The TCL 4 Series/S455 2022, or the TCL 4 Series for short, is an entry-level 4k TV released in 2022 and replaces the TCL 4 Series/S435 2020. It sits alongside the TCL 4 Series/S446 2021, but that series runs a different smart interface. It runs the latest Roku smart interface, which is relatively unchanged from previous versions. As an entry-level TV, it's pretty basic and doesn't have any advanced gaming features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth or variable refresh rate support. It also has very limited picture and motion processing, with no advanced features like motion interpolation.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is decent, but it's not very versatile. It's a decent TV for watching movies or shows in a dark or moderately-lit room, thanks to its high contrast ratio and incredible black uniformity. It doesn't look as good in a bright room or if you have a wide seating arrangement, as it's not very bright and has a narrow viewing angle. These issues also limit its versatility for use as a PC monitor. It delivers a decent gaming experience, but it's mainly due to its low input lag, as it lacks any advanced gaming features. Finally, it technically supports HDR but doesn't deliver a very impactful HDR experience for gaming or watching movies, as it's not very bright and doesn't display a wide color gamut.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is a decent TV for watching movies in a dark room. It has fantastic contrast and incredible black uniformity, delivering deep uniform blacks in a dark room, but it lacks a local dimming feature to improve contrast. Thanks to its relatively slow response time, there's very little stutter, and it removes judder automatically from 24p sources, including Blu-ray players or most streaming sticks. It also upscales lower-resolution content well, including if you're watching movies on DVDs.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is an okay TV for watching shows during the day. It upscales lower resolution content, like classic TV shows, well, with no noticeable issues. The built-in Roku smart interface has a great selection of streaming apps, including many free services, so you're sure to find your favorite shows. Sadly, even though it has decent reflection handling, it's not very bright, so it's best suited for a moderately-lit or dark room. It also has a narrow viewing angle, so it's not a good choice for a wide seating arrangement, as the image degrades at an angle. Finally, it's limited to ATSC 1.0, so it can't stream 4k content from an antenna without an external converter box.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is okay for watching sports in a bright room. It has decent reflection handling, but it's not very bright, so glare is distracting in a bright room. It also has a narrow viewing angle, so it's not a good choice for a wide seating arrangement, as the image degrades when viewed at an angle. Unfortunately, it's not very loud, so it's not a good choice for watching the big game with a large group of friends unless you have a separate speaker system or soundbar. It also has just okay gray uniformity, and there's noticeable dirty screen effect in the center, which is distracting when watching sports.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is a decent TV for gaming. It has incredibly low input lag, which helps it deliver a very responsive gaming experience. It also has a decent response time, so there's just a bit of blur behind fast-moving objects. Sadly, it lacks advanced gaming features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth or variable refresh rate support, so it's best suited for casual gamers who prefer fancy visuals over high performance, as it doesn't support 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the latest consoles.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is an alright TV for watching movies in HDR in a dark room. It has fantastic contrast and incredible black uniformity, delivering deep uniform blacks in a dark room, but it lacks a local dimming feature to improve the appearance of bright highlights. Sadly, HDR adds very little overall, as it's not bright enough for bright highlights to stand out the way the content creator intended, and it doesn't display a wide color gamut, so HDR content looks dull overall.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is an okay TV for gaming in HDR. It has incredibly low input lag, ensuring it delivers a responsive gaming experience, and it has a decent response time, with just a bit of blur behind fast-moving objects. Unfortunately, it lacks advanced gaming features like 4k @ 120Hz support or variable refresh rate support, and HDR overall adds very little, as it's not bright enough for bright highlights to pop, and it doesn't display a wide color gamut.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is a decent TV for use as a PC monitor. It has incredibly low input lag and a decent response time, so your cursor movements are smooth and responsive. It displays chroma 4:4:4 signals properly to help with text clarity, but sadly, it uses a BGR subpixel layout, which not all programs support. On the other hand, it has decent reflection handling but mediocre peak brightness, so it's best suited for a moderately-lit or dark room. The image degrades at an angle, so it's important to not sit too close to it, or the sides of the screen will degrade.
We tested the 65-inch TCL 4 Series Roku TV, and these results are also valid for the 43, 50, 55, 75, and 85-inch models. There's a Black Friday variant of this TV known as the TCL S45, which performs the same as this TV. This TV is also sold as the TCL S451 and the TCL S453, but not all sizes are available on all three variants. These three models perform the same, but the S453 variant comes with a 3-year warranty instead of the 1-year warranty on the other models.
Unfortunately, TCL releases different lineups in different regions, so this specific model isn't sold outside of North America.
Size | Black Friday Variant | S451 Model Number | S453 Model Number | S455 Model Number |
43" | - | 43S451 | 43S453 | 43S455 |
50" | 50S45 | 50S451 | 50S453 | 50S455 |
55" | - | 55S451 | 55S453 | 55S455 |
58" | - | - | - | 58S455 |
65" | - | 65S451 | 65S453 | 65S455 |
75" | 75S45 | 75S451 | 75S453 | 75S455 |
85" | - | 85S451 | - | 85S455 |
You can see the label for our unit here.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is an okay entry-level 4k TV. It delivers okay picture quality, but there are better options for gaming in this price range.
