A television, in most cases, is a center piece of your living room. There are homes these days that does not have a television set in their living rooms anymore. Some families do not even have TVs anymore, because they do not watch TVs for some reason.

Thing is, TVs are not just things that you use to watch things from the regular fixed channels anymore. You do more than just switch it on, get bad reception from channel providers (in Malaysia it is RTM, and Media Prima), and watch shows with fixed programming, at a fixed time. It is now smarter than that. Plug it into a TV box, and you get all the goodness of the internet from your couch. If you get more modern smart TVs, you do not even need a TV box, get it to connect to your home WiFi and you get the power of the internet in your palms while you imprint your butt on the couch.

The modern TV then, is an entertainment powerhouse for the family; for the living room. You get to watch on-demand Over-The-Top contents from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, and what not. All of them built-into the TV itself, making your TV the perfect movie machine. A gaming console is perfect too for the modern 4K UHD TV set.

You do not have to spend too much too if you are looking into one. Depending on the target size of the TV you want, you get one for not very much money. Specifically, you can get your hands on this TCL 55-inch 4K UHD TV for less than MYR3,000 MYR 2,829 to be exact. The question is; should you? Would it be wiser to spend a little bit more for a big brand TV? Let us find out.

Design

When you get a TV set, you usually set it in the living room. The TV is usually the center piece of the living room, the home as we mentioned. So, you want the TV to look good. You also want the thing to look timeless, because it might sit there for the next 5 years or so. I know my TV at home has sat there for more than 10 years.

This TCL 55-inch UHD TV is just a pane of glass on metal stilts mostly. In a lot of sense, it looks modern; very modern with the super slim bezel for the TV. Little bezels are important in the modern TV, it gives that borderless feel of the TV. It also optimises the space consumed by the behemoth of a thing you call a TV these days. By today’s standard, 55-inch is quite a normal size though.

Still, 55-inch is sizeable enough if you sit about 1.8-meters away from the TV. It is perfect for small to medium sized homes. If you live in a condo, quite perfect; 55-inch is not too big, it is not too small either. You can get 43-inch TVs, but Netflix should be enjoyed on a bigger display.

The 55-inch TCl 55P8S is made mostly out of aluminium and feels premium despite the price. When we say that the bezels are at a minimum, we do not mean that there is an aluminium frame that eats into the display panel real estate. The aluminium frame is pretty much hidden from view if you look at it from the front. At a glance, the aluminium frames are pretty much non-existent. While it holds the whole TV together, you do not really see the aluminium frames.

The stilts, or the legs are premium milled aluminium pieces too. You get three of them as a set in the box and they are fixed separately via the provided screws. You either stand the TV on those stilts or you mount it on the wall with whatever generic TV mount you can get your hands on in the market.

Once you set them on the legs, the TV is quite sturdy. You will not have to worry about your cat walking past from behind and knocking the TV over. The strange thing though is that the stilts are actually quite small, they do not look like they can keep the TV standing with a light push. They do work though and are quite sturdy at it.

They say less is more, in the case of the TCL 55P8S, it might be true. Even from behind you cannot really tell that this is a TCL TV. You can only find the TCL logo and branding at the bottom aluminium lip of the TV. It sits very close to the LED indicator that tells you if the TV is on or not. You will not find any buttons in front of the TV as well; they are all hidden to keep the clean look of the TV. Plus, you have the remote control anyway.

Features

Android TV

Nowadays, buying a TV set is never just about buying a screen that can be plugged into the satellite and other media boxes. It is about buying a display filled with contents and an Operating System (OS). You would be pleased to find the TCL 55P8S coming with an Android TV 9.0 Pie, the latest and greatest from Google in other words.

Android TV is one of many TV specific OS of many out there though. Still, TCL does not have their own OS at this time, so Android TV is the best option, since it is open source too anyway. Still, Android TV is a powerful OS on its own rights.

