The TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED is a mid-range 4k TV released in 2022 that runs the Roku TV smart interface. It sits above the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED and replaces the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED. It's available along with the TCL 6 Series/R646 2021 QLED, which runs the Google TV smart interface instead of Roku TV. It has a few new features compared to the R635, including a faster 144Hz refresh rate and a Mini LED backlight that's designed to improve local dimming performance while increasing peak brightness. It's available in 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch sizes, so there are options available for many different needs, and all sizes perform the same.
Our Verdict
The TCL 6 Series Roku TV is great overall. It's a versatile TV that looks great in both bright and dark rooms. It can easily overcome glare, making it a very good choice for watching sports or shows during the day, but it's a bit limited by its narrow viewing angle, as the image degrades from the sides. It's impressive for watching movies in the dark, thanks to its fantastic contrast ratio and decent local dimming. It has a wide color gamut and excellent gradient handling for HDR content. It also delivers an amazing gaming experience thanks to its low input lag, fast response time, and variable refresh rate support.
- Fantastic contrast ratio results in deep blacks in a dark room.
- Great selection of streaming apps.
- Superb reflection handling.
- High peak brightness.
- Image degrades rapidly when viewed from the side.
The TCL 6 Series Roku TV is very good for watching shows during the day. It has remarkable peak brightness in SDR and superb reflection handling, so it can easily overcome glare in a bright room. The built-in Roku smart interface has a great selection of streaming apps, so you can easily find your favorite shows. Unfortunately, it doesn't upscale sources properly and has a poor viewing angle, so it's not a good choice for a wider seating arrangement as the image fades and looks washed out from the sides.
- Great selection of streaming apps.
- Superb reflection handling.
- High peak brightness.
- Image degrades rapidly when viewed from the side.
- Content isn't upscaled properly.
The TCL 6 Series Roku TV is very good for watching sports in a bright room. It gets remarkably bright in SDR, and, combined with its superb reflection handling, it can handle a lot of glare if you're in a bright room. The response time is good enough that you won't see much blur behind fast-moving objects, and it has good gray uniformity. Unfortunately, it has a poor viewing angle, so it's not a good choice for a wide seating arrangement, as the image fades and colors look washed out when viewed from the side.
- Great selection of streaming apps.
- Superb reflection handling.
- High peak brightness.
- Image degrades rapidly when viewed from the side.
The TCL 6 Series Roku TV delivers an amazing gaming experience. It has an incredibly fast refresh rate, resulting in clear motion with very little blur. It also has a great selection of gaming features, including low input lag and variable refresh rate support to reduce tearing in games. It supports 4k @ 120Hz gaming from new-gen consoles, and it supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two of its HDMI ports. Unfortunately, although it's one of the only TVs on the market to support a 144Hz refresh rate, the input lag increases at 144Hz.
- Fantastic contrast ratio results in deep blacks in a dark room.
- Superb low input lag for a responsive gaming experience.
- Extremely fast refresh rate.
- High peak brightness.
- Input lag increases at 144Hz.
The TCL 6 Series Roku TV is great for watching movies in HDR in a dark room. It has a fantastic contrast ratio and decent local dimming feature, so combined with its high peak brightness in HDR, bright highlights in HDR content stand out incredibly well. It tracks the PQ EOTF well, ensuring it respects the content creator's intent and has a wide color gamut. It also has excellent gradient handling, with very little banding in areas of similar color, and it automatically removes judder from any source.
- Fantastic contrast ratio results in deep blacks in a dark room.
- Great selection of streaming apps.
- Automatically removes judder from any source.
- Wide color gamut with HDR content.
- High peak brightness.
- Great PQ EOTF tracking.
- Content isn't upscaled properly.
- Some stutter in slow panning shots.
The TCL 6 Series Roku TV delivers an excellent gaming experience in HDR. It delivers an amazing gaming experience overall thanks to its fast refresh rate, low input lag, and fast response time. HDR content looks great thanks to its fantastic contrast ratio, decent local dimming feature, and wide color gamut. It also has amazing peak brightness in HDR, so bright highlights in games stand out well.
- Fantastic contrast ratio results in deep blacks in a dark room.
- Superb low input lag for a responsive gaming experience.
- Wide color gamut with HDR content.
- Extremely fast refresh rate.
- High peak brightness.
- Great PQ EOTF tracking.
- Input lag increases at 144Hz.