See our recommendations for the best budget TVs, the best small TVs, and the best Roku TVs.
The TCL 4 Series/S455 2022 and the Samsung TU7000 are very similar overall. The TCL is a bit more versatile, as it has more HDMI inputs than the Samsung, meaning you can connect more devices. Both TVs deliver similar picture quality and motion handling, but the TCL can remove judder from 24p sources, like a Blu-ray player, so it's a bit better for movie lovers. On the other hand, the Samsung sounds better, so if you want to watch shows without a soundbar or separate speaker system, the Samsung is a bit better.
The TCL 4 Series/S455 2022 is slightly better overall than the Samsung CU7000. Even though the TCL also lacks local dimming, it has a much better contrast ratio than the Samsung and has much better black uniformity, making it better for watching movies or playing cinematic games. The CU7000, however, has a faster response time, making it better for fast-action in games as well as for watching sports, but this also introduces stutter in movies.
The Hisense U6G is significantly better than the TCL 4 Series/S455 2022. HDR looks much better on the Hisense, as it gets significantly brighter, and its full array local dimming feature helps it deliver bright highlights that stand out. The Hisense also has a much wider color gamut, so HDR content looks more vivid and lifelike. The Hisense is also brighter in SDR, so it can handle more glare in a bright room.
The TCL 4 Series/S455 2022 is a bit better than the TCL 4 Series/S435 2020. The 2022 version looks a bit better in a dark room, as it has much better black uniformity, with less cloudiness in dark scenes. The 2022 version also gets a bit brighter, and it supports eARC instead of just ARC, allowing you to pass high-quality lossless audio signals through to your connected soundbar or home theater receiver.
The TCL 4 Series/S455 2022 and the Amazon Fire TV Omni Series are very similar overall. The TCL is a slightly better choice for a darker room, as it has better black uniformity, with less cloudiness in dark scenes. The Amazon, on the other hand, gets a bit brighter, so it can handle a brighter room slightly better.
The V-shaped feet are wide-set, so they take up a lot of space, and you'll need a large table for the 65 and 75-inch sizes if you're not planning on wall-mounting it.
Footprint of the 65-inch model: 50.8" x 11.6". The feet lift the TV about 2.6" above the table, so most soundbars don't fit without blocking the IR receiver for the remote and part of the screen.
The inputs face to the side, but they're housed in a central electronics box, so they're difficult to access if you wall-mount the TV. There's no cable management at all.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has mediocre peak brightness in SDR. It's bright enough to overcome glare in most moderately lit rooms, but not if you have a lot of windows or bright lights. There's no variation in peak brightness with different scenes.
These measurements are after calibration, in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with the Brightness set to 'Max', Contrast at 'Max', and the Color Temperature set to 'Warm'. Changing the Picture Mode to 'Vivid' results in a slightly brighter image, reaching a peak of 338 cd/m² with a 2% window, but it's not as accurate.
Unfortunately, the TCL 4 Series Roku TV has poor peak brightness in HDR. It's not bright enough to deliver an impactful HDR experience, as bright highlights don't stand out or look very realistic.
These measurements are with the default settings in the 'Dark HDR' Picture Mode, with the Color Temperature set to 'Warm'. The 'Bright HDR' Picture Mode is a bit brighter, reaching a peak of 338 cd/m² with a 10% window, but it's still not bright enough for an impactful HDR experience.
There's no noticeable difference in brightness between the regular HDR peak brightness measurements and the peak brightness in 'Game' Mode.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV tracks the PQ EOTF incredibly well. Near blacks are boosted a bit, causing a loss of fine shadow details, but midtones display properly. Bright scenes are cut off, unfortunately, as the TV clips bright highlights, causing a loss of fine details.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has excellent gradient handling. There's some noticeable banding in all shades, and it's worse in shades of gray and greens, but it's not too bad. There's a noise reduction feature to reduce banding, but it doesn't do anything with either real content or test patterns.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has a fair color gamut in HDR. It has good coverage of the DCI-P3 color space used by most current HDR content, so most content is displays properly and looks realistic. Coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space is disappointing, though, as it can't display a wide color gamut and tone maps more aggressively, meaning content mastered in this color space appears dull, and there's a loss of fine detail in scenes that contain highly saturated colors. If you want a budget-friendly TV that displays a wide range of colors, look into the Vizio M6 Series Quantum 2022.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has mediocre color volume. It's mainly limited by its incomplete color gamut in both DCI-P3 and Rec. 2020, but due to its low peak brightness, colors aren't very bright. Despite its high contrast ratio, it can't display dark saturated colors very well.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has just okay accuracy out of the box. The white balance is excellent, with no noticeable issues, and gamma is close to the 2.2 target we use for a moderately-lit room, but most scenes are a bit too bright. Unfortunately, color accuracy is bad, with noticeable issues in every color. Colors are noticeably off even with most real content.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has excellent accuracy after calibration, but it's worse than most similar TVs. The white balance is easy to calibrate and looks fantastic after calibration. There are no noticeable issues with shades of gray, and gamma follows the 2.2 target perfectly. The color temperature is perfect. Unfortunately, colors are still noticeably off, and the TV can't display them properly. These issues make it nearly impossible to improve color accuracy on this TV.
