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TCL's flat-panel televisions are affordable, but they're not short on specs for for their price. Beyond the Roku TV enhancements, both the 48-inch 48E4610R and the larger 55-inch 55E4610R are backed by a full 1080p resolution and direct-lit LED technology.
However, the 40-inch 40FS4610R we tested is an edge-lit LED display. On paper, it has many of the same specs: a 120Hz refresh rate, a fairly meaningless 5000000:1 "dynamic" contrast ratio, 1.07 billion colors and a 178-degree viewing angle.
It looks good if you're a budget conscious consumer who isn't a videophile bent on perfection. But this edge-lit version doesn't always spread the light evenly on the 40-inch frame.
Backlight bleeding is noticeable in certain darker scenes and when the TV boots up. The same scenes exhibit less than adequate black levels. Watching horror TV shows like FX's American Horror Story: Freak Show made nighttime scenes extra difficult to see finer details.
That didn't matter in moderately sunlit scenes or brightly-lit Blu-ray movies like Office Space. Colors are fairly accurate for the TCL Roku TV's class, and if you bring this TV home from the store and the skin tones aren't to your liking, there's a surface-level deep adjustments menu.
An advanced picture settings menu for changing the color, tint and color temperature join the usual options of picture mode, backlight, brightness, contrast and sharpness.
Finally, games moved without input lag between my controller, next-gen consoles and screen. This makes the TCL Roku TV an easy choice for gamers who just ponied up for an Xbox One or PS4 and want to save cash on a brand-new HDTV.