We are advocates of Android TV because we use the OS on our own. The reason? The vast number of apps and contents available for an Android TV is close to impossible to beat at this time. The only thing missing is Apple TV App for now. That said, the OS is not perfect.

On certain older TVs, Android TV can be a little sluggish, especially the 8.0. That is no thanks to the Processor and GPU fitted into the TVs themselves of course. The new 9.0 though, Android TV is smooth and responsive; plenty more so than before. Android TV actually feels optimised for modern TVs. It is smooth and quite snappy mostly on the TCL 55P8s.

Android TV 9.0 as well brings some visual changes to the User Interface (UI). There is a new grid system that cleans up the ol’ cluttered look that Android TV 8.0 had. The icons are smaller and cleaner to look at. It is somehow a little more intuitive to navigate through as well. Access to your favourite apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube is even easier to find now. Oh, of course, there is Google’s great Chromecast capability with Android TV.

AI IN

Another common terminology when it comes to Smart TVs these days are Artificial Intelligence (AI). Thing is, this could be an overused terminology. That is a different topic for another day though, for now we will stick with their terminology of AI.

The built-in AI is not, as expected from an Android TV, the trusty Google AI Assistant. Instead they fitted it with their very own AI interface they call the AI IN. While it may not be a Google AI Assistant, it is not half bad either.

Like any other AI built into a TV, it is activated mostly via voice command. You press a mic button on your remote control and voila, you have a smart home component in your hands. You can search for all kinds of things as well, from weather reports, latest news, to opening your favourite TV apps or even music apps. You can even play specific music or find specific titles exclusive to the content app if you are that lazy or confident of your search result.

The AI functions, on the surface at least, sort of ends there. Of course, there is more to the AI implementation than just a mere voice assistant. Smart upscaling for one is part of the curriculum of AI IN. Oh, yes there is Smart HDR10+ on this thing too, thanks partly to Android TV but mostly AI IN.

Smart HDR10+

With any 4K UHD TV, you really want HDR. HDR is short for High Dynamic Range, fi you have not known already. Basically, HDR gives you better detailing in dark images, better contrasts between colours, more vivid colours, and better realism.

HDR10+ is the gold standard in HDR standards. While the standard HDR that was introduced some 5 years or so ago is great, HDR 10+ means your contents look even better, your details and colour contrast are much sharper and closer to real life than ever. You can see in the dark, quite literally.

The TCL 55P8S is already an OLED TV, which also means that colour contrasts and colours are already great in the first place. Blacks are super black, and greens are so bright that your garden suddenly looks boring and plastic. Oh, yes that is thanks to HDR10+ too.

Unlike most budget TVs though, the TCL 55P8S actually works really well with HDR10+. The picture you get out of the TCL 55P8S are very crisp and colours are great. At a comfortable distance, or in a living room. The images are smooth and sharp with very smooth colour gradients. That is also a testament to the processor and the display quality itself. Enjoying Netflix Formula 1 is really not hard with the TV. Even watching sports matches are really enjoyable on the TCL 55P8S.

Noise Reduction

When upscaling videos from 1080p Full HD or 720p HD format, you tend to see things you do not want to see in your media. You tend to see blemishes and imperfections in the image or the make-up of the actor. Those are things you may have to deal with though.

What you might not have to deal with is noise. Noise the probably the most annoying thing about upscaling your contents. It does not just happen on upscaling though, since upscaling produces minimal enough graining and noise on your films. Your cable TV tends to be a little noisy too.

AI IN has a noise reduction function to reduce all these and make your contents looks crisp and properly made for 4K TVs instead of some downgraded TV show with no budget for a camera. We found that the noise reduction does not work on all sorts of contents though.

Most contents on Netflix looks really good with Noise Reduction on. We found that animation style shows do not work well with Noise reduction. Any sporting broadcast could use the clever noise reduction too, to make you feel like you are part of the action.

Motion Smoothing

AI IN also features a clever Motion Smoothing overlay. This is where your 30fps videos can look like 60fps videos. While it is cool, we do find it a little off and looks odd from time to time.

