Best 55” $500 4K TV with Airplay?

[ericg301]

Wanting to get a new TV for the first time in like 8 years and looking for suggestions. I’m out of the loop on the TV industry.

Requirements
- 4K
- Airplay
- <$500

I’m going to use my 4K Firestick, so the I don’t really care About the built-in OS. But I’d love to get AirPlay built-in so I can ditch my old (3rd gen) Apple TV (before the App Store). I basically only use it for Airplay mirroring (photos and zoom calls). I can see a day in the near future where a new iOS release is incompatible with the older ATV, even for mirroring (this is Apple after all).

Any suggestions? There are some crazy TV deals out there now.

 

[HDFan]

55"?

LG, Samsung and Visio all have 55" models in the ~$500 price point.

 

[ericg301]

55"?

LG, Samsung and Visio all have 55" models in the ~$500 price point.

right but who’s better right now? Are they all made at the same factory anyway?
I have a Samsung now

 

[HDFan]

Are they all made at the same factory anyway?

Nope.

who’s better right now?

What screen size?

 

[ericg301]

Nope.



What screen size?

55”

 

[Airforcekid]

TCL 6 series is easily the best picture quality in that price range it competes with oleds that cost 3x as much. Last time I looked the 2019 version at 55 inches is $499 you can get the 2018 version for even less.

EDIT: Make sure to factor HDR quality into your decision id rather have a good 1080P set with great black levels and color quality than just an average 4K set.

 

[ericg301]

But no airplay on TLC right?

so I’d be better off using my old ATV with better picture quality than limiting myself to Built in airplay?

TCL 6 series is easily the best picture quality in that price range it competes with oleds that cost 3x as much. Last time I looked the 2019 version at 55 inches is $499 you can get the 2018 version for even less.

EDIT: Make sure to factor HDR quality into your decision id rather have a good 1080P set with great black levels and color quality than just an average 4K set.

 

[Airforcekid]

But no airplay on TLC right?

so I’d be better off using my old ATV with better picture quality than limiting myself to Built in airplay?

If it were me I wouldn't limit myself to only airplay sets. The Roku interface is one of the best Ive used it wouldn't be hard to access both the older ATV and your FireTV stick within it. Otherwise your taking a decent hit in picture quality or paying twice as much for an LG or Samsung to get airplay with the same picture quality.

 

[pooryou]

I would spend more, personally. You are going to be using that thing every day. Don’t cheap out.

 

[ericg301]

If it were me I wouldn't limit myself to only airplay sets. The Roku interface is one of the best Ive used it wouldn't be hard to access both the older ATV and your FireTV stick within it. Otherwise your taking a decent hit in picture quality or paying twice as much for an LG or Samsung to get airplay with the same picture quality.

Fair enough. I have both Roku and Firesticks in the house but the Firesticks tend to work better, especially when it comes to voice controls...and integrating with the other smart devices in my house.
[automerge]1588620015[/automerge]

I would spend more, personally. You are going to be using that thing every day. Don’t cheap out.

username checks out.

 

[Airforcekid]

Fair enough. I have both Roku and Firesticks in the house but the Firesticks tend to work better, especially when it comes to voice controls...and integrating with the other smart devices in my house.
[automerge]1588620015[/automerge]


username checks out.

Voice control is the one downside to Roku but if you have an Echo speaker you can enable a skill to control TCL tvs it works great for turning the TV on off, channels and launching apps. I hardly ever touch the remote now that I am used to the voice commands.

 

[ericg301]

Voice control is the one downside to Roku but if you have an Echo speaker you can enable a skill to control TCL tvs it works great for turning the TV on off, channels and launching apps. I hardly ever touch the remote now that I am used to the voice commands.

The advantage of already having a bunch of Firesticks and Roku's (Roki?) is that I can mix and match. We primarily stream over YouTube TV, which can't change channels via voice on either platform.

Either way though, I guess I start to start with the best picture quality and then work my way up through platforms and accessories.

Waiting to get my new 7th gen iPad from Best Buy before pulling the trigger on a TV. Hoping for some good memorial day sales.
[automerge]1588622100[/automerge]
what's the difference between the 5 and 6 series?

Best Buy: TCL 55" Class 5 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Roku TV 55S525

Shop TCL 55" Class 5 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Roku TV at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

Best Buy: TCL 55" Class 6 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Roku TV 55R625

Shop TCL 55" Class 6 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Roku TV at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

 

[Airforcekid]

The advantage of already having a bunch of Firesticks and Roku's (Roki?) is that I can mix and match. We primarily stream over YouTube TV, which can't change channels via voice on either platform.

Either way though, I guess I start to start with the best picture quality and then work my way up through platforms and accessories.

Waiting to get my new 7th gen iPad from Best Buy before pulling the trigger on a TV. Hoping for some good memorial day sales.
[automerge]1588622100[/automerge]
what's the difference between the 5 and 6 series?

