Pie
The TCL Launcher is loads like Xiaomi’s PatchWall interface, in that it promotes content material relatively than apps. However, we discovered the content material curation to be unusual and random, with far an excessive amount of regional content material in a number of Indian languages, which couldn’t probably all be related to everybody. The TCL Launcher can also be fairly sluggish to load and navigate round, and depends on subscriptions to paid providers to fetch a lot of its content material. We suggest sticking to the Android TV interface with the TCL 55C715.
Despite the software program replace that we acquired, there have been nonetheless some points with the TV. The most vital of those was sluggishness; the TCL 55C715 would often take some time to open apps similar to Netflix and YouTube, and we typically noticed lengthy delays between us urgent a button on the distant and the TV responding. While primary features similar to adjusting the quantity or navigation had been fast sufficient, the hotkeys, Google Assistant button, and supply choice buttons’ features typically took a few seconds to be carried out. The TV has a fast boot mode that labored wonderful, however we observed that it will decelerate and get buggy each few days, and would want a full reboot to repair these points.
TCL 55C715 efficiency
While there are some misses with the TCL 55C715 at launch time with regards to the software program, the TV makes up for this with efficiency. The advantages of the QLED display are seen from the get-go, and the TV gives a good all-round viewing expertise with all types of content material. We clearly loved watching Ultra-HD Dolby Vision content material on the 55C715 probably the most, however we had been equally impressed with how the TV dealt with decrease decision content material as much as full-HD.
We used the TCL 55C715’s Android TV apps to stream content material throughout our assessment, and in addition examined the TV with our assortment of pattern video clips. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video on the tv had been in a position to stream in 4K and Dolby Vision or HDR10 respectively, and we additionally used different providers similar to Hotstar, YouTube, YouTube Kids, and the NDTV app to stream information.
Space Force on Netflix seemed good on the TCL 55C715, due to Dolby Vision help
As we often do, we began off with Dolby Vision content material on the TCL 55C715, together with Our Planet and Space Force on Netflix. Dolby Vision often works greatest with OLED and QLED TVs due to the higher colors and brightness which can be potential, and that was instantly seen on the TCL TV. Our Planet seemed astounding; the image was shiny, sharp, and extremely vibrant. The colors had been expectedly punchy and interesting, particularly scenes in shiny daylight the place the sky seemed pure and life-like.
Playing any Dolby Vision content material often adjusts the image routinely, utilizing considered one of two Dolby Vision viewing modes to get the brightness and color ranges proper for the TV. The TCL 55C715 has the same setting for HDR10 content material as nicely, and we had been fairly impressed with how the TV carried out with The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video, in addition to our pattern video clips. However, it did take some effort for us to get the color and brightness settings proper with customary dynamic vary content material.
Non-HDR 4K content material seemed adequate after some cautious tuning, though we did discover the colors to be a bit too compelled when it got here to heat tones, explicit pores and skin and shades of brown, as seen throughout an episode of Better Call Saul. We preferred how shiny the TV was in these instances, however the zone-specific brightness of HDR content material wasn’t seen with SDR content material.
The TCL 55C715 has micro-dimming with 1,296 zones, however we discovered this to be a bit too proactive when set to High. Setting it to a decrease stage improved the image considerably, permitting for deeper blacks in some darkish content material similar to Night On Earth on Netflix. While blacks aren’t fairly as deep because the precise pixel-off blacks that we have seen on good OLED TVs, the TCL 55C715 did come as near correct as a QLED TV can.
The distant of the TCL 55C715 is minimalist, with hotkeys for Netflix and the TCL launcher
Coming to lower-resolution content material, full-HD was respectable sufficient because the TCL 55C715 did a very good job of upscaling. Watching episodes of Modern Family and Artemis Fowl on the TCL TV, the image was clearly much less spectacular than with 4K content material due to the impression of the 55-inch display measurement, however was nonetheless pleasant and comfortably watchable. Colours and brightness largely maintained their high quality, with solely sharpness seeing an anticipated drop.
Dropping additional all the way down to 720p and customary definition content material, the expertise was a lot much less pleasant. The TV did not do pretty much as good a job of upscaling the content material, additional impacted by the big display. Watching NDTV information in customary definition, in addition to kids’s movies on YouTube, we discovered the image to be hazy, uninteresting, and filled with movement flaws and artefacts. As is the case with a lot of the mid-range and high-end televisions we have reviewed, the TCL 55C715 is not fairly best for you in the event you watch numerous customary definition content material similar to older YouTube movies and cable or DTH TV.
Sound high quality on the TCL 55C715 is nearly wonderful; it is clear sufficient at average volumes, would not have an excessive amount of quantity fluctuation, and is tuned nicely for the audio of most motion pictures and TV reveals. You can set the sound mode to deal with vocals, which helps you hear dialogues clearly, and we appreciated this. We examined Dolby Atmos with considered one of our pattern clips, and whereas we might hear some sense of path and definition within the sound, the bottom-firing field audio system did not fairly have sufficient in them to do justice to the format.
Given that it is a massive TV with spectacular image high quality, we would suggest a very good soundbar or speaker system for an identical sound expertise. The built-in audio system do not fairly stay as much as the requirements of the display, and even glorious audio format help would not make sufficient of a distinction.
Dolby Vision makes a giant distinction in enhancing brightness and hues on the TCL 55C715
Verdict
Buyers in India typically pay extra consideration to the scale and backbone of a TV, with much less consideration given to the kind of display. While LED is the default for many patrons, TCL’s new C715 collection has made it potential to contemplate a greater kind of tv with out a important worth bump. At a worth that’s only a bit larger than what similar-sized LED TVs promote for, TCL gives the advantages of a QLED display with the 55C715.
That stated, the TCL 55C715’s software program is way from good, and was frustratingly sluggish for us at instances. Additionally, whereas the TV performs very nicely with high-quality content material, lower-resolution video is way lower than excellent. If you are closely invested in streaming providers and might decide up a good streaming system such because the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K or Mi Box 4K to override the TV’s software program, you will be pleased with the TCL 55C715.
Mi TV 4X vs Vu Cinema TV: Which is the perfect price range TV in India proper now? We mentioned this on Orbital, our weekly expertise podcast, which you’ll be able to subscribe to through Apple Podcasts or RSS, obtain the episode, or simply hit the play button beneath.
