As for modern TV designs, the TCL 50S425 is pretty basic, with minimal black bezels around the display, a pair of simple plastic feet for the stand, and a matte-black panel at the rear of the chassis. The black back panel is accented with a row of tessellated triangles at the top and a strip of ridges just above the component box that makes up the bottom half of the TV chassis. Ideally, these are purely aesthetic adornments, with no functional purpose.

Measuring 49 x 28.4 x 3.1 inches without the stand, the TCL 4-Series is small enough that one person can assemble and move the set, but the 26.7-pound weight is still big enough that a second person is recommended. Its 3.1-inch-thick design may have persevered a wall with a 200 x 200 millimeter VESA mount, however, it’s going to stick out a couple of inches from the wall.

Ports & Inputs

Port and input selection comes in the way of three HDMI ports, including HDMI ARC for connecting a soundbar without running an additional audio cable. You also have an ethernet jack for wired web connectivity, while 802.11ac Wi-Fi is obtainable for wireless connections.

There’s a single USB 2.0 port for viewing digital media files or powering a streaming stick, whereas an RF connecter allows you to attach an HDTV antenna for over-the-air broadcasts. additional ports include a composite video input, optical digital output for surround, and a 3.5-millimeter jack for headphones or a stereo patch cable.

Roku TV & Remote

The included Roku TV remote is a standard, infrared-only model. You shouldn’t confuse this with the enhanced Roku TV remote equipped with a high-end microphone that allows you to use Roku’s voice search features. It’s a small plastic stick with a curved end and a separate direction pad. The Roku app for Android and iOS lets you use voice search if you want, though the functions of Roku are still comparable to the Amazon Alexa found on Amazon Fire TV, Google Assistant on Android TV devices, and Siri on Apple TV. are limited.

With the Roku TV platform, the TCL 50S425 will access a large range of streaming services. Major players here embody Amazon Prime Video, DirecTV currently, Google Play Movies & TV, Hulu, Netflix, Vue, Sling, Vudu, and YouTube. As expected, Apple is missing from the list and Google Music isn’t even available, but you still have access to Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, and many other streaming services.

Many other satellite providers have Roku apps that allow you to access their VOD libraries and even TVs directly through the TV, without necessarily having to connect a set-top box. If you don’t want to subscribe to a service, the Roku channel offers its own library of free movies and TV shows.

Performance

The TCL 50S425 features a 4K display that fires up a full 3840 x 2160 resolution, with direct backlighting and HDR (High Dynamic Range) support. The result is a relatively gooey (if basic) viewing experience and a better viewing experience than you’d expect in this price range.

TCL 4K Roku TVs register 97.4% of Rec. 709 color gamut, which is better than the Vizio V505-G9 (96.65%) but not as wide as the 98.3% we saw on the Samsung 40-inch NU7100. However, while we’d like to see 4K TVs measure closer to 100%, the TCL is within the range we’d expect for lower-cost models.

The TCL 50S425 is no different when it comes to brightness, even in Bright (HDR) mode with the backlight on; It maxes out at 244.05cd/m2, which is half of the 488.01cd/m2 peak brightness on the 6-series. Again, it lacks the local dimming that’s available on the 6-Series, and its Dynamic Contrast settings can only illuminate or dim the entire screen at once.

When watching the BBC’s Planet Earth II, the visuals look great, though you can easily spot the TV’s dimmer screen and smaller color range than the 6-Series or more expensive sets like LG’s OLED55C9PUA or Samsung’s QN55Q70RAFXZA. Nevertheless, the trees and blue-green colors on the “Island” episode look clear and natural, although fine textures such as fur and bark are crisp when well-lit. That said, shadows do get a bit blurry, and fairly dim screens don’t look as vibrant as they do on brighter panels.

Gaming Performance

Unlike other sets, the TCL 4 Series TVs don’t offer any type of automatic switching to game modes or detection of a game console, such as the Xbox One X. When you switch to game mode, it’s a bit intuitive, as the mode isn’t offered in the regular selection of picture modes, and requires navigating to a separate menu of advanced picture settings to activate.

The 50S425 supports 4K gaming, and you can stream content at 24Hz with 10-bit color support. However, this panel doesn’t support additional frame rates for streamed content, nor does it support HDR mode for gaming or streaming. It’s okay if HDR content isn’t at the top of your list, but that doesn’t mean games will look any less impressive than on other 4K sets.

And, while this TV doesn’t offer HDR support when gaming, it does offer great response times, an essential feature in fast-paced games. If there’s an area this set is lacking, it has to be audio. With a pair of 8-watt speakers juicing up the audio, the overall volume is heavy and relatively weak, and not suitable for rooms that have a lot of ambient noise.

Input Lag

Input lag is the time it takes for the display to update after receiving the signal, and it’s one of the few areas in which the 50S425 advances a modest score. The HDTV showed an input lag of 32.4 milliseconds, which is better than most budget sets we reviewed.

If you enable Game Mode, input lag improves at the slightest cost of picture quality, dropping to an excellent 15.3 ms. For watching HD movies and videos, it’s all about the best 4K performance you can get on a budget TV.