Best Buy: TCL 55" Class 5 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Roku TV 55S525

Shop TCL 55" Class 5 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Roku TV at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

Best Buy: TCL 55" Class 6 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Roku TV 55R625

Shop TCL 55" Class 6 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Roku TV at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

The series 6 mimics an OLED display it can actually brighten and darken certain areas of the screen to provide more detail in dark scenes. I bought a series 5 for my parents and it looks great as well but they rarely watch anything in HDR or 4K so the 6 would be overkill. I would go with the 6 series if you plan to keep it for a few years or its going to be your main tv but the 5 series is also a great choice in my opinion it still supports HDR its just not as good. Id avoid the 4 series it lacks HDR completely.

 

[ericg301]

The series 6 mimics an OLED display it can actually brighten and darken certain areas of the screen to provide more detail in dark scenes. I bought a series 5 for my parents and it looks great as well but they rarely watch anything in HDR or 4K so the 6 would be overkill. I would go with the 6 series if you plan to keep it for a few years or its going to be your main tv but the 5 series is also a great choice in my opinion it still supports HDR its just not as good. Id avoid the 4 series it lacks HDR completely.

ah ok thanks for the clarification

 

[colodane]

I wouldn't worry much about features such as AirPlay built into the TV. You (like me) seem to keep a TV for a long time, so for most of its life it will not have up-to-date versions of all the latest features. TV manufacturers aren't as reliable as Apple is in terms of keeping the software updated.

Much better off to do the software updates within an AppleTV. Your present device will probably be fine for now and you can always upgrade it later for $200 or so in the future if needed.

This approach has worked well for me. I'm using a 10 year old Samsung TV, but with the AppleTV I have access to all kinds of services and features.

 

[HDFan]

Much better off to do the software updates within an AppleTV. Your present device will probably be fine for now and you can always upgrade it later for $200 or so in the future if needed.

Agree. TV apps will likely never perform as well as the current Apple TV ones. TV Airplay support might be convenient though.

Your TV might last a decade. During that time the performance of the Apple TV or similar devices may improve by an order of magnitude, while the TV's hardware will be stagnant.

Looking at Consumer Reports there is no top rated TV (score > 80) in the $500 range. Lowest price top rated 55" is an LG OLED at $1400 with a score of 87.

The highest rated 55" < ~$500 are:

Samsung UN58RU7100 $550 score 74
Samsung UN55RU800D $550 score 73
Samsung UN55RU7100 $400 Score 72

See

TV Ratings

The latest performance Ratings of all TVs

www.consumerreports.org

for all of the ratings. Paywall, but worth the $19 investment as they rate and recommend a lot of TVs.

 

[mekump]

Check out rtings

 

[HDFan]

Check out rtings

Wonder how they do their testing. Their best <$1000 TV is the Hisense 69H9F. That same model has a poor rating (64 out of 100) from Consumer Reports. CR spends millions on its labs and test equipment, paid for by the paywall and donations.

 

[mekump]

Wonder how they do their testing. Their best <$1000 TV is the Hisense 69H9F. That same model has a poor rating (64 out of 100) from Consumer Reports. CR spends millions on its labs and test equipment, paid for by the paywall and donations.

Here is a rundown of how they acquire the tv's they test rtings about us.
And here is a rundown on their scoring system rtings scoring system.
More than you probably ever wanted to know about tv's and rtings test results and methodology here.
Rtings has a lot of tools on their site to help you find the best tv.

I recommend someone looking for a new tv to use consume reports, rtings, and the forums at avsforums as a guide. Then look at the tv's in person, which of course might not be possible now during the pandemic. No matter which tv they choose, they need to make sure they can return the tv with no questions asked just in case they get it home and for whatever reason they don't like it.

OP, let us know what tv you end up with and how you like it.

 

[jtopp]

There is no way in the world that a 6 series TCL beats an OLED. I owned a tcl and after almost a year it crapped out on me. The Two replacement sets they sent me were either broken physically or had backlight failures. The 3rd set 4 weeks into the ordeal finally worked. While the initial sets picture quality was pretty good, when I bought the LG B8 last year it blew my mind. The replacement Tcl is in the bedroom and I let my girlfriend have it. After you have an oled I would rather jump out the window than give up my LG. Whoever is saying the 6 series is better than oled is smoking crack with Tyrone Biggums. Find a OLED on sale at Best Buy and get the warranty Its the best tv I have ever owned by far.

 

[Airforcekid]

There is no way in the world that a 6 series TCL beats an OLED. I owned a tcl and after almost a year it crapped out on me. The Two replacement sets they sent me were either broken physically or had backlight failures. The 3rd set 4 weeks into the ordeal finally worked. While the initial sets picture quality was pretty good, when I bought the LG B8 last year it blew my mind. The replacement Tcl is in the bedroom and I let my girlfriend have it. After you have an oled I would rather jump out the window than give up my LG. Whoever is saying the 6 series is better than oled is smoking crack with Tyrone Biggums. Find a OLED on sale at Best Buy and get the warranty Its the best tv I have ever owned by far.

Its not better but at $499 it comes very close a few of my friends have the LG CX and yeah its better but not $1,500 better at least to me. Ive had my 6 series since 2018 and wouldnt be afraid to put it head to head with any modern sub $1,000 set. Plus no burn in fears when I use it for gaming my friends LG already is showing burn in after a year.