TCL 5 Series/S535 2020 QLED TV Review

The TCL 5 Series has a good design. It's an improvement over the TCL 5 Series/S525 2019 because it has thin bezels and a new design on the back. This TV also has new feet that include cable management, which is a nice addition. It's made out of metal and plastic, but it doesn't have the same premium look as the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED.

The stand is as wide as the TV itself, so you need a large table to place it on. The legs feel a bit flimsy, but they hold the TV well and there isn't much wobble. You can't place the feet in a reverse position either.

Footprint of the 55" stand: 47.1" x 11.5"

The back of the TV is mostly made out of metal, except the part where the inputs are housed in is plastic. Cable management is serviced through the feet.

The borders are thin and aren't distracting.

This TV is somewhat thick. The bottom part where the inputs are stands out a bit, so the TV sticks out when wall-mounted.

The build quality is decent. The TCL 5 Series is a well-built TV overall and feels solid. The top half of the back is made out of thin metal that feels fairly solid, but flexes a bit. The bottom half is plastic and feels cheap. The stand is a bit flimsy too, but it holds the TV well.

The TCL 5 Series has an exceptional contrast ratio. It displays deep blacks when viewed in the dark. The full-array local dimming feature improves the contrast a bit. Note that contrast may vary between units.

The SDR peak brightness is mediocre, and significantly worse than the Hisense U6G and the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED. This TV's brightness doesn't remain consistent across different content, as very small and very large areas don't get as bright. For the most part, it doesn't get bright enough to combat glare. The newer model of this TV, the TCL 5 Series/S546 2021 QLED, gets much brighter.

We measured the peak brightness after calibration, in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with Local Contrast set to 'High', Gamma set to '2.2', and Backlight at max.

If you don't care about image accuracy and want the brightest image possible, use the 'Normal' Picture Mode with Backlight at max.

Update 07/16/2021: We uploaded the real content local dimming videos.

New to the TCL 5 Series compared to the TCL 5 Series/S525 2019 is a full-array local dimming feature and it performs fairly well. It raises the black level, which causes the image to appear a bit brighter and black backgrounds to appear closer to gray, but it also helps the screen look more uniform. There isn't any black crush, so small light sources pop well, such as in a star field.

There's only a bit of blooming in our test pattern and it's not very noticeable in real content. Subtitles don't get very bright and there's a lot less blooming than the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED. Fast-moving objects transition between zones quickly and there's a bit of blur trail behind fast-moving objects in our test pattern. However, it's not distracting and it's hardly visible in real content.

We tested local dimming with Local Contrast set to 'High'. Also, the larger variants have more dimming zones, so they may perform better.

Update 07/16/2021: We uploaded the real content local dimming videos.

The TCL S535 has poor HDR peak brightness. It only gets a bit brighter in HDR than in SDR and it's not nearly as bright as the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED. Once again, its brightness doesn't remain consistent with different content.

We measured the peak brightness in the 'Dark HDR' Picture Mode with Local Contrast set to 'High', Gamma set to '2.2', and both Contrast and Backlight at their max.

If you want the brightest image possible and don't care about image accuracy, use the 'Normal HDR' Picture Mode with Local Contrast on 'High' and Backlight at its max.

The gray uniformity is okay, but this may vary between units. The edges of the screen are visibly darker and there's dirty screen effect in the center, which may be distracting when watching sports. In near-dark scenes, the screen is more uniform, but there's vignetting in the corners.

Black uniformity is good, but this may vary between units. There's a bit of backlight bleed and clouding throughout, but there's no blooming around the center cross. With local dimming, there's less backlight bleed but more blooming around the cross.

The viewing angles are poor, which is expected from a TV with a VA panel. You quickly lose image accuracy when viewing from the side, so it's not suggested if you have a wide seating arrangement.

The TCL S535 has decent reflection handling. It performs well in moderately-lit rooms. However, if you place it opposite a window, the reflections may become too distracting. If you prefer something with better reflection handling, then check out the Hisense U6GR.

The out-of-the-box color accuracy is great, but this may vary between units. Most colors and shades of gray are accurate, except the color temperature is a bit warm, giving the image a red/yellow tint. Gamma follows the target almost perfectly, so most scenes are displayed at their correct brightness.

The TCL S535 has remarkable accuracy after calibration. Except for cyan, most colors are accurate and the color temperature is extremely close to the 6500K target.

In order to calibrate this TV, you have to download the Roku app on your mobile device and connect it to your TV.

You can see our recommended settings here.

480p content looks great, with no obvious issues.

720p content, like from cable TV, looks great.

1080p content looks excellent, almost as good as native 4k content.

The TCL 5 Series displays 4k content perfectly.

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

The TCL S535 uses a BGR subpixel layout, which can affect the way text is displayed when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read about it here.

