TCL Flat Screen TV 1080p Roku Smart LED

Buy this TV on Amazon - https://amzn.to/2Qp5Z1I LED Light Strip on Amazon - http://amzn.to/2gC96jb This is my review of the TCL 1080p Roku Smart LED TV. I’ve had this TV for a couple months now and overall I’m very happy with it. It’s one of the least expensive smart TVs with Roku built-in that you can buy. As of recording this video, the price is $250 in the US with free shipping. TCL TV’s come in a lot of different sizes, 28, 32, 40, 48, 50, and 55. This one here is a 40 inch which fits perfects on my little table. They even have some larger sizes with 4K capability. Because it’s a smart TV it does have built-in WIFI so there’s no need to hook up any wires to your Router. Dual-band WIFI (support 2.4GHz & 5GHz), so as long as your connection speed is good, this TV will stream very high-quality video with no problem. Unfortunately, the included remote is IR so it will need line of sight to work with the TV. That’s why I highly recommend the free Roku app on your smartphone. It will work through WIFI so no matter where you’re at in your house; you can fully control the TV. The Roku app is pretty robust. It will let you play video and add photos from you phone to your TV. It’s also very useful when you’re trying to search for a particular show because it’ll pull up a keyboard, instead of trying to use the arrow keys to search for all the letters. I wanted to get away from paying for cable and switch to more a la cart programming. Basically, just paying for what you want. While there are a lot of free Apps, like YouTube, Vimeo, and Ted talks (which are my favorite free apps) you do still have to pay for your internet connection. My favorite paid apps are Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu, and Amazon Video. In total there are over 3,000 streaming channels so you have tons of options to get exactly what you want. The faster your connection, the higher quality your videos will stream. From my experience, you’ll want at least 6mb download speed. And that can vary from ISP to ISP. I’ve noticed cable being a lot faster than DSL. And if you’re lucky enough to have Google fiber then you probably will never have to wait for a video to buffer. Any lower than that and your video will look grainy and will probably buffer more than you’ll like. The stand on a 40” TV is 33 inches in length. It's almost 2 inches shorter than the length of the TV so you will need a longer table compared to tvs with a stand located in the middle. One advantage of this type of stand is how stable it is compared to tvs with stands located in the middle. The outer edge is only ½ inch thick but quickly widens to allow space for components. You can also mount this to the TCL TV to a wall. It has a standard VESA hole pattern. It does come with 3 HDMI ports, headphone jack, USB and digital optical output. I personally like the USB port so I can load movies on a USB drive and play them without a DVD player. The Good: The built-in Roku means fewer wires and clutter. I have a stand along with Roku device at home and even when the TV is off, the Roku is always very warm so I usually end up unplugging is when I’m not using. Bright vibrant colors, motion scenes look clean and clear. Viewing from the sides didn’t lose much contrast which is impressive for the price of this TV. The Bad: The biggest negative about this TV is that it has a hard time with darker shades of grey and black. Most people might not even notice it but if I had to nitpick I’d have to say that it doesn’t do a good job at reproducing dark scenes. The Bottom Line is that this affordable TV offers outstanding value for everything you get.