TCL 4 Series/S434 Android 2020 TV Review

The TCL S434 is an entry-level 4k TV 2020 model. It's TCL's only 4k TV available with Android TV in North America, and it's a variant of the TCL 4 Series 2020, which has Roku TV instead. Its main competitors are the Toshiba Fire TV 2020, Hisense H6510G, and the Vizio V Series 2020.

This TV has an okay design and looks exactly like the TCL 4 Series 2020. It's made out of a mix of plastic and metal and feels cheap overall. It has wide-set feet and relatively thin borders, which is a nice touch for a budget-friendly model.

The plastic feet are nearly as wide as the TV itself, so you may need a large table to place it on. The stand holds the TV fairly well, but there's still a bit of wobble.

Footprint of the 55" TV: 38.7" x 12.2".

The back panel is the same as the TCL 4 Series 2020. It's made out of a thin sheet of metal, and the part where the inputs are has a cheap plastic covering. Unfortunately, there's no cable management.

The borders are relatively thin, especially for an entry-level TV, and shouldn't be distracting.

This TV is somewhat thick, but shouldn't stick out too much when wall-mounted.

The TCL 55S434 has an okay build quality. All the materials used feel cheap, it wobbles a bit, and there's noticeable flex. There's nothing that stands out about it, but that's expected for an entry-level model.

The TCL 55S434 has an amazing contrast ratio, which is expected from a VA panel. It displays deep blacks, but there's no local dimming feature to improve it. Note that contrast may vary between units.

This TV doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.

The TCL 55S434 has poor SDR peak brightness. Although it maintains its brightness very consistent across different content, it doesn't get bright enough to combat glare.

We measured peak brightness after calibration in the 'Movie' Picture Mode. If you don't care about image accuracy and want the brightest image possible, we reached 277 cd/m² in the 2% window in the 'Vivid' Picture Mode.

The TCL 55S434 has bad HDR peak brightness. It gets brighter than in SDR, but it's not enough to make highlights pop the way the creator intended.

We measured peak brightness in the 'Movie HDR' Picture Mode. We reached a brighter but less accurate image in the 'Vivid HDR' Picture Mode, as we achieved 279 cd/m² in the 2% window.

The TCL 55S434 has okay gray uniformity. The edges are noticeably darker, and there's some backlight bleed as well. There's also dirty screen effect in the center, which could get distracting during sports. The uniformity is a bit better in near-dark scenes, but the backlight bleed is more visible. Note that gray uniformity may differ between units.

This TV has narrow viewing angles, which is expected from a VA panel. You quickly lose image accuracy as you start to move off-center.

Black uniformity is great. There's noticeable backlight bleed along the left and right edges, but besides that, there's no clouding or blooming around the center cross. Uniformity may vary between units.

This TV has decent reflection handling. It handles a moderate amount of light well but struggles if you place it in a room with a ton of glare.

The TCL 55S434 has amazing out-of-the-box accuracy. This is great if you want accurate colors and don't want to spend extra to get it calibrated. There are hardly any noticeable inaccuracies with most colors and white balance. The color temperature is a bit colder than the 6500K target, so the image may seem like it has a blue tint. Unfortunately, gamma doesn't follow the target very well, and most scenes are darker than they should be. Note that out-of-the-box accuracy may vary between units.

The TCL 55S434 has incredible accuracy after calibration. Any remaining inaccuracies can't be spotted with the naked eye. Gamma follows the target almost perfectly, and even though the color temperature didn't improve, it's still close to the target.

You can see our recommended settings here.

The TCL 4 Series Android TV displays 480p content, such as from DVDs, well. It doesn't have the same scaling issues that we experienced with the TCL 4 Series 2020.

720p content, such as from a cable box, is upscaled well without any obvious artifacts.

1080p content, like Blu-rays, looks almost as good as native 4k content.

The TCL 55S434 displays native 4k content perfectly, and there aren't any visible issues.

This is a 4k TV that can't display 8k content.

This TV uses a BGR subpixel layout, which can affect the way text is rendered when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read about it here.

Note: We received reports that the 65 inch model has a different panel type, with the pixel structure looking similar to the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED, as you can see here. We don't know how this affects picture quality, as it's also a VA panel. If you have the same panel type on a 65 inch model, let us know.

The color gamut is okay, but it's not considered a wide color gamut for HDR content. It has good coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3 color space, but its coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 is limited.