The TCL 6 Series Roku TV is very good for use as a PC monitor. It has low input lag and a fast response time, ensuring a smooth, responsive desktop experience. It also gets very bright and has superb reflection handling, so you don't have to worry about glare in a bright room. Although it displays chroma 4:4:4 properly for clear text from a PC, it can only do so at 60Hz; if you send anything higher, it'll just skip frames. Unfortunately, it has a narrow viewing angle, so the sides of the screen appear dull and non-uniform if you're sitting up close.
- Superb reflection handling.
- Extremely fast refresh rate.
- Chroma 4:4:4 is displayed properly for clear text.
- High peak brightness.
- Image degrades rapidly when viewed from the side.
- Input lag increases at 144Hz.
- Skips frames with 120Hz or 144Hz signals with chroma 4:4:4.
Changelog
- Updated Sep 21, 2023: The distortion results in the review were incorrect. We retested the speakers and updated the Frequency Response and Distortion results.
- Updated Aug 01, 2023: Converted to Test Bench 1.11. With this update, we've added a new Upscaling: Sharpness Processing test and revamped our Blooming test so the scores and picture better match the real world experience. With this change, it was necessary to remove the Black Crush test. Finally, we've updated our usage scores to better align our scores with user expectations.
- Updated Jul 17, 2023: Added mention of the newly reviewed TCL QM8/QM850G QLED to the Black Uniformity box of this review.
- Updated Feb 28, 2023: We investigated an issue with HDR when FreeSync is enabled from an AMD graphics card.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 55-inch TCL 6 Series Roku TV, and our results are also valid for the 65, 75, and 85-inch models. There's another 6-series TV still available, the TCL 6 Series/R646 2021 QLED; it's a very similar TV but runs the Google TV smart platform instead of Roku. The larger sizes perform roughly the same, but they have a slightly better local dimming feature thanks to the increased number of dimming zones. The 85" model performs mostly the same, but it's limited to a 120Hz refresh rate and a slightly different design, with feet instead of the center-mounted stand.
| Size | Model Number | Dimming Zones | Max Refresh Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55" | 55R655 | 240 | 144Hz |
| 65" | 65R655 | 288 | 144Hz |
| 75" | 75R655 | 360 | 144Hz |
| 85" | 85R655 | 448 | 120Hz |
You can see the label for our unit here.
Popular TV Comparisons
The TCL 6 Series Roku TV is a well-equipped TV that delivers impressive performance for the price, with better picture quality than most similarly-priced models. It offers better performance and picture quality than budget TVs while also costing less than most mid-range options. Although there are better TVs available, you'll have to pay considerably more for slightly better performance.
See our recommendations for the best smart TVs, the best TVs under $1,500, and the best 4k TVs.
The TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED is a noticeable step up from the TCL S555. The R655 gets significantly brighter and has much better reflection handling, meaning it can handle more glare in a bright room. HDR also looks noticeably better on the R655 thanks to its higher peak brightness, and bright highlights stand out better. Finally, the R655 is a much better TV for gaming thanks to its faster refresh rate and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, allowing for 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the latest consoles.
The TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED is better than the Samsung TU7000. Blacks are deeper on the TCL due to its better contrast and a very effective local dimming feature, so it’s better suited for a dark room. The TCL gets significantly brighter in SDR, so it overcomes glare much better in a bright room. The TCL also gets a lot brighter in HDR, supports a wider color gamut, and has much better color volume, so colors in HDR content are more vibrant and lifelike, and highlights pop a lot more than they do on the Samsung. When it comes to gaming, the TCL is much better due to its quicker response time, HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, up to 4k @ 144Hz, and VRR support.
The TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED is better than the TCL Q750G. While the Q750G has vastly better black uniformity and low-quality content smoothing capabilities, the TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED outpaces it when it comes to HDR and SDR peak brightness, as it gets much brighter. The 6 Series is also significantly more accurate pre-calibration, has better color volume for more vibrant colors, and has much better reflection handling, so it can easily handle even the brightest rooms.
The TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED is better than the Hisense U7H. The TCL has much better reflection handling and higher peak brightness, meaning it can handle more glare in a bright room. The TCL also has much better accuracy before calibration, which is great if you care about an accurate image. Finally, the TCL is better for gaming thanks to its higher refresh rate and faster response time, resulting in much smoother motion handling and less blur behind fast-moving objects.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
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