You can see the full calibration settings for this TV here.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has okay gray uniformity. There's significant vignetting, as the corners are much darker than the center. There's also a disappointing amount of dirty screen effect in the center, which is distracting when watching sports or displaying anything with large areas of uniform color.
Unfortunately, the TCL 4 Series Roku TV has a disappointing viewing angle, so it's not ideal for a wide seating arrangement, as anyone sitting off-center will see a washed-out image. There's also significant color shift when looking at the screen off-center, so it's not ideal for use as a PC monitor, as the sides of the screen shift in color.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has decent reflection handling. The semi-gloss coating reduces the intensity of direct reflections a bit, but they're still noticeable, so it's not ideal for use in a bright room.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV uses a BGR subpixel layout, which is fine for video content and games. Unfortunately, this reduces text clarity if you're planning on using the TV as a PC monitor, but there are ways to work around it, so it's not a dealbreaker. You can read more about this here.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has a decent response time. Transitions to and from dark shades are significantly longer than bright shades, causing a long trail behind fast-moving objects with darker shades. Brighter shades look a bit better overall, and there's no overshoot in any transition, which is great.
Unfortunately, this TV isn't always flicker-free. The exact setting depends on the picture mode you're using, but a brightness setting of 18/100 or lower with the 'Movie' Picture Mode causes it to flicker at a low frequency. This flicker causes distracting duplications in motion and can cause headaches in people sensitive to flicker. Thankfully, this is pretty dim, corresponding to a brightness of about 90 cd/m², which is too dim for most viewing environments, so it's not really an issue. If you're particularly sensitive to flicker, check out the Samsung CU7000/CU7000D, a comparable TV with much better performance in this regard.
There's no backlight-strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, on the TCL 4 Series Roku TV. It always flickers at a fixed frequency unless you have the backlight above about 18/100. This low-frequency flicker acts similar to a BFI feature and helps reduce persistence blur, but it also causes a noticeable image duplication.
This TV doesn't have an optional motion interpolation feature.
Due to the relatively slow response time, there's very little stutter when watching movies or other low frame rate content. It's still a bit noticeable in slow panning shots, but it's better than most TVs.
This TV automatically removes judder from 24p sources, including Blu-ray players and streaming sticks with a Match Frame Rate feature or from the native apps. Sadly, it doesn't remove judder from devices that send a 60Hz signal, including most cable boxes.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV is limited to a fixed 60Hz refresh rate. It doesn't have a variable refresh rate feature, so you'll see more tearing in games.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV has incredibly low input lag, delivering a smooth, responsive gaming or desktop experience if you're using it as a PC monitor.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV supports most common resolutions, but only at 60Hz. 1440p is supported, but you have to force it either through a custom resolution on a PC or by manually setting the resolution on some game consoles. Chroma 4:4:4 signals are displayed properly with 1080p or 4k signals, but not with 1440p signals. This is essential for clear text from a PC.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV doesn't support everything the PS5 has to offer, as it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, and it doesn't support a variable refresh rate. It automatically switches to the low input lag 'Game' mode, as long as you have Auto Low Latency Mode enabled for the input you're using.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV can't take full advantage of the Xbox Series S|X, as it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate and doesn't support a variable refresh rate. It automatically switches to the low input lag 'Game' mode, as long as you have Auto Low Latency Mode enabled for the input you're using.
Unfortunately, the HDMI ports are limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, and the tuner is limited to ATSC 1.0, so you can't stream 4k content over the air.
The TCL 4 Series Roku TV supports eARC, allowing you to pass high-quality, uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver through an HDMI cable. Unfortunately, it doesn't support DTS audio formats, which is disappointing, as many Blu-rays use DTS for their main audio track. If you plan on watching Blu-ray movies, it's best to connect your player directly to your audio receiver or soundbar.
Unfortunately, the TCL 4 Series Roku TV has a sub-par frequency response. The low-frequency extension (LFE) is very high, so there's very little thump or rumble in its bass. The frequency response isn't well balanced above the LFE, either, so dialogue is a bit muddy, and there's no room correction feature. It doesn't get very loud, either, so it's not a good choice for a noisy environment.
Unfortunately, like all Roku devices and most TVs on the market, there are large ads on the home page. You can opt out of suggested content and personalized ads, but this doesn't change the number of ads you see; they'll just be less personalized.
This TV comes with the same basic remote as all recent TCL TVs. There's no mic for voice control on the remote itself, but you can use voice control through the Roku app on your phone. It allows you to change inputs, launch apps, and search for content. The app also features a private listening feature, which lets you transfer audio from the native apps to your phone's speaker or connected headphones. Many of the advanced picture settings are only available through the Roku companion app.