With Ultra HD TV prices falling faster than the NY Mets’ playoff hopes, TCL—a TV manufacturer that until recently controlled the RCA TV brand here in the U.S.—will be selling a 50-inch Ultra HD TV in September with a suggested price of $999.
That price hits a new low for an Ultra HD set, at nearly $400 below the current $1,400 selling price of the 50-inch Seiki E50UY04 set. That TV, a model we fully tested and included in our current TV Ratings, was briefly available for about $1,000 earlier this year.
Like Seiki’s low-priced model, the TCL LE50 Ultra HD set—which features a slim-bezel design with a gunmetal gray finish—has an edge-LED backlight and a claimed 120Hz refresh rate, plus four HDMI inputs (including one MHL-enabled input for connecting a smart phone or tablet). But it lacks other features, such as Wi-Fi, access to Internet content, and 3D. Like all the other Ultra HD set’s we’ve seen, it has a 3840x2160 screen resolution, and upscales 1080p and 1080i content to its native resolution.
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TCL also announced a new flagship 5510 series of LED-backlit LCD TVs, which hit in August. The sets, available in 40-inch ($399), 46-inch ($499), and 55-inch ($799) screen sizes, all have edge LED backlights and a claimed 120Hz refresh rate, as well as MHL-enabled HDMI inputs. The top-of-the-line 55-inch set is a smart TV with built-in Wi-Fi and access to Netflix, YouTube, and Yahoo’s apps platform. This set has a two-year warranty, longer than most sets.
We currently have two other TCL TVs in our TV Ratings. Both sets are fairly basic models with middle-of-the-road performance, but deliver very good overall picture quality at a fairly low price.
Based on what we heard at CES earlier this year, we're expecting to see more low-priced Ultra HD TVs announced this fall, from secondary TV brands including Haier, Hisense, and Westinghouse. Keep checking back for all our TV updates.
—James K. Willcox
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