The EOTF follows the target curve fairly well, except most scenes are a bit too dark. 'Game' mode is a bit brighter, as you can see in this EOTF. If you find HDR too dim, setting Gamma to '1.8' and Dynamic Contrast to 'High' results in a brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF.

This TV has a disappointing color gamut. It's mainly limited by its lack of wide color gamut and low peak brightness. However, it displays dark colors well thanks to its high contrast ratio.

This TV has amazing gradient handling, better than the TCL 4 Series 2020. There's only a bit of banding in the grays and light greens, but it's not very noticeable. The Gradation Clear setting doesn't improve the gradients in the test pattern or real content.

There aren't any signs of image retention, but this may vary between units.

We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.

The TCL 55S434 has a decent response time. However, there's noticeable smearing with fast-moving content because of its slower response time and overshoot in darker transitions. The backlight's flicker frequency also causes image duplication.

The TCL 55S434 uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight. It flickers at 120Hz whenever you set the Brightness setting to '28' or below. It's flicker-free above that backlight level.

There's no optional Black Frame Insertion feature. The TV flickers at 120Hz if you set the Brightness to '28' or below.

This TV doesn't have a motion interpolation feature.

Due to the slower response time, lower-frame rate content doesn't appear to stutter.

Unlike the TCL 4 Series 2020, the TCL 55S434 can't remove judder from any source.

The TCL 4 Series Android TV has a basic 60Hz panel and doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology.

This TV has an excellent low input lag, and it's even lower than the TCL 4 Series 2020. It's equally low whether you're gaming in 1080p or 4k. Sadly, it increases when gaming in HDR, and it may be too high for competitive gaming. You need to be in 'Game' mode to achieve the lowest input lag possible, and there's no 'Auto Low Latency Mode' that automatically switches the TV into 'Game' mode.

If you want to use this TV as a computer monitor and want the lowest input lag, set the Picture Mode to 'PC' or 'Game'.

This TV supports most common resolutions at 60Hz. It displays chroma 4:4:4 at 1080p and 4k, which is important for reading fine text if you want to use it as a monitor. You simply need to be in 'Game' or 'PC' mode for it to work. Unlike most TVs, there's no setting to enable full HDMI 2.0 bandwidth; it does it automatically.

Unlike the TCL 4 Series 2020, the TCL 55S434 comes with an adapter for the Composite In, which is great if you have old video sources, such as a DVD player or an old console.

There's no setting you need to enable to achieve HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, and it works by default.

The TCL 55S434 only supports the Dolby Digital audio format over optical or ARC. Set Digital Audio Out to 'Pass Through' and enable T-Link for it to work. If you need a TV that can pass DTS audio, then you should get the TCL 4 Series 2020 instead.

The TCL 55S434 has a disappointing frequency response. It has a well-balanced sound profile, which is good for listening to dialogue. Unfortunately, it doesn't produce much bass, so you may need to get a soundbar to get true bass. It gets fairly loud, but it may not be enough for a noisy environment.

This TV has okay distortion performance. There isn't much distortion at moderate listening levels, but it gets a lot more audible at its max volume. However, this depends on the content, and not everyone may hear it.

What sets this TV apart from the TCL 4 Series 2020 is that it has Android TV instead of Roku TV, which is what's found with most TCL TVs. Android TV is fairly easy-to-use, and the menu navigation feels smooth for the most part. It's the same version of Android found on Sony TVs, such as the Sony X750H, but there aren't as many picture settings available.

Unfortunately, there are ads and suggestions on the home screen. You can't opt-out of the ads, and even though you can choose to opt-out of suggested content, you'll simply receive non-targeted content instead.

Android TV's Google Play Store has a massive selection of apps available to download, and they run smoothly for the most part.

The TCL 55S434 comes with a basic remote that has shortcut buttons to Netflix, YouTube, and Google Assistant. You can use the voice control to ask for most common demands, such as searching for content, opening apps, and changing inputs, but you can't ask it to change certain settings. There's a CEC setting, but this remote doesn't have a working CEC feature, so you can't use it as a universal remote. There's a feature with an on-screen remote that aims to be a digital universal remote, but it doesn't work properly and it's not easy-to-use.

There's a single button underneath the TCL branding at the center of the screen. You can power the TV On/Off and change inputs.

• Remote (with 2x AAA batteries)
• Composite In adapter
• User manual