TCL FS3800 TV Review

The TCL FS3800 has a bland design. Its lines are a little sharper than on other TCL Roku TVs but its thickness is still a little exaggerated around the back. All of the parts are plastic.

The TCL FS3800 has the same plastic feet that come with most TCL Roku TVs. The stand does a good job of holding the TV steady.

Footprint of the 40" TV stand: 33.1" x 7.9"

The back isn't flat and the TV might look weird if wall mounted. Connections are well laid out and won't be in the way if the TV is hung on a wall.

Border's thickness is average. Pixels don't start at the edges of the screen.

Fairly thick TV. Its multiple levels of thickness might look strange if wall-mounted.

The native contrast ratio provides good performance in dark scenes.

The peak brightness is not good. The TV should not be used in a bright room such as a living room. The lack of local dimming results in a consistent brightness at all window sizes.

This TV does not support HDR.

The gray uniformity is about average, however the edges of the screen are noticeably darker with some faint banding present. The dirty screen effect will be slightly visible when panning across a sports field.

The viewing angle is extremely limited, and only suitable for viewing from directly in front.

Update: We have changed the methodology of testing. Since this is an old TV which we don't have anymore, we extrapolated the results.

The black uniformity is very good, with almost no visible flashlighting or clouding.

The gradient displayed on the FS3800 is very good, and 8 bit gradations cannot be seen. There are slight tints visible in the gray band but this should not be a problem for watching content.

Out of the box, the white balance dE is high and the colors are off, this shouldn't be a problem for most people as you will most likely not notice the issues. Thankfully, the gamma doesn't have too many issues.

Just like the TCL FS3750, it doesn't have any calibration settings to play with. You can't adjust them at all with the handheld Roku application unlike the TCL US5800. For this reason, the pre-calibration is identical to the post-calibration.

The TCL FS3800 will deliver a sharp picture with a lot of detail in any resolution that it supports. DVD and other 480p content will look great

720p content and cable TV also looks great when upscaled.

This TV also does a good job for higher resolution sources such as a Blu-ray player. Picture also looks very good and sharp.
Note: The 32 inch (32S3800) is 720p, contrary to the bigger sizes.

The TCL FS3800 doesn't have a wide range of colors and as such will only be enough for Rec. 709 content.

The color volume is poor. This TV can't produce very saturated colors regardless of the brightness level.

The screen can produce reflections that appear large and diffused. It is still possible to see through some of the reflections if they aren't too bright.

Like the Sony W650D, the panel inside the TCL FS3800 has an horizontal pixel substructure which results in a very narrow horizontal viewing angle but slightly better vertical angle.

There are a few issues with the response time of this TV. The transition from 0% to 100% takes about 65 ms, and there is overshoot present in all transitions. Thankfully, the trail behind the motion blur logo isn't too long and is faint. The backlight of the TV is flicker free.

There are no options to reduce or remove judder for 24p content. 24hz signals are displayed without judder but it is still visible for 24p content sent over 60p and 60i.

There are no motion interpolation features on the FS3800.

There is low input lag, which should not be noticeable to most people. The game mode setting did not affect the measured input lag with the Leo Bodnar tool.

The TCL FS3800 does not support signals at more than 60Hz, or with Chroma 4:4:4. It is not recommended as a PC monitor as text is not well defined.

Poor performance overall. Low-end cutoff, maximum volume and frequency response are all poor. There may also be pumping and compression present under heavy load.

Poor distortion performance. The overall amount of harmonic distortion is decent at low listening volumes, however, there is a noticeable rise in distortion at moderate and especially loud listening volumes.

There is an endless supply of applications on the Roku smart interface. Since Roku is so highly supported you can expect more applications to come to the interface as well as frequent updates that will fix bugs and performance tuning.

The TCL FS3800 offers a genuine smart interface. It's integration with Roku will allow the user to have access to an endless supply of applications, and to a very reliable smart platform that will be frequently updated. The interface was also quick and responsive. In terms of inputs, the TV offers a reasonable amount of ports, which will be great to plug all your devices in, it also offers USB 3.0 that will have faster transfer speeds for those who plan on plugging a hard drive to the TV. 

Controls on the TV are hidden behind the television near the left stand. They can be hard to access if the TV is wall mounted.

The remote for the television feels comfortable in the hand. It is easy to navigate through menus with the remote and it has four quick access buttons dedicated to 'Netflix', 'Amazon', 'Radio' and 'Vudu'.

• Manual
• Remote
• Batteries