When you watch sports matches from the regular broadcast, or even YouTube and what not, motion smoothing makes the medium look really good. It really feels like you are watching the matches and competition live from the VIP box at times. When they do a close up of the athletes, you might as well be there.

On the other hand, motion smoothing does not work with everything. You do not want motion smoothing on animation type shows because you start to see some very weird overlay on the animations themselves. You would want to turn Motion Smoothing off for Netflix too, we notice a little bit of flicker when you watch Netflix with Motion Smoothing on, which can be quite jarring.

Picture Modes

Of course, like any other smart TV, or any other display you get these days, there are multiple picture modes for you to choose from for different channels and applications. For example, you can set your HDMI 3 channel connected to your gaming console to be in Game Mode. So now every time you switch to HDMI 3, your TV will always go into Game Mode with optimised settings.

While there are limited options in the picture modes, we figured out some best use case for the more popular modes. If you are going to switch on Netflix and watch animation style shows, we find that Game Mode looks best. In any other case, cinema mode or sports mode will do fine; just remember to turn off motion smoothing. Sports mode work well with YouTube contents somehow. Then again, if you are just going to watch Netflix on your TV, just leave it at its default settings. Our suggestion though is to take the time to create your own settings and find what looks best to you.

Harman Kardon Dolby 5.1 Surround

Watching your shows is never complete without getting the right sound to it. After all, watching a movie is not just about getting the visuals in. It is about an experience of taking in the visuals and enjoying excellent sound designs. That is why when you buy a TV, you most probably would be looking to get a sound bar as well to complete the experience.

The thing is though, buying a sound bar is an additional cost to buying a TV. If you are on a tight budget, or if you do not have the extra space for a sound bar, you might not want to spend beyond the MYR 2,899 that you caked out for the TV already. In that case, you really want to find a TV that has decent speakers to begin with.

Usually, in this case I would recommend anyone to go for the Sony TVs for their superior sound quality. In those cases, you may just need to find cheap subwoofer to fill up the dynamics. There are not many TVs in the market that comes with decent speakers in the market these days. Well, since people are going to get sound bars to accompany their TVs anyway.

The TCL 55P8S though, has a Harman Kardon 5.1 Virtual Surround Sound speakers. That also means you may not need to get a separate sound bar or speaker set, in theory anyway. The result of the Harman Kardon speakers is an excellent audio experience with great high and mid frequency. Unfortunately, the lower frequencies suffer because the speakers just do not have the capacity to pump the lower frequencies properly. For that, you need a subwoofer. Then again, low frequencies (the bass, the boom) have always been a problem for TVs with no external speakers or separate sound bar.

Still, the TCL 55P8S works without the sound bar. The crisp and clear mid and high frequencies really make up for the lack of a dedicated sound bar. The only thing you need to get after this is the subwoofer. You do not need to spend thousands on a subwoofer though.

TCL 55P8S – Value Fun for The Whole Family

The TCL 55P8S, on TCL’s own Lazada store will set you back MYR 2,829 currently. For the same money, the only thing we think comparable to the TCL 55P8S is a Sony TV. The thing is you do not get the voice command enabled AI IN. You will not get the Harman Kardon sound speakers too. You do not Get HDR10+ too for that kind of money.

Of course, if you look at the other Chinese brands you may be able to find offerings that are quite similar too. For most of the Chinese brands, you may not get the same sort of built quality and assurance that TCL can give you. The brand has been one of the best-selling brands in the United States, if not the top selling, for a reason. That reason is great value paired to great reliability and performance. In all fairness, we do like the 55P8S very much for its price. If you ask us, this is one TV that we would buy, if we are looking for a TV for our homes. Why? HDR10+, AMOLED, AI IN, Android TV, Harman Kardon; nuff’ said. You can get yours from Lazada Malaysia or an Sen Heng outlets across Malaysia.