The TCL S535 has an excellent color gamut. It's a QLED TV that displays a really wide color gamut for HDR content, and it's a significant improvement over the TCL 5 Series/S525 2019. It has outstanding coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3 color space and good coverage of the wider Rec. 2020.

The EOTF follows the target curve almost perfectly until it rolls off at its peak brightness. The image is a bit brighter in 'Game' mode, as you can see the EOTF here.

If you find HDR too dim, use the 'Dark HDR' Picture Mode, set Contrast and Backlight to their max, and Local Contrast to 'Medium'. It makes the image a bit brighter, as you can see in this EOTF. Setting Local Contrast to 'Medium' results in a higher EOTF than setting it to 'High', but we got a max brightness of 397 cd/m² with 'Medium' versus 414 cd/m² with 'High'.

This TV has good color volume. It displays deep, saturated colors well due to its exceptional contrast. However, it fails to display bright blues, which is typical of an LCD TV.

The TCL 55S535 has impressive gradient handling, much better than the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED. There's some banding with grays and darker colors, but overall, it shouldn't be noticeable with most content. Sadly, the Noise Reduction setting doesn't improve the gradient handling at all.

This TV shows no signs of temporary 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 response time is very good. It's a bit slow with darker transitions, which may lead to some motion blur, but there's no overshoot. Overall, fast-moving content on this TV looks smooth.

This TV uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight at all brightness levels. The high flicker frequency shouldn't bother most people.

There's a Black Frame Insertion (BFI) feature to help reduce motion blur. It reduces the flicker frequency to 60Hz and doesn't dim the screen much. However, it may cause some image duplication, as seen in the photo above. To enable the BFI, simply turn on LED Motion Clarity.

The TCL 5 Series can interpolate motion up to 60fps, which is known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It doesn't look good with real content because it seems as if it's not doing much. It smooths out slower-moving content a bit, but it seems to stop when the scene gets too busy.

See the settings for the motion interpolation feature here.

Due to the TV's quick response time, there's some stutter with lower-frame rate content because each frame is held longer.

This TV can remove 24p judder from any source, such as native apps, which is rare for a 60Hz TV. Enable Natural Cinema to remove judder.

Unlike the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED, the TCL S535 doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology. If you want a similar TV that supports variable refresh rate technology, check out the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2020.

This TV has an incredibly low input lag, and it's much better than the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED. It slightly increases at 1080p compared to 4k, but this shouldn't make much of a difference when gaming. It has an 'Auto Low Latency Mode' that automatically switches the TV into 'Game' mode when a game is launched from a compatible device, and you don't need to turn on any settings for it to work.

If you want to use this TV as a computer monitor, the TV automatically switches into 'PC' mode to ensure a low input lag. Just enable HDMI 2.0 for it to work.

Update 02/15/2021: We previously indicated that 1440p @ 60Hz is supported natively, which is wrong. It supports it, but only through a forced resolution.

This TV supports most common resolutions at 60Hz. It displays proper chroma 4:4:4, which is important for reading text if you use it as a PC monitor. However, it displays chroma 4:4:4 only with a 1080p or 4k resolution, as the text looks fuzzy with a 1440p resolution.

To achieve full bandwidth, set the HDMI Mode setting to 'HDMI 2.0'.

The Composite In input needs an adapter, but unlike the TCL 5 Series/S525 2019, this TV doesn't come with one.

The TCL 5 Series has eARC support, which allows you to send uncompressed, high-quality audio through an HDMI connection. For it to work, enable S/PDIF in the 'Audio' settings page, and set eARC to 'Auto Detect.'

The built-in speakers' frequency response is just okay. It doesn't produce much bass, so you should get a soundbar to get the best sound experience possible. It has a fairly well-balanced sound profile overall and it gets loud enough for noisy environments.

The distortion performance is mediocre. There's not much distortion at moderate listening levels, but it increases significantly at its max volume. However, distortion may change depending on the content, and most people may not hear it.

This TV runs on Roku OS, which is user-friendly and operates very smoothly.

Unfortunately, like all Roku TVs we've tested, there are large ads on the home screen and they can't be disabled.

Roku's app store has a great selection of apps you can download.

Update 10/29/2020: We used the voice control through the mobile app. The remote doesn't have a microphone for voice control.

The TCL 5 Series has the same Roku remote that comes with most TCL TVs. It's small, simple, and it comes with shortcut buttons to popular streaming services. However, it doesn't have voice control and you can only use voice control through the Roku app on your mobile device. It can be a hit or miss at times, as we could search for specific content in apps, but when we asked it to change the backlight setting, it changed the volume instead.

There's a single button on the back of the TV that controls the power and inputs.

• Remote (with 2x AAA batteries)
• Power cable (Not shown)